The Friday Series at a glance
Producer Sean Cunningham originally concieved of the first Friday film as a vehicle to benifit from the popularity of the first "Halloween" film. What he and writer Victor Miller would eventually come up with became a seperate enitity both famous and infamous for it's content.
Miller would later become dissapointed in what came after the first film as Firday the 13th became a lucrative franchise for Paramount pictures. Despite the fair Box-Office returns, much of the friday series started the generic trend of "slasher" films in the late 70's and most of the 80's. Jason would become one of the most recogniseable horror icons of the past 2 decades, and today is rivaled only by Freddy Krueger as a household name.
After the terrible reviews and lukewarm response to Jason takes Manhattan, Paramount decided to part with the rights to the franchise. The surging New Line Cinema decided to buy the rights, and later produced Jason Goes to Hell, which in my opinion is better than all the previous films combined. Whats next for Jason? Well as the ending of Final Friday blatantly suggested, the next fight card matches Jason against the iconic Freddy Krueger. Cool, yes, but Michael Myers would be a better matchup if ya ask me.
The list of actors who have played the murderous Jason is almost as long as the list of the films themselves. Only stuntman Kane Hodder has portrayed Jason more than once, filling Jason's boots and hockey mask for the last 3 installments.
My thanks to Matt Dennis of Friday the 13th.Com for graciously supplying the plot synopses
Friday the 13th: Two counselors at Camp Crystal Lake are murdered in 1958. On
June 13, Present Day, Steve Christy is working to make the camp
suitable for inner-city campers. Despite multiple warnings from the
town nearby and Crazy Ralph, the counselors employed by Christy arrive
for two weeks of work. Counselors drop one-by-one, and the killer is
revealed to be Mrs. Voorhees, the mother of the boy that drowned there
in 1957 due to the ignorance of camp counselors. Only Alice survives,
cutting the head of the mother off with a machete. Alice floats into
the middle of the lake in a canoe to wait till morning, but Jason
pulls her under the water. Policemen pull her out of the lake and
she survives, but they never find Jason. This movie went on to be a huge success, and would spawn scores of copycat slasher flicks.
Friday the 13th part 2: Alice, the survivor of the first, is hunted to her house and
killed after she dreams of the first movie. Counselors arrive five
years later for a Counselor Training Camp for two weeks that is
adjacent to old Camp Crystal Lake. Once some of the counselors go
into town and some stay behind, the counselors begin to die. While
some counselors stay out and escape slaughter, the trainer Paul and
his girlfriend Ginny return. Eventually, Ginny ends up alone with
Jason in his shack deep in the woods. She uses her child psychology
major well and tricks Jason into believing that she's his mother.
She apparently escapes and is attacked again, and then we see her
carted off by the authorities as a survivor. The events in this film conclude 2 films later. Yes, all 3 occur in the same space of time.
Friday the 13th part 3: Jason walks away merely wounded from Part 2 and gets new clothes from a couple owning a highway store. Chris tentatively revisits her summer home after she had a stressful incident there awhile back. While there with other friends, a couple of them upset a motorcycle gang which draws the gas out of their main vehicle. They eventually fall in 3-D to Jason who was hiding in their barn. Jason is finally axed by Chris, but the audience has reason to suspect this is not so. His body is taken by the police. Originally presented to film audiences in 3-D, the 3rd Friday film is notable for the fact that Jason would don the trademark goalie mask for the first time.
Friday the 13th part 4: The final chapter: After getting the axe in Part 3, Jason is taken off by the police to the morgue. He reawakens, escapes, and he returns to the lake. At the lake are the Jarvis family, including a horror-make-up-obsessed son, and a nearby house rented by six teens. Also in the mix is a hunter stalking "bear" and a set of slutty twins. Jason wastes no time, beginning his slaughter of these particularly sex-obsessed teens. The hunter explains to the Jarvis girl that Jason is still alive, giving then warning to his attack. After seeing some of the hunter's clippings about Jason, Tommy alters his appearance to look like a young Jason, tricking him enough to finally kill him. However, Tommy's murderous rage at the end seems uncontrollable and tentatively psychotic, even though the doctors assure Trish otherwise. Sex obsessed is right. This film features more nudity than any of the others. The dark, ominous atmosphere of this film sets it apart from any of the others save for the first installment.
Friday the 13th part 5: A new beginning: Tommy is obsessed that Jason is waiting out there, somewhere, even though now he's around 20 and committed to a halfway house in the woods. At the halfway house, one inmate kills another and the corpse is actually taken away by its father. The father seeks revenge using the Jason persona and wreaks havoc. Pamela, Reggie, and Tommy finally confront and kill this pseudo-Jason. At the end, in the hospital, Tommy is apparently plagued by violent dreams and he apparently dons the Jason mask and kills Pam, although we can't be sure if that was reality or just a dream. At the time,this film contained more deaths than any other Friday film.
Friday the 13th part 6: Jason Lives: Tommy and friend take a hiatus from his current institution to go and cremate Jason's buried body. After stabbing the body with a metal fence post, lightning strikes and imbues the dusty corpse with new vitality. After trying to get the sheriff to help, the sheriff becomes convinced that psycho Tommy has taken on Jason's old-MO. Tommy eventually enlists the aid of the sheriff's daughter, Megan, in a plan to destroy Jason. They trap Jason at the bottom of Crystal Lake and Tommy, Megan, and the camp children survive. Yet, it probably wouldn't be smart to ever go swimming in the lake again. Jason can now be counted among the undead after his return at the hands of a well-placed bolt of lightning. Notable for Alice Cooper's soundtrack involvement. His music video "Man Behind the Mask" played on MTV for several weeks, and was pretty darned entertaining.
Friday the 13th part 7: The new blood: A distraught little Tina dreams of the time when she believes she drowned her father with her anger-triggered psychic powers. A trip back to the site is supposed to help Tina, but her doctor merely wants to exploit her. In a rage, Tina accidentally frees Jason from the bottom of the lake with her powers, and he begins to slaughter the teens next door. Tina becomes able to control her telekinesis in her fear-state and gives a strong showing against Jason. Evