As a die-hard horror fan, my collection would not be complete without the original eight Friday the 13th films. This review will not critique “Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday,” “Jason X,” “Freddy vs. Jason,” or “Friday the 13th,” the 2009 remake, simply because they were acquired by New Line Cinema while Paramount Pictures retained the rights to the original eight. And that is what I will be reviewing here. There are some classics in this collection and some, um, well, not-so-classics, if you are a horror or Friday the 13th fan, you probably already know what titles I’m talking about.
I would imagine the vast majority of people reading this article will be fans of, or at least be familiar with the series, so I won’t be doing in-depth reviews for each title, just enough to let those who may not be as familiar with the franchise know what each movie is about. So without further ado, let’s start with the one that started it all.
A group of camp counselors are stalked and murdered by an unknown assailant while trying to reopen a summer camp that was the site of a child’s drowning and a grisly double murder years before.
While this is the original, it is by no means the best, as is the case with many other franchises. “Friday the 13th” jumped on the slasher bandwagon two years after John Carpenter’s “Halloween” and both movies spawned a legacy, respectively, that is still going strong to this day. Many people presume that this is where Jason was introduced into the series and while he is mentioned, and seen in a flashback as a young boy, Jason didn’t actually perform any kills in this film, that was left to his mother, Mrs. Voorhees (Betsy Palmer).
In 1957 at Camp Crystal Lake, two young camp counselors were caught paying more attention to each other than to the kids in the lake, and as a result of their negligence, and horniness, a young boy named Jason, who wasn’t a very good swimmer, drowned. For their actions, or lack thereof, they were both slaughtered by an unknown assailant, who was never caught. Under the circumstances, the camp was closed down and it remained dormant for many years, that is until Steve Christy (Peter Brouwer), the new owner of the camp, decided to reopen its doors and hire a group of young camp counselors to help him get it ready. Teenage hijinks ensue but once night falls, one by one, they fall prey to an unseen predator, one who slaughters them with repugnance, until only Alice (Adrienne King) is the last remaining person left standing, and who must face off with the killer.
We all know it was Jason’s mother who sought vengeance against Alice and her friends, even though they had nothing to do with the accidental drowning of her son Jason years earlier but her son’s demise obviously caused her to go insane and take her wrath and fury out on anyone who dared to try and reopen Camp Crystal Lake’s doors. The acting, overall, was fine, and it’s fun to see a young Kevin Bacon in one of his earliest big-screen roles with his death being one of the most creative and one that would sadly be imitated, to lesser effect, in Part 3. The kills are what these movies are all about and “Friday the 13th” doesn’t disappoint; throats slashed, hatchets to the head, throats being pierced by arrows, and the finale’s big decapitation.
While Sean S. Cunningham, the film’s creator, directed the original, for the later sequels, he decided to stay on board in a producer capacity while handing the directing reins over to other up-and-coming filmmakers, the first being Steve Miner, who worked on the original as the Unit Production Manager. After “Friday the 13th” was released in May of 1980, it went on to become a box office smash, earning a reported $59.8 million worldwide from an estimated budget of $550,000. It was also the first independent film of its type to secure distribution in the U.S. by a major studio (Paramount Pictures) while Warner Bros. secured international distribution rights.
Mrs. Voorhees is dead, and Camp Crystal Lake is shut down, but a camp next to the infamous place is stalked by an unknown assailant.
After the raging success of “Friday the 13th,” Paramount Pictures wasted no time in moving forward with a sequel, which would be released exactly one year later. With Steve Miner now on board as director, a host of new characters would be introduced to audiences and while the first film’s heroine, Alice, would make an appearance in the opening scene, her presence would be shortlived as Jason exacted revenge against her for decapitating his mother in Part 1. Camp Crystal Lake is now closed and a new camp next to the infamous location is preparing to open its doors but in these woods, history has a way of repeating itself, and again, one by one, the new camp counselors meet grisly fates until Ginny (Amy Steel) and her boyfriend Paul (John Furey) make a terrifying discovery in the middle of the woods.
