Horror Franchises Update

This might be something I do every once in a while but there's been a few horror franchise news bits that I've wanted to talk about. Here goes.

First of all, let's talk about the Friday The 13th. We haven't had a movie since 2009 but after what has seemed like an eternity, prequel series Crystal Lake will finally come out this year on Peacock. Linda Cardellini will take on the role of Pamela Voorhees while Callum Vinson will play the young Jason Voorhees. Other cast members include William Catlett, Devon Kessler, Gwendolyn Sundstrom and Cameron Scoggins. The pilot episode was written by Brad Caleb Kane and Bryan Fuller while directed by Michael Lennox. UK/Irish viewers will get the show on SkyAtlantic and Now TV.

Back in 2024, the Child's Play franchise came to something of a standstill when SyFy's Chucky TV Series abruptly ended after three seasons and worse still, it ended on a cliffhanger. Now, it seems like a new movie from creator Don Mancini could be in development that may also resolve that cliffhanger. Of course, we do need proper confirmation but hopefully that'll be soon. It's be nice to have a new movie for the franchise's 40th anniversary in 2028.

Speaking of anniversaries, we're two years away from the Halloween franchise hitting the big 50 mark and no sign of an upcoming movie or streaming show. However we will be getting a new game coming out in September on the usual platforms. The game has Michael Myers going after a new bunch of teenagers and it looks pretty decent.

Now let's talk about Mike Flanagan for a moment. First of all in October, Amazon Prime will premiere Carrie, starring Summer H. Howell in the title role. The miniseries will run for eight episodes with many Flanagan's alumni factoring into the cast. Meanwhile on October 23rd, Clayface which stars Tom Rhys Harries in the title role will release it's first trailer tomorrow. Mike Flanagan co-wrote the script with Hossein Amini doing rewrites. The movie was directed by James Watkins. Meanwhile Flanagan's yet to be titled The Exorcist movie starring Scarlett Johansson is currently being filmed in New York with a March 12th 2027 release date. Flanagan has also signed on to direct a new version of The Mist for the WB while still trying to work on a series adaptation of The Dark Tower for Amazon Prime.

• Filming for the third season of Wednesday (Netflix) has moved to Paris. It'll be released next year.
• A seventh Final Destination movie is in development.
• The trailer for Practical Magic 2 was released. The film will be in theatres from September 11th.
• A new movie for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has found it's writer and director in Curry Barker.
• Skeet Ulrich has confirmed that filming for the third Five Nights At Freddy's will start soon.
• A new Gremlins movie is also in development.
• The Saw franchise will be overseen by Blumhouse with James Wan also returning in a creative capacity.
• Dan Stevens will be in both The Terror: Devil In Silver (AMC) and Dexter: Resurrection (Showtime/Paramount+) this year.
• Irish fans have Hokum coming out May 1st, starring Adam Scott.
• Gay themed Australian horror Leviticus will get a US theatre release from June 19th.
• Evil Dead Burns will be in theatres from July 10th.
• Amy Madigan will likely reprise her iconic villain role in Gladys, which will be in theatres from September 8th 2028.

A change of pace for this blog or perhaps not. This might be a sporadic thing I do.

Horror Hunks - Final Guys, Bad Guys And So On

It's Halloween 🎃 and the end of the month. I've indulged in plenty of horror movies this month. For my final blog, I thought I'd do something a little different. Here's a rundown of some of my favourite guys in the genre. Enjoy.

Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) - Psycho (1960-1990)

He might be an unstable mama's boy but who can resist the unhinged motel owner? Or at the very least the gorgeous Anthony Perkins.

Dewey Riley (David Arquette) - Scream series (1996-2022)

Every franchise needs it's sensible and collected player and for five movies in the franchise, we had everyday hero Dewey Riley. Still not happy about his death.

Tommy Jarvis (Corey Feldman/John Shepherd/Thom Mathews) - Friday The 13th series (1984-1986)

Tommy Jarvis was the closest to a proper foil that Jason Voorhees had in this franchise and any future revival should absolutely cast a fourth actor in the role. Best character in that franchise outside of Jason and his mommy.

