Harefooted Halloween: Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives

What I Liked: Holy crap there’s a bona fide plot!  Tommy Jarvis (Thom Mathews (The Peacemaker)) digs up Jason’s corpse because he doesn’t think he’s dead.  Ironically this brings Jason back to life via a lightning bolt.  So now Tommy must stop him again but he also has to contend with the local sheriff (David Kagen (Boris and Natasha)) who thinks Tommy is behind the recent murders.  Everyone has something to do and a motivation and all the pieces come together and wow, like a real movie.

Writer and director Tom McLoughlin (Sometimes They Come Back) added a bunch of loving homages to horror like having a scene set in a cemetery at night with thunder and lightning crashing, reviving Jason Frankenstein style with an electric jolt, a nod to occultism and giving places around town names like Karloff (Boris) and Carpenter (John).

The opening is the best thing in any sequel so far.  Great atmosphere with the eerie graveyard in a thunderstorm while Tommy digs up Jason’s plot (turns out he wasn’t cremated like Part 5 A New Beginning said).  And when they open the casket to reveal a totally disgusting rotting corpse covered in cobwebs and a mass of bugs crawling everywhere it’s fucking awesome looking.  The gothic imagery employed works perfectly, especially when Tommy uses a piece of ornate iron fence to stab Jason in the chest making it seem like he’s impaled with a huge metal cross.  Bravo.

We get some nice variety in this installment like a modest car chase, a spectacular RV crash, a unique solution to try to kill Jason and I love that the filmmakers flirted with the idea of Jason going after little children.  At one point he quietly walks through a cabin of sleeping kids and later he comes after them implying he’s gonna chop them up.

What I Didn’t Like: While Jason looks fantastic in the intro I’m not a huge fan of his design in the rest of the film.  He’s too neat and tidy and has sort of a weekend hunter look about him.  I think it’s the utility belt and gloves that mostly don’t fit.

I don’t get the James Bond reference before the opening credits where Jason turns and slashes the screen imitating Bond shooting down a gun barrel at you.  That’s…kinda weird.  There’s no other connection to James Bond that I could find.

Overall Impressions: Now we’re talkin’.  I understand why this entry either tops a lot of people’s Friday list or at least is generally considered the best sequel because it’s a giant step up for the series.  We’ve been treading water and being thrown half baked ideas since Part 3 so this feels like more of a relief than anything else.

Giving the characters purpose is the biggest improvement.  Even though Tommy accidentally brings Jason back he takes full responsibility and goes on a quest to destroy him once and for all.  Jason is slowly heading back towards Camp Crystal Lake so he has direction as well.  Some nice backstory is here too with the camp being renamed Camp Forest Green to distance itself from the murders that took place there.  In fact I think the entire town and county got renamed.  (Have no fear, they’ll retcon this in the next movie).

This is just a fun picture guys.  Yes there’s more humor inserted than you’re used to with the series but it’s so much better executed than Part 5 A New Beginning.  Well, everything is better executed.  Hell, the movie actually takes place on Friday the 13^th.  I mean that should be a no brainer for each of these but strangely some do and some don’t’.  It’s that attention to detail that makes this one stand out.  You can tell McLoughlin and co are avid horror and cinema fans and put a lot of care and respect into their film and that makes you wanna root for it.  So if you only see one of these goddamn sequels this is it.

Harefooted Halloween: Friday the 13th: A New Beginning

What I Liked: Not a whole lot…more EXPLODING credits!

It’s hilarious when Tommy full on body slams one of the other hospital patients into the breakfast bar out of nowhere WWE style.  What an audacious move to pull on someone!  I don’t think it was meant to be funny though.

What I Didn’t Like: Exploring how little Tommy Jarvis’ (Corey Feldman (License to Drive)) life has been affected by Jason’s murder spree as an adult (John Shepard (The Hunt for Red October)) has potential as probably more of a dramatic film.  As a part 5 in a slasher series it’s used as brief setup to connect to the previous installment but ultimately nothing is done with it.

Believe it or not there’s a microscopic plot that, well, not unfolds…happens?  This entry is sometimes referred to as the murder mystery one because you’re kept in the dark the majority of the time as to who’s bumping off all these people.  The attacks are very similar to Jason’s MO but we thought he was dead.  The conclusion is not satisfying and pretty friggin’ stupid.