If I had to pick my favorite movie from this series, it would be this one. While most slasher films give very little development to its characters, after all, they are there to serve a purpose, namely, to be fodder for the killer so who cares about exposition, right? Well, in this instance, Steve Miner managed to give most of the counselors enough individual characteristics and idiosyncrasies that you find yourself actually caring about them, and when they eventually, and inevitably, fall prey to Jason, you feel sorry for them. I never really felt this way about any other group of characters, either before or after.
As was the case with Part 1, the kills are bloody and gory, with enough to satisfy even the most bloodthirsty horror aficionados. In one scene, wheelchair-bound Mark (Tom McBride) receives a machete to his face, which forces his wheelchair to crash down a flight of stairs. In another scene, Jason discovers a couple who have just had sex, with the guy lying on top of the girl, and impales them with a spear that goes through both of their bodies, through the bed, and into the floor. A pretty imaginative kill scene if you ask me. Crazy Ralph (Walt Gorney), who had a cameo in the first film and had a tendency to tell people that they were “Doomed,” appears again, but not before being haunted by his own words as he is strangled to death by a piece of barbed wire.
Steve Miner managed to keep the story fresh and because those who saw Part 1 knew that the killer from that picture was gone, were convinced the new killer must be Jason (remember, this was 1981 when we didn’t have a ton of sequels, a remake, and a crossover with Elm Street) and rightly so. Even though he is mentioned throughout the story from more of a folklore and boogeyman perspective, eventually, he arrives in person, wearing dark blue denim overalls and a burlap sack over his head, not exactly the frightening and intimidating Jason we now know. While his presentation then was similar to the killer in the 1976 horror film, “The Town That Dreaded Sundown,” his appearance in the next chapter, Part 3, would be the introduction to a more terrifying and threatening Jason, and the item that has become synonymous with the franchise ever since: his hockey mask.
Having revived from his wounds, Jason Voorhees takes refuge at a cabin near Crystal Lake. As a group of co-eds arrive for their vacation, Jason continues his killing spree.
At the end of “Friday the 13th Part 2,” Ginny managed to attack Jason with a machete, leaving him for dead before she and her boyfriend Paul made it safely back to camp. Just when we thought everything was okay, Jason came crashing through the window and everything faded to white. Just before the end credits rolled, we saw Ginny being loaded into the back of an ambulance with Paul nowhere in sight. As Part 3 begins, we are brought back to the end of Part 2, after Ginny and Paul escape from Jason’s shack in the middle of the woods but then we cut back to Jason’s seemingly dead corpse, and lo and behold, he is not dead. Part 3 then opens with some exceedingly goofy credits, in 3D no less, because the year was 1982 and 3D had made a resurgence in the early ’80s, permeating into an array of films including “Comin’ at Ya!” “Parasite,” “Amityville 3-D,” “Jaws 3-D,” “Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn,” “Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone,” and “Treasure of the Four Crowns.”
Part 3 moved production from the east coast to the west coast and the transition is as obvious as day and night, a change I did not personally care for. The lush green locales of the first two films were replaced with a dry and overly sunlit setting as the movie was filmed on the Valuzet Movie Ranch in Saugus, California. The story picks up the day after the events of the second film and a group of teenagers, led by Chris Higgins (Dana Kimmell), are making their way to Higgins Haven, her old ranch home which just happens to sit on the banks of Crystal Lake. Naturally, strange things begin to happen around the ranch and people begin to disappear in typical Friday the 13th gruesome fashion. That is, of course, until Chris faces off with Jason with a large axe, leaving him with a little scar to remember her by.
