Friday the 13th (1980)
Well this is one of the movies that started the modern slasher genre, even though you could argue that the genre had already been started, but never the less this surely helped to boost it to new heights. Not much to say about the plot, group of young people go to a summer camp to get it ready for the kids coming in a few weeks. They hear stories how the camp had a bloody history and soon enough they start to die one by one. You don't have to wait for the first kill too long as it comes before 5 minutes is up. A crew member Willie Adams playing a counsellor is the lucky man to be the first to die in this franchise and his girlfriend follows him right after, so two down and around 196 to go. I must say the plot wasn't as bad as I remembered it to be, there was some effort to it, though of course these movies aren't made because of the plot. Sure the dialog was corny at parts and towards the end the actions the heroine takes are quite idiotic, but I've seen a lot worse also. Another thing about the end, all respect to Betsy Palmer, but I found it quite unfitting that the killer who chops up quite a few people with ease before can't handle one girl and looks to be fighting like an old lady. The t&a (tits and/or ass) department was surprisingly lacking as I counted only two scenes, something hopefully the later parts will fix. The kills however are quite spectacular, Tom Savini's effects are a work of art and this movie has some of the best he has ever made. My favourite by far being the scene where Kevin Bacon gets an arrow through his throat. The music sounded like a ripoff from Jaws (1975) and Psycho (1960), but I guess that was intentional kind of like a message to the viewer that there's something more horrifying coming. Anyway I liked this quite a bit even though the main man with the hockey mask wasn't in it and I must say it was surprisingly entertaining. I watched the fully uncut Blu-Ray version of it, actually if I remember correctly this is the only part where there is an uncut version available. The MPAA didn't go easy on the sequels and sort of targeted the franchise with a lot tighter rules than others of it's kind. Don't know why, but I guess someone pissed someone off or something, not like the MPAA has ever been biased about anything before either so who knows. Another thing about the Blu-Ray, because the picture quality was quite great, it showed some mistakes quite badly. Some on the makeup, but most notably in the final scare where you can clearly see some twig moving behind the boat. Also was quite funny to actually see the numbers on the dices on that strip Monopoly, hard not to laugh when the girl throws one and two but still says double sixes. But those little things just add to the magic of the movie and this classic can stand a lot of fun making without losing it's charm.
75%
Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
Five years after the first part they open another camp next door to Crystal Lake where again a group of young people gather to learn the ropes of being a counselor. Of course again they start to get killed one at a time and the myth of a guy named Jason roaming around the woods killing people starts to come into reality. I didn't like the flashback sequence at the start where they recap the first part in a dream by none other but the sole survivor of the first part. Tends to drag the start for way too long and actually we have to wait almost 12 minutes before Alice gets an ice pick in her head. That's a whole lot longer than in the first part, though if you don't count the flashbacks then it's a lot closer to it. Anyway, as the sequel is supposed to bring things to a new level, this really didn't. I mean sure now we finally have Jason killing the teenagers, but other than that this movie walked pretty much the same path as the first one, not even trying to top it. Didn't count but the bodycount seemed quite similar as well. The kill scenes are quite mild, thanks to MPAA, so didn't top the first one in those either. The t&a was a slight improvement, but still nothing to rave about. My favourite kill was the double impalement, but the wheelchair kill was quite great also as it was just so wrong in so many levels. I must say that towards the end Jason turns into the unluckiest guy on the planet, nothing seems to go right when he tries to let Ginny out of her misery. That unfortunately brought unneeded comedy into it and made it more campy than it should have been. I mean of course you can't watch these with a straight face, but still some sense would be welcome. Loved the dog bit at the end though, almost as good as the ending of the first part. So all in all, even though this movie has a couple of good scenes and that it set the tone for Jason hunting teenagers, this is still a bad sequel as it really doesn't even try to top the first part.
42%
Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982)
This movie should be called Saturday the 14th or Sunday the 15th as it continues right where the second part left, so that would be saturday, though the majority of it happens on the day after that, so sunday. But then again who cares, another group of teenagers are gathered near the lake and Jason is out to get them. Again the movie starts out with a flasback from the second part and again it's quite tedious as I just watched it, don't really need to be reminded about what happened there. Then again as all of these were done a year apart from eachother and as the home video hadn't exploded yet, I kind of understand the point of recapping the previous part at the start. But then again as the story in these is very thin, they could have just as well left it out and it would have worked just as good. Anyway, this movie was done in 3D to bring a new element to it and I must say it was quite painful. I mean I didn't watch the 3D version of it, but everything, and I really mean everything, is slapped on the camera as a gimmick to tease the audience and it really gets annoying after a while. So was it any better than the second part? We have to wait over 15 minutes for the first kill, way too long. But then again the kills are quite good in this one, a definite improvement from the second part. And even though the MPAA did rape this one as well, it's not as bad as the second one so there's some proper gore in it also. The best kill was the machete swing at the guy walking with his hands, though the head crushing in all of it's goofiness was quite nice as well. The t&a department is the weakest of the three, which was a definite let down. But what's most notable in this one is that Jason finally gets his iconic hockey mask, thanks to a nerdy guy called Shelly who brought it to the lake. Though there is no great moment of putting the mask on for the first time, Jason just walks into the scene wearing it, but none the less you could call that a historical moment. The end fight is quite idiotic again, Jason seems to have huge strenght when he's killing other people but when the heroine needs to get away he seems to be as weak as a little girl. I mean he can crush a man's head with bare hands but can't choke a woman or snap her neck. Anyway, even though the t&a was a major let down, I liked this more than the second part.
