Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)

One of the first rules of making movies in Hollywood is that if it makes money, keep doing it. That's the big reason why there are so many Friday the 13th sequels. Paramount Pictures had honestly intended for the franchise to come to a conclusive end in 1984 with the fourth movie, to the point that it was even named "The Final Chapter." But much like Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part III, Paramount thought they were out, but were pulled back in. It turns out that The Final Chapter was such a big fat hit that they felt almost obligated to keep the franchise going. And just eleven months later, it was resurrected with Friday the 13th: A New Beginning. And nearly thirty years after its release, it's still notorious amongst fans of the series. So let's find out why that is, shall we?

It has been five years since Tommy Jarvis (John Shepherd) killed Jason Voorhees, an incident that has understandably left him with deep psychological scars. He's quite literally seeing visions of Jason everywhere he goes, and is on a ton of different medications to control these hallucinations. Tommy has spent the last half-decade being shuffled around various institutions, finally arriving at the Pinehurst Youth Development Center, a halfway house for troubled teenagers and young adults.

Tommy's first day at Pinehurst is not a peaceful one, as one of its more unstable residents hacks another to pieces with an axe in a fit of rage shortly after Tommy's arrival. Although he is quickly arrested, more brutal murders soon start happening in the area. But who is to blame? Is it that unhinged axe murderer? Could it be Tommy, having finally buckled under all that mental anguish? Could it be Jason, back from the grave? Or is it someone else entirely?

I earlier called A New Beginning one of the most notorious amongst the franchise's fanbase, and that's primarily due to the wildly differing opinions of the movie. There are those who'd argue that it's the worst of the franchise, that it marks the low point for the whole series. But then there's another camp that believes that despite (or because of?) all its flaws, A New Beginning is one of the most amusing and entertaining entries in the saga. And I'll confess that I used to be among those who hated the movie. But as time went by and I gave it more of a chance, I actually grew to like A New Beginning. But all truth be told, it's not a particularly good movie, nor is it even anywhere near being among the best of the franchise. The characters are goofy, the acting is hokey, and the script is stupid. It's also campy like you wouldn't believe, topped the franchise for highest body count, and is the one Friday the 13th flick that feels the most like a sleazy exploitation movie. And that's really not so bad, honestly, because it makes the movie feel a little more unique. When you're five movies deep into a franchise that would eventually spawn seven more chapters, doing something to stand out can't hurt, can it?

The movie was directed by the late Danny Steinmann, a one-time porn director who a year earlier had helmed the low-budget action flick Savage Streets, which starred Linda Blair in one of her few notable post-Exorcist roles. And if the movie feels like a sleazy exploitation film as I stated earlier, it's because that's the kind of movie Steinmann was known for and was good at making. While the franchise hadn't shied away from nudity in the past, Steinmann makes it feel more prevalent and fetishized. And despite some of the gore being trimmed or outright excised thanks to the MPAA (one kill involving a female victim getting a machete to her naughty bits had to be dropped entirely and replaced with something tamer), the movie also boasts the franchise's highest body count to that point at twenty-one kills. Steinmann, with this movie, had made pretty much the most stereotypical slasher movie he could. And that really isn't a bad thing at all.

The movie honestly feels kinda goofy, something that is simultaneously the movie's biggest strength and its biggest weakness. It's full of cheesy dialogue and silly characters, some of whom are actually introduced and killed off within the same scene. And then there's the much-maligned mystery regarding the killer's identity, which is handled in a way that there might as well be a giant neon sign that says "I'M THE KILLER!" flashing over the character's head at all times. To make a long story short, the script by Steinmann, Martin Kitrosser, and David Cohen is (for lack of a better description) a big ol' pile of dumb that contributes to the inability to the movie seriously at all. But this is what makes A New Beginning so charming too, because this lack of seriousness makes the movie more fun.

Even the cast gets in on the action. A lot of the actors are unbelievably over the top, but try their best to be memorable whether they're good or bad, even if they're only in one scene (as evidenced by Anthony Barrile and Corey Parker, who play a pair of greasers that look like they were excommunicated from the T-Birds from Grease and meet a gruesome fate after their car breaks down). The biggest standouts in my eyes, though, were John Shepherd, Miguel A. Núñez, Jr., and Carol Locatell. Shepherd is actually pretty believable in the role, playing Tommy as if he were fighting a war in his own mind. He comes off as shell-shocked, as if he were lost inside himself and in the hockey mask-wearing nightmares that bother him so. It's a damn good performance that I thought was better than the movie deserved.