The acting in Part 3, for the most part, was nowhere near as good as its predecessor. Its star, Dana Kimmell, was very attractive and managed to convincingly pull off the “final girl” trope but her performance felt very stilted and uninspiring. She never exuded any genuine emotion, either in her disposition or in the inflection of her words, and I felt like this hindered her character as a better actress would have played the part more affectingly. Compared to Part 2’s Amy Steel, who was able to convey various stages of emotional distress, sometimes within moments of each other, Ms. Kimmell, I felt, was the wrong actor for the role. On the plus side, the new Jason was literally head and shoulders above Part 2’s Jason, played by 5′ 10″ Steve Daskewisz. The new Jason was taken over by Richard Brooker, a former trapeze artist, actor, and stuntman, standing at a towering 6′ 3″. His height alone was enough to strike fear into anybody he came into contact with and he was the first actor to don the now-famous hockey mask.
Director Steve Miner returned to helm this outing and he is the only director to make more than one Friday the 13th film. While I praised Part 2 for its story, acting, and direction, sadly, the same cannot be said for this installment. While Miner has proven himself to be a very capable director, the acting and conventional narrative make this title less-than-stellar. Although I have to admit, over the years, much like “Alien 3,” “Friday the 13th Part 3” has grown on me and who could forget composer Harry Manfredini’s groovy disco-themed opening track? Also, the movie was the only film from the original series to be shot in the anamorphic widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio and that was always a huge plus for me as every other entry in the series was shot in the normal widescreen format, 1.85:1. Part 3 was supposed to be the end of the franchise but when it made $36,690,067 worldwide against a reported budget of just $2,300,000, Paramount, once again, decided to make one more film: The Final Chapter!
After being mortally wounded and taken to the morgue, murderer Jason Voorhees spontaneously revives and embarks on a killing spree as he makes his way back to his home at Camp Crystal Lake.
“Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter” was supposed to be the franchise’s swan song and bring the series to an end and Paramount strongly agreed, as slasher flicks, in general, were beginning to lose interest with the public at this time, that’s why they included “The Final Chapter” in the title, to signify the end. Looking back at it now, how naive we all were. While the film did indeed kill Jason Voorhees, thanks to young Corey Feldman’s Tommy Jarvis and the help of a very big machete, the movie would eventually open to the worldwide tune of $32,980,880 against a $2.2 million budget.
The opening of “The Final Chapter” sees the police arriving at Higgins Haven, the location from Part 3. It occurs the same night Chris killed Jason with an axe to the head and emergency services are removing all of the bodies and taking them to the morgue, including Jason. Granted, he doesn’t stay dead for long and he spontaneously revives, killing the coroner and a nurse on his way out. The next day, a new group of teenagers makes their way to Crystal Lake to stay at a guest house but once Jason makes his way back home, he wastes no time in dispatching as many of them as he possibly can. One by one, they fall victim to his maniacal tendencies until he comes across Tommy Jarvis, a young boy who creates his own masks and special make-up effects, and who proves more than a match for the unstoppable killer.
While “The Final Chapter” did indeed live up to its name, at least for a while, like Jason, it didn’t stay dead for long. One year later, Paramount would release the fifth entry in the series, “Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning.” With “The Final Chapter,” Jason was once again replaced by a different performer, American stuntman and actor, Ted White. While he was stocky and muscular in build, he was nowhere near as tall as his predecessor, Richard Brooker, but he did bring an air of menace and intimidation to the role. The movie also boasts a big-screen debut from Corey Feldman, who would go on to star in “The Goonies” and “The Lost Boys,” and Crispin Glover, who would one year later play Michael J. Fox’s father in “Back to the Future.”
I found the kills in “The Final Chapter” to be more violent and unnaturally forced, almost as if Jason was in a very bad mood, and instead of just killing the teenagers as he had done many times before, it felt like he wanted to punish them, and instead of killing them outright, he took his time, inflicting as much pain and hatred on them as he possibly could. While the overall production value and acting were much improved over Part 3, when the curtain finally fell, it really did seem as though the series was finished. When it was announced that a fifth entry would be forthcoming, fans were divided. On the one hand, they didn’t want to see their favorite serial killer laid to rest, but on the other hand, Jason’s story had been told, what else was left for him to do? How much longer could he go on killing people surrounding Crystal Lake before the authorities would put one and one together and eventually figure things out? With “Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning,” that question would be answered, but not to everybody’s liking.
