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'Friday the 13th'—Beating a Dead Horse and Having Fun With It

A Retrospective on the Iconic Slasher Series

By Joey QuigginsPublished 5 years ago 5 min read
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Jason as seen in 'Friday the 13th Part 7: The New Blood'

Friday the 13th, the original film, is a very interesting topic. It created one of the most iconic series in pop culture history, but at the same time it’s nothing more than an average b-movie riding on the success of Halloween. Even Victor Miller, the writer of the movie, has stated that it was meant to be a rip-off of the classic slasher. Now hearing that, you may think that I don’t like this movie. Don’t get me wrong, I love this movie. I love the whole damn series. I own every movie and I watch them religiously, even the reboot (which isn’t as bad as most people say it is). It’s just interesting that this monster of a series had such a humble beginning. But enough about that. You’ve seen the title. You’re probably thinking, “are you gonna shit on the greatest horror franchise of all time?” And yes, yes I am. But in a great way. As you’ve figured out by now, I’m talking about how Friday the 13th is beating a dead horse and having fun with it.

After the surprising success of the first film, Paramount was set on making a sequel. Sean Cunningham and Victor Miller thought that the title Friday the 13th was very marketable and believed that it could become an anthology series, with a new movie coming out each year with different characters and stories. The higher-ups at Paramount didn’t like the idea and wanted to basically recreate the original with a higher budget. Therefore, Cunningham and Miller backed away from the project and Steve Miner came on to direct part two. The final project was very similar to the first film, with the killer being the only real change. This was the film to officially introduce the character of Jason to the franchise, with him being the masked killer now instead of his mother. The plot stayed mostly the same, a killer at a camp hunts down teens. This quickly became a trend of the series. Here, let’s play a game. I’m going to explain the plot of a Friday the 13th film, and you tell me which one it is. Ready?

A group of teens go to a summer camp. They start getting friendly and getting naughty until a hidden killer takes them all out one-by-one until there is only one final girl left. She finds all the bodies of her dead friends, freaks out, finds the killer, and miraculously stops them.

You know which one it is? That’s right, almost all of them. Besides a few exceptions, this was the cookie-cutter plot to every film in the franchise. And that’s totally fine, because every film brought something new to it. Part three is where Jason got his iconic hockey mask from Shelly. Part four is the first time anybody killed Jason. Part five was a murder mystery who-dun-it. Part six gave us the best rendition of Tommy Jarvis. Jason fights a psychic. He goes to New York, hell, and space. This series really has it all. It’s not trying to be anything special. It’s just entertaining for entertainment’s sake.

After the fourth movie, the series was supposed to end. Part four was The Final Chapter. That wasn’t just a cool name. It was supposed to be the end to Jason and the franchise. Of course, we know how that went. A year later, there was a new Jason on the big screen. This is where many people say that the series began to spiral. After this movie, we got the zombie Jason and the psychics and the trips to the Big Apple. I, however, see this is the rebirth of the series. After four movies with the same exact plot, Friday the 13th needed to be shaken up a bit. Hell, take a look at part six. That movie is one that many die-hard Jason fans claim to be their favorite, and it's the one where the villain is brought back to life with lightning and starts killing people with great comedic timing. The people who loved this series were happy for the change of pace.

As you go further into the series, part seven introduces Kane Hodder, arguably the best actor to ever play Jason. He was in four movies and, thanks to the video game, has actually portrayed every onscreen Jason in the original series. This guy is a legend in the horror community. This is also when the series really took a hard turn for the weird. At this point, the basic Friday plot was getting a bit stale, so the creators had to think outside the box. Part seven could be basically described as Jason vs. Carrie. After that, Jason decided to hang out on a boat and make a brief pit-stop in Manhattan. Part nine had Jason die yet again and pass his soul onto numerous hosts until he was resurrected and sent straight to Hell. It was at the end of this movie that audiences got the first tease at the eventual face-off between Jason and another slasher icon, Freddy Krueger. Unfortunately, that movie wouldn't come out for another decade. To keep interest in the character alive, Jason X was made. This is the movie people point to when they talk about the worst of the series, but I couldn't disagree more. The tenth film was able to capture the unique atmosphere of a late 90s/early 2000s horror movie, making it feel more like popular films of the time such as Scream. This movie also had one of the best kills in the series (the frozen head smash) and recreated one of the best kills from the series (the sleeping bag kill). This movie had its own fun imagining Jason in space while also respecting its lineage.

While the Friday the 13th series may have lasted longer than it should have, nobody can deny its impact on horror and film as a whole. It knew what it was and never tried to be more than it had a right to be. It is, in my opinion, the quintessential horror series. It encapsulates everything that makes scary movies popular. It is most definitely beating a dead horse, but it is obviously having fun with it.

To read more of my ramblings about film and such, follow me on Twitter @capnquigs.

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About the Creator

Joey Quiggins

Broke college student studying film and writing about what he sees in the world

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