Núñez and Locatell are, when approaching the movie from a less serious point of view, fantastic as well. Núnez is a lot of fun in his tiny role, showing a lot of the humor and charisma that would make him so likable in The Return of the Living Dead that same year. Locatell is also great as Ethel, Pinehurst's foulmouthed hillbilly neighbor. She steals the show, especially when playing off Ron Sloan, who plays her character's dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks son. Locatell makes the hilariously trashy Ethel one of the franchise's most memorable characters, her scenes serving as some of the movie's best moments.

I've said more than once here that Friday the 13th: A New Beginning is not a particularly good movie, and it isn't. Its reputation as one of the least of the franchise isn't completely undeserved. But one can't help but enjoy the unapologetically campy silliness of the whole thing. It boasts some unique kills and memorable characters, and blends the exploitation flick feeling with the traditional Friday the 13th atmosphere to create a movie that stands out from the rest. Like I said, A New Beginning might not be a good movie, but it's a hell of a lot of fun, and I'll never fault a movie for that.

Final Rating: **½

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)

After the success of the original Friday the 13th in 1980, anybody with access to the right equipment started cranking out their own slasher movies. And Paramount Pictures, seeing dollar signs, started ordering one Friday the 13th sequel after another. But by the middle part of the decade, Paramount began having second thoughts. Slasher movies were nearly always met with nearly universal scorn and derision from critics, and though they were largely profitable from a financial standpoint, Paramount wanted to be known for their serious Oscar contenders rather than some lowly slasher flicks. That's why, in 1984, the studio chose to end the Friday the 13th franchise with its fourth entry. The series would end up continuing long past this one, but this so-called "final chapter" was indeed intended to bring the franchise to an end. And if it had indeed concluded, the saga of Jason Voorhees would have ended with a bang.

After the bloody ending of Part III, Jason Voorhees (Ted White) was apparently dead via an axe to the noggin. But you just can't keep a good horror villain down. He awakens in the county morgue, killing a morgue attendant and a nurse before making his way back to Crystal Lake.

And I'm sure Jason will be happy to find that he'll have a whole new crop of victims waiting for him. A group of horny teenagers have rented a lakefront cottage, expecting a few days of fun and debauchery. Their cottage just happens to be next door to the home of the Jarvis family. Twelve-year-old Tommy (Corey Feldman) kinda likes the idea of cute, nubile young women hanging out next door, but his sister Trish (Kimberly Beck) is more drawn to Rob (E. Erich Anderson), a mysterious hiker who claims to be in the woods hunting bears. It's soon revealed, however, that he's really there hunting Jason, who killed his sister in one of the previous movies. He'd better make damn sure he knows what he's in for, because this is Jason's "final chapter," and he's going out in a blaze of glory. (Until the next sequel, that is.)

It took half a decade and a couple of sequels to do it, but Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter represents what I feel is the first truly awesome Friday the 13th movie. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the first three, but The Final Chapter is where the franchise really hit its stride. It's funny that a movie that was supposed to be the last in its franchise ends up being the one that fully perfects the formula for future sequels. But that's exactly what The Final Chapter is. It's regarded by many fans as one of the best (if not the best) in the series, a status that is not undeserved.

The movie was directed by Joseph Zito, who was hired based on the strength of his prior directorial effort, the 1981 slasher flick The Prowler. The Friday the 13th movies ― and slasher movies in general ― have almost always based around the various set pieces that build to each kill. Much of the suspense and the scares often come from the anticipation of when, where, and how the killer might strike. Zito approaches The Final Chapter with his experience from The Prowler and uses that to craft these set pieces well. He builds upon what the first three movies did and creates an atmosphere that makes one feel that Jason could be anywhere at any time, ready to pounce upon an unsuspecting victim. He works in the occasional cheap "boo!" scare, but allowes some scenes to creep up on the viewer. Slasher movies are an odd beast in the realm of horror, but Zito has made one of the best ones.

