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U
N L U C K Y D A Y S P A
R T 4:
T H
E F I N A L C H A P T E R
A
TRIBUTE TO THE FRIDAY THE 13TH
FILM SERIES |
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By
Professor
A. Griffin
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I
think it’s important to try and remember that it all
started with an 11 year old boy who really just wanted
to swim.
It
all started with a mentally deficient child (a sweet boy
according to his mother) who needed special care and
attention, but instead was left to drown in the cold,
cold waters of Crystal Lake.
Tragedy
became a nightmare of loss, exploding in bloody fury
beginning with a mother’s wrath, thunder and
lightning, and the deep dark forest at night. Continuing
with numerous sharp weapons, screams, vicious attacks,
axes, a hockey mask, and a killer so violent, so brutal,
that he could almost be classified as a force of nature.
The Friday the 13th series has
covered it all… revenge and anger, lust and fear,
supernatural power and the living dead…
It
spawned countless imitators and was often referenced in
mass media. Most of the references were jokes of course,
and mainstream media responded to the series with
countless insults. Mockery by critics and condemnation
by morality groups were common but the filmmakers had
laughed all the way to the bank. The original Friday
the 13th was made for just under
$500,000 and made $37 Million!!! Recent figures place
the profit for the entire series to be in the vicinity
of $250 Million dollars.
And
it all started with a boy- Jason Voorhees. |
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Jason Voorhees
was last seen being dragged into hell by the giant hands of demons
in Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday released in 1993. A
supernatural spell book and some mystic words recited by his niece
sent Jason away apparently forever. All this was courtesy of New
Line Cinema who bought the Friday the 13th
series (characters and story) from Paramount and now finished
the career of Jason Voorhees just as it had finished off Fred
Kruger.
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genre of the horror film, the supernatural was coming back
with a vengeance. Monster movies were being made again (Interview with A Vampire, The Mummy, Godzilla)
and the days of hack and slash killers on the big screen were
apparently over. But everything comes around again, it seems.
Jason-ites started
fan clubs, wrote fiction, and wore homemade costumes; designed
web sites theorizing time lines and character motivations.
Fans drew pictures of the Crystal Lake Killer, and painted
model kits of Jason by Screamin’. |
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(I still
have mine.) Jason action figures appeared, as well as Jason plush
dolls! (Who wouldn’t want to snuggle up to a rotting Jason
Voorhees circa Jason Goes to Hell?) A cheap plain white
plastic hockey mask became common in fun shops and costume stores
(especially around Halloween). Plastic machetes, axes, and hatchets
also appeared as well as rubber Jason masks. (His head, not just the
hockey mask.)
But where was
Jason in all this? New Line must have noticed the constant
attention the series was getting on home video and at fan
conventions. And so, it was finally time. After 7 long years, New
Line decided to re-open up the gates of hell…he was coming back.
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Once
the shimmering blue jewel of the galaxy, humanity's
former home is now a contaminated planet abandoned for
centuries -- a world of violent storms, toxic landmasses
and poisonous seas. Yet humans have returned -- not to
live but to study. |
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In
the remains of the Crystal Lake Research Facility, an
archaeological class has discovered two frozen ancestors
-- a beautiful woman and a hulking, rotted carcass
wearing a strange mask. Their cryo-storage disturbed,
the two bodies are taken to the students' ship: The
Grendel. |
Forget
what has gone before. Welcome to the future of horror.
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Jason
Voorhees (once again played by the man who will forever
be identified with Jason, Kane Hodder) was revived by
screenwriter Todd Farmer and sent out into space. When
rumors of this film’s concept started to circulate, I
was astonished…and indeed a bit shocked. It had been a
very long time since I’d thought about Jason Voorhees,
and honestly NEVER expected to see him on the big screen
ever again. However, the track record of horror movie
monsters out in space wasn’t very good…(Leprechaun,
Pinhead). And that fact made me very nervous. Would I
see it? Yes. Was I excited about it? Strangely, no.
Maybe I had too happening in my life since Jason Goes to
Hell: The Final Friday to be excited about Mr.
