For Halloween 2024 I’ve decided to finally watch one of my favourite horror series, Friday the 13th, in order including the 2009 remake.
I won’t be including Freddy vs Jason but I will let you know here that I do enjoy that one.
Friday the 13th (1980)
“You’re making a science out of coincidence.”
Sean S. Cunningham’s classic slasher is one of those films that just gets everything right.
The casting is great, Harry Manfredini’s score fits perfectly and has that memorable hook every good horror series needs with some great makeup from Tom Savini.
Friday the 13th is about an American summer camp that is in the process of re-opening after many years of being closed due to a child that died there, as well as the murders of several workers in the following years.
The new counsellors arrive to help the owner with repairs and final preparations for it to open in a fortnight. You know the rest, horny-ness and murder and strip-Monopoly. Thankfully with that great cast and equally good script it never becomes a chore watching these teens get-along and get-together.
That’s so refreshing, even the annoying joker of the pack isn’t actually annoying and gets on with the group. The final girl, it seems wrong to call her that as it means lumping her in with the shite we’ve been subjected to over the past 30 years, isn’t the centre of attention, just another character in the film.
That all makes a difference and something modern filmmakers could learn from.
People working together, getting along even if they are winding each other up and a believable, watchable, likeable final girl that isn’t miss perfect that everyone immediately loves just by seeing her.
If they had the talent to write like that, of course.
I first watched these out of order so I was well established with the series which meant the twist at the end really was a twist for me. I was expecting you-know-whom, and all of these years later, when the killer shows themself and the reveal happens, it doesn’t feel like a gimmick or someone trying to be more clever than they actually are.
Not a deep, complicated movie. To the point from the start but knows how handle the bits between people being killed (which is the reason we are all here) and in a way that doesn’t make you want to kill those people yourself.
Plus it has Crazy Ralph.
Friday the 13th
Part 2 (1981)
“These kids smoke better dope than I do.”
I have always hated this film. Apparently a lot of people consider this the best in the series with Ginny as some sort of outstanding character.
I will say that this time it really didn’t annoy me anywhere nearly as much as it used to.
Of course there is the usual step-down in quality you expect from a rushed sequel but you receive enough of what you would expect following on from the first. Similar teens if a bit more over-the-top and that isn’t a bad thing.
I didn’t mind watching them interact and the deaths were pretty good considering the makers were told to tone it down this time, but there are two big issues with Part 2.
First of is Ginny, the final girl. She is the shite we’ve been subjected to over the past 30 years. From her first introduction the film does its best to make her as obnoxious and unlikeable as it can but I did find her more bearable this viewing.
She has to have the last word, only puts people down and can sense that there’s someone there when there is no reason for her to be picking up on anything. Part 2 also does that thing in horror films where the lead talks about the killer, or ghost or whatever and everyone laughs at them. Yet, because you know the person is right you are supposed to think they are idiots despite there being no reason they should believe the one making the wild claims.
I no longer buy into that way of seeing things but I will let this film off a bit as it does explain her decision later on.
The other issue is the final confrontation. During the initial chase there are some good bits but Part 2 does another thing I hate in horror where they make the killer completely useless at the end, even though we’ve been watching them intricately stalk and take everyone else out with precision and skill.
At one point a chair Jason is standing on just breaks so he misses the final blow. Another time he runs out of the trees and completely misses Ginny, then trips over into the mud.
It is so bad how useless he now is and it seems the universe is doing everything it can to protect the final girl, no matter how improbable. It is just like the end of A Nightmare on Elm Street when Freddy is brought into the real world and he’s falling down stairs, flailing his arms about as if he is in one of the Scary Movie films.
That said, just like how after all of the slapstick in A Nightmare, the confrontation ends with a really clever resolution, Ginny manages an equally impressive and quick thinking feat even if it doesn’t work how she wanted it to.
I was really impressed with that bit and it made me start to actually like her character and want her to survive for the first time. It doesn’t make up for how bland she was earlier in the film.
It also does give us the iconic scene of her holding a rake out in front of her.