The movie also benefits from some fantastic gore effects courtesy of Tom Savini, who had earlier worked with Zito on The Prowler. Savini returns to the franchise after his work on the first movie and sends Jason out in a bloody blaze of glory by giving us some of the best cinematic gore on his résumé. The way Jason is defeated alone is worthy the price of admission, but the way his victims are dispatched are all really cool. Granted, I'm sure a lot of the best stuff had to be trimmed or edited out to make sure the movie got an R-rating, but Savini's work here is just more proof why the best slasher movies of the early '80s hired him.

And like with most slasher movies, the script is mostly unimportant. It's just there so the characters have something to do between death scenes. But honestly, the movie's script, credited to Barney Cohen from a story by Bruce Hidemi Sakow, isn't really all that bad. Parts of it seems like it owes a debt to the glut of sex comedies that came out during the early '80s, as far as the tone of the early parts of the movie go. Some of the characters seemed like they escaped from a cheesy knockoff of Porky's. But it actually feels like a natural part of the movie, and the characters are likable and fun.

I actually really liked the subplot with the Rob character too. The idea of a guy roaming around the woods tracking Jason like he were big game is a pretty cool idea (one that the franchise would revisit nearly a decade later with Jason Goes to Hell), and tying it into the other movies by making Rob the brother of a victim from Part 2 is a good touch. The catch is, though, that it feels like he's been hunting Jason for months when the timeline of the sequels are spread out over just a few days. The continuity is a little screwy, but I still thought the concept was a neat enough idea that I'm surprised they waited until the ninth movie to try it again.

Even the cast is pretty good here. None of them were hired to give Oscar-caliber performances considering that nearly everyone is cannon fodder, but the majority of them weren't bad at all. I thought Crispin Glover (yes, George McFly himself) and Lawrence Monoson were funny in their parts as the two dorky goofballs amongst the teens at the cabin, while Judie Aronson and Barbara Howard have a few cute moments as well. Kimberly Beck, while not one of the best or more memorable Friday the 13th heroines, does prove to be a capable "Final Girl" and holds her own when necessary. E. Erich Anderson also does a great job as the mysterious Jason hunter, giving the character a sense of intrigue and a somewhat sympathetic nature as well. His final scene, though, is so goofy that I can't so much as think about it without wanting to laugh.

But the real stars among the cast are Corey Feldman and Ted White. Only twelve years old when the movie was released, Feldman had yet to be propelled into stardom by The Goonies. He shows a lot of the charm and charisma he would bring to future roles, though, and does a lot to make himself stand out from the pack. It's one of those cases where you watch an actor's pre-fame work and say to yourself, "Yeah, he'll be a star one day." White, meanwhile, makes for a damn fine Jason. He approaches the role in a way that makes Jason seem sleeker and meaner, casting an intimidating presence that makes Jason feel more unstoppable than before. The movie's got a lot going for it, but White's portrayal is the icing on the cake.

Thirsty years and eight more sequels later, it's obvious that Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter wasn't the final chapter after all. If it had been the franchise's actual swan song, it would have ended on a high note. With some inventive kills, decent acting, and some good scares, The Final Chapter is not just one of the best in the series, but one of the best the slasher sub-genre of horror has to offer. It's definitely worth the time and effort to check out. But now that the final chapter is out of the way, there's only one place to go from here: a new beginning.

Final Rating: ***½

Friday the 13th Part III (1982)

Hollywood has pretty much beaten the concept of 3D movies into the ground over the last few years. It seems like every big studio blockbuster is either filmed in or converted to 3D whether it suits the movie or not. I mean, did Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby need to be released in 3D? Was James Cameron's Titanic begging for a 3D re-release last year? But if you think this gimmick is something relatively recent, you're quite mistaken. If you take a trip back to the '50s, you'd find a ton of horror and science fiction movies hitting theaters and drive-ins in 3D. Clint Eastwood even made his big-screen debut in a 3D movie, the 1955 "Universal Monster" movie Revenge of the Creature.

The "golden era" of 3D fizzled out as the '50s came to an end. But the gimmick went through a brief revival during the '80s, which included movies like the poorly-received third entries in the Jaws and Amityville Horror franchises. But the one movie from that period that always caught my eye was Friday the 13th Part III. I have never and will never hide my affection for the Friday the 13th movies, and as a fan of the 3D gimmick when it's used effectively, I can totally get behind the idea of my favorite horror movie franchise going into the third dimension. So considering that today is Friday the 13th, let's take a look back at the lone 3D entry into the saga of Jason Voorhees.