Still haunted by his past, Tommy Jarvis – who, as a child, killed Jason Voorhees – wonders if the serial killer is connected to a series of brutal murders occurring in and around the secluded halfway house where he now lives.
When “Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning” was released on March 22, 1985, fans rushed out to see their favorite hockey-masked killer in action once more but as the story unfolded, they were beyond disappointed to realize it wasn’t actually Jason who was doing the killings but a copycat. The story revolves around the previous film’s protagonist, Tommy Jarvis (John Shepherd), who as a young boy, did what many others failed to do: kill Jason Voorhees. After being transferred from psychiatric hospital to psychiatric hospital, he winds up at the Pinehurst Halfway House. Continuously haunted by images of Jason, he begins to question his own sanity when other patients at the facility start dying, in a manner consistent with Jason’s modus operandi. When it comes down to Tommy and two other survivors, they try to escape but when they are cornered in a barn by the masked killer, they must work together to remain alive and try to find out the true identity of the person behind the mask.
While Part 5 is not technically incorporated into the series, from a canon standpoint at least, I have to give the filmmakers kudos for at least trying to approach the franchise from a different perspective and attempt something fresh, it’s just a pity that the finished product amounted to nothing more than a hackneyed and vapid slasher flick, devoid of any genuine drama, emotion, or creative kills. Paramount should have released “A New Beginning” under its original fake shooting title, “Repetition,” because it does exactly that, duplicate the high points from its earlier counterparts, only for it to crash and burn.
“A New Beginning” grossed $22 million at the U.S. box office against a budget of $2.2 million, proving that the fanbase was still very interested in Jason’s exploits, even if Part 5 had nothing to do with him, if only in name. The movie was fraught with behind-the-scenes tension and director Danny Steinmann was labeled by many as a short-tempered tyrant, while others said he was irascible, hilarious, and politically incorrect. The movie had to be submitted to the MPAA nine times before they would issue it an R-rating due to its excessive violence and sex scenes with Steinmann stating that they “shot a fucking porno in the woods there. You wouldn’t believe the nudity they cut out.” “A New Beginning” is a part of the series, whether we like it or not and it has been welcomed by more and more fans over the years as the black sheep of the series but while Jason was still officially dead, Part 6 would make sure to remedy that.
Tommy Jarvis goes to the graveyard to get rid of Jason Voorhees’ body once and for all but inadvertently brings him back to life instead. The newly revived killer once again seeks revenge, and Tommy may be the only one who can defeat him.
Because the rating system in Ireland is different from the one in the US (An American R-rated film in Ireland is typically given an 18 Rating which means you have to be 18 or older to see it), “Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives” was actually the first Friday film I saw in theaters. Even though I was only 14 in 1986, I looked much older than I was so getting into 18-rated films was never a problem. When “Jason Lives” came out that same year, it was released as part of a special Paramount double-bill, the other title being “April Fool’s Day,” which has since become one of my favorite horror films.
Part 6 reintroduces to the previous two movies’ central protagonist, Tommy Jarvis (this time played by Thom Mathews), who after escaping from a mental institution, along with his friend Allen (Ron Palillo), and Jason’s hockey mask, returns to Crystal Lake, now renamed Forest Green, where he digs up Jason’s grave with the intent of burning what’s left of his corpse and his mask as he still suffers from violent nightmares and hallucinations and feels this will give him the cathartic healing he so desires but before he has a chance to do so, an unanticipated storm erupts and a bolt of lightning strikes Jason and brings him back to life. Allen is killed in the process and Tommy manages to escape, allowing Jason to rise once more, and don his mask, as he sets off on a new bloody killing spree.