Overall I’m glad I watched it and probably would again despite the two flaws.
Plus it has Crazy Ralph
“Oh, shit” is right!
Let’s get outta here!”
Going from my least favourite of the franchise (but I do appreciate it a lot more now) to my most favourite and the one where the series second best character completing Jason’s iconic look.
As part of the 3-D craze this has the usual pushing objects towards the camera which seems to stands out more in 2D than 3-D as it can be a bit distracting. I love 3-D so I don’t mind and it quickly becomes part of this film’s style.
Or at least that’s what I tell myself.
Instead of counsellors at Camp Crystal Lake it is now friends helping the final girl go home for the first time after an incident there in the previous year.
The incident was changed during filming as it would’ve changed what Jason was which was the right choice as rapist Jason is a bit too much.
Murderer Jason we can all cheer for and he really has bulked up in the last 12 months.
The problem with changing that is the new backstory was probably not filmed to reflect the change, instead they edited the original footage as best that they could so it is a bit confusing.
The final girl is perfectly fine, definitely no Ginny (who I now accept is not as bad as I thought) and the rest of the gang are fun to watch as they do what all teens (looks like it was a while since some of the actors were teens) do in these 80s slashers.
It is helped by having Shelly there, the one who is the reason Jason uses a hockey mask and who just wants to make everyone laugh by faking being attacked.
A good final confrontation that isn’t rushed and offers a twist on the first film’s Carrie moment, rounds of the best of the series even if the original really is the best of them.
You do have Abel, but let’s be fair, he isn’t Crazy Ralph.
The Final Chapter (1984)
“Jesus Christmas!
Holy Jesus!
Goddamn!
Holy Jesus jumping Christmas shit!”
The Final Chapter, the last film for Friday the 13th ever.
And just like all of the other “final” films for a series, if it makes money then there will be more to come.
The Final Chapter is a direct continuation just like the previous sequels were, meaning the first four movies can be considered one long story.
Here we have a mother and children (one of whom will become this series best character behind Jason, Tommy Jarvis played by Cory Feldman) that are temporarily staying in the woods as some horny teens on holiday move in next door.
And they are really horny who meet up with even hornier (and troublemaking) twins.
Classic 80s slasher fare made better by Crispin Glover’s famous dancing.
Not much to say, 4 films in and you know what to expect. Sex, humour and death all done well including the final confrontation thanks quite a lot to Tom Savini returning for the make-up effects.
It does have a nice spin on what happened at the end of part 2 and tries to link to it by introducing the older brother of Sandra, Rob, who is looking for her murderer.
Only he does nothing and is killed off immediately during his first encounter with Jason, and without putting up a fight.
Just why? Why build up to something only to have the pay-off be so underwhelming.
I hope this sort of thing doesn’t happen again in any of the later Friday films.
We do have a flashback of Crazy Ralph, none for Abel though.
A New Beginning (1985)
“Jason Voorhees?
You’re outta your fucking mind!
You’ve been out in the sun too long!
Jason Voorhees is dead!
His body was cremated.
He’s nothing but a handful of ash.”
I love A New Beginning. If Part 3-D didn’t have Shelly then this would probably be my favourite and it shows Friday the 13th isn’t afraid to do something different.
Tommy is back starting with a cameo from Corey Feldman before we are shown the now older Tommy, played by John Shepherd, as he is on his way to a home for troubled youths from a psychiatric hospital where Crazy Ralph should’ve been.
Tommy is a little more than troubled and speaks so little I think Jason has said more over the previous 4 films, but on the other hand he knows some amazing fighting moves.
Moves he doesn’t use when he is face to face with Jason.
Another underwhelming pay-off.
Apparently there is more nudity, and that might be true but there are fewer horny teens being, well, horny so it doesn’t come across as particularly sex-crazed.
At least to me, people have likened this one to soft-core porn.
Despite having more deaths in it, a lot of the kills are out of frame or the actual killing blow isn’t shown and not a patch on Tom Savini’s excellent work in the previous installments.
