The Binge is Back: Friday the 13th, The Paramount 8

Guess what day it is?!?! Guess what day it is...it is Friday. Friday, the 13th. I actually decided a couple weeks ago to take this day off just so I could go old school and devote the day to that silent and violent angry son of a beheaded moms who went over the edge thanks to some sex-crazy kid counselors too busy necking to pay attention to her drowning, facially deformed son.

So I'm all in. Eight films. The Paramount series featuring Jason or someone representing him startling the kids right before, during, or after sex. Crystal Lake's notorious son and the hunting ground which had no shortage of victims to obliterate--and a body count to compile kept Mama Voorhees' misbegotten boy quite busy--during the era of 1980-1989. And here we go...

I opened the morning with Miner's Part 3, and despite his dalliance with 3-D effects which cry aloud "alright, dammit, I'll include them" (I have always felt this was a trick of the trade undermining and undercutting a filmmaker, even if the movie is a slasher cash-in, shark amusement park summer sell-out, or Amityville haunted house hokum), I think he did seem to really get Jason right. Like how Jason's presence in the old mainstay, "da barn", is noticeable to us and only realized to the victims when " he wishes." But why Jason supposedly has a seemingly prurient interest in Kimmel is never an active component in other films before or after this one. In Kimmel's recollection of events caused by a spat with her parents, Jason emerges with no mask hiding his face and Booker has an opportunity few others received: the chance to have Jason aggressively going after a victim lasciviously. He seems like a rapist animal just pursuing Kimmel and dragging her to wherever his heart desires. She tells her boyfriend, who must be affluent and well-to-do as he's donning the draped sweater around his shoulders, that she blacked out. What happened is left to the imagination.

• The stars were aligned in the franchise once the hockey mask and machete were partnered with Jason. The 80s would never be the same. 
• The machete crotch shot made the prospect of walking using your hands and the whole vulnerable spot it puts you in not such a bright idea.
• To give Jason a diverse group to destroy, he was provided a motorcycle gang, geeky jokester who "just wanted the girls to like him", and pot-smoking hippies. 
• Good chance to show Fangoria some love before the reader, the lady love of the hands-walker split in two, is impaled with a machete while all cozy on a hammock. That blade coming out the throat kind of rivaled Savini's own arrowhead kill in the first film.
• And Shelley's slit, bleeding throat wasn't too shabby, either.
• It's a given: no picture window is safe when Jason has a body on hand to hurl through it!
• And there was a rather clever means for the car trouble: the biker punks siphoned the gas!
• I laughed out loud when Jason clumsily walks right out the front door and Kimmel clunks him over the head with a block of wood.
• To think that Jason took a machete to the shoulder and direct knife stab to the knee, with neither depriving too much of his motor functions
• And easily the ax to the head with Jason reaching out--no matter how absurd--is the key scene of the film, unless that harpoon to the eye or  golf ball / eyeball pop towards the screen were your cuppa goop.
• I gotta say, the camera work in these movies fail to get mentioned, but never more did I recognize how much I was grooving to the fluidity of how Miner set up distance crane shots and moving action than in this sequel.
• Miner and the gang couldn't help but bring back the jump gag one more time, as the "lady in the lake" pops out to give us one lasting jolt. This plays off the nightmare as Kimmel saw Jason absent mask, gaping ax wound, smiling devilishly, and eventually vanishing even though, once the cops are on the scene, he still lies, seemingly dead, with mentioned hockey mask, still on.

The Friday series doesn't lend itself too well to the format of regular cable or satellite television. The whole point is the shock kill or cheap thrill, the timed and sudden emergence of a weapon to body and / or allure of attractive casting with the occasional nudity.  The point of what draws eyes to the product becomes moot. The latter series sequels are a bit more conducive to wider play due to their absence of what brought money to the earlier films in the Friday franchise.

