Friday the 13th: the little things
I was thinking about how the little things are often missed or less recognized due to the film's they inhabit. Alice is in her home at the opening of Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981), receiving a call from her worried mom with the two arguing back and forth. This was all improvised by Adrienne King who was brought in for one day's shooting. It didn't go unnoticed. She tells her mom she'd talk to her tomorrow. The rest of the scene plays out with Alice taking a shower, heating some water on the stove, and settling in her home for the rest of the night. Opening her refrigerator, there is Mrs. Voorhees' head, with Jason sneaking behind her with a screwdriver to the skull. Alice thought the horrors of the past behind her...why wouldn't she think that? In spite of the plot illogic of Jason even existing as an adult, Alice is unaware he would show up in her home one day. He's dead, right? The boy who drowned in the lake. So she firmly believes she'll talk to her mother the next day. It leaves an impression because too often characters are dispatched with little reason to think about them once they're gone.
At the beginning of Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, Zito made it a point to emphasize the crime scene cleanup and the sudden silence once the police and paramedics and all the activity left Higgins' place from Part III (1982). There's a brief pass once Jason's body is being wheeled to the morgue of grieving family members hugging. Rarely does that ever happen. Few, I figure, ever pay much attention to it but I saw it. I liked it for how it signifies loss. That characters killed by Jason had families, those that loved them. Yes, not long after this, it retreats mostly to formula.
I never noticed this but during the opening credits of Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985), the famous hockey mask facing us turns around and brings itself towards us for us to wear. Whether it was intentional or not, I found it creative considering the twist involving Roy, the paramedic, disguising himself as Jason and wearing the mask. Tommy, now grown and unsettled by his childhood experience with Jason, unable to escape the trauma, eventually also puts on the mask. So the credits clue us in (or now knowing that twist reminds us of masks worn by those not Jason. We also are often looking through the killer's eyes due to the POV camera work) and Jason takes a break with someone else contributing to the body count.
Regardless of erroneous plot holes and character illogic, sometimes the little things can be gleaned from a franchise deserved of its criticism. Watching a few of the films yesterday, here were some observations that came to my attention.
At the beginning of Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, Zito made it a point to emphasize the crime scene cleanup and the sudden silence once the police and paramedics and all the activity left Higgins' place from Part III (1982). There's a brief pass once Jason's body is being wheeled to the morgue of grieving family members hugging. Rarely does that ever happen. Few, I figure, ever pay much attention to it but I saw it. I liked it for how it signifies loss. That characters killed by Jason had families, those that loved them. Yes, not long after this, it retreats mostly to formula.
I never noticed this but during the opening credits of Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985), the famous hockey mask facing us turns around and brings itself towards us for us to wear. Whether it was intentional or not, I found it creative considering the twist involving Roy, the paramedic, disguising himself as Jason and wearing the mask. Tommy, now grown and unsettled by his childhood experience with Jason, unable to escape the trauma, eventually also puts on the mask. So the credits clue us in (or now knowing that twist reminds us of masks worn by those not Jason. We also are often looking through the killer's eyes due to the POV camera work) and Jason takes a break with someone else contributing to the body count.
Regardless of erroneous plot holes and character illogic, sometimes the little things can be gleaned from a franchise deserved of its criticism. Watching a few of the films yesterday, here were some observations that came to my attention.
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