Voorhees’ return. I lived in a new city, married the
love of my life and was planning for a family. There was
no room for a new Jason film to give me thrills. In
truth, my lack of enthusiasm made me secretly depressed.
I believed that the film would be horrible and would be
just another nail in the coffin of a genre that I once
immersed myself in. Nothing good lasts forever. |
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But
everything comes around, so it seems.
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Jason X
went in front of the cameras on March 6th 2000 and
shooting was completed on April 30th, 2000. The film was
shot entirely on Digital Video and then ‘blown up’ to screen
size.
I learned from
Fangoria magazine that the films release date was pushed back time
and time again and finally ended up in the limbo of films the studio
doesn’t know what to do with. 2001 was the official year of
completion but still no release date.
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Another
really bad
sign.
I wrote
it off as a direct to video release. Direct to video??? A Friday
the 13th movie going direct to video?
Absurd! Impossible! Fred Kruger never went straight to
video. Even the pathetic Halloween: The Curse of Michael
Myers has a limited theatrical run! Jason lumped in with
other direct to video horror like Hellraiser, Howling,
and Leprechaun?? That was wrong, and again, I was
depressed. |
April 2002. I
was watching television when suddenly the New Line symbol appeared
and the trailer for Jason X played before my eyes.
“Let
the Bodies Hit the Floor! Let the Bodies hit the Floor! Let
the Bodies hit the Floor!”
-‘Bodies’ by Drowning Pool.
I couldn’t
believe it. There he was before my eyes…Jason. Back again. Moving,
hacking, swinging, punching, attacking,…all set to Drowning
Pool’s heavy metal thrash hit, Bodies. What a perfect
song for the trailer!
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What a
perfect song for The Sultan of Slaughter! At that time, my
heart raced, and I felt it. I felt a surge, a thrill, a rush
of excitement, the kind I hadn’t felt since the good old
days. The television trailer thrilled me and for the first
time in a long time I said to myself…”Oh I’ve got to see
that opening night!!!”
And by
God, I did.
My brother James joined me and we loaded up his
pick-up truck with blankets and lawn chairs, picked up a
bucket of fried chicken, some beer, and drove out to the one
place that would do this film justice.
The Drive-In. |
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I had not seen a Friday the 13th film on
the big drive-in screen since 1980, and that was the original. It
seemed very appropriate. The moon was full and the Texas night was
clear and full of stars. A gentle breeze blew and the Mission IV
Drive In Theater in San Antonio, Texas was about to open Jason X!!!!!
We
unloaded and got set up for a memorable night.
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Janessa
clung on to the grated floor aboard The Grendel with all her
might. The gaping hole on the spaceship was pulling everything
out with tremendous force. Alarms were going off and the air
was thin, every muscle in her body was pushed to it’s limits
to just hold on…Tsunaron tried to save her now…and how did
she find herself in this situation? She was smart, sexy, and
talented, she’d been sleeping with that asshole pervert
Prof. Lowe to insure her success, she’d avoided being
chopped up by that frozen bag of pus that came to life on
board the ship, and for what? To die like this? This was
stupid! No! No! It can’t end like this….hold on a little
longer…Janessa watched as her hand start to slip…Tsunaron
could no longer hold her….her ears started to bleed from the
pressure and she felt herself falling free. |
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“This
sucks on so many levels!” |
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Her
tight little body was crushed through the narrow opening with
such a force that her consciousness ended in an instant.
Ejected into the vacuum of space, like so much garbage, was
the pink and red pulp that had once been Janessa. |
The opening
credits ran over a montage of scientific tests being performed on
none other than Jason himself. Our boy was bound in chains and being
poked and prodded with needles, hooked up to monitoring equipment
and studied. (This was obviously NOT a good idea.) There was no
mention of how he was captured (no doubt an elaborate trap set up as
in Jason Goes to Hell).
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Jason X also begins with no
exposition on how the Sultan of Slaughter escaped hell by the way.
The only concession to The Final Friday the filmmakers made
was the brief reflection of flames in Jason’s one good eye.
Memories of the flames of hell? A symbol of his rage?