Just watch The Final Chapter on AMC or Spike TV for an example. Poor Peter Barton, of Powers of Matthew Star, gets his face crushed in--always reminded of Pitt's remark when pummelling Jared Let's face about beauty made ugly--right after making sweet love to Barbara Howard, and it's effectiveness is dulled of its horror. The Telly just doesn't do the kill scene justice as Jason's hand makes mincemeat of Barton's mug.

• Seriously, it wasn't Part 6 that started the Zombie Jason: watch what Jason has endured or does endure during The Final Chapter. Hammer shots and a television set to the noggin along with the teeth of a hammer stuck in the back of his neck. That along with the previous installment's ax to the head and knife to the knee. Oh, and the machete to the shoulder. Not to mention he kind of drowned as a kid. Oh, phooey with particulars.
• Seriously my heart always breaks when Crispin Glover takes the corkscrew/blade combination exit.
• For whatever reason Trish' flight out a window to save herself remains a lasting moment quite embedded in my childhood remembrance of the film from when I scaredly peeped at it on HBO as a kid.
• Manfredini's score--those nerve-rattling strings encouraging such chills--seemed so much more impactful. I don't think another Friday film used the familiar score in a way that accentuated its effectiveness.
• And Aronson still remains my favorite eye candy casting choice. What the actress went through for us is appreciated.
• Booker has his fans, but Ted White still remains my favorite early Jason incarnation. He moves as a weapon of mass destruction, and has motivation in his walk. This Jason doesn't fuck around.
• Maybe it didn't work for some but the noble hero looking to avenge his sister's death only to get it something awful by Jason, voicing aloud, "He's killing me! He's killing me!" certainly always leaves me unnerved.
• Being a Goonies kid, Feldman's involvement in the naughty Friday franchise maintains its pop culture relevance even as the actor himself has become a distant celebrity.

"Come on, Roy, get your hands dirty."

I have lessened my hardened critique towards the decision of a "Jason substitute". There are some fascinating visual cues which indicate a different killer such as Roy's reaction to his kid's mutilated corpse and how the director holds the camera on his maddening expression...you can see the psychotic break rattling around in Roy's brain. The different colored stripe on the hockey mask. How the murders start right after unstable Vic chops up choco-faced porky just because he was sore with the ax-wielding loony for lopping apart a candy bar. And Roy as a paramedic getting to carry off bodies he's responsible for addressing the sheriff as if he was being spoken to about the murders. Once Roy lands on spikes and absence of mask reveals his face as definitely not Jason, multiple viewings and some time dulls the disappointment somewhat.

Let's get this outta the way

• Typically the rationale regarding "disposable characters" is not exhausted for films like A New Beginning. Why waste your time grieving at the irksome nothingness of Juliette Cummings character. She's a red head who gets that top off when her duty is called on. She is watching "A Place in the Sun" (picturing the likes of Monte Clift and director Stevens rolling in their graves) with stuttering but innocuous Jerry Pavlon who gets up the nerve to tell her he wants to make love to her. She laughs him into a frown which sees him dusting off to get a hatchet to the face. Two members of the cast with pretty much this one key scene. She leaves up stairs, takes off her shirt to show us her perky boobies, and lies down, only to get a machete in her back.
• DebiSue as seen above is often one of the discussed castings of the film. Because of her free inhibition and horny interaction with Todd Bryant. Their frolics in the woods eventually leads them into the crosshairs of Roy. One gets garden shears to the eyes while the other a belt wrapped around the eyes with extra squeeze to make damn sure he suffers for getting the shag of his life.

Seriously, though, Tommy was an unsettling cat, for sure. Shepherd was good as him in a mostly non-talking role! Even when Tommy succumbs to the lure of Jason and can no longer deny what wants out, Shepherd sells it for all its worth. It was going on all the time. But why is there a hockey mask in his hospital room drawer? And with all the DebiSue talk, Melanie Kinnaman was a fox!

Jason Lives (1986) was one of the very first horror films I ever watched. It was crazy and fun if moronic and totally unnecessary. Back in the day, there were "starter movies", lighter horror to gradually wean you off the teet and prepare you for the harder stuff. Jason Lives (1986) was a starter movie for me, and it was easily digestible. The gore and violence was certainly more cartoonist and mostly tame. The Saw movies this ain't.

• I consider Jennifer Cooke one of my favorite actresses from the franchise. She was allowed to charm throughout and her sense of humor and engaging personality are quite welcome.
• I always remember Mathews from this first as it wasn't until after Jason Lives that I had a hunger for more horror, eventually bugging the shit out of my uncle to borrow his VHS tapes, one of which has a HBO recording of Return of the Living Dead.
• This having kids was quite unique for the franchise. This go-around camp counselors are actually in charge of kids. Cooke's interest in Mathews actually benefited her safety.
• That girl keeps popping up almost like a harbinger of Doom. How many people die after making contact with her? I remember my siblings and I conversing about Jason and if he would kill or endanger kids. This film brought about that conversation.
• Jason, in the form of CJ Grahm looks built like a truck. Imposing in a Lou Ferigno sort of way. Less animated and more walking machine. Director McLoughlin's decision to have Jason move like T-800 from The Terminator was an interesting one. 
• David Kagen as the sheriff is yet another choice piece of casting. His sparring with Cooke,  and his intolerance with Mathews makes for some fine entertainment. The Friday films aren't always known for their casting and dialogue, but Part 6 had the right frame of mind and tongue in cheek sensibilities to surprisingly work.
• This wasn't made for critics but series' fans. If you are gonna make Jason impervious to bodily harm, just resurrect him!
• Having Jason and Tommy confront each other one last time, and the latter emerging victorious meant that he was that one character, much like Alice in the Nightmare on Elm Street sequels to outlast the killer after multiple confrontations. Few make it out of more than one sequel and live to tell about it.
• Kagen getting broken in half was ingenious. He sure gave Jason a run for his money with the shotgun blasts and Boulder to the face. 
• Alice Cooper music getting some love didn't hurt, neither.
• Jason standing on the burning RV...so fucking badass

Oh, yeah, some of the humor has been lifted from the overall approach, and it is much more intense, but John Carl Buechler doesn't forget to include enough  for fans to notice. But damn the bad luck: the cabin party where all the young adults are congregated is for a guy killed early on in the movie! He died on his birthday! Thanks Jason for literally crashing the party!

• I used to do these binges a lot but fatigue has certainly set in as Buechler's refusal to not stray from the formula during most of the running time has a bit too much familiarity to it. Only the Carrie elements are a welcome stray from the norm
• Kane doesn't look much different from Part 6's Grahm, except for the cool rotted corpse Jason once the body count movie is outta the way 
• The kids are basic wood for the chipper, little bits of basic skeleton with hardly any muscle at all.
• I love me some Liz Kaitan, even if she's cast as some promiscuous pothead.
• Terry Kiser has always been so able to play convincing scumbags. All he literally has to do is show up in a scene as there's just something about him that makes your skin crawl.
• Susan Jennifer Sullivan, who played the stunning blond snob and adversarial rival for Kevin Spiratis' affections opposing Lar Park-Lincoln, I learned died young but left the industry after a couple stints on Charles in Charge. I think you could look at the resumes for many who appeared as fodder for a blade to impale and see similar career results. She looks mighty pleasing to the eye in nothing but a buttoned shirt. She also sees the wrong end of an ax.
• The special effects showcase this turns into is a romp. Hodder had some creative Jason set pieces in his time in the persona

Jason Takes Manhattan (1989) has grown on me over the years. When I first watched it in the early 90s (I still remember the ad campaign and general interest it garnered back when announced and advertised in '89), it did absolutely nothing for me. Since then I have watched it many times. I recall borrowing the From Crystal Lake to Manhattan DVD set from my brother back in the early 2000s and a revaluation of it was so different than the last. I guess time has a way of changing a viewpoint. Plus, I had realized just how repetitive the formula was when watching the other films prior to Manhattan.