They cut way back on the gore often only showing the victim’s brief reaction or cutting away before the weapon makes impact (the MPAA was notoriously harsh on the Friday sequels).  Additionally, four folks get killed off screen bringing the total body count (including the bullshit dream sequences) to a staggering twenty one.

An attempt was made to add more humor to this one (example: a guy almost shits his pants on the way to the john because he ate an enchilada) but oh my god, the backwoods ma and son characters that are filthy, surly and all around rotten irritating assholes are possibly the worst two things in any Friday the 13^th movie.  My guess is they’re supposed to be comic relief with a grown man acting like a bratty toddler and his pissed off mother yelling at him all the time but they certainly are not.

Overall Impressions: *Spoiler* The bad guy isn’t Jason which I don’t get.  If the guy was gonna act exactly like Jason the entire time then why the switcheroo?

The filmmakers wanted to change shit up but had no fuckin’ clue what to do.  Bringing Jason back undoubtedly felt too repetitive so they cook up this Tommy Jarvis character to tease as a successor but abandon that and throw a completely separate dude into the mix and abandon that as well.  As I mentioned in my Part 4 The Final Chapter review there isn’t any sort of through line that connects the Fridays besides Jason.  They never setup a universe to explore.

Usually I appreciate when a sequel goes for something different even if it fails because at least they attempted to delve into new territory.  But with Part 4 The Final Chapter, and this one especially, it comes off half-hearted at best.

Harefooted Halloween: Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter

What I Liked: Having the opening credits EXPLODE in some fashion is a silly tradition that I’m into.

The opening shot showing the aftermath of Part 3 is really well done.  We wander through the crime scene showing cops all over the place carrying body bags, paramedics investigating any possible survivors, a helicopter shining down a spotlight and Jason still lying there with an ax in his head.  It’s madness and sorta makes you realize how devastating an attack like this would be.

The gore gets turned up a touch with perhaps the nastiest death being the first (aside from Jason’s demise).  A morgue technician gets his throat sliced with a hack saw and then his head twisted a hundred and eighty degrees around (don’t worry, he’s setup to be a horny pervert so it’s ok that he got horrifically murdered).

Tom Savini’s (From Dusk Till Dawn) makeup job on Jason is excellent.  I particularly like how the fingernails on his hands are dark and long and chipped.  Gross.  But of course the real prize is when the hockey mask is finally removed at the end to reveal how grotesque Jason has gotten.  He looks partially melted even.  And the final blow he receives is an absolutely astounding gruesome effect that’s a standout moment in any horror film.

*Spoiler on this last item* Having a twelve year old be the one to take down Jason and in such a frenzied way is a ballsy move.  I mean when Tommy (Corey Feldman (Gremlins)) wails on the guy with his own machete hitting him over and over it kinda feels like it comes out of nowhere because they don’t have a history or anything.  But that catharsis for the audience’s sake works well enough I suppose.

What I Didn’t Like: Once again like Part 3 there isn’t a plot really.  It’s your standard teens show up to party at a secluded house and get killed routine.  We get introduced to nerdy Tommy who’s into making elaborate professional level monster masks and was clearly supposed to take over for Jason after this film but there wasn’t any follow through on that.

The teens are annoyingly horny.  All they do is talk about sex, have sex, make out, flirt and skinny dip.  There’s even a long stretch where they watch like 1920’s porn.  They’re all so one dimensional that I didn’t give a shit when any of them died.

Overall Impressions: This entry is worse than I remember.  There isn’t some overarching story that runs through the sequels so it’s essentially another stand alone film.  And neither the lore nor the universe is expanded upon here in any meaningful way.  The filmmakers flirted with the idea of Tommy Jarvis picking up the mantle but they must’ve realized what’s the point?  If you’re gonna eventually put the hockey mask on him and turn him into a silent unstoppable brute anyway then it boils down to just changing the name of the character.  Their backstories would be slightly different but that’s about it. 

Part 4 The Final Chapter on its own isn’t the greatest.  However, introducing Tommy here and having him take center stage in a good sequel later on (Part 6 Jason Lives) makes both films stronger.  So thankfully this wasn’t truly the last one because I think I would like it even less.