We are quickly
told that the year is 2008 and Jason is being kept under observation
at The Crystal Lake Scientific Research Facility. So the sleepy
little town that became famous for a killer that seemingly
couldn’t die has become the home to a government funded research
center? Makes sense I suppose.
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After numerous attempts to execute
him failed, Jason is being studied to determine what gives him his
remarkable healing and regenerative powers. Ok. Let’s see, first
of all, he’s UNDEAD!?
But
apparently he’s getting better every day.
Jason has not
looked this ‘alive’ since before his ‘death’ in part 4. Gone
is the bulbous, lumpy head of Final Friday, and his skin has
an almost yellowish flesh tone to it, and there is no exposed bone.
The axe scar is still there and he still has only one good eye. (I
like consistency).
The most amazing thing about Jason’s new
appearance is his hair. Yes, Jason has grown some hair. Not just a
few strands like in Jason Goes to hell, but fairly evenly
distributed hair. His appearance is great
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Jason
doesn’t look too happy (does he ever?) and the lone guard that is
watching him all but has the word victim #1 tattooed on his
forehead.
We are
introduced to Rowan, the beautiful female research scientist
who insists that the only way to deal with Jason Voorhees is to
cryogenically freeze him until a way to finally destroy him can be
discovered. The head of the research facility, Dr. Wimmer (a
brief cameo by genre director David Chronenberg) insists that Jason
be transported to a military installation where he can be further
studied. Naturally, Rowan is correct. Jason escapes from his bonds
and begins a slaughter spree of the installation soldiers (and Dr.
Wimmer).
Rowan leads the rampaging Jason to the Cryo-chamber to
traps him for freezing. Jason strikes one last time as the freezing
process begins, breeching the chamber, stabbing Rowan with his
machete and sending the entire facility into lockdown. Both Rowan
AND Jason are frozen for the long haul. (It all seemed very Captain
America and Red Skull to me) |
F
a s t
f o r
w
a r d
.
The main story
is set in the year 2455, when an group of student scientists lead by
their teacher Professor Lowe, exploring ‘Old Earth’ find
the frozen bodies of Jason and Rowan. The students are young, sexy
and are obviously our latest batch of “victims”. Right away the
exploration goes bad…in a freak accident, Jason’s frozen body
falls forward and the machete he’s holding slices the arm off of
one of the students!!
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The android female that accompanies the group
(Kay-Em 14) performs a cell scan and determines that Rowan is
still alive. She also makes a rather humorous summation of the
violent game of hockey when one of the students asks about the
strange mask the big one is wearing.
Both
Rowan and Jason are taken back aboard the spacecraft ‘The
Grendel’ for transport back to the Solaris Space
Station and then Earth 2.
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The
amputee victim (Dylan Bierk) is made whole again by the
amazing technology on board the ship in Lab 2. And the same
technology is used to revive Rowan. Naturally, she’s stunned
to learn that it is now 2455 but the main question that she
keeps asking is…”Where’s Jason?”
Jason’s
frozen body is set up in a lab and is being examined by a young
scientist named Adrienne (named as a homage to Adrienne King,
the survivor of the original). Meanwhile, Professor Lowe discovers
just who the masked body really is and realizes what a fortune he
could make by selling the body of old earth’s most notorious
serial killer. Ah, greed….nice to know that in 2455, it hasn’t
disappeared.
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Jason
begins to thaw (as we knew he would) and kicks off his
slaughter spree once again with the VIOLENT, BRUTAL death of
the beautiful Adrienne. Jason slams her face into a vat of
liquid nitrogen, freezing it solid, and then shatters it
against the counter top.
OUCH!
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Oh, the Sultan of Slaughter was
back, baby!
The movie
enters into VERY familiar territory with Jason stalking and killing
throughout the ship. Even when the crew is alerted to the danger and
a military team (The Grunts) lead by the brave Sgt. Brodski,
take up weapons and fight back, Jason makes short work of them.
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The
violence in the film is cranked back up, and thanks to CGI, is done
in spectacular ways. Victims are impaled on giant screws, cut in
half, gutted, and crushed. There are also a few classics like the
throat slit and the head crush (Todd Farmer, the screenwriter, plays
the character whose head is smashed by Jason.)
