Friday the 13th (1980)

WARNING: Contains LOTS of Spoilers

Camp Crystal Lake has had a rather bad string of luck when a little boy drowned in the lake in 1957, since then having bad water issues, fires, and murders. Despite locals preaching a curse Steve Christy has full intent of reopening the camp 13 years later, with horny adolescents as his counselors. Having the counselors come a week before the opening of the camp to do setup proves the curse true as bubbly and child loving counselor Annie never shows up. Unaware that she's been brutally murderer not to far away in the woods the counselors continue their work and their activate teenage interest in each other. When others start disappearing throughout the night the remaining counselors begin to figure that they are not alone at the camp in this true to form slasher classic. 

I'm sure it hasn't gone unnoticed but I've more or less said some bad things about Friday the 13th in the past. My dislike of it streamed from my first viewing experience when I was a lot younger and I didn't have the tolerance for the extensive slasher plot. Admittedly I gave it a really bad one out of five starts but as I've gotten old I've grown to appreciate it more for its simple slasher mind. I enjoyed how half the deaths were shown and the other half were discovered, a unique way in keeping the audience scared and surprised. As other reviews have pointed out the fact that the victims don't know until seconds before they die is also rather brilliant in that it leaves no room for suspense, just cold hard fear. Few issues as I had with it back then still hold to me now, such as the randomness of killer. The motive makes sense and all but she shows up out of nowhere and admits to killing everyone. But then again I suppose that's part of the appeal to Friday the 13th. Also I felt that the battle between our killer and Alice was rather lengthy and jolty at best, there was action and then pauses that never made it flow as smoothly as I'd hope.

Aidrianne King is our final girl Alice and she's alright as last woman standing but her acting is less than good at times. Her peers are more effective at getting a a pulse from their characters, whether that being the writers fault for making the supporting cast more charismatic than the leads or just how King decided to play her character. We get to watch Kevin Bacon have sex and then die, which is always a good day in my book, seeing how I put him in that level of untouchable awesomeness, only shared by such prestigious figures as John Lithgow and Alan Rickman. Betsy Palmer became an essential over night cult star with her role as Mrs. Voorhees, and I must say I loved her reverse Psycho bit as the heartbroken mother. I must give credit to director Sean S. Cunningham and DP Barry Abrams for creating a stylistic film with unique camera shots from the killers POV. Also they seemed to highlight the full use of their pretty scenery which really felt realistic in regards to the camp.

I think I liked Bill's death the most as it was almost a combination of all the previous kills done on to him, and since they don't show it really lets the imagination fill in the blanks. The ending is of course the most prominent part of the film and my personal favorite moment, where they use makeup artist Tom Savini's talent to the full advantage. The subtext or message of premarital sex is still clear, though casual teen sex in 1958 seemed a bit of a stretch to me. This is a cult horror film, none of which to anyone who's reading this I'm sure hasn't seen, so as I'm doubting of a recommendation as its likely unnecessary. All I must say is that while its not my favorite horror film nor my favorite slasher flick, its an important one and a fun scare.

Friday the 13th

For irrelevant news I bought a NES. Why? Because I saw a youtube video of the old school Friday the 13th NES game and realized how much I wanted to play it. Don't worry I only spent thirty bucks on both the game and the Retro Top Loader Console system, I didn't go too spontaneous (Trust me, it could of been worse). 

I've been nostalgic for my childhood video game systems lately. A NES is actually a little before my time but Nintendo 64's are unreasonably expensive and I'm not into Playstation all that much. Therefor I bought a game system that I'm not even sure is a true to gamer's heart NES but I know that you can play NES off it. Which is all I care about, as I'm not a video game connoisseur. Now if I was purchasing a Suspiria double feature set I'd be a little bit more picky about what the special edition entails. This however I just wanted to play for fun. 

I'm sure a good set of you are wondering why the fuck she wasted a minute and twenty four seconds of your life reading this post. And the truth is I have no answer. This quite possibly could be the most irrelevant post of all the irrelevant post Friday's. But it is Friday the 13th, the last one of the year, and I had to post something. 

Happy Irrelevant Post Friday/Follow Friday/Friday the 13th. Whichever is relevant to you.