My worries about the Friday sequels are coming true.  They’re not all that interesting or different from each other (well, until we get to Jason Goes to Hell) so I don’t have a ton to break down for you guys.  Alright, enough of that.  Next!

Harefooted Halloween: Friday the 13th Part III

What I Liked: That devil disco banger that plays during the opening and closing credits doesn’t fit with the movie at all but I still like it.

It took three goddamn films but we finally get Jason in the hockey mask and it’s a major improvement over the sack from the previous installment.  He looks and feels right now not only in his appearance but in his movements.  He acts with a drive that was missing last time.

The deaths have more of an impact in this one.  The cutting isn’t as quick as in Part 2 and some victims meet a particularly nasty end like getting sliced up through the crotch area and one guy gets a meat cleaver bluntly stuck in his chest.

There are a few creepy images that the movie leaves you with like Jason being hanged and of course the classic moment when he gets an ax laid in his head but still stumbles forward hands outreached desperately trying to grab for his target.

What I Didn’t Like: One of the biggest problems is there isn’t a plot.  A group of friends go to a cabin in the woods near Crystal Lake and get picked off one by one.  That’s it.  They attempt to establish a backstory between the protagonist (Dana Kimmell (Lone Wolf McQuade)) and Jason where he attacked her outside her home however long ago but it goes nowhere.  Originally he was supposed to rape her but thankfully they cut that shit out.  I have no idea what this encounter adds to the story or to the relationship between the characters.

A bunch of the acting is kinda bad.  Some of the actors have stiff deliveries and others put on melodramatic performances.  Richard Brooker (Deathstalker) who plays Jason does the best job.

You need to know going into this sequel that it was shot and meant to be seen in 3D because they push that angle hard throughout.  All the crap flying or being poked at the camera is incredibly unnatural and distracting.  That shit doesn’t hold up in the slightest.  And once you learn that shooting in 3D was the prime directive handed down by Paramount all the energy put into the stupid sight gags begins to make sense.  In fact it was such a grueling task for the cast and crew requiring dozens of takes to get any one gag right that the filmmakers basically gave it their sole focus and all other areas of the production were neglected to some extent.  Hence my comments above.

Overall Impressions: Ninety percent of this film is people investigating something they saw or heard.  It’s so much of people just wandering around various spaces with a curious look on their face.  The script must’ve been like five pages long.

Not only that but the entire cast is simply cannon fodder.  A bunch of characters are introduced only to be killed off minutes later.  And the ones that stick around for the majority of the run time are your usual annoying teens that are either sex crazed, stoned or playing pranks to misdirect the audience.

Another thing I don’t understand is Jason’s motivation.  Are these people invading his space?  That’s not made clear.  Does he wander around and kill anyone in the general Crystal Lake area?  Why?  We need something, anything to latch onto guys.  At least in the Halloweens Michael Myers was terrorizing his blood relatives so there was that connection.  Well, until that weird ass cult used him for assassinations and spawning a devil baby or whatever dumb fuckin’ bullshit they were up to.

While this is technically a worse picture than Part 2 (and kind of a clusterfuck in my opinion) I would rather watch this one because it definitely has some memorable moments.  Plus we get the final evolution of Jason making this another important film.  Without it we wouldn’t have this legendary icon of horror.

Harefooted Halloween: Friday the 13th Part 2

What I Liked: It still has that fantastic Harry Manfredini score.

Having the Friday the 13^th title EXPLODE to reveal “Part 2” in its wake is kinda funny.

What I Didn’t Like: Bringing Jason back as an adult is pretty stupid.  It essentially negates the entire first film which is bizarre.  Jason being not dead takes away his mother’s motivation for killing anyone who attempts to reopen Camp Crystal Lake.  I guess the filmmakers tried to get around this by saying Jason had been hiding out in the woods by himself for thirty years?  And then develops a bloodlust five years after his mother is decapitated (yeah, this movie inexplicably takes place in 1984 or 1985)?  Am I getting this right?

The design of Jason sporting overalls and a sack on his head with one eye hole looks sorta terrible.  It’s a worse take on the killer from The Town that Dreaded Sundown.