Jesse Walsh (Mark Patton) - A Nightmare On Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)

The guy can scream louder than anyone should, even in in distress but Jesse Walsh is one of the iconic Final Boys. In a movie that's pretty explicitly gay coded throughout.

Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves) - Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) 

Dodgy attempts of an English accent to one side, there's something very delectable about Keanu Reeves in arguably the most thankless role in the bestest live action adaptation of this classic tale. He's a dreamboat here.

Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell) - Halloween Ends (2022)

I don't care what other fans of the franchise say. Not only did I genuinely last year's conclusion to the Blumhouse trilogy but Corey Cunningham was one of the best new characters introduced to the franchise.

Andrew (Ben Aldridge) - Knock At The Cabin (2023)

The faithless human rights lawyer turned sort of action man and unwitting husband killer. The guy went through a fricking lot in one movie. Hot guy though.

Eddie (Dylan Fergus) - Hellbent (2004)

I know this might be a niche, given that's it's a movie only a small audience has heard but I had to include a character from it. The good boy desk cop who copped off with a hunky bad boy while surviving a hunky killer felt like the right choice.

Jerry Dandrige (Chris Sarandon) - Fright Night (1985)

It wouldn't be a Horror Hunks list without at least one vampire in the mix. My choice would be the bad boy next door neighbor who had too much fun in tormenting Charley Brewster and seducing his girlfriend. 

Caleb Danvers (Steven Strait) - The Covenant (2006)

Oftentimes I refer to this movie as the boy version of The Craft as it's largely the same plot/similar enough. Now I love Sebastian Stan's sexy bad boy in it but Steven Strait's equally sexy good boy is also a delight too. 

Billy Peltzer (Zach Galligan) - Gremlins series (1984-1990, 2023)

Yes, this might be more light-hearted family friendly horror compared to some of the others on here, but it still counts. I always liked Billy Peltzer as a character and found him rather sexy moreso in the underrated sequel to this franchise.

Philip Morgan (Farley Granger) - Rope (1948)

There's many a fascinating performance and character in this Alfred Hitchcock classic. None more than Farley Granger's eternally twitchy posh boy killer, Philip Morgan. Oh and he can tinkle the old ivories pretty well too.

John Constantine (Matt Ryan) - Constantine/Legends Of Tomorrow/DCAU (2014-2022)

Saving the best for last. There was no way I was going to do this type of blog and not include the best horror male. Of course I had to specifically reference Matt Ryan's sublime version of John Constantine. The man set the gold standard and is the ultimate horror hunk for me.

Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it. Agree/disagree, let me know, lol. Oh and Happy Halloween 🎃

My Review of Friday The 13th (2009)

 

Written by Damien Shannon And Mark Swift

Directed by Marcus Nispel

Whitney: "Jason, say hi to Mommy ... in hell."

After eleven movies and an unrelated TV series co-opting the franchise name, where else could this franchise go? Of course, it was time for a remake.

Like both Halloween and A Nightmare On Elm Street, while this would be a financially smart thing to do, quality wise, this ain't good. It ain't good at all. In fact, it's a fucking stinker of a remake.

I mean it tried it's danmdest to do something interesting by not being a cut and paste job of the original movie and it still dropped the ball. The movie opened with a younger Jason Voorhees (Caleb Guess) witnessing the beheading of his mother, Pamela (Nana Visitor). Then we jump to thirty years later.

In that time, more unruly young adults rock up at Crystal Lake, having sex with each other and trying to score weed. Jason (Derek Meats) dispatched of all, except one girl named Whitney (Amanda Righetti) and all because she bore a passing resemblance to Jason's mother.

However it's not Whitney who's our main protagonist but her brother, Clay Miller (Jared Padalecki)  who ventured into Crystal Lake to find his sister. He's mostly helped by the rather competent Jenna (Danielle Panabaker) while incurring the wrath of Jenna's conceited boyfriend, Trent (Travis Van Winkle).

The rest of the film follows the usual pattern. Brother and sister are reunited, second group of campers are cannon fodder, Jason gets creative with his kids and the ending has a throwback to the original movie. It just goes through the motions. 

- A sequel was originally planned for 2010 but got cancelled. Now we're getting a streaming show based on Crystal Lake as a prequel.

- This movie does seem to cherry pick elements from the sequels as well, just not very well.

- Even test audiences thought this movie went overboard with the sex scenes. 

- Chronology: I'm assuming 2009 for the majority of the movie to line up with it's release date.

Friday The 13th is a truly horrible excuse for a remake and not even Jared Padalecki as a likeable protagonist can salvage it. As a whole, this franchise really did fall apart from 1989 onwards. I hope one day it can get the revival it deserves.

Rating: 4 out of 10

My Review of Jason X (2001)

 

Written by Todd Farmer

Directed by Jim Isaac

Brodski: "What's going on?"

Rowan: "Jason fucking Voorhees. That's what's going on."

In the last two movies, both New York and Hell were the main setting or should've been as neither were utilised for a plethora of reasons. Can this venture into space buck the missed opportunity trend? Kind of, but there's still enough to disappoint along the way.

We open with a slight jump into the future considering this movie's release where the only smart person in the room, Rowan LaFontaine (Lexa Doig) has to remind every other idiot in there not to fuck around with Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder). They don't listen, Rowan gets stabbed and both her and Jason wind up frozen.

Then we cut to over 400 years later and the Earth is inhabitable. However there's an Earth II and we're on a crew ship where you guessed it, both Rowan and Jason wake up. Rowan also learned that 400+ years into the future and there scientists daft enough to still think they can mess around with Jason without consequences. Some lessons clearly don't get passed.

Not only does Rowan and this mostly incompetent crew (minus an android named KM14, played by Lisa Ryder) have to deal with Jason but they have to also deal with a cyborg version of the character. Yup, two Jasons for the price of one movie here. Sort of. 

Anyways it's mostly a fight to deal between the crew and Cyborg Jason with a hologram harkening back to the latter's days at Crystal Lake provided enough of a means to defeat him this time. Saying that, Jason's never truly gone as the ending for this one indicated yet again.

- This franchise seems to have some of the dullest romance subplots with KM14 and Tsunaron (Chuck Campbell) being painfully yawn inducing.

- Both Peter Mensah (Brodski) and David Cronenberg (Dr Wimmer) are very much wasted here.

- While this movie actually flopped theatrically, it did make money through physical releases.

- Chronology: We start in 2008 while the majority of the movie takes place in 2455.

Jason X isn't quite as horrible as I expected it to be and that's largely down to Lexa Doig giving a good performance as Rowan and the movie making decent use of it's environment. Still though, it's a bit of messy with a largely poor supporting cast. 

Rating: 6 out of 10 

My Review of Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday (1993)

 

Written by Jay Huguely And Adam Marcus And Dean Lorey

Directed by Adam Marcus

Coroner (re Jason): "My professional opinion: this guy's deader than shit. Ha ha ha ha ha. Um, strike that last comment from the record."

With the last movie somewhat being a missed opportunity in the Big Apple, this movie's title made a promise that it straight up didn't really keep either. Yup, another disappointment incoming.

The movie opened with Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder) back at Crystal Lake chasing down a young woman (Julie Michaels). Only this time around, it's Jason who's about to be the victim in this scenario as the woman's revealed to be an FBI agent and Jason's flanked down and killed by more agents.

Yup, he's dead. Surely the movie then took an actual trip to Hell to see how Jason would fare. Nope, instead he somehow managed to manipulate a coroner into eating his heart and possessing him instead. Yeah, that's the plot here.

Also after previous movies making references to other family members, Jason suddenly has a half sister named Diana Kimble (Erin Kimble) but she doesn't survive long enough to care about her. However Jason does need to possess a blood relative in order to regain his strength and live again.

That's where Diana's daughter, Jessica (Kari Keegan) factored into things. However for most of this movie, it's largely Jessica's baby daddy Steven (John D. LeMay) and bounty hunter Creighton Duke (Steven Williams) that have a bigger emphasis as characters than Jessica. It doesn't help that both are arguably more interesting than her.

Granted, Jessica does improve towards the third but between a shitty TV reporter boyfriend, Robert (Steven Culp) and being overly hostile towards Steven at first, I found the character somewhat grating. However she's the key to Jason's demise here and does take him out in a relatively cool way.

- The movie set up a crossover with Freddy Krueger that literally wouldn't happen until after we got both Wes Craven's New Nightmare and Jason X.

