Watching the Friday the 13th Franchise, with Jason

[Jmac Attack]

My stream starts buffering as soon as the cute chick from Weird Science is about to show them titties........*cord cutter problems*

Man.....fuck AT@T.

[zombie]

also, they could have given a shout out to return of the living dead. would have been nice.

and jason's head should have been a lot more chopped apart than it seemed to be, after she turned on the motorboat....

[Jmac Attack]

My stream starts buffering as soon as the cute chick from Weird Science is about to show them titties........*cord cutter problems*

Man.....fuck AT@T.

Stream started back up......and yeah, she never does show her titties. I keep hoping every time I watch it, this time would be different. Sigh.

[DancesWithWerewolves]

the girl they were always telling to go back to bed was named nancy. is that just coincidence?

She's actually named after the director's wife, who plays the redhead near the beginning.

[Jmac Attack]

Mrs Jarvis wasn't bad. 80s Milf for sure.

[Jason]

Friday the 13th Part III (1982)




Part III is another heavy hitter for the Friday franchise. So far it's 3-for-3 with three home runs. The characters again all have their unique traits, with Shelly being the stand out of all the pals at the lake. The franchise has yet to fail on giving us a character or two in each movie that we can all sympathize with before he or she is axed to leave the movie. Which brings me to another little theory in the franchise... Shelly is the guy who provides Jason the hockey mask which becomes the iconic symbol of Jason, and what everyone associates with Jason Voorhees, even today. Because Jason is more well known than the sport of hockey... But when Shelly plays the prank on everyone with the fake axe to the head, was that meant to tie in to Jason getting the axe to the head later on in the movie? Hard to say. Could be nothing, but the franchise has pieced together so many little things that it's hard to ignore it, even though we typically would ignore something like this in most other movies or movie franchises.

Regarding Shelly and Vera, we get an unresolved character conflict when they are both killed. This isn't just some simple horror flick where we just sit back and wait for the shithead party-ers to die, there is an effort made in the writing to pull in the interest of the audience with just about all the characters of the movie. This is essential if a horror movie is going to be regarded in the highest tier. Good character build-up is a great way to distract you from the shitstorm of violence we already know is coming, because we all bought the ticket to see it. Friday the 13th does the best job of paving a long, beautiful road to get to that god damn shitstorm, and it's built through character distraction and mystery. I was genuinely interested in how Shelly and Vera were going to resolve the issue of Vera putting Shelly in the friend zone when he clearly wanted no part of it. They already built a bit of a bond after escaping that incident at the checkout counter with those three bikers, so they had something there despite Vera's disinterest in Shelly romantically. She knew he was hurt that she wanted no part of him and you could see it was eating at her conscience, as well- But wait, who gives a shit? Jason just gashed Shelly in the throat and took that sweet, beautiful hockey mask. And what a god damn sniper with that spear gun, amirite? Whatever genius decided that Jason should get a hockey mask should be rewarded an eternal paycheck. Brilliant man. Throughout the movie, Jason is seen, but not in the typical slasher fashion where all we see are the killer's boots. We get to see everything but his face, and this was to allow the audience to know for a fact that it was Jason walking down the dock with the hockey mask before he sniped vera with the spear gun.

The bikers mentioned above had found their way to where Shelly and Vera were at and siphoned the gas out of the van to get even (love that Bruce Springsteen bumper sticker). This adds a better element to the lone-survivor, getaway chase that we see in horror movies where of course the car doesn't start. But in Friday the 13th Part III as Chris is running to the van, anyone paying attention knows that she is fucked already because there is now only enough fuel to get 50 feet away.
Nice touch.

Next we get a Psycho homage! This was really the perfect homage. Psycho is iconic in every way. Debbie closes the door to the shower curtain and the angle is set up in the exact way it was for Marion in Psycho. Jason is then shown, machete in hand, coming up the staircase. I love more than anything that he didn't kill her. She is startled by Andy as he asks if she wants a beer, and that's all we get. It was perfect. All of a sudden Andy is just fucking obliterated by Jason as he turns the corner. I have avoided learning how they pulled off the brutality of that kill and made it look so real. That kill was so masterful that the mystery behind it only makes it that much more entertaining.

Kill of the film: Andy... I mean for fuck's sake.

Eventually it's down to Rick and Chris as the only two survivors of the group. They're going around checking the house, Chris walks outside and we see that as she looks into the darkness, around the corner Jason is almost effortlessly holding Rick and keeping his mouth shut to keep from alerting Chris. That was instance #2 of showcasing how powerful Jason really is, because they made it a point to show that Rick himself was a larger, muscular guy earlier in the film. I can do without the eye in the screen, but it was 3D, and this movie certainly earns a pass for something so minor.