Twenty-four hours after the end of Part 2, word of the horrific events that took place is starting to trickle out to the news media. But this is of no concern to Chris (Dana Kimmell) and her friends, who have rented some property overlooking Crystal Lake for a weekend of fun and relaxation. While Chris wants to use the weekend to rekindle her relationship with an old flame named Rick (Paul Kratka), someone else has other plans. Jason Voorhees (Richard Brooker) is still alive and passing through the area, and when Jason's in town, people are going to die.

Hollywood has really been trying to cram the 3D format down our throats lately, seemingly trying to convince us that it can be a storytelling tool instead of just the silly gimmick it really is. It wasn't always like that, as the brief 3D revival during the '80s didn't even attempt to hide that movies were using it as a cheap way to draw people in. Friday the 13th Part III fully embraces it, throwing things out at the audience and reveling in its own cheesiness. And it's all the more fun for it.

Director Steve Miner returns to for his second consecutive Friday the 13th movie, and his work is only slightly improved over what he did with the second one. The biggest difference is how Miner puts the cinematography to use. There are some really fantastic crane shots and other bits of camerawork that really work in the movie's favor. Granted, a lot of it is done with the intent of playing with the 3D first and foremost, but they're still done with a flair that adds some personality to the movie.

Unfortunately, Miner falls into a lot of the same traps that plagued him during the making of Friday the 13th Part 2. There are more than a few moments where it feels like he's just remaking the first movie, right down to a similar jump scare at the very end. The kills are really the only elements of Part III that feel like they have any originality. Miner does manage to build some suspense and elicit some scares, but there's not a lot that really elevates it from "okay" to "good."

Miner does, however, exploit the 3D effects for all they're worth. I don't know how good it looked during the movie's theatrical release so long ago, but judging by what I have seen, the 3D isn't bad at all. While a lot of modern 3D movies use it to add depth to the picture, Friday the 13th Part III came from a day and age where 3D was only used to shove things into the viewer's face. Anything and everything will come flying at you in this movie. There are simple things like yo-yos and popping popcorn, but it escalates from there. Spears, axes, knives, machetes, pitchforks, some poor victim's eyeball, and even Jason himself will come after you in this movie. It makes the movie look kinda corny if you watch it in standard 2D, but in 3D, it's awesome.

But while Miner's direction is serviceable and the 3D effects work well, everything else is just there. Take, for example, the script credited to Martin Kitrosser and Carol Watson. Unless you're going to do some sort of postmodern satire in the vein of Scream or Behind the Mask, the script is probably the least important element of a slasher movie. I totally understand that. But Kitrosser and Watson have written something so dull that I'm surprised nobody tried telling them to punch it up a little. There's only one really likable character, the dialogue is trite, and the attempt to add a little backstory for the movie's "Final Girl" by having her seemingly assaulted by Jason as a kid seems tacked on and frankly, a little goofy. I'm not expecting something amazing out of the script for a slasher movie, but Kitrosser and Watson could have at least come up with something a little better.

And frankly, the movie's cast is pretty bad too. Again, I know I'm not getting any award-worthy performances out of a movie like this, but give me a break here. David Katims and Rachel Howard are particularly awful as a pare of blatant Cheech and Chong wannabes, while Dana Kimmell is just plain boring as the movie's "Final Girl." Maybe it's me, but Kimmell doesn't really elicit any sympathy, to the point that I probably would have rather seen the alternate, deleted ending where Jason chops her head off.

Only two actors out of the ensemble really stood out in my eyes. One was Larry Zerner, who plays his character with a ton of enthusiasm. You can tell that Zerner's having fun just being on the set, and he makes the character worth watching. I really liked Zerner a lot, and it's a bummer his character ended up being a victim.

The other standout actor is the late Richard Brooker as Jason. Brooker's Jason might not be mentioned in the same breath as the ever-popular Kane Hodder, but Brooker is still a force to be reckoned with. He makes Jason a real monster here, one that you know absolutely will not stop until he's butchered everyone in his way. I enjoyed Brooker in the role, and he really should be regarded highly on the list of those who've played Jason.