"Look, you don't understand. There's a maniac trying to kill us."--Rennie
"Welcome to New York." -- Diner waitress.

• Tiffany Paulsen might not ever leave the ship when the bunch finally do land at Vancouv—er—New York Harbor, but her biology project certainly won’t! She plays the hot bitch character to perfection, but there was just about an identical character such as her in Melissa from the previous installment, so her Suzi’s exit is but a minor affair. Jason using a broken piece of mirror, executing her off screen while she reaches for a towel is a resounding thud of a death scene.

• Peter Mark Richmond was an ideal candidate for major pain in the ass prick, with his teacher always throwing whatever weight his profession could provide around. Doesn’t do any good, though. Once Jason starts killing everybody off, his authority doesn’t mean squat. But his uncle relation to the water-fearing final girl, played by the gorgeous Jensen Daggett (God, I love her curly mane!), makes him extra worthy of hissing at the screen. If he can’t throw around his authority as a teacher, he sure does so as an uncle. Getting submerged in a rusty barrel of toxic waste in an alley of urban unpleasantness unceremoniously makes for a fitting dismissal from the film.

• Jason using a guitar was a nicely unique weapon. Gives new meaning to the phrase: Rock on! Jason made damn sure she heard the music!

• The hot rocks into the belly of a sparring partner with promising young boxer, Julius (Vincent Dupree), in a sauna certainly left me wincing. What a horrible way to go!

• Not only does Jason use a harpoon blade, he literally impales a kid with the device itself! Jason never fails to use whatever weapon is handy at the time even if the blade itself was already fired. And not to let the three-pronged blade go to waste (it initially missed the female target intended, stabbing into a wall near her head instead), Jason makes sure to find her and press it into her chest as she lies in a stuffy compartment trapped, begging for him not to.

• I always find myself amused that many of the actors/actresses who appear in these Friday movies were often on soap operas. Yep, the two genres for starving actors/actresses hoping for the big break: soaps and horror.

• Director Hedden had some fun with Jason’s startling ability to show up where needed at his most convenient time. No matter how fast and far a kid climbs up a poll, Jason is able to catch him immediately, tossing him off to his own peril.

• The decision to show Jason as a child, emerging with his face gradually deforming into what we Friday fans are accustomed to in delusions to Jensen’s Rennie was an interesting one. She had been tossed in the water as a child by Richmond, and supposedly Jason was nipping at her heels as if to get help from out of the watery depths. At one point, the rotted corpse Jason breaks through the port hole of the ship to grab Rennie’s throat while she was seeing a delusion of his child self! Strange indeed.

• Julius seems to have been in the water for a considerable amount of time after Jason tossed him overboard. How did he make it for so long???

• You ask how to get rid of a number of high school students not needed in a small boat to take the lead characters to Manhattan? The teacher has them waiting in a restaurant in the ship…it becomes flooded thanks to a breach in the hull when Jason tosses the nerdy filmmaking student into the engine of the boiler room, that’s how!

• Jason being a hero is a chance of pace: without uncle’s help, Rennie is drugged by some smack from a hypodermic and about to be taken advantage of when Jason intervenes!

• “I think we’ll be more productive if we split up…” says Richmond’s teacher, Charles. Yep, like that’s ever worked! This after two drug lowlifes snatch his niece away with plans to pump her with smack and rape her! What a piece of work, this guy is!

• Scott Reeves gets the privilege of being Jensen’s love interest and disappointment to his demanding ship captain father…the luxury of being the latter sequel trend where the male gets to survive has its perks.

• The way this sequel just ignores Lar Park-Lincoln’s method behind getting rid of Jason in the previous film is rather logically questionable. But also logically questionable is Lar Park-Lincoln’s way of getting rid of Jason: calling her pops up from the watery grave (wait, wouldn’t he have been pulled from the water and buried???) to pull him under is as outlandish as it gets. But the pipe system that feeds electricity to cabins nearby was relatively new…wouldn’t those who laid it out have noticed Jason’s corpse in the water?!?!