While I enjoy all of the films, even the bad ones, Parts 2 and 6 are my personal favorites. With “Jason Lives,” director Tom McLoughlin was way ahead of his time by adding some much-needed humor, which also included characters breaking the fourth wall and talking to the audience, comparable to “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” which was released the same year, and foreshadowing Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool. Alice Cooper also wrote and performed an original song specifically for the movie titled “He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask),” which was a minor chart success. The film brought back the series’ main antagonist, Jason Voorhees after Part 5 veered off in a completely different direction, utilizing a copycat killer instead of the genuine article.
While McLoughlin infused the movie with lots of self-referential humor, the story followed in the footsteps of its predecessors, sticking to a tried and true formula of Jason stalking and killing horny teenagers around Crystal Lake. While none of the films in the series veered too much off course for fear of alienating its fanbase, two of its successors, “Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan” and “Jason X,” attempted a new frame of reference but both failed miserably in their overall execution. Part 6 was, and still is, technically, the best in the franchise and the cast is very likable and engaging. While “Jason Lives” would close out Tommy Jarvis’ character arc and appearance in any future entries, Part 7 decided to change things up a little by introducing a young heroine with supernatural powers who will prove to be more than a match for Jason.
Years after Tommy Jarvis chained him underwater at Camp Crystal Lake, the dormant Jason Voorhees is accidentally released from his prison by a telekinetic teenager. Now, only she can stop him.
“Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood” offers a new twist to the Friday narrative, a young psychic named Tina (Lar Park-Lincoln) who has telekinesis. The opening shows Tina as a young girl living by Crystal lake (I guess there’s no other location in the entire world for characters to live) as she witnesses her alcoholic father physically abusing her mother. She runs away to the lake and drifts away from the shore in a small boat to escape the turmoil at home. When her father appears and tries to prevent her from going further out into the lake, she inadvertently summons her telekinetic powers and causes the dock her father is standing on to collapse, accidentally killing him in the process. Many years later, a teenage Tina is struggling with the remorse surrounding her father’s death, and at the behest of her mother, Amanda (Susan Blu), she agrees to go back to their house at Crystal Lake where they will meet with Tina’s psychiatrist, Dr. Crews (Terry Kiser), who agrees to try and help her with her guilty feelings.
Once there, however, Crews sets up a series of experiments, designed to acerbate Tina into showing her true potential. We soon learn though that Crews is only interested in exploiting her abilities. After one particular experiment upsets Tina, she runs outside to the lake, and in her guilt, tries to bring her father back but unbeknownst to her, she unwittingly releases Jason from his watery grave where he wound up in chains at the end of Part 6, and he rises from the depths to begin another killing spree.
“The New Blood” offers nothing fresh in terms of story narrative or even character development for Jason, he just kills anyone who gets in his way (except for children, which is briefly hinted at in Part 6) and will never stop since he is now an immortal revenant. The one element, for me, that elevated this ever so slightly, was the telekinetic Tina. Up to this point, not one character throughout the series has ever caused Jason serious damage, even though Chris in Part 3 lodged an axe in his head, it did not stop him. When Tina comes face to face with Jason, she utilizes her abilities to attack him; electrifying him, shooting nails at him, setting him on fire, causing a roof to fall on him, and in the end, she finally manages to resurrect her father from the lake who grabs Jason and pulls him back under the water, once and for all.
The movie is a pale imitation of some of the series’ better installments but the introduction of Tina and her powers is what makes the last act stand out, up to this point, the film never rises above mediocrity, brought about by terrible acting and ponderous, uninventive kills (the sleeping bag scene aside). On a side note, back in 2007, I was working on producing a horror film called “God’s Chosen” and I met with Lar Park-Lincoln in regards to being in the movie. She read the script and loved it but unfortunately, the deal fell through and it never got produced. I am currently working on bringing it to the big screen but she was a joy to meet and in regards to “The New Blood,” she was the only member of the cast who gave a worthwhile performance, even Kane Hodder, who donned the hockey mask, gave a better performance than the majority of the cast. After Part 7, Paramount would produce one more Friday the 13th film, one that promised to take the story out of Crystal Lake and take a bite out of the big apple.
