Friday The 13th: A Retrospective
As I write this piece, discussions over a new Friday the 13th film are in a constant state of confusion – now pushed to a 2016 release date, unsure whether it will include Jason and Camp Crystal Lake and potentially looking at incorporating a found footage format, it’s safe to say there will likely be many more changes and alterations before the next outing hits the screen. And the fan excitement is already high, further cementing the franchise as a perennial horror favourite and one that, like its hero Jason, has come back from the dead more times than you’d imagine.
The series began as a response to the success of Halloween, designed to have the audience jumping out of their seats one moment and then having a good laugh in the next. Starting solely from the iconic title – the giant words zooming out from the screen and smashing through a piece of glass – the film became a slasher hit, following the re-opening of a summer camp where the young Jason Voorhees drowned, and the subsequent murders of most of the people there. The film was a massive hit, and so production began on a second film. Despite the original plan to have the Friday the 13th moniker referring to a series of disconnected films, it was decided that the new film would feature Jason as the antagonist, despite his appearance at the end of the first being nothing but a joke. Following pretty much exactly the same plot as the first, it again drew in considerable revenue.
Operating on the idea that it was worth doing so long as money was being made, sequels kept being churned out. Part III followed on again from the second, following a wounded Jason winding up in a local girl’s homestead, and murdering everyone there. The film took two incredibly odd turns – implying Jason was a rapist for no obvious reason, and shoehorning 3D into every conceivable scene, this culminating in the daft murder in which Jason squeezes a man’s head until his eye pops out. The Final Chapter, again set immediately after the third, had Jason miraculously waking up in the morgue, and murdering his way back to Camp Crystal Lake, meeting his end at the hands of the Jarvis family, the youngest of whom was played by a young Corey Feldman. This film was intended to finish Jason off, as producer Frank Mancuso Jr. was finding non-horror work a bit hard to come by due to his association with the series, but the public demand was too great.
Operating on the idea that it was worth doing so long as money was being made, sequels kept being churned out.
The two subsequent films followed Tommy. A New Beginning finds him in a mental institution, and following a murder by one of the inmates, it seems Jason has returned. The film is noticeable for having the highest body count in the series, as well as having the antagonist be a paramedic called Roy for reasons too poor to explain. Jason Lives had Tommy try to finally kill Jason, inadvertently resurrecting him as a zombie after lighting strikes the cemetery fence post he was stabbing the body with (no, really). Zombie-Jason makes the surprising move of heading back to Camp Crystal Lake, killing a few people there until he is defeated by being chained to a boulder and tossed back in the lake.
Not that he remained there for long, of course. The New Blood followed the same formula as all the previous films, but it made the final girl telekinetic. After a lot of tele-battling, Jason is defeated once more, with the final girl using her powers to summon her deceased father (who also lies at the bottom of the lake, which clearly ought to have a fence or something around it) to pull him back to the depths.
By this point, Camp Crystal Lake was starting to seem a bit stale, so plans were made to place Jason in a larger environment. The plan for this was New York City, although a suffering budget meant that Jason spent most of Jason Takes Manhattan on a boat instead. It failed to perform particularly successfully, which led to Sean S. Cunningham (director and producer of the first film) trying to acquire the rights to start work on Freddy Vs. Jason. However, Wes Craven’s New Nightmare put a hold on this idea, and instead led to Jason Goes To Hell, a film designed to bridge the gap between the two. After Jason is blown up by the FBI, he returns as a horrible CGI-black snake-thing that possesses human hosts, looking for a member of his bloodline to restore himself. It made a healthy profit despite its horrific premise, but further delays led to another film, solely to keep Jason in the public mind. Jason X put the killer in space, because why not?
Despite some fairly abysmal films, the franchise is great fun… There are so many more teens out there for Jason to murder – it would be unfair to stop him now.
After 15 years of development, Freddy Vs. Jason was finally released in 2003. Freddy, unable to return to Elm Street because he has been forgotten by the children, dispatches Jason to the neighbourhood to create enough fear to facilitate his comeback. However, trouble begins when Jason keeps killing all of Freddy’s victims. Despite not really being very good and the last quarter-of-an-hour solely being a fight sequence, the film was a fanboy’s dream come true, and holds a special place in the hearts of many horror fans.
No new films were released until Platinum Dunes (which, sadly, does imply Michael Bay involvement) began work on a reboot. Loosely adapting the continuity of the series, a young Jason sees his mother decapitated at Camp Crystal Lake, and continues her killing spree as an adult. He kidnaps a young woman who reminds him of her, and a group of people led by the woman’s brother come to rescue her.
Which leads us to today – Friday, 13th May 2016 has been set as the release date for the new film, with other details being leaked and denied as fast as can be. I can’t confirm many details, as details are few and far between, but I do know that I am looking forward to this next installment. Despite some fairly abysmal films, the franchise is great fun, especially for horror fans, and I only hope that it goes the way of its hero and remains unstoppable. There are so many more teens out there for Jason to murder – it would be unfair to stop him now.
Images: MTV; Bloody Disgusting
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