Tag Archives: friday the 13th

13 Days of Sequels

13 Days of Sequels: FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2

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With 13 Days of Sequels I’ll be reviewing horror sequels every weekday for the last two weeks of October. You can view all entries HERE.

Believe it or not, Friday the 13th Part 2, like many a sequel, was borne of financial motivations. That is to say, the version of Friday the 13th Part 2 as we know it.

Originally, producers had intended for the Friday the 13th franchise to continue, but in an anthology-style format where each successive movie follows a different storyline, the only constant being that they all take place on that unlucky day. (If this sounds a lot like John Carpenter’s approach to the Halloween franchise, it’s because, well, it is. You’ll notice a lot of parallels before this is over.)

In fact, the infamous ending of Friday the 13th wherein Jason pops up out of the water wasn’t even in the original script – it was suggested last minute by make-up effects maestro Tom Savini who was working on the picture. He had just seen Carrie and thought Friday could benefit from a similar last minute jolt. Victor Miller, who wrote Friday the 13th, was against the idea – he wanted only to focus on Pamela Voorhees, the mother who would do anything for her child – even kill. According to Miller, “Jason was dead from the very beginning. He was a victim, not a villain.” Continue reading 13 Days of Sequels: FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2 →

Friday the 13th, horror nerd of the month

HORROR NERD OF THE MONTH — Eddie!

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I was originally going to start this piece, “Eddie McCarlo is a poor writer’s idea of a nerd if there ever was one.” Within this one character exists too many clashing ideologies, I thought. He makes fun of a girl for ‘being crazy’, he likes to get high with the sleazebag character — all while purporting to be this big sci-fi and fantasy geek. It just didn’t seem to jibe. However, the more I looked at the character and thought about his actions the more I realized: not only is he an amalgamation of different nerds but, as it turns out, I’ve known many Eddie McCarlos in my life. In a way, Eddie McCarlo is a Super Nerd. Continue reading HORROR NERD OF THE MONTH — Eddie! →

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Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter as an 80s Sitcom!

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tumblr_mpmy1hTXD11srsy9vo1_500Y’know if you study that above gif closely, it’s almost as if Jason is giving little Tommy Jarvis a big hug.

Perhaps it’s this demented way of thinking that made me realize when you remove all the murders from Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, it actually looks like some cheesy 80s sitcom. So, I did just that!

I finished by slapping some nondescipt 80s keyboard music behind it, and boom: no longer an 80s horror movie, but an 80s sitcom about a loving family with a big cast of characters and that wacky neighbor Jason who always seems to barge in at the wrong time.

So enjoy. Y’know, now that I’m thinking about it, those wacky teens from A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 would make for a great Just the Ten of Us-style show. Hmm…

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Crispin Glover’s Friday the 13th 4 Dance!

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There’s a well-known scene in Friday the 13th 4: The Final Chapter, which sees Crispin Glover at a party, asking a girl to dance. But instead of dancing, he just flails about wildly in start/stop herky-jerky motions.

The song used in the scene was “Love is a Lie” by the group Lion. However, the word is that they were actually dancing to “Back in Black” by AC/DC on set, and had to dub the aforementioned song in afterwards.

So I went back and added AC/DC’s “Back in Black” to the scene just to see what it would look like – and if it would help Glover’s dance moves make any more sense.

I think Crispin was marching to the beat of his own drum on this one.

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Psycho vs. Psychic, Kane Hodder, & Jason at Sea!

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I miss being a little kid and watching a horror movie I’d never seen through unjaded eyes. Just turning off my mind, pressing play, and absorbing the wonder.

As an adult now, I sometimes catch myself being clinical and obsessive about non-issues when watching a horror flick…and I hate that. The weird thing is, I only do it when watching a recently released movie I haven’t seen. The older ones, they get a pass. It’s like respecting your elders or somethin’. I haven’t thought long enough on it to explain it better.

That being said, when I was a kid and I saw a zombie Jason facing off against a girl with psychokinetic powers – in a series that was once grounded in some sort of reality – I didn’t even bat an eyelash. Instead, I was like, “This is great!” I mean, it was.

Friday the 13th: Jason Lives was released to little fanfare – the critics actually appreciated its intelligence, but the fans weren’t feeling the meta, self-referential humor that was peppered throughout. That was two strikes in a row for the series (after the abysmal but now cult status Friday the 13th: A New Beginning), so Paramount was pretty much ready to abandon the series. This is where the initial idea of pitting Jason against Freddy Krueger started to be toyed with. But when Paramount and New Line Cinema couldn’t come to an agreement, the project was discarded. In a last ditch effort to revitalize the series, screenwriter Daryl Haney submitted a throw away idea he had: Jason versus a girl with telekinetic powers. The Associate Producer, Barbara Sachs, loved the idea: “Carrie versus Jason…That’s an interesting idea.” And so it was. Continue reading Psycho vs. Psychic, Kane Hodder, & Jason at Sea! →