- Creighton might have had a little too much fun in testing Steven's desperation for information on Jason.

- This was the first film in the series that New Line had the rights to, also explaining the switch up in titles as well.

- Chronology: I'm guessing the 1990s as this was the only film from this franchise released in that decade.

Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday has its moments but it's a continuing downward trend of poor movies. The family angle feels a tad too late and compared to other franchises that played with the angle in later movies, it's just poorly handled. Also we should've actually seen Jason in hell.

Rating: 6 out of 10

My Review of Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)

 

Written And Directed by Rob Hedden

Rennie (re Jason): "Look, you don't understand. There is a maniac trying to kill us."

Waitress: "Welcome to New York."

After seven movies of Crystal Lake being the hotbed of terror from Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder), his mommy and a copycat killer for that one movie, this movie traded a cursed campsite for the Big Apple. Let's just say the results are not that great.

First of all, I don't mind a departure from Crystal Lake but you can definitely tell that the budget wasn't really large enough for them to get the best movie based in one of the most iconic cities in the way. Still though, it tries to have a good time.

Sadly though, it's largely very flat. Anyways electricity in the water frees/revives Jason and he's soon stowed away on a boat called the SS Lazarus with a bunch of teenagers and their chaperones. You can see where this is going.

The teenagers are either having sex with each other or being mean to the new protagonist of the movie. This one being a young girl named Rennie (Jensen Daggett) who has a well meaning but not very helpful guardian in Charles McCulloch (Peter Mark Richman). The same guardian who in one bizarre gets honey trapped by a bitchy student before Jason killed her off.

For the most part, it's really the SS Lazarus that's the central hub of the film, which does help to add a certain amount of claustrophobic tension on board as Jason dispatched of most of the very bland support cast here.

Rennie does have an ally in her boyfriend Sean (Scott Reeves) and yet again, there's a belief of Jason being done for good. Except it's very short-lived given that the movie ended with him being very much alive in New York - a city we don't really see enough of here.

- Despite it's title, it was largely filmed in Vancouver with some stuff filmed in New York and Los Angeles.

- Ken Kirzinger actually appeared in this one. He'd later play Jason in Freddy Vs. Jason. 

- The New York Tourism Committee weren't impressed with some of the marketing for this one.

- Chronology: Unspecified time since the previous one.

Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan on paper sounded like a great idea. It's just a shame the script is mostly bad and the budget constraints limited it's overall potential. Such a missed opportunity.

Rating: 6 out of 10

My Review of Friday The 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)

 

Written by Manuel Fidello And Daryl Haney

Directed by John Carl Buechler

Nick: "Jason? Where's Jason?"

Tina (re her father): "He took care of it."

After three movies with an ever changing Tommy Jarvis, it was time for the franchise to go back to a female protagonist. One I should point seemed maybe a bit too influenced by Carrie but at least it meant that Jason would have a challenge.

Following the events of the previous movie with Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder) at the bottom of Crystal Lake, we all knew that he wouldn't remain there. Very quickly into this movie a telepathic girl named Tina Shepard (Jennifer Banko) would cause the death of her abusive father by inadvertently summoning Jason from his watery resting place.

Then we cut to Tina, now played by Lar Park Lincoln who's a young woman being largely manipulated by her mother's new boyfriend, Dr Crews (Terry Wiser) who takes too much of an interest in triggering Tina to a ridiculous degree. Fortunately her mother, Amanda (Susan Blu) does wise up to Crews exploitative nature and does try to protect Tina from him.

Unfortunately for Amanda, she's also one of the many kills by Jason in this movie but on the plus side, so the horrible boyfriend and the mean spirited girl who antagonised Tina in the movie. On a plus side for Tina, she also has Nick (Kevin Blair) as a love interest and co-protagonist in the movie.

Yes, it's really up to the pair of them as Jason does his usual mass murders around Crystal Lake. I'll admit that Tina's powers are rather cool and it's interesting that for the second movie in a row Jason's just trapped underwater rather than outright killed. Tina's a fairly decent main character to follow Tommy.

- Had things been different this movie wouldve been a crossover with Freddy Krueger. We'd get that fifteen years later though.

- Tina was initially meant to recur but like other Final Girls in this franchise, this was a one time movie for her.