Chris is now the only survivor of the group and eventually encounters Jason. She does a good deal of screaming as she's getting away from Jason, much more than you typically hear from the last survivors, but I think this was to imprint her scream in our brains for what comes later. The final encounter occurs in the barn, Chris works her way up to the top level and manages to knock Jason out. Doing exactly as the audience asks, she avoids running away, makes a noose, wraps it around Jason's head and flings him out of the barn. When she goes to the bottom and opens the door, Jason is still not dead and we get a real good glimpse of his face and we also notice a dramatic shift in Chris's voice. Her stern, powerful screams that she let out so many times during the chase have been reduced to panicky shrieks. In my opinion, this was the moment she completely lost her sanity, and I think the creators of the film made it a point to change the way she screamed. After a scuffle between Jason occurs with the last surviving biker who was believed to be dead, it gave Chris time to load up the axe and deliver a blow to Jason. After a few seconds, he finally goes down.

At this point, we're three movies in, and we are starting to develop something of a pattern, here.

The Pattern of Insanity:
The last survivor tends to go insane. Alice in the original when she dreams that a dead Jason rose from the lake and pulled her in. Ginny in part 2, when she blacks out and awakens on a hospital gurney, crying for Paul. And Chris in part 3, when she sees Jason's face and realizes he was the same man she encountered in the woods from her story earlier in the movie. Some might disagree with Ginny, but I am definitely banking on insanity. The ending of part 2 left some mystery. After Ginny hits Jason with the machete in part 2, she exits with Paul to the cabin where they find Muffin. Jason then bursts through the window and grabs Ginny, machete still in shoulder. If we paid attention during this film's flashback to part 2, it shows additional footage that after Ginny hits Jason with the machete and exits with Paul, that Jason no longer has the machete in his shoulder and crawls away. This means that everything after that encounter is a dream. Retreating to the cabin with Paul, finding Muffin, Jason bursting through the window. All a dream. If this is true, then every movie thus far has ended with a violent dream for all 3 survivors, because Chris dreamed that Jason was alive and running after her, only for Pamela to rise from the lake and pull her in. We know this was a dream, because Chris was next seen being escorted into the back of a police car, clothes dry, with clearly zero marbles left in her head. We also know this was a dream because the last shot of the film is Jason, still on the ground in the barn with an axe in his head.

Alternate Theory!
I am going to present a theory that I don't think has ever been presented before. I've never read about it anywhere at any point. But before going into detail on this theory, I just want to say that it doesn't mean I actually believe the theory to be true or correct. I am putting this out there, purely for discussion purposes...
Here it is...
Chris told a story to Rick when they were alone together in the woods. She explains that after a fight with her parents one night, she retreated to the woods and was chased by a grotesque man, who we later learn was actually Jason. She only remembers waking up at home in bed with her parents refusing to speak of the incident. Consider this: When Chris is talking to Rick about her encounter with Jason, we get to see pieces of the flashback, and in the flashback she is wearing a turtleneck sweater fairly similar to the one Mrs. Voorhees wore in the original film and similar to the sweater seen on the shrine at the end of part 2. Could it be that Jason saw that turtleneck sweater, got a Mommy vibe from Chris and held her hostage in the cabin, much like the premise in the Friday the 13th remake? That would explain why she had that nightmare of the corpse of Mrs. Voorhees rising from the lake to pull her in, despite never knowing who Mrs. Voorhees was or even seeing her before. But there she is, Mrs. Voorhees, sweater and all, right there in Chris's nightmare. Could it be that during her blackout she got to see the shrine of Jason's dead mother, which left an imprint in her sub-conscious causing the nightmare of Mrs. Voorhees pulling her into the lake? Could it be that the people who worked so delicately on this franchise actually managed to parlay such a minuscule detail into the entire premise of a remake without letting their core audience in on it?

Typically, if this were any other movie or any other franchise, I would say no right off the bat. But it is certainly a GOAT-level head-scratcher considering how calculated this franchise is with tying the room together.

[zombie]

the girl they were always telling to go back to bed was named nancy. is that just coincidence?

She's actually named after the director's wife, who plays the redhead near the beginning.

so, then it was a coincidence. fair enough.

[Jason]

the girl they were always telling to go back to bed was named nancy. is that just coincidence?