It doesn’t feel as gory, though people when it came out said it was too gory.
It is a shame this was the director’s final film as I love his style. The quick zoom on the action, close ups on the actors and when the inbred neighbour is riding his bike around his back garden, screaming to his mum after Tommy defended himself against him, it shows the energy the director can create as well as really sudden, random scenes.
Looking online it appears I might be in the minority for loving this one. It is viciously attacked which is a bit unfair. It tries something different, is not pedestrian, has someone doing a weird dance and is the 4th sequel to an 80s slasher series so what do you expect?
Leprechaun 4 went into space!
Jason Lives (1986)
“So what DID you want to be when you grew up?”
We are know at the 7th film in the series which means that unless they have tried to change things drastically (and risk alienating the original fans) they are giving you more of the same which will only really appeal to the original fans.
More of the same is fine by me.
Tommy is back for his third encounter with Jason and this time he is played by Thom Mathews, giving us the Tommy that comes to mind when you think about that character.
In an act of irony, Tommy, wanting to lay to rest his personal demon that is Jason so he can move on with his life, accidentally resurrects him.
To me this is the start of the ‘supernatural‘ Jason. Where he is no longer a living creature but purely undead. I know he pretty much was that from the first film but the early ones still sort of had him as a real person who was just strong.
Seeking help from the local Sherriff in the most ‘lock me up because I’m crazy way’, and doing that film-speak where they explain something by not actually explaining the way a real person would understand only leads to Tommy being locked up.
Thankfully the Sherriff’s teenage daughter finds him attractive and just can’t stop thinking about him so is willing to help him any and every way she can.
Jason really goes on a rampage here racking up a lot of impressive deaths throughout and thankfully the make-up effects are an improvement over the last one. You can see more of the deaths as they happen and they are far more creative or varied.
There is a bit of a dichotomy here, you have the James Bond gun barrel-style opening which I love and the self-awareness of horror film tropes and even breaking the fourth wall; contrasting with a more serious tone when it comes to Tommy’s story or Jason’s rampage.
Continuity-wise, having Jason back does cause a few problems. It was mentioned he was cremated in the last one. What about Tommy’s final scene in part 5? Is this a sequel to The Final Chapter instead of A New Beginning?
It turns out the makers almost added some new scenes with a new character called Elias, Jason’s father, who paid the city to have Jason buried and that closing scene from A New Beginning was to be a dream of Tommy.
Let’s pretend we all know this when watching.
Part 6 is also missing anything to do with Crazy Ralph and that is unforgiveable.
The New Blood (1988)
The New Blood really increases the supernatural element by giving the final girl telekinesis and it is interesting to see Jason go up against someone that is powerful like he is.
Tina is taken to Crystal Lake where Jason is still chained to the bottom of by Tommy in the previous film so that her psychiatric Dr can work with her to learn about her powers.
Though not all is as it seems with the good Dr; that said the Dr’s actions are at least partially justified. He just loses focus as he is driven more by ambition.
Meanwhile partying teens arrive next door to do what teens have been doing in this franchise from the start. I’m still not at the point where I find this annoying and would probably find it weird if there weren’t horny teens everywhere being slaughtered.
The love interest is Nick and just like with Rob from The Final Chapter, he is built up like he will do something but doesn’t do that much in the end, far more than Rob, but not much.
Nick is however the first and probably only person in horror history to suggest doing something smart, something the final girl ends up ignoring but she has that final girl protection. That means she is invincible so she can do whatever she wants, no matter how moronic, no matter how many will die and she’ll be ok.
I not suggesting anyone dies because of her (apart from her dad) but just explaining final girl rules.
There’s some nice scenery work for the telekinesis, especially the collapsing roof and the deaths are good if seemingly cut, which is what they are. Apparently for the home releases they had to edit out a lot of the gore and then the original footage is lost meaning it can’t be put back into the film.
Oh well. At least it has Crazy Ralph narrating the opening sequence.
Another decent entry and attempt to keep things fresh.
Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
“Yo, man. It’s cool.