- This was the first time we had movies with three horror icons in the same year, albeit with mixed results.

- Chronology: Three months, then seven years from the events of the previous movie.

Friday The 13th Part VII: The New Blood isn't quite the disaster it's reputation led me to believe but it's a bit of a comedown after the Tommy Jarvis trilogy though. I'm being generous so let's say it's fairly middling stuff.

Rating: 6 out of 10

My Review of Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)

 

Written And Directed by Tom McLoughlin

Lizabeth (re Jason): "I've seen enough horror movies to know any weirdo wearing a mask is never friendly."

Ah, the last part of the Tommy Jarvis trilogy and the first noteworthy thing would be that he's regenerated again. This time it's Thom Mathews in the role and Tommy's not the only one getting a regeneration here.

After sitting out the events of the last movie, it was wisely decided that Jason Voorhees (C.J. Graham) was too pivotal to keep dead permanently so he too got a new lease of life. It's funny how a strike of lightening can affect the old disposition.

Anyways to Tommy's horror, Jason got reborn while new friend, Allan Hawes (Ron Palillo) got quickly killed off and let's just that being dead only amplified Jason's bloodlust. Being alive again made him up his body count and then some.

As for Tommy, he managed to make an enemy out of the new Sheriff (David Kagan) while also making a more positive impression on the latter's daughter, Megan (Jennifer Cooke). There's something of a romantic subplot between Tommy and Megan but it's very undercooked.

Still, Megan's a likeable female co-protagonist and ultimately it's a team effort with both her and Tommy in giving Jason his final rest. Then again, this being Jason, we all know he won't be resting for too long. Give it about two years, considering the next one.

Something different with this movie compared to the others that for once, there was an actual focus on the kids attending Forest Green (formerly Crystal Lake). One girl called Nancy had the good sense to be afraid of Jason and even the counselors actually seemed to care about keeping the kids safe from him too. That did make a nice change of pace.

- I had to laugh at the horror movie savvy Lizabeth (Nancy McLoughlin) and her less bright boyfriend, Darren (Tony Goldwyn) who were quickly off by Jason.

- Unlike the last two movies, this one somewhat toned down the sex but definitely not the violence.

- The original script referenced Jason's father, which I wish they had kept in it. 

- Chronology: Not long from where the last movie left off. 

Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives had to end Tommy Jarvis as a character by having him face off with Jason one last time. It's a strong face off and possibly in the best movie since the first one in my opinion.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of Friday The 13th: A New Beginning (1985)

 

Written by Martin Kitrosser And David Cohen And Danny Steinmann

Directed by Danny Steinmann

Mayor Cobb (to Sheriff Tucker): "Jason Voorhees? You outta your fucking mind? You been out in the sun for too long. Jason Voorhees is dead."

Given that the fourth movie went from being an intended closer for the franchise but instead managed to breathe further life, you can't blame the writers for having a spring in their step. With Final Girls such as Alice, Ginny and Chris not staying the course, they had something else up their sleeves.

Yes, the something being a Final Boy and yes, I'm talking about Tommy Jarvis. Briefly appearing in a nightmare sequence, we got to see Corey Feldman one last time as Tommy. Then Tomy woke up in a car, years had passed and he was now played by John Shepherd.

The fact that years had passed was an indication that this franchise knew it needed to shake up it's format. Of course given the reputation of this movie, it's not the only thing that got shaken up. Let's just say what this movie does with its big threat will be replicated in another horror franchise nearly forty years later.

Tommy finds himself at a halfway house run by Dr Matt Letter (Richard Young) but it's his assistant Pam Roberts (Melanie Kinnaman) and a young boy named Reggie (Shavar Ross) who form a trio of protagonists with Tommy against "Jason". As for everyone else, you know the drill: cannon fodder.

Again, it's a mix of oversexed young adults and teens, a hillbilly mother and her dimwitted son as one by one, they're killed rather brutally by Jason. Well, that's the thing though. For once, it's not actually Jason doing the killing. Second time really.

Instead it's a paramedic named Roy Burns (Dick Wieand) whose motives for the mass killings are straight from Pamela Voorhees playbook. Unfortunately he's not developed enough as a character to make this plot really come alive. However he's afforded a death scene as gruesome as the ones he subjected to various characters throughout the film.