Unfortunately, I can't really call this movie one of my favorite Friday the 13th movies. It has its moments, but it's mostly just a forgettable entry in that venerable franchise. It's still worth seeing, primarily for the 3D and the origins of Jason's famous hockey mask, but Friday the 13th Part III is one of those movies that you could skip and not feel like you've missed anything. But then even at its worst, how can you go wrong with a Jason movie?

Final Rating: **½

Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)

Slasher movie fans have long sang the praises of Black Christmas and Halloween as being the creators of slasher movies as we know them. But if they created the game, it was Sean S. Cunningham's Friday the 13th that established the game's rules. Released in the summer of 1980 to cash in on the popularity of Halloween, Friday the 13th was surprisingly successful and launched a million knockoffs and wannabes that allowed slasher movies to dominate the horror genre during the '80s. And naturally, it got its own sequel as well. And as it would turn out, Friday the 13th Part 2 would not only be the first in a long line of sequels, but the one that would serve as the proper introduction to one of the horror genre's most enduring modern monsters.

Five years have passed since the events of the first movie, and the Camp Crystal Lake massacre ― and the mysterious disappearance of its sole survivor not long thereafter ― have become a local campfire legend. The legend also continues that the thought-dead Jason Voorhees survived his childhood drowning and watched as his psychotic mother's rampage was brought to a violent end, vowing bloody vengeance against anyone who would dare step foot in the area surrounding the lake. But those are just campfire stories, right?

They hopefully are, as Paul Holt (John Furey) has opened a new lakefront training lodge for potential camp counselors. The wannabe counselors are all set for a little summer fun, while Paul's hoping a little private time with his girlfriend Ginny (Amy Steel). But little does he know that unfortunately, some campfire legends are true. Jason (Steve Daskawisz) is very much alive and well, and he's got time (and teenagers) to kill.

Friday the 13th Part 2 came very early in the rise of slasher movies, and you can just vaguely make out the outline of the training wheels that both the franchise and the genre's basic formula were wearing at the time. Though many of the tropes and clichés commonly associated with the franchise and slasher movies in general are abundant, the movie never really hits a real stride until near the end. It's not a bad entry in the series by any means, but I just don't think it's one of the strongest either.

At the helm of this particular adventure is director Steve Miner, who would go on to direct not only the third Friday the 13th movie, but Halloween H20 as well. All he needs is a Nightmare on Elm Street movie and he's got the slasher hat trick. Miner's work here is hit or miss, as there are more than a few instances where it feels like he's just doing a half-assed remake of the first movie. The sequel was released barely a year after its predecessor, rushed to theaters in an attempt to strike while the iron was hot. Miner probably didn't have a lot of time to get fancy and creative, so I guess he figured he wouldn't try fixing what apparently wasn't broken.

But Miner does manage to scrounge up some really good moments. Some of the scares in the movie are very effective, and he builds some genuine suspense, especially during the last twenty minutes. There's flashes of brilliance among the disappointing parts, flashes that are good enough to make the movie more enjoyable than it probably should have been.

I usually follow my critique of the direction with my opinions regarding the script. But is there any reason to talk about it? The movie's not some post-modern satire like Scream or The Cabin in the Woods, so it's not like the writing will be Hemmingway. It's an '80s slasher movie; the script only exists to give the characters something to do so they aren't just standing around waiting for Jason to kill them.

Like I said about the direction, writer Ron Kurz seems to have borrowed heavily from the original Friday the 13th. He doesn't outright rip it off, but you can definitely see he's trying to replicate the formula at the very least. He shakes things up in a few places, like the scene where some of the characters actually leave the camp and head to the local bar for the rest of the movie. That's a heck of a way to thin out some of the characters without having to come up with death scenes.

I also enjoyed that Kurz included some characters that are actually likable. They aren't all that way, since there has to be some victims who you'll want to see Jason get his hands on. But there are multiple characters that you'll actually see yourself feeling bad for when they meet their inevitable and grisly demise.

It helps that there are a few strong performances among the cast too. Slasher movies aren't exactly known for their award-caliber acting, but this particular movie has some decent work in front of the camera. The strongest of them is Amy Steel, who plays the movie's resident "final girl." Steel plays the character as all "final girls" worth their salt should; she's vulnerable but tough, scared but smart. Steel makes her character not only charming but sympathetic and believable as well. While you might find yourself rooting for Jason more and more over the course of the dozen or so movies in this franchise, Steel's performance is so good that you'll find yourself rooting for her for a change.