Friday the 13th

You know I'm not a Friday the 13th girl but I could get see myself donning these...

Hmm, maybe a Freddy sweater instead?

Happy Friday the 13th/Irrelevant Post Friday/Follow Friday. Whichever is relevant to you.

Friday the 13th

It's Friday the 13th so it's only appropriate that I post a Jason Voorhees photo on my blog...

Still a Freddy girl, sorry.

Happy Friday the 13th/Irrelevant Post Friday/Follow Friday on Twitter.

The Horror Icons

It's Monday...again. And I have a treacherously long research paper to write by Wednesday so forgive me if my writing isn't Shakespearean like (psh-as if it's ever). I have...no followers, still. But that's alright, I'll manage.

Horror movies are basically defined by these next top five. If you hear 'people are so stupid in those movies! They do the dumbest things' the statement has probably originated from the five (or four) films these guys appear in. But despite the hate these films, or more like icons, are infamous and I love every single one of them. My Top Five Horror Icons:

#5 "Ghost Face" (Scream 1996)

He may be considered the outcast in this since he's about a decade (or two) younger than the rest and he's not a supernatural killer. But admittedly if you see his face on TV or at Halloween store you're instantly going to identify the movie he's in. Ghost Face is simply scary because all it took was a couple of movie obsessed teenagers, 10 dollars for a costume (keep in mind this was the 90s), and Wes Craven and we have a satirical horror movie, that isn't far from being plausible.


#4 "Pinhead" (Hellraiser 1987)

Pinhead is amazing because he's cold, emotionless, and deeply into Sado Masochism. He also happens to the best looking demon out of the centobites. I'm not sure a further explanation is needed to explain as to why he's an eerie presence in any movie he's in. Oddly enough last week's number 4 only needed little explanation as well. Played by Doug Bradley in all the Hellraiser films.

#3 "Freddy Krueger" (A Nightmare on Elm Street 1984)

Who doesn't love Freddy Krueger? He has the most personality out of the icons. Dressed nicely in a dirty Christmas sweater, a ragged old hat, lovely 3rd degree burns, and his own pair of razor fingernails. He spends most of his nights taunting teenagers in their sleep, whom he later plans on killing, typically, in graphic bloody ways. The original Nightmare has the best murder scenes (Tina getting dragged across the ceiling, Glen getting sucked into the bed) but he still causes a few sleepless nights for newer fans. He's played by Robert England whose just a really good actor, horror or not. In the remake he was played by Jackie Earle Haley, who, IMO, is basically the only other person in Hollywood who can do this job.

#2 "Michael Myers" (Halloween 1978)

Michael Meyers is arguably the scariest killer in horror movies. I attribute it to his walk and his silence. He doesn't talk and he walks so fucking slow, which normally might make you think he's an idiot but here it's just a twist of killer suspense. One of the most memorable scenes for me is in the second Halloween when Laurie is trying to escape out the basement and he's right at then end of the hall. And all you keep thinking is if he runs to her she's dead, but he doesn't, and it just drives you insane cause there's too much suspense to handle. But I digress, I'm going to quote someone from the 100 Scariest Movie Moments and say; "It was such a blank face that the audience could project anything they wanted on it." -John Landis

#1 "Chucky" (Child's Play 1988)

I'm a chuckyaholic. I won't get into what possible reasons could conclude why I find a doll with stitches, a foul mouth, and a satanic laugh as cute (to take a stab in the dark I'm just going to have to say it's because I've always been odd) but in truth all dolls are naturally creepy. Don Mancini just amped it up with Chucky, making him the possessed soul of Charles Lee Ray or the Lake-shore Strangler. There's that unsaid rule of children not dying in horror movies and Chucky's basically gone out of his way to prove that wrong. He has yet to accomplish it but who knows. For the past 20 some years he's been played brilliantly by Brad Dourif who is returning to do the voice of him in the remake. Which I'm planning on seeing.

Honorable mentions; Leatherface, derived from real life killer Ed Gein he's a big ass dude who wears the faces of his victims. Despite the fact that I've never been a big Friday the 13th fan I'd be wrong not to include Jason, the hockey mask wearing mama's boy, who just happens to be carrying around a machete.

If your reading post your own.