The Grendel
reaches its destination, The Solaris Space Station, but Jason causes
the ship to fly out of control, smashing into the space station and
destroying it. Up until this point, a highly respectable body count
was maintained…but with the explosion of the Solaris space
station, THOUSANDS are killed. If the Solaris is considered,
Jason’s body count has become uncountable!!
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The remaining
students are huddled in the main lab and Jason attacks again,
killing Professor Lowe. All seems hopeless until the female android
Kay-Em appears outfitted with a new battle program.
She attacks
Jason with incredible ferocity, pumping his body so full of bullets
and literally blowing off his arm, his leg and finally, reduces his
head into pulp!!! WOW! Jason is destroyed! Brutally.
Of
course we all knew what was coming next.
As the
survivors make contact with a rescue ship, the remains of Jason are
foolishly left in lab 2, and the computer automatically goes to
work. Fabricating a new metallic body for the missing pieces and
re-forming whatever was left into the new Jason for the 25th
century. The new, incredible looking, silver masked Uber-Jason!!!
What a sight!
Jason upgraded. Wisely, the designers of the Uber-Jason didn’t
change him so much that he was unrecognizable. The basic mask was
still there, and he was bald once again.
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The body
was mostly metallic, with flesh and bone melded within. A
Cyborg Jason with the same desire to kill! Jason must have
felt better than he did in years. With both his eyes intact
once again (for the first time since part 4) and blazing red,
the new upgraded Sultan of Slaughter, goes back to work.
Key-Em appears again
and with the same gusto goes toe to toe with Jason. But the
outcome this time is decidedly different. Jason punches her
head clean off. (Like Julius in the dreadful Part 8) Being an
android, Key-Em doesn’t die of course, but the only
remaining student survivor, her creator and love interest,
Tsunaron, carries around her head. |
Rowan,
Tsunaron, and Key-Em (her head at any rate) attempt to escape in the
Grendel’s evacuation pod, but it needs repairs. Sgt. Brodski
(believed dead) returns and volunteers to don a space suit and
repair the pod from outside the ship. Uber-Jason is advancing and
there is no stopping him.
Their only hope is to distract him.
What follows
is one of most hilarious moments in all of the Friday the 13th
films. Using a hologram program, they place Uber-Jason back into
Camp Crystal Lake circa 1980. The metallic, futuristic Uber-Jason
suddenly finds himself in a very familiar setting with trees, music,
wind, and familiar Harry Manfredini music.
It
was magic.
But Uber-Jason
pauses ever so briefly to enjoy being back home and then continues
onward. A further distraction is needed. Suddenly two beautiful
female camp counselors appear and say together in robotic singsong:
“We
love to drink beer, smoke pot and have premarital sex!”
Then the
counselors strip off their tops and climb into sleeping bags
giggling. This was too much! Uber-Jason stares at them for a moment,
then immediately goes after them…some temptations were too hard to
resist. In a move reminiscent of Friday the 13th
part 7, he picks up the sleeping bags with the hologram
counselors screaming inside within and bashes them together over and
over then slams one against a holographic tree. It was a classic
moment.
The repair is
completed and the survivors prepare to eject into earth 2’s
atmosphere. Suddenly Uber-Jason attacks again and Sgt. Brodski
sacrifices himself by holding on to Uber-Jason and launching himself
into space. The result is a fireball of Jason and Brodski entering
Earth 2’s atmosphere.
The
fireball, by the way, lands in a lake of a summer camp on Earth 2.
The
End.
WOW. The film
had unspooled and my brother and I sat in the back of the truck,
stuffed with fried chicken and with big stupid grins on our
faces…that was so much fun!
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And that
was the key to the film’s success. It did not take itself
too seriously and that was the only way it worked. Watching
Jason as unstoppable killing machine (literally) was a joy and
well….maybe it was the environment of the drive-in but the
film was everything I hoped it would be.
There
were lots of silly moments but the film played them well. The
entire cast of “scientists” were hot young sexy
model-types wearing lots of revealing belly shirts, the Grunts
were very reminiscent of Aliens and the hologram scene
was just film stopping funny. In essence it was everything a Friday
the 13th movie should be. There was
nudity, blood, gore, and a silly plot. Taking the story out
into space was a bold move but one that actually played well.