53%
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
This again continues right where the last one left so now we're going on Monday the 16th, but again it really doesn't matter. Another group of teenagers go to the lake while Jason wakes up in the morgue and off we go again. True to the tradition, again we get a flashback at the start setting up the story. Luckily this time it's a bit shorter and full of kills from the previous movies so I didn't mind that much. We have to wait for the first kill about 14 mins (not counting the flashbacks), so they are not breaking any records here, but then again it's a very good one so it was worth the wait. Tom Savini returns to make the effects for this part and they are a beauty, even though MPAA vandalised them again. Luckily there are a few glimpses of them left so all the work didn't go to waste. Funny that the reason why he returned was that he wanted to kill the character he built, little did he know that the series was still in the beginning at this point. The biggest improvement to the previous parts is in the t&a department which are plenty, so that was a nice surprise. There's also quite a bit of comedy in it and I mean intentional, unintentional there's of course in every part. For example it has one of the funniest dance scenes I've seen. Best kill by far is Jason's "death", but then again as he didn't really die I guess that doesn't count. Other than that, the "where's the cork screw?" scene cracked me up even though it wasn't that special otherways, though maybe the first kill was the best after all. This didn't have the most original kills of the series, though they are not bad either, mostly thanks to Tom Savini. The biggest surprise however was the end fight, I mean sure it also had it's idiotic moments where the victims make stupid actions but still it was very effective and managed to even raise some tension. So it's definitely better than the last two and managed to be quite entertaining.
60%
Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)
So after the final chapter where Jason gets chopped to pieces you of course go for the new beginning. The movie starts off great when Tommy, the kid from the last part, is watching in the bushes when two drunken guys dig up Jason's body and of course he jumps to life and kills them. We get the first kill before 4 minutes, a record so far. But that was all just a dream. Tommy is now grown up and been to all sorts of mental institutions. Jason seems to haunt him in flashbacks and soon enough people start dying. I'm a bit puzzled about the timeline right about now. I mean the first part was set in 1979, the second part was set 5 years later so that would make it 1984 as would the third and the fourth as they are direct continuation. Now this is set 10 years after the fourth part so that would make it 1994, at least according to my math skills. Still the movie looks quite like 1985. Then again maybe those country folk don't really stay too current on the latest trends. Well anyways lets not get caught up in small things as there's plenty of good fun in this one. First of all the t&a is well in order, especially the "It's showtime!" bit was a joy. Also the appropriately named Debi Sue Voorhees was a sight for sore eyes. Second thing I liked were the innovative kills, though again the MPAA has spoiled the fun quite efficiently. Very hard to pick the best as there's so many good ones. The flare to the mouth scene, belt around the tree, garden scissors to the head or the crapper impalement were all quite nice. There's plenty of unintentional comedy but also some intentional that works somewhat ok. Loved the two crazy hillbillies. Even the ending looked to be nicely over the top with the tractor and all. But then they piss it all away. First time I saw this I was so angry about the ending that I ranked this as the worst piece of crap this franchise has. I still didn't like the fact that Jason is not the killer, but then again he isn't in the first part either so I didn't take it too seriously this time. For sure this movie is a bad movie for the fans of the series, but for everyone looking for a campy fun slasher, this was actually quite ok. But as I'm a Jason fan I'm going to rate it with that.
35%
Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI (1986)
After the ridiculous copycat nonsense we're back in business with the real thing. This time there's no flashback at the start, but we hear voices from the fourth part as Tommy and his friend are digging up Jason to burn his body. Which I found quite odd as the mayor said in the last part that Jason was cremated, oh well little things don't matter as it still looks like the 80's while the timeline should be somewhere around 1997 if you count the years. Anyway, Tommy's plan to burn Jason ends up going wrong and he actually helps to resurrect Jason by impaling his body with an iron pole which gets hit by a lightning giving Jason one hell of a jump start. First kill happens a bit after 8 minutes as Tommy's friend who didn't even want to dig the body up in the first place gets to pay the price of that mistake. Tommy escapes and Jason is out for blood again. It seems that Crystal Lake has been a great camp site because they have renamed it and yes there's another summer camp for kids in there and more importantly another batch of counselors to be cut to pieces. This part finally gets what's important in these movies, it's not the teens, it's Jason and the movie focuses more on him leaving the teens to be what they are, meat for the grinder. Sure there are the "lead" characters of Tommy and Megan, the sherif's daughter, but the real star of the show is the man with the hockey mask. The "Bond" start was pure brilliance and they clearly made Jason more like a super hero, or maybe a villain in this case but it's debatable. Hell the undead, unstoppable killing machine even has a utility belt with all sorts of cool pointy things to slay the teenagers, very convinient. Just like the last part this one also has lots of comedy in it, some bad, some quite ok. But the biggest problem this one had was that there's no t&a at all, not even a glimpse! That's a shame as this part had erything else so well in hand. The kills are quite great and again there are too many good one's to pick the best. The metal pole swing scene, taking the machete with a hand in it, the head to the Winnebago wall scene and folding the sherif in half in a very painful manner were all quite great. Also the music was great, Alice Cooper was my childhood hero so can't go wrong with that. I enjoyed this part probably the most out of the sequels thus far, it's focusing on the main thing and filling the gaps with somewhat ok humour. Too bad the t&a was a let down as this could have been quite brilliant.
69%
No comments:
Post a Comment