And I should also highlight Steve Daskawisz, the man playing the movie's venerable killer. Though Warrington Gillette gets the credit for playing Jason despite appearing in only one scene, it was Daskawisz underneath that hood for much of the movie. (Yes, I said "hood." There's no iconic hockey mask here, only a sack that looks like it was stolen from the set of The Town That Dreaded Sundown.) Daskawisz is very good as Jason, giving him a sense of menace that Jason needs to be truly scary. He really makes you believe that he's going to find you and kill you and there's nothing you can do about it.

Friday the 13th Part 2 has long been one of the more popular sequels in the series. I don't know if I would call it one of mine, but I can see why it has its fans. It's a flawed movie, but it has some good scares and a talented heroine and villain. And it's the one that made Jason a true star to boot. So I'm going to give the movie three stars on the usual scale. And a word of warning: stay away from your local summer camp. Considering what today is, you never know who you could run into.

Final Rating: ***

Freddy vs. Jason (2003)

In 1980, Paramount Pictures unleashed Friday the 13th and Jason Voorhees upon the world. Spawning nine sequels between 1981 and 2002, Jason became one of the most memorable horror villains of all time. However, Jason wouldn't have all the slasher spotlight to himself. New Line Cinema and horror maestro Wes Craven introduced a villain in 1984 that would himself become a cultural icon: Freddy Krueger. Freddy's first appearance, A Nightmare on Elm Street, has become one of the most heralded movies in the genre and spawned six sequels between 1985 and 1994.

Slasher movie fans have been wondering since the late '80s what would happen if Freddy and Jason fought, and when New Line Cinema acquired the Friday the 13th franchise in the early '90s, it looked like it might actually happen. Both guys are owned by New Line, they'd have to make it. Right? New Line even hinted at a possible Freddy/Jason showdown in the final seconds of Jason Goes to Hell in 1993. Unfortunately, the movie languished in developmental hell for a decade. Dozens of writers and scripts came and went, but nothing happened. In that time, Jason went to space and Freddy went to Hollywood, but years passed and the idea seemed forgotten. But on August 15, 2003, the decade of waiting ended and the world bore witness to the ultimate clash of the titans. Jason and Freddy finally do battle, a movie that slasher fans have been waiting what seems like a lifetime for.

The movie actually tries to have a deeper plot than other Fridays and Nightmares, so let's get to that. We start with a monologue from Freddy (Robert Englund). Everyone in his hometown of Springwood has managed to forget about Freddy, and the fear he thrives on is gone. That makes sense to me. Freddy hadn't been seen since 1994's New Nightmare (which, like Jason X, has no bearing on Freddy vs. Jason's continuity), so I'm sure many people really had forgotten about him. Out of sight, out of mind. So Freddy's scoured the depths of Hell to get someone to strike fear into the heart of Elm Street, someone to make them remember him. There's only one person that fits the bill: Crystal Lake's resident machete-swinging hockey fan, Jason (Ken Kirzinger).

Jason awakens from his post-Jason Goes to Hell grave and heads to Springwood, where he proceeds to go on a killing spree. Unfortunately, he goes too far, and Freddy decides that somebody's gotta stop Jason from taking all of his victims. Caught in the middle are Lori (Monica Keena), her boyfriend Will (Jason Ritter), and a group of their friends, who try desperately to stop both killers while their world comes crashing down around them.

Luckily, they don't change Freddy or Jason's histories, but add interesting twists to them. Past scripts were just unfortunately idiotic (such as one where Jason is a real guy that gets arrested and put on trial, and another where it's revealed that Freddy is really Jason's father), but Mark Swift and Damian Shannon hit the mark with their screenplay. They didn't dwell on the Dream Demons of Freddy's Dead or the body hopping of Jason Goes to Hell. As much as I enjoy Jason Goes to Hell, I think not mentioning that was a good idea. It took Jason and Freddy back to their roots: Jason is an invincible killing machine, and Freddy is a sadistic monster.