It’s cool, man.
It’s cool.”
This should be called Friday the 13th part VIII: Cruise Control as we all know how cheated were when we first watched this.
The excellent posters, the trailers and the title all promising Jason in New York only for the actual amount of time he spends there to be 6 minutes!
It is longer if you include the harbour and sewer but that isn’t what we expected and to make it worse every scene he visits is shown in a montage at the very opening of the film. That makes it seem like he spent even less time there.
Now that is an extremely underwhelming pay-off for a BIG build up.
But that is only part of why this film disappoints.
The final girl has powers and I thought she was Tina from The New Blood returning but it isn’t and she doesn’t have powers, just her mind dealing with trauma.
I think that’s it otherwise there are 2 Jasons here and one is the ghost of the drowned young Jason.
Did he try to drown her in Crystal Lake (which her uncle lives near and doesn’t believe that Jason can come back) as a child but then he would’ve been adult Jason at that time and killing people.
The timeline wouldn’t match up.
The film never explains anything and just drops that when she uses her invincibility final girl power to run a car carrying everyone she knows into a wall killing her favourite teacher.
She isn’t a bad character but the film is such a mess that it has her doing terrible things like being full of self-pity over her parents deaths that happened a while ago to her boyfriend who had only just discovered his father’s murdered body only a couple of hours earlier.
Then there’s teleporting Jason. In The New Blood there was a couple of moments where he appears somewhere he probably shouldn’t have but you can put that down to editing\filming issues rather than any power he has. Here though he’s teleporting onto moving trains and into buildings then out of them.
It’s too much. It comes across as the people making it didn’t know what they were doing but when you listen to the cast and crew talk about this you can tell they really wanted to make something good.
To be fair when on the boat it is pretty good, apart from the weird visions. As things heat up I was thinking that a film about Jason on a boat killing everyone and then it becoming a bit of a Poseidon Adventure would work and should’ve stayed there if they didn’t have the budget to film in New York.
In fact if they had finished with the boat blowing up and cutting out the New York part and it would’ve been an improvement if not for cutting the time down by 10 minutes as the film is far too long.
I’ve said before that for Friday the 13th rape is a bit too far, murder is fine so there is a scene when the final girl is almost assaulted before Jason inadvertently saves her.
She’s injected with drugs and Jason holds the needle with disgust before throwing it to the ground.
Did they Grange Hill this film?
This was during the ‘Just Say No‘ campaign and I can’t see anything to say that’s what they were doing but don’t start giving Jason morals or telling a message through him. It is out of place.
This was also made during the massive advertisement campaign for Tim Burton‘s 1989 Batman film so you see that classic logo a few times which is nice.
The Crazy Ralph character this time is the Deck Hand. So crazy they don’t give him a name.
Overall just a mess of a film and it didn’t need to be.
He spends more time in New York in the trailer than the film.
The Final Friday (1993)
“That makes me think of a little girl in a pink dress sticking a hot dog through a doughnut.”
This was a popular video in the local video rental shop but I always hesitated because the cover reminded me of The Spaghetti Incident buy Guns ‘n Roses and looked cheap.
Remove the fire and it doesn’t look too bad.
I did eventually watch this and thought it was ok so I was looking forward to watching this again.
Now I’m thinking why? What about this did I possibly like?
The focus is on setting up the story behind the characters and their forced drama and changing the lore for Jason instead of establishing things early on so the focus is on Jason killing and leading to the final slaughter of the main cast.
The change in narrative here not only reflects a new company making these Friday films but also a change in how horror films are made and it doesn’t work.
This is one where every main character is unlikeable. Erin Grey appears as the final girl’s mum and they make her miserable. In keeping with the series trying something different this has a final guy (which is almost unheard of now) and whilst he is the closest to being someone you can support, he’s written so badly and with no personality just like Erin Grey was.
The final girl has a new boyfriend and a new-born baby with the final guy that he hasn’t seen so that is part of that forced drama that isn’t needed and doesn’t do her any favours.