A boatful of graduating high school students headed to Manhattan accidentally pull Jason Voorhees along for the ride.
The year was 1989 and horror films, for the most part, were waning in popularity with the general public. “A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child,” “Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers,” “Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes,” “The Fly II,” “Howling V: The Rebirth,” and “Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland” all proved futile at the box office as audiences opted instead for any other genre including action, comedy, sci-fi, and romance. But Paramount had an ace up their sleeve, or so they thought. They were about to release the eighth installment in the Friday the 13th series and this was going to be the best one yet. After all, the trailer showed Jason arriving in Manhattan so what could be better than him taking a stroll through Times Square in full Crystal Lake attire, complete with signature hockey mask? Apparently, anything else at the box office.
“Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan” was the final Friday movie to be produced by Paramount and all I can say is thank God for that. By the time this stinker arrived, the series had begun to sink to new depths, and fans were hoping and praying that “Jason Takes Manhattan” would revive the series. It didn’t. It earned only $14.3 million at the domestic box office, making it the poorest-performing film in the Friday the 13th series to date. What little story there is surrounds the SS Lazarus, a ship that is getting ready to set sail for New York City with a graduating senior class on board. In a poorly scripted opening, Jason is accidentally resurrected from the watery depths of Crystal lake when a boat’s anchor damages some underwater cables, shocking Jason’s corpse and bringing him back to life.
Just as the Lazarus is getting ready to set sail, Jason manages to climb on board and proceeds to kill almost everyone on the ship. Four people manage to escape the ship in a life raft and make it safely to New York City. Or so they think. When Jason appears, he gives chase throughout the city until only two of them are left and wind up in an underground sewer that is quickly flooded with toxic waste. While the two kids manage to climb a ladder to safety, Jason is not so lucky and is overcome by a rushing wall of the toxic chemicals, and dies, leaving the two kids alone to roam the streets of New York City by themselves, which is probably more dangerous than the underground radioactive tunnel they just ascended from.
Up until “Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan,” “Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning” was labeled the black sheep of the family, with some fans even warming up to it in the subsequent years since its release but “Jason Takes Manhattan” makes no apologies whatsoever for being the absolute worst entry in the series and one of the worst movies ever made. There is absolutely nothing redeeming about the film and even the trailer, which showed Jason in Manhattan, lied to audiences as it gave the impression that the movie would take place in the Big Apple, only for those scenes to take place during the last 15 minutes, while the majority of the film transpired on the ship.
This was director Rob Hedden’s feature film directorial debut and it showed. He had no skill in any department as the acting, story, cinematography, and even the kills were slumberous and wholly unoriginal. Only Kane Hodder, who returned as Jason after “The New Blood” and would portray him in the next two outings, “Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday” and “Jason X,” showed any signs of life. It was easy to ascertain what was going through Jason’s mind as Hodder had the uncanny ability to act and communicate with his body. Seeing that he was hidden behind layers of prosthetics and a mask, he found a way to signify his emotions utilizing simple ways of communication; a slight head tilt, having his body move with every heaving breath instead of breathing normally, looking around, surveying his periphery, and staying on guard, little things most people could overlook but they’re what gave Jason a function, even if it was killing everyone in his way, at least Kane Hodder’s Jason looked like he had a purpose, where earlier iterations of Jason were just lumbering killing machines.
If you are a Friday the 13th fan, this box set is ideal, especially if it’s the earlier films you love. This collection contains newly remastered editions of the original theatrical cut of “Friday the 13th” (1980), “Friday the 13th Part 2,” “Friday the 13th Part 3,” and “Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter.” The eight films in the collection are: “Friday The 13th,” “Friday The 13th Part 2,” “Friday The 13th Part 3,” “Friday The 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter,” “Friday The 13th Part V: A New Beginning,” “Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives,” “Friday The 13th Part VII: The New Blood,” and “Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan.”
“Friday the 13th 8-Movie Collection” is now available on Blu-ray