The characters of Freddy and Jason not only went back to their roots, but they evolved as well. In the past, Freddy was a loudmouth jerk, but in Freddy vs. Jason, he becomes true evil. He's an insulting, egotistical pervert who isn't above making a potentially racist joke. And here, we see what has only been referenced in the past: he murders a child. The murder itself isn't actually depicted, but we know it happens. I said mentioned earlier that Jason returned to his roots as a killing machine. Well, that's not entirely true. He's more complex than that now. Part of Jason's mythology is that he drowned as a child, but in at least three prior Fridays, he jumps into Crystal Lake. He's not afraid of it when he's awake, but in his dreams, he's still a little boy. We see that in the past, Jason was a victim of bullying and humiliation from other campers, and he never forgot that. As an adult, he's not afraid, but in his subconscious, he's still scared. It's a nice little bit of development that the other ten Friday the 13th movies never really bothered to hit.

Robert Englund once again hits the mark as Freddy. Sure, he's got the trademark one-liners, but he's an intimidating figure. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear Englund was a psycho in real life, because he's that convincing. As for Jason, Ken Kirzinger does a great job. Kirzinger's Jason was a lot more human, yet is still an unstoppable beast. I like Kane Hodder's Jason, but he only portrayed Jason's hatred for others, while Kirzinger managed to convey fear and despair. I liked the acting of the others in the movie as well. Monica Keena is great as the movie's requisite cutie-pie heroine. She's just so cute and innocent, and like all good heroines, she grows from a naïve girl to a tough young woman.

Destiny's Child member Kelly Rowland (who plays Kia) way exceeded my expectations. Going in, I thought she was gonna end up being like LL Cool J or Busta Rhymes in the last two Halloween movies: a singer that's just there to be the token black person and/or comic relief. Yes, Kia had some comedic moments, but Rowland was a better actress than I thought she'd be. The rest of the cast put forth a decent effort as well, though Kyle Labine is only doing an impression of Jason Mewes and it seems like Jason Ritter spends the entire movie with goofy grin on his face (even during the dramatic scenes). I'm easy to please in the acting category, though. If they're not embarrassingly bad like the fifth or eighth Friday movies, I'm happy.

There were also many references to the films of the past. Hypnocil, a big plot point in the third Nightmare movie, is a main factor in the plot here, as is the Elm Street House seen in all of the past Nightmares. The house looks great, as does Camp Crystal Lake. The camp is beautiful and frightening at the same time. There was a reference to the sack Jason wore in the second Friday, and a TV station called "KRGR," which was the radio station Johnny Depp listened to before his death in the first Nightmare. Yes, KRGR. Think about it. And the movie even included a lightning-speed cameo from Bob Shaye, the CEO and founder of New Line Cinema.

The fight scenes are unbelievable, too. They met my expectations and surpassed them. I thought the one in the dream world was great, but when they enter the real world, holy cow! The sheer brutal awesomeness of it is mind-blowing. The two killers quite literally rip each other to shreds, but still get up for more. I should also point out Graeme Revell's wonderful score. If you ask me, I think it's light-years ahead of the music from Nightmares and Fridays from the past. While the only recurring themes from past sequels are Jason's trademark sound effect (you know the one) and a brief reprisal of Charles Bernstein's classic Nightmare theme, Revell's music creates a frightening atmosphere that gives the movie a much darker tone. Good stuff.

The movie doesn't take itself lightly. It's not entirely self-referential (though it does have some subtle references to the past) or a parody like prior films in each series, but a balls-to-the-wall horror movie. Personally, I think Freddy vs. Jason is almost perfect. Yes, it's a Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th sequel, and therefore will catch a lot of crap from non-fans, but it was worth the years spent waiting for it. The movie was a dream come true (I almost said "nightmare," but that would have been goofy), and I applaud director Ronny Yu, the cast and crew, and New Line Cinema for making this fan happy.

Final Rating: ***

Friday the 13th (1980)

A slasher film can be simply defined as a film with a body count, in which an attractive cast is slowly killed off one by one. Mario Bava's A Bay of Blood and Bob Clark's Black Christmas are often credited with helping originate the concept of slasher films, and John Carpenter showed us slasher perfection with Halloween in 1978. But on June 13, 1980, slasher films blossomed into a money-making juggernaut when Paramount Pictures released Friday the 13th.

On a budget of 700,000 dollars, it grossed nearly six million dollars in its opening weekend and inspired hundreds of knockoffs and wannabes (rumored to be over eighty in just one year). Halloween is a classic, but Friday the 13th started the great slasher boom of the '80s. Originally conceived as just a way to make a quick buck, Friday the 13th became a cultural phenomenon. It spawned ten sequels, a video game, comic books, novels, action figures, legions of devoted fans, and over time, earned a spot as one of horror's most iconic franchises.