As for Tommy Jarvis, I do think John Shepherd does a good job portraying a darker and more tortured version of the character. There are multiple times in the movie where it felt like even Tommy would be a danger to the group on a bigger scale before his escape at the end.

- Tommy's penchant for monster masks came up with both Reggie and another guy playing around with them. Reggie's brother being called Demon was funny though.

- One of the actors in this movie was Deborah Sue Voorhees who played Tina. Also this movie had more sex and violence than the last one.

- Not only was this the first movie since the original not to have Jason as the killer but even the numbering isn't here.

- Chronology: A few years since the events of the previous movie.

Friday The 13th: A New Beginning might be a tiny step down from the previous movie but I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. The kills are great, it doesn't overstay it's welcome and while the Roy Burns reveal is clumsily handled, it didn't ruin the movie either. 

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of Friday The 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter (1984)

 

Written by Bruce Hidemi Sakow And Barney Cohen

Directed by Joseph Zito

Trish (to Jason): "You son of a bitch. I'll give you something to remember us by."

It's funny. Had things gone as intended, the subtitle of this movie would have been true. This really could've been the final chapter for this particular franchise. Had it been true, it would've ended on a strong note because this film was an improvement on the previous two.

Which is also funny as it's borrowing elements from all the movies so far and picking up where the last one left. However while this again picked up from where the last left off, yet again it's a new bunch of kids/young adults that Jason Voorhees (Ted White) to play around with this time.

Like with the previous movie, there's an attempt to give a character a past connection with Jason. This time it's a man named Rob (Erich Anderson), the brother of one of Jason's previous victims and like his sister, Rob's own encounter with Jason doesn't end well for him.

While the previous movies have had their fair share of deaths, it felt like this one really went to town with the body count. Several characters who were either hooking up, getting stone or watching old pornographic movies were taken out by Jason in some of the most inventive and outright gruesome of ways.

With Rob being more of a false protagonist, we did get a decent pair of protagonists with Trish Jarvis (Kimberly Beck) and her younger brother, Tommy (Corey Feldman). Easily two of the best characters in the franchise and let's just say that Tommy made quite a foil for Jason.

Having Tommy making himself look like Jason as a child was not a plot twist, not the rather overzealous way in which Tommy actually took Jason out. Still though the final scene with Tommy and Trish at the hospital did end this one on a rather creepy note.

- By far (or at least so far), this film not only upped the violence, blood and gore but also the nudity and sexual references.

- This movie was actually released on Friday the 13th. 

- The original idea for this movie was going to be a prequel but luckily we got this instead.

- Chronology: From where the previous movie left off.

Friday The 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter really could've been a strong ending for the franchise but if anything, it served as the opening part in a trilogy of movies for Tommy Jarvis. This movie alone cemented him as a rival for Jason Voorhees.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of Friday The 13th Part III (1982)

 

Written by Martin Kristosser And Carol Watson

Directed by Steve Miner

Chris (to Jason): "No, you can't be alive."

After the events of the second movie, you'd be forgiven in assuming that perhaps some continuation would be happening in relation to Jason Voorhees (Richard Brooker) versus Ginny (Amy Steel) and Paul (John Furey) but things take a quick turn here.

Aside from an overextended recap of the last movie, both Ginny and Paul are out of the equation and instead we get Jason bumping off a couple from a store where Jason gets some new clothes. Bit rude there, Jason but I digress.

Of course with Ginny and Paul not coming back for seconds and Jason refusing to abandon Crystal Lake, it didn't take long for a new batch of teenagers/young adults to come into contact with the overgrown mama's boy. Oh and in something quite random, a biker gang also to make up the numbers.

The characters in question included Chris (Dana Kimmel) and her older boyfriend, Rick (Kratka). Along with them there was also the pregnant Debbie (Tracy Savage), prankster Shelly (Larry Zerner), whose biggest contribution was giving Jason part of his iconic look and of course that biker gang.

Anyways, one by one, Jason takes out as many of the newcomers as he can, only for Chris to be the one that he can't quite kill. It's certainly not from lack of effort as he really did try to take Chris out and even got close enough to succeeding only to die himself. However death does tend to be meaningless for Jason.

