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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 →

13 Days of Sequels

13 Days of Sequels: SLEEPAWAY CAMP II

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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.

Thanks in part to the massive success of Friday the 13th, the early ’80s saw a surge in horror movies set around the campfire, lovingly known as “backwoods slashers”. The Burning, Mother’s Day, Madman, Don’t Go in the Woods…Alone!, Just Before Dawn, The Forest, The Final Terror, and The Prey were all released before the decade had even reached its halfway point. The trend would all but dry up by the end of the ’80s, the only real notable exceptions being the franchises that had fostered the sub-genre and had outlived the random copycats.

One of those enduring films was Sleepaway Camp, the cult shocker from 1983 that became a surprise success (making $11M off its $350K budget) thanks largely in part to its bizarre climax – which is still being talked about today. Continue reading 13 Days of Sequels: SLEEPAWAY CAMP II →

Articles, Friday the 13th, halloween, Rants

RANTS: WHY SO BULKY? Bigger Isn’t Always Badder

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It was announced yesterday that the long-gestating remake of The Crow had finally found its lead in Games of Thrones actor Jason Momoa. I’m only vaguely familiar with Momoa’s work, but the shoes of the jester-faced, star-crossed lover Eric Draven would not be easy ones to fill considering Brandon Lee’s mesmerizing and emotional original portrayal of the character, one that was only heightened and immortalized by his untimely death on set, the result of a freak accident while filming a scene for the movie.

But besides the deck already being stacked against Momoa, something immediately struck me as off about this casting choice. For those unaware, this is what Jason Momoa looks like: Continue reading RANTS: WHY SO BULKY? Bigger Isn’t Always Badder →

All Articles, Articles, Design, Friday the 13th, Videos

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…

All Articles, Articles, Everything October, Friday the 13th, halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Video Store Memories

Not-so-awful Sequels! (Part One)

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Hollywood gets a bad rap. People think of it as this horrible money machine, but the truth is Hollywood has nothing but a filmmaker’s best interest in mind. Believe it or not, producers and financiers actually care about creativity and artistic vision and want nothing more than to protect the filmmaker’s creation, and they want to encourage originality by supporting new ideas. Hollywood is about integrity and respect.

No, I’m only kidding. Hollywood is a bloated, greedy monster that cares only about how much money a film makes and absolutely nothing else. And if a film can somehow keep making boatloads of money years after its been released, even better! But how do you do that? Make it a franchise. There are no better cash-cows than horror franchises. Perhaps you’ve heard New Line Cinema referred to as “The House that Freddy Built“, due to the popularity of the A Nightmare on Elm Street series. And how do you build a house? Money. Lots of money. Continue reading Not-so-awful Sequels! (Part One) →