So if you're unfamiliar with the series, here's how it all began. We're taken to the long-closed Camp Crystal Lake, which young entrepreneur Steve Christy (Peter Brouwer) fully intends to open back up for business. The locals in the nearby neighborhood don't exactly think that's a good idea, however, as they'll be the first to tell you that this summer camp should probably stay closed due to its horrible history. A camper drowned in 1957, and subsequent attempts to reopen the camp saw a series of fires, poisoned water sources, and even two murders. There's a reason Camp Crystal Lake has been nicknamed "Camp Blood," after all.

But no matter how much they're warned about the camp's past, Steve and his team of counselors are determined to reopen the camp. But there's a little something that stands in their way: the murderer that arrives at the camp and starts picking them off one by one.

Director Sean Cunningham had just finished the 1978 film Here Come the Tigers, a low-budget soccer-themed knockoff of The Bad News Bears. He was preparing to start a TV show based on the movie, and after seeing Halloween, Cunningham decided to make a similar film as a way to make a little money to fund the show. So I guess we can blame the whole thing on Halloween and a Bad News Bears rip-off? Cunningham, whose prior experience in the horror genre was as the producer of Wes Craven's 1972 cult classic The Last House on the Left, assembled a cast, crew, and a script by Here Come the Tigers writer Victor Miller, not expecting Friday the 13th to become anything more than a detour on the way to bigger fame and fortune.

But when the movie was picked up by Paramount and released, it started raking in money like gangbusters. Says Cunningham, "I thought the big hit I was gonna have was gonna be a TV series, but it was Friday the 13th. The TV series never got picked up, and Friday the 13th put my kids through college."

So Victor Miller's script isn't all that groundbreaking, and the acting seems a little hokey at times, but that's probably to be expected. I mean, a group of twenty-somethings at a summer camp in the middle of New Jersey in 1980 would probably act like that. I hadn't been born yet, so don't quote me on that. With the exception of a pre-Footloose Kevin Bacon as one of the camp counselors, the majority of the cast would eventually fall off the face of the earth, so I guess I really shouldn't be bothered if they gave crappy performances or not because at least they didn't do much of anything afterwards.

Despite the cast full of no-names, Betsy Palmer proves herself to be one of the two true stars of the movie. Everybody recognizes Jason Voorhees as the franchise's primary villain, right? But the killer in this first movie is Jason's beloved mother, whom Palmer plays wonderfully. She makes you really believe that she really is a homicidal maniac fresh out of the asylum. I'll admit that a tiny woman in her 50s committing nine horrific murders is a bit of a stretch, but she pulls it off to perfection.

I think it's worth noting is that when the film was released, the late Gene Siskel encouraged readers of his newspaper column to write letters to both Paramount and Palmer herself to express their displeasure with the movie. It was less than successful. "Somebody showed me the review," Palmer said in an interview, "but I didn't get any hate mail. He [mentioned] the wrong place. He [said I lived in] Connecticut, but my real hometown's in Indiana." But in all honesty, I think Siskel overreacted big time. A horror movie is only as good as its villain, and I've always thought that Palmer was absolutely wonderful in the role. She brings a very fun level of intensity to the role, and with a lesser actress in the role, I don't think it would have worked.

The other big star in the movie isn't even a member of the cast. Tom Savini did the makeup effects, and he did a smash-up job. He'd just come off George Romero's classic zombie movie Dawn of the Dead, which the MPAA slapped with an X rating due to his makeup effects, and with the fame he got from that film and Friday the 13th, he became the hottest makeup man in the horror industry. He even joined the press tour on the 1981 slasher movie The Burning. Not counting Stan Winston's work on the Terminator trilogy, how many makeup/special effects guys do press for movies?

Countless imitators and nearly three decades later, Friday the 13th still holds up as one of the true classics of the horror genre. While those that don't appreciate films like this view Friday the 13th and films like it as a joke, I do appreciate it and I do enjoy it. So while it might be one of the oddities of the Friday the 13th movies due to its lack of the franchise's most famous character, I'm going out on a limb and giving the movie hearty recommendation. Go check it out. 

Final Rating: ***½