The movie does its best to make her into Rocky Balboa in places but that leaves you scratching your head as it is something we can add to the list of things that don’t fit.
She has little personality as well and a demeaner that really puts you off her.
The boyfriend is there as part of the trope of evil new boyfriend who has to die so that the separated couple can get back together.
The casting is unbelievably bad. I can’t think of anyone that fits the role they are playing bar Kane Hodder (obviously for the 5 minutes Jason is in this) and Steven Williams as the ‘Dook’ as yanks say it but the writing for him is as stupid as for everyone else.
The music is appallingly bad and lazy, not to mention repetitive, which makes no sense as it is done by Harry Manfredini who scored most of the series. It doesn’t even mix properly with the rest of the audio.
This time Jason is body-hopping looking for his sister and her family which concludes in the Voorhees family home.
He has a family now and the Voorhees house wasn’t torn down, sold on or destroyed?
This changes the rules of Jason so much and reduces his screen time considerably that you’ll be wishing they kept the supernatural element to him teleporting.
Then there is the Evil Dead reference with the Necronomicon. Apparently the director wanted Jason’s mother to have brought him back to life using that book and that would explain why he went from a child to adult and why he keeps coming back. Because he’s a Deadite.
I’m ok with that. It also sets up the Freddy vs Jason vs Ash film we were teased with over the years but New Line Cinema didn’t have the rights to the Evil Dead.
It shows how film-studios are easily scared when it comes to taking risks and so protective over their rights that they would rather make something like this than take a risk and make something the fans want to see which means they end up hardly making any money.
Then there’s the mistakes such as the letter final girl receives which is in different handwriting and uses a different pen when final guy reads it later.
They misspelt Jason’s surname as ‘Vorhees’ outside the Voorhees home.
The damaged eye he received in part four is one the wrong eye.
Suddenly the ‘Dook’ and his motivations change from money to being personal when he tells Jason ‘Son of a Bitch, you remember me?‘. What? Oh, it is referring back to a story plot that never made it to the film where Jason had killed his girlfriend years and years ago.
Forced drama for unlikeable characters with the wrong cast in a film made by the wrong director where the music is repetitive and lazy despite being made by the man that has scored most of the series.
I was frustrated watching this and despite it being the normal length for a Friday movie it felt longer than Manhattan did.
This new style means an hour in and you are still watching them setup something that would’ve taken 10 minutes in the earlier ones and you are at a point where you should be well into the final carnage. That is why this slogs.
So tedious and bad at everything that when it makes a reference to other horror franchises (something the series has done before) it only makes you wish you was watching one of them instead.
I will say the practical make-up effects are really good, I mean REALLY good. Very gory and what a shame the earlier films had their gore heavily cut only for this to be allowed later on. That’s why censorship and moral panic usually do no good and are only of the moment they happen.
The trailer makes it look good and the opening sequence is excellent.
But this is too silly. I can’t take it seriously.
It is so bad that if it had Crazy Ralph in it, he would be warning Jason to stay away.
![Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993) ORIGINAL TRAILER [HD 1080p]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/R-_G5JD8E1c/hqdefault.jpg)
“Kids and their goddamn field trips.
Let’s bring the psycho on board.
Yeah, sure. I just know I’m gonna get blamed for this shit.”
I’ve been told I shouldn’t like this but I do and always have.
Horror tradition is that when a series goes to space it has ran out of ideas and is could kill the franchise. There is enough evidence to back that up but I feel this is one of the rare good ones to avoid that.
The script is very quick witted, more humourous than any other Friday, knows the series well enough to playfully poke fun at it and doesn’t waste any time getting to the good stuff.
It even manages to find a way to have horny teens in space and the spaceship is an adequate substitute for the Crystal Lake woods for them to run around in and be picked off.
The story is kept simple so it can get to the point of having Jason kill in a variety of new and interesting ways such as the liquid nitrogen death.
See what keeping it simple can do for a film.
The effects for these deaths are very good especially as they involved CGI this time and something other horror series such as Texas Chainsaw failed to do right.
