I went through a “splatter movie” phase back in the early to mid ‘80s, in the theater and eventually catching up to those I had missed on VHS. I watched some of the better-known franchises (such as Halloween, Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street), plus dozens of others which didn’t spawn multiple sequels. After I finally drifted away, I kind of lost track which movies of which series I had seen. (That’s why I thought I saw more than the first two installments of Halloween.) Although I can’t tell you at what point I stopped watching, I know I’ve seen more than two F13 movies, although I’ve never seen any of them more than once. I remember one time, some station aired a marathon and I recorded all that were out at that point. I still have that tape, but I have never watched it.
There will be spoilers as I move through the series, but because I’m watching these for the first time (for all intents and purposes, because even the ones I have seen I don’t remember all that well), I ask that no spoilers be posted for later films until they come up in discussion. Here’s a brief run-down of the major events from the first.
1957: Young Jason Voorhees drowns at Camp Crystal Lake while the lifeguards are off having sex.
1958: Two other councilors are killed while having sex and the camp closes.
1980: The camp (known locally as “Camp Blood”) is set to reopen, and councilors are being killed off one by one. Toward the end of the movie, the killer is revealed to Alice, the last surviving councilor, as the mother of the drowned boy.
After decapitating Mrs. Voorhees, Alice falls asleep in a canoe and drifts to the middle of the lake where the police find her the next morning. As she awakens, a boy covered with seaweed and mud pops out of the water, pulls her out of the boat and under water. She awakens screaming in the local hospital. The police who found her report no evidence of a boy, and Alice, refusing to believe the last bit was just a dream, concludes that he’s still out there.
Viewed on its own merits, Friday the 13th, like Halloween, is an good example of a well-made horror film, representative of its era. Consequently, also like Halloween, it spawned a slew of sequels. Also like Halloween, it didn’t really call for a sequel.
The original Friday the 13th was very obviously trying (and succeeding, in my estimation) to present the flip side of Psycho. For one thing, the soundtrack music is just different enough from the score of Psycho to avoid copyright infringement, but even more obvious, it is the mother who takes on the persona of her dead son and (very creepily) speaks in his voice, urging her to kill those he/she holds responsible for his death. It is revealed that she was working in the kitchen at Camp Crystal Lake when her son drowned. Granted she is mentally imbalanced and sets about killing councilors who weren’t even born at the time of her son’s death, but you think she would have spared the camp cook, but she didn’t.
Interestingly, Jason Voorhees does not appear in this film at all (although a very young Kevin Bacon does), unless you count Alice’s dream of the drowned boy at the end. If that really was Jason, the age doesn’t work quite right. I don’t know how old he was supposed to have been in 1957, but let’s say 10. That would make him 33 in 1980, a bit too old to be the “boy” of Alice’s dream. Or am I overthinking this?
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Interesting - I have all of these on disc (and the more recent re-make), your Halloween thread had put me in a mind to re-watch them. I may break out the Elm Street pictures as well, eventually.
One of the most interesting things, for me, about the first film in the series---Friday the 13th---was the appearance of Betsy Palmer as Mrs. Voorhees.
You see, I remembered Miss Palmer from the '50's. A young blonde with cute, wholesome features. She had a modest film career, starting in 1951, in which she usually portrayed girls-next-door, ingenues, and the leads' sweethearts. She quickly segued into television where she became better known as a perennial panelist on Goodson-Todman quiz shows---Password, To Tell the Truth, and, most notably, I've Got a Secret.
One of the things I always appreciated about quiz shows with celebrity panels was that they gave you a chance to see these folks as they really were, and it was tough to hide their real selves from the camera. On IGAS, Henry Morgan (no, not Harry Morgan--but Henry) was a curmudgeon, no matter how hard he tried to appear affable. And Betsy Palmer was obviously as nice and warm in real life as she was in her usual film rôles. I noticed how she was always especially gracious and pleasant to the "ordinary folks" contestants, whom were no doubt more than a bit nervous at their first times in front of a camera.
So, for me, it was quite a stunner to see Betsy Palmer play the crazed, homicidal Mrs. Voorhees. It was like seeing Mr. Rogers play Jack the Ripper.
And, under the Department of "Boy, Are You Old!", what's even more remarkable is when I realise that, to-day, there are at least two generations of movie-goers who know Betsy Palmer only from her stint as Mrs. Voorhees. To them, she has always been the actress who played a maniacal killer.
Interesting stuff, Commander - I confess to being one of those who only knows her from this picture. It puts me in mind of my buddy Dave's mom who could never quite wrap her mind around the fact that younger folks only knew the late Leslie Nielsen as a comedic actor, when she remembered when he was a young "leading man" type.
I watched Friday the 13th (1980) last night. Not much to add to the above - it's an OK movie of its type.
"It puts me in mind of my buddy Dave's mom who could never quite wrap her mind around the fact that younger folks only knew the late Leslie Nielsen as a comedic actor, when she remembered when he was a young 'leading man' type."
In fact, writing that piece on Betsy Palmer and her change of image reminded me of Leslie Nielsen, too. You have to be of a certain age to remember the days when not only was Nielsen standard leading-man material, but he was also ultra-serious, in the same vein as Robert Stack and Eric Fleming.
That Nielsen could do a 180-degree turn in his image so completely was remarkable. And, as in the case of Betsy Palmer's change of image, later generations never knew Nielsen was anything but a buffoon comedian.
Commander Benson said:
For me the stunner is finding out the good Commander has watched Friday the 13th. I would have lost that bet.
Travis Herrick said:
Heh. I wasn't born a commander, my friend (although my wife does think my oak leaves were issued at birth, along with the pine-tar-coated stick up my rectal canal). At one time, I was a dashing young ensign who took in the town of Newport, Rhode Island on week-end liberty. Of these days, I am reminded of the exchange between Larry "the Wolf Man" Talbot and Lou Costello in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein:
TALBOT: "You don't understand. Every night when the moon is full, I turn into a wolf."
COSTELLO: "You and twenty million other guys."
The Baron said:
Jeff has dragged me kicking and screaming into watching the ten Friday films. You and he will be on your own if you both decide to watch the Elm Street films.
Not a Johnny Depp fan, Tracy?
You mean, he did something OTHER than George Smilely in "Tinker, Tailor, Solder, Spy?"
George Poague said:
PowerBook Pete (aka Tim Cousar) said:
Well, *&#!. I cannot pass on Johnny Depp. Maybe I'll make Jeff watch all the Depp movies I like when this gore-fest is over.
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