She's actually named after the director's wife, who plays the redhead near the beginning.

so, then it was a coincidence. fair enough.

Coincidence that the wife's name was Nancy, sure. They didn't put in the nightmare shit by coincidence. Take it to the bank.

[zombie]

the girl they were always telling to go back to bed was named nancy. is that just coincidence?

She's actually named after the director's wife, who plays the redhead near the beginning.

so, then it was a coincidence. fair enough.

Nah. They didn't put in the nightmare shit by coincidence. Take it to the bank.

how much of what we see into a film is our own? i thought it was all about nancy thompson, when it was about a real life nancy. the friday the 13th series has been seen over and over. there's all sorts of text and subtext and references you could see into a film. as void of any meaning as you seem to think they are, you could do the same thing with the marvel movies. and that's a lot of the fun of re-watching a good movie. seeing what associations and subtext and such, that you can see but didn't when initially viewing it.

[Jason]

the girl they were always telling to go back to bed was named nancy. is that just coincidence?

She's actually named after the director's wife, who plays the redhead near the beginning.

so, then it was a coincidence. fair enough.

Nah. They didn't put in the nightmare shit by coincidence. Take it to the bank.

how much of what we see into a film is our own? i thought it was all about nancy thompson, when it was about a real life nancy. the friday the 13th series has been seen over and over. there's all sorts of text and subtext and references you could see into a film. as void of any meaning as you seem to think they are, you could do the same thing with the marvel movies. and that's a lot of the fun of re-watching a good movie. seeing what associations and subtext and such, that you can see but didn't when initially viewing it.

So you think that movie called A Nightmare on Elm Street that came out two years prior to Jason Lives was totally disregarded when they picked the one little girl named Nancy to give nightmares to?

Me think no. Lol.

[zombie]

the girl they were always telling to go back to bed was named nancy. is that just coincidence?

She's actually named after the director's wife, who plays the redhead near the beginning.

so, then it was a coincidence. fair enough.

Nah. They didn't put in the nightmare shit by coincidence. Take it to the bank.

how much of what we see into a film is our own? i thought it was all about nancy thompson, when it was about a real life nancy. the friday the 13th series has been seen over and over. there's all sorts of text and subtext and references you could see into a film. as void of any meaning as you seem to think they are, you could do the same thing with the marvel movies. and that's a lot of the fun of re-watching a good movie. seeing what associations and subtext and such, that you can see but didn't when initially viewing it.

So you think that movie called A Nightmare on Elm Street that came out two years prior to Jason Lives was totally disregarded when they picked the one little girl named Nancy to give nightmares to?

Me think no. Lol.

i don't think it was disregarded. i think it was a happy coincidence, that they may have played into after naming her nancy.

[Jason]

If they play into it as you say, then it wouldn't be a coincidence.

[zombie]

If they play into it as you say, then it wouldn't be a coincidence.

you can play into something after the fact too. imdb lists evil speak as a reference because of a scene where a heart is torn out. maybe they're right. maybe not. maybe someone asked about that, and the filmmaker's played into it.

my point about a lot of what we see into could be our own is still valid and like i said, it's a lot of the fun.

[Monster]

Starting part 4. I'm hoping to get in at least three today. 6 will be a nice way to end the night.

[zombie]

right now, my rankings would be...

a new beginning
pt. 2
final chapter
pt. 3
friday the 13th
jason lives

[Monster]

I don't think I've ever seen Final Friday ranked higher. not a knock on Zombie, just an observation.

[zombie]

I don't think I've ever seen Final Friday ranked higher. not a knock on Zombie, just an observation.

i meant final chapter. for some reason i always thought it was final friday... but i don't think there is an actual final friday, so yeah.

[zombie]

I don't think I've ever seen Final Friday ranked higher. not a knock on Zombie, just an observation.

i meant final chapter. for some reason i always thought it was final friday... but i don't think there is an actual final friday, so yeah.

oh. no. i'm not there yet. this was just about 1-6. 7-remake will be the next ranking.

[Monster]

I don't think I've ever seen Final Friday ranked higher. not a knock on Zombie, just an observation.

i meant final chapter. for some reason i always thought it was final friday... but i don't think there is an actual final friday, so yeah.

Final Friday was the subtitle (whatever you call it) for Jason Goes to Hell.

[DancesWithWerewolves]

right now, my rankings would be...

a new beginning
pt. 2
final chapter
pt. 3
friday the 13th
jason lives

High praise for New Beginning? Hell yeah.