I was talking
about the film for days after. The fun to be had was incredible and
better than anything else; Jason had been revived once again! |
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At the
drive-in that night there were teenagers watching Jason X, kids not
much older than I was when I first saw Mrs. Voorhees work in the
original. Now Jason was being introduced to a new generation who had
only seen him on video.
The one thing
that made me sad was Jason’s new look. It was cool, but I was
really going to miss classic Jason. Wait a moment…what’s that
sound? Scraping along a pipe….sounds like knives…the fires of an
ancient boiler room springing to life…and a wicked laugh.. Could
it be??
Fred
Kruger.
“Welcome
to MY Nightmare!”
“Now
we’re not safe awake or asleep!”
Due to be
released in theatres August 2003, is the long anticipated and
rumored beast battle of the new century. Freddy Vs. Jason has
completed filming and the advance publicity is very favorable. Why
just to see Robert Englund once again as Fred Kruger (for the
first time in a decade) facing Kane Hodder as…wait a
minute!
Where’s
Kane Hodder?
Freddy Vs.
Jason director Ronny Yu replaced Kane Hodder in the role of
Jason Voorhees with an unknown named Ken Kirzinger. Why? Yu
(who did a real bang-up job with Bride of Chucky) reportedly
said that he wanted an actor with very soulful eyes as well as a
Jason who was more of a physical match for Robert Englund’s
Freddy.
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However,
advance photos show Kirzinger’s huge form towering over
Freddy, so the physical match story doesn’t fly. Perhaps
Hodder wanted more money than they were willing to pay him?
Who knows? It’s disappointing, but it does nothing to
diminish my excitement on this match-up.
As much
as I respect and admire Kane Hodder for what he brought to the
character, Jason Voorhees IS THE MASK! That’s what matters
most.
Jason
once again looks like classic Jason, not Uber-Jason which
makes sense since this film is reportedly taking place between
Jason Goes to Hell and Jason X. Perhaps it will
explain how Jason gets out of hell? |
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The plot for Freddy
Vs. Jason is sketchy at best, but from advance teases and
reports throughout fan sites everywhere it appears that Fred Kruger
uses Jason Voorhees to do his killing for him since the parents of
Springwood (Freddy’s stomping ground) are drugging their children
to prevent them from dreaming. How does Freddy control the lumbering
Jason? Apparently the same way Amy Steele does briefly in Part 2, by
appearing as the one person in the world that Jason loved and
trusted…
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Pamela
Voorhees. |
So the series
has come full circle again with Mrs. Voorhees (Paula Shaw) once
again getting screen time, even though it’s really the dream demon
Fred Kruger. The trailer for the film shows Freddy and Jason locked
in mortal combat, with Freddy asking the very logical question…
”Why
won’t you die!??”
Jason will
never die. As long as fans of the series are around, and there’s
money to be made, Jason Voorhees will stalk us in the darkest
corners of our fears. Beware! Deep in the woods there lurks a
monster, an enraged beast that kills. Stay out of the woods and you
MAY be safe, but remember, as Alice Cooper sang, “he knows your
house!”
Ki
Ki Ki Ma Ma Ma!!.
| The
thunder rumbles through the sky and the lightning flashes
illuminate the world. The rain pours down keeping a steady
rhythmic beat on the room of your cabin in the woods. |
Inside
you are safe and warm, the fireplace is casting a soft warm
glow. The object of your affections is pressed up next to
you, warm and comforting.
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The
air is filled with romance and your excitement builds as
passions flare…hands roam, caressing and fondling….
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SUDDENLY
the door to the cabin blows open filling your love nest
with rain and wind…as you look up a huge figure is
silhouetted against the lightning flashes.
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His
hulking form fills the doorway. The figure is bald, and
wears a mask. Clutched in his hand, dripping with rain, is
a long handled axe. The smell of rot fills the room and
your heart is racing.
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The
figure studies you for moment, apparently remembering
some ancient past sin committed against it (he just
wanted to swim) then purposefully stalks forward.
You
have just enough time to scream….
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THE
END…?
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