Wednesday, May 1, 2013

READER REQUEST

NOTE: This post is backdated, and was posted several months ago in response to a request from a Tumblr reader. 

This blog is a few weeks old, so it’s exciting to have people start to take interest in it. I hope to get more of these, I will do as many as I can while still maintaining the post calendar I’ve created for the next couple months.

Now, onto the post, user chibitized made a request:

I’d like to read your opinion on the Friday the 13th franchise. Which one is your favorite? Least favorite?”

This is one I wasn’t anticipating doing for a while. I was planning on sticking to current and modern film reviews, news and articles and keeping the classics for special occasions such as anniversaries and special edition releases, but I’m excited to dig my teeth into this one because I have a varied opinion on this franchise. 

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As you may have seen me mention already, I’m not a huge fan of slasher flicks. There are some that I love but for the most part I lose interest with any franchise. After the 3rd installment I normally become disenchanted, annoyed and just bored with it. The Friday the 13th franchise is one of the three holy grails of slasher films. There are three names that come to people’s minds when they think of slasher films, or even horror films in general, and they are Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger and, of course, Jason Voorhees (more commonly known, simply as Jason). Out of the three, Jason is probably my least favorite but that does not mean that I do not find worth in the franchise as a whole. Here are my thoughts:



Let’s start with my favorite.
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My favorite, hands down, goes to the first installment. We don’t even see Jason as we know him in this one (we don’t see him in the mask period until the third installment), but it has one of the greatest twists in horror history, as far as I am concerned. It really was a beautifully crafted film and I feel that it was turned into a slasher franchise to compete with Halloween, which was released two years earlier in 1978.
I remember being a tiny child, watching that film with my father and being petrified. Every second was tense, every second was excruciating and right when you think that it’s all over, BAM, we’re slammed with one last terrifying jump scare that kept me awake for nights. I think it was a beautiful film, and it showed all kinds of promise for an amazing franchise to follow.

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Bitches be crazy.

It’s for this reason that I never fully enjoyed this franchise. I feel that it had an amazing start, such a strong film to get it goin, and it slowly devolved into a strange realm of the supernatural where all elements of the first were lost and we’re thrown headfirst into this world of “what the fuck is going on”. This leads me to my least favorite: Jason X.

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Really now? What was going on with this? Jason was cryogenically frozen and is in space now? Is this Austin Powers? He died, only to come back to life with a ridiculous metal mask? What is life? I fully understand how a lot of people will defend it saying, “It’s a lot of fun! It’s worth a laugh with friends!”, but that doesn’t justify the film to me. While it had some tasty kills, everything else seemed to be this slapped together, half-assed attempt to use the same bag of tricks to elicit new thrills and chills. I was not impressed. I believe in the suspension of disbelief, but there is only so far you can take it with me and this film came off to me as a cheap insult to the genre and any person who considers themselves a fan of the genre.

Overall, this franchise started strong and slowly evolved into a world of fantasy that I couldn’t fully support. I loved chapters 1 through 3, I didn’t mind 4 but when we get into the world of resurrection that part 5 deals with I start to lose interest. One film that I will give credit to, I actually love it for those times when I just want a fun ride, is Freddy Vs. Jason but I’ll save my comments on that for another time.

Now, I know that some will cry sacrilege, that I’m not a true horror fan, but these are my thoughts. I will always defend the first three films in this franchise, the first film is in my Top 10 and I don’t see it going anywhere anytime soon but you can keep the rest, Uber-Jason included.

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I just had to bring this up one more time. I mean, really? When did Jason become a villain for the Power Rangers?

If you have a film that you would like to know my thoughts on, throw it my way! Chances are I’ve already seen it but if I haven’t then I’ll definitely check it out. I always love peepin’ a new flick, even if it means I might dislike it.

Until next time.

-Rg Lovecraft

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