• Off with the head: Julius punching a hockey mask with an undead walking corpse behind it serves him right. The decision of Hedden to show Julius’ point of view as the decapitated head flips off the top of a building into a garbage bin was a rather clever visual touch.

• Toxic waste reducing the walking corpse Jason to a child in the city sewers was always a bone of contention with Friday fans. Still is to this day. A debatable decision but certainly controversial and memorable. I guess it is no worse than Park-Lincoln’s dad emerging from Crystal Lake to drag Jason back down where he belongs…

• I thought the look of Jason was rather badass. Hedden never fails to make him less than imposing. He has plenty of stylish camera angles to spare, and Hodder had to be pleased with how Heddon shot him. He’s very much a monster, even if Heddon makes sure to remind us that he once was human. The toxic waste child that appears is basically what Jason was: just a homicidal maniac with a never-say-die approach to killing as many as possible.

• Jason tossing a diner cook into a mirror had me giggling. It reminded me of all the barroom fights action stars like Norris and Seagal would get into during their 80s movies.

•  Funny isn’t it that Jason pursues those on the ship and there’s a whole bunch of city folk on the subway and Times Square he could wreak havoc upon.

"Camp Blood...they opening that place again?"

And I return to the one that started it all. Cunningham is the root of all evil if you talk to the slasher despisers. For those of us foolish enough to never let Jason just fucking die? Well, we just can't seem to let the fucker die in Peace. See the IMDb Horror message board at any given time...Friday the 13th is always topical.

• Dorf, the police deputy, and Ned, the clown dressed in warrior chief headdress (wouldn't fly into today's political correctness), are quite a pair. Looking for Crazy Ralph who has the immortal lines of the camp having a death curse, Dorf isn't playing any games. He's a foil for giggles as a nincompoop wearing a badge and helmet. The counselors try to hide their chuckles with hand over mouth.
• Sweet cutie, Annie, just was too unlucky. The blade to the throat follows after a pick up in a Jeep has a homicidal driver. Enos, the truck driver, Crazy Ralph, and other locals forewarn but Annie is just "another kid with a head full of rocks".
• Interestingly the archery range death just kind of feels like a cheat. It was set up so well when Ned nearly hit Brenda with an arrow from his bow earlier in the film. I have to say that as a full cast, this film has my favorite. Quite likable and fun. You could tell with the classic movie quotes and impressions these actors/actresses knew their stuff.
• Always did like Cunningham's use of a storm in this movie. This allows Mama Voorhees room to hunt her prey and do 'em in. 
• To think that Steve Cristy rode all the way to camp through the rain, a Jeep which quit, a lift from the town sherrif, and to the sign just to be gutted by a visitor he knew and warmly greeted: happy Friday the 13th!
• Bill looked an awful mess with the slit throat and arrows stabbed throughout his torso. There was even an arrow in his groin!
• " He wasn't a very good swimmer..." Say what you will about Palmer, her delivery and ensuing psychosis is fun to watch. "Look what you did to him!" Jason "speaking through her" and her "dedication to him" in a conversation between the two them is actually a real treat!
• Alice, like Laurie Strode before her, finds her inner strength and will to survive. Too bad she is found by Jason in the next film and executed for what she did to mama.
• Cool thing about the ending is that Alice and Mama Voorhees really go at it in their violent altercations.
• As for the hard work on the arrowhead kill to Bacon, thanks guys. It remains a wow to this day.

"Ma'am we didn't find any boy..."

"Then he's still there."

Well, I wrote about Part 2 add nauseum during one of the last Friday the 13ths we had so I won't spend too much time on it. I'll finish the evening into the witching hour with Amy Steele squaring off with Hillbilly Jason in burlap sack mas. Hope you had a happy 13th as I did!