The music is better than in Goes to Hell but still weak. Not terrible but distracting and repetitive and a bit hollow.
If anything this is more like those fun low-budget 80s horror films set on a spaceship which were trying to cash in on Alien. The writer for this did base elements of Jason X on Alien so there are plenty of references throughout.
Uber Jason appears when the ships AI medical bay ‘heals’ him and he looks beefy. Maybe that medical bay could’ve cured Crazy Ralph only as he was actually right; it might not have seen anything wrong with him.
This is the Marmite of Friday the 13th.
You’ll either love it or hate it.
I’ve made my mind up.
“You’re fucking lucky there, stretch.
Came that close to hitting the start button on the whoop-ass machine, boy.”
I have tried to watch this multiple times and never made it past where Clay and Jenna first see Jason.
I liked the ‘glossy‘ (as I call it) look even if I did find the colour to be lacking a bit in the saturation department, unlike in the colour teal area as was popular around this time, and the picture is a bit too dark in the night scenes.
The deaths I had seen up to that point and the gore factor was not disappointing. The horny-teens didn’t bother that much (apart from Trent who is an absolute cunt) but I just couldn’t finish it.
This was the time when I was starting to stop watching modern media.
Earlier this year I watched the whole of the American TV series Supernatural over a few months so I was pleased to see Jared Padalecki in this playing Clay.
That helped to motivate me to fully watch it. Clay is the Rob character from The Final Chapter and finally is treated properly as Clay actually puts up a fight against Jason.
It should be noted that I did watch the longer Killer Cut which has more of the gore added in, good, and more of the nudity and sex, should be good but ends up making a few scenes drag on too long.
Overall the characters are fine and the script is good with that offensive, juvenile wit before Hollywood decided to become very puritan and make sure the right boxes were ticked before anything else.
But by the end, just before the final confrontation, that humour was a bit too juvenile and grating.
Another issue is the shaky-cam. This is the era of teal and shaky-cam which thankfully is largely a thing of the past.
When the action starts and camera shakes, it can be extremely difficult to see what is happening on-screen. You know what is happening but you can’t see it and that is frustrating especially as the mix of practical and CGI effects used for the deaths are really good.
When the camera is steady for these scenes you are in for a proper treat. I had to rewind a few times for a lot of these kills to see how they did it and to simply enjoy watching them. The arrow in the head and the copper’s death was fun and well made.
During the final fight they drop the shaky-cam and it is really nicely filmed; showcasing just how much of a behemoth this Jason is.
Friday the 13th (2009) basically remakes the first four films and they did want Tommy to be in it but sadly that idea was dropped so this is Jason before he is a supernatural being – See what I did there.
This is not that bad and has some references to established Friday the 13th characters such as Crazy Ralph’s bike which shows they took time to respect the original run.
But!
The sister story-line goes against what we know about Jason and creates too many things that are convenient.
Convenient can be distracting.
It doesn’t fit, however, it does lead to a nice subversion of the final girl trope, something I felt ran its course long before this came out.
This is fine. Good opening, middle part is also good but eventually is more of the same before a strong final act. Nice kills made better when the shaky-cam is turned off, has some sex scenes that go on for too long and toilet humour that eventually needs to be flushed.
Shorten those elements and reduce the time by at least 5 minutes and it would be worth a repeat watch. Definitely give it a try.
Conclusion
Friday the 13th deserves its place as one of horror’s greatest film franchises and Jason is up there with Michael Myers and Freddy or Leatherface.
The only proper dip in quality is when it moved from Paramount to New Line although if you can get behind the change, Jason X is a lot of fun and it isn’t as if this series isn’t afraid to try new things. Jason after all doesn’t appear in two of the films and barely is in another.
Despite many attempts to bring him back they never did have Tommy return which is a shame, as long as they would’ve treated the character fairly.
Classic 80s horror that makes me worried for how the studio will treat the series when it inevitably returns. I hope it is when Hollywood finally learns how to write decent fun movies again.
Until then I’m going to finish this run with the excellent Never Hike Alone fan films on Youtube.