Probably due to a rating issue the deaths are very quickly glossed over.  If you blink you’ll miss any one of them.  And since the camera doesn’t linger they don’t hit that hard.

Overall Impressions: In general this film is pretty bland but inoffensive.  As long as you can block out the nonsensical core concept it’s not a terrible time.  Honestly though I’m struggling to find stuff to say about it because it’s a forgettable sequel.

The major takeaway is Part 2 is actually important because it establishes adult Jason Voorhees as a villain.  While the character isn’t a hundred percent fleshed out he’s mostly there.  Tall, silent, stalking, brutal dispatches and the machete makes an appearance.  He didn’t have the right attire yet though which he would pick up in the next installment.  Without this movie we might never have gotten the Jason we all know and love today.

Harefooted Halloween: Friday the 13th

What I Liked: The actors have chemistry which is always important.  And what a blessing there aren’t any straight up asshole characters in this crew either.  We spend the first half hour mostly hanging out with them so they need to be bearable.

Oh man the score.  Aside from the totally unique and instantly identifiable “chi, chi, chi, ah, ah, ah” Harry Manfredini (My Boyfriend’s Back, Hanukkah) crafted some excellent heart pumping music.  It mainly sounds like a take on Bernard Herrmann’s Psycho score but not a rip off.  There are enough differences to make it its own thing.  The music sets great atmosphere during the suspenseful sequences and appropriately blasts you with these short bursts of horns and strings when the action ramps up.

Very good special effects that hold up.  Master effects wizard Tom Savini (Creepshow, Day of the Dead) put together excellent gags like an arrow that goes through the back of the neck and out the throat and the deformed slimy little Jason Voorhees who’s lurking in the lake.

The pacing is good.  We’re constantly changing locations and having the characters do tasks to keep the flow going.  Even when it’s something as simple as making a cup of coffee at least they don’t tediously sit or stand around talking at each other.

Decent shooting.  There’s a lot of handheld work without feeling jittery.  This is tricky to get right because too much movement calls attention to itself.  The balance they strike here adds the right amount of tension in a lot of shots and helps the picture to feel more kinetic.

I can’t imagine I’m spoiling the ending for anyone because it’s one of the most famous reveals in film history and common knowledge in pop culture but having the killer be the mother of the boy that drowned twenty three years earlier is a good twist.  It’s like they took Psycho a lot more literally and this time the mother really is the one behind the murders.

Betsy Palmer (Knots Landing) pops in right at the end to steal the show.  She goes from perfectly pleasant at first meeting to oddly oblivious at the seriousness of being told people are dead to being a little creepy when she tells how her son died to totally insane nutbag when she starts speaking to herself as Jason in a high pitched voice.  A marvelous acting job that makes this seemingly sweet woman feel genuinely threatening.

What I Didn’t Like: This isn’t really a complaint but I’ll put it in this section anyway.  The movie is such a blatant Halloween knock off that it can be a touch distracting.  There’s the setup that takes place many years before the film proper begins involving an incident with a young boy, the killer’s POV shots, an older character who warns others evil is coming, no adults around, partying teens, etc.

Overall Impressions: I haven’t seen this in a long time and I gotta say it’s better than I ever gave it credit for.  It’s a rock solid slasher movie that does everything right.  They set the stage properly with a tragedy that occurred in the past and is still haunting people decades later, the teenagers are pretty likeable which is a rarity and that in turn gives their deaths more impact, they dispatch the victims in fairly shocking ways using very nice special effects and they build up the plot to be more and more dire climaxing with a clever twist ending.  What more could you ask for?

While this one doesn’t have the same magic spooky atmosphere as Halloween it still has a wonderful score and a substantial step up in gore.  A few of the deaths are particularly grisly like an ax to the face and a throat getting slit but they’re not overly grotesque.  Good technical work like this is where the film shines.

I mean this first one is a classic for sure.  When the second act kicks into a higher gear with bodies starting to pile up it’s hard not to get caught up in the rush.  The movie gets better with subsequent viewings too so if you weren’t impressed when you saw it however many years ago give it another go.  I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.  It’s just damn good all around.

Harefooted Comin' At Cha In A Few

 

Yea I took some time off but don't worry 'cause in the background I've been preparing for this year's Harefooted Halloween.  See you there in a few.