As for Chris, she's an okay enough Final Girl. I'd say she's on a par with Alice (just about) but truth be told, I wish we had gotten a second run with Ginny. I do like that the movie attempted to add a past connection between Chris and Jason though.

- This was the very movie where Jason got his infamous hockey mask (thanks to Shelly). We also saw Pamela Voorhees rotted head again.

- We got 3D titles for this movie as well as the use of Roman numerals to boot.

- Debbie's pregnancy in other TV versions of the movie was removed along with Chili and Chuck's scenes referencing pot smoking. Rick also has a similar jumper to Pamela.

- Chronology: From exactly where the second movie left off.

Friday The 13th Part III managed to be a bit better than the second movie but not by much. Still though, at least this movie did give audiences the iconic look for Jason and the supporting cast were decent enough.

Rating: 6 out of 10

My Review of Friday The 13th Part 2 (1981)

 

Written by Ron Kurz

Directed by Steve Miner

Paul (to everyone): "Jason's out there ... watching .... always on the prowl for intruders. Waiting to kill ... waiting to devour ... Thirsty for young blood."

I'm slowly working my way through this franchise and I was looking forward to this sequel. Mainly because it's the first one that actually has the not so dead Jason Voorhees (Steve Daskewisz/Warrington Gillette) front and centre as a villain. Let's just say that his first proper outing's a bit of a mixed bag.

Following the events of the first movie, a traumatized Alice (Adrienne King) wants to regain control of her life. Unfortunately for her, she ended up being Jason's first kill and spanning a trend of survivors being bumped off in follow up movies. It's also a rather anticlimactic death for the character.

Anyways with Alice out of the way, there's a time jump and Crystal Lake has reopened again with a fresh batch of young adult for Jason to bump off, one by one. Not to mention a new final girl named Ginny (Amy Steel).

One of the positives about this dry run for Jason movie was that I found Ginny to be a slightly better protagonist than Alice. She seemed to be open to the idea of Jason skulking around and killing people and when faced with him, the movie delivered one of its most interesting moments in the franchise.

Having Ginny impersonate Pamela Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) in order to buy herself time from being killed by Jason was both reckless and clever in equal measure. Saying that, Ginny also had her hunky boyfriend Paul (John Furey) to help as well.

In terms of characters, I don't really feel this sequel had a lot of memorable new players. None of the other camp counselors were bad, just not very interesting so to speak. I did however like the brief return of Crazy Ralph (Walt Gorney) but even he suffered from sequel death syndrome. 

- Ginny was revealed to be majoring in child psychology. It does explain how easily she played on his feelings for his mommy.

- Jason wore a burlap sack for this movie. His iconic hockey mask being introduced from the next one onwards.

- Unlike another horror franchise, the cute dog actually survived. Nice one, Muffin.

- Chronology: The pre title was two months after the first movie, then we got a five year time jump.

Friday The 13th Part 2 was a sequel I had greater expectations for and was a tad disappointed when it didn't really live up to them. It had its moments but wasn't quite as good as the first one, even though Jason got some good kills and I liked Ginny as a final girl.

Rating: 6 out of 10

My Review of Freddy Vs. Jason (2003)

 

Written by Damien Shannon And Mark Swift

Directed by Ronny Yu

Freddy: "I've been away from my children for far too long."

Well, it was nine years since the events of the not canon but still utterly amazing Wes Craven's New Nightmare. For this specific franchise, that was some distance. However not content with the previous movie going all meta for a first, this eighth installment also had another first.

Crossing over with the Friday The 13th franchise, Freddy Krueger (Robert England) has found himself forgotten about by the kids of Springwood and he refuses to accept that fate whatsoever. In order to get them remembering and scared, he's decided to enlist some help.

Taking a trip to Crystal Lake, Freddy enlists the help of one Jason Voorhees (Ken Kirzinger) by using the image of Pamela (Paula Shaw) in order to complete his goal but of course, it doesn't go to plan. Jason isn't content with being an errand boy for Freddy, he wanted his own slice of the action and this was where the movie mostly lived up to its title.

Anyways with Freddy and Jason both vying to come out on top in the killer stakes, this movie needed some teenagers to bump off and there's a fair chunk of them here. First of all though, let's meet our final girl, Lori Campbell (Monica Keena).

As a final girl, Lori seems to fall in the "in between" category as most of the ones do in this franchise. She's got a traumatic backstory involving her mother being a victim of Freddy's as well as a father more keen on drugging her to repress her memories than deal with them in a healthier manner. Not to mention a love interest named Will (Jason Ritter), who's had his own mental health issues.

Character wise, both are okay in a group mostly made of cannon fodder. Fodder that included Lori's mean spirited best friend, Kia (Kelly Rowland), chain smoking Gibb (Katharine Isabelle), nerdy Charlie (Chris Marquette) as well Will's fellow inmate Mark (Brendan Fletcher) and the one not entirely useless cop, Scott (Lochlyn Munro). Some of them work a bit better than others but they're largely just there to be killed off by both title baddies.

As the movie stumbled towards its final act and most of the cast were dead, only Lori and Will were enough to take on Freddy but do very little to stop Jason. Truthfully, it's the latter killer that emerged as the real victor of the movie although the former still was hinted to be alive by the end of it all.

- Like Freddy's Dead, there were clips and flashbacks to previous movies.

- This movie represented the end of both franchises, until they both got reboot movies a year apart from one another.

- Standout music: Without a doubt, it's the most heavy metal soundtrack of the franchise. Most of the songs just fade into each other.

- Chronology: I'm assuming 2003, given the year of it's release.

Freddy Vs. Jason has these two horror icons meeting in a movie that should've been a damn sight better than what we got here. While it doesn't quite hit the nadir that either franchise has had with their own later sequels, nor can it be said that it's a personal best for either.  With some largely characters, questionable dialogue choices and so on, the results are more of a mixed bag.

Rating: 6 out of 10

My Review of Friday The 13th (1980)

 

Written by Victor Miller And Ron Kurz

Directed by Sean S. Cunningham

Mrs. Voorhees: "Kill her, Mommy! Kill her! Don't let her get away, Mommy! Don't let her live! I won't, Jason, I won't."

I've been waiting for an appropriate to review this movie and guess what, that has finally come. There are many classic horror franchises I've touched on with this blog and now, it's time to pay attention to one that I previously haven't.

As a franchise, this has been one with a lot of movies, most of which have gotten more batshit that you almost forget how grounded and rather straightforward this original feature truly was. A simple tale of mother's desire for revenge following the death of her son at the hands of irresponsible workers at a summer camp.

Pamela Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) was a mother trying to provide for her son, Jason (Ari Lehman) by working as a cook at the camp in question. However when her son drown while the workers weren't doing their job, she snapped and went on one hell of a killing spree. As a result, the camp closed down and she kept an eye on things from afar.

However over two decades later, the camp reopened with a new generation of workers, all as hedonistic as the previous ones and Pamela decided to pick up where she left off. Needless to say, most of the young cast, including Kevin Bacon found themselves being taken out by the grieving and rather murderous mother, still avenging her son all these years later.

Of course, while Pamela had plenty of characters to kill at will, at least one character had to pose a threat to her murder spree. Every horror franchise needs a final girl and while this one has a few of them (and a final boy in later movies), the ball got rolling with fellow camp worker, Alice Hardy (Adrienne King) who came afoul of Mrs Voorhees and managed to live to tell the tale.

I wouldn't say Alice was the most compelling of final girls in either the horror genre in general or even this franchise but she does a decent job but it's undoubtedly Betsy Palmer's Pamela Voorhees that's the most compelling. A sympathetic but deeply psychotic villain with a wonderfully over the top performance, making the character truly memorable despite being overshadowed by her not so dead son from the second movie onwards.

- Is this the only horror franchise where the signature killer was not actually the main villain of their first movie?

- Betsy Palmer originally thought the movie was a 'piece of shit' but has seemingly softened towards it in later years.

- There have been rumours of the movie being inspired by the real life Lake Bodom murders in Finland back in 1960.

- Chronology: July 1957 for the flashbacks and June 1980 for the present day stuff.

Friday The 13th's a modest start to a horror franchise that will take  many crazy turns before coming to a halt. The story's a simple but effective one, with solid performances from the leads and the right amount of gore and scares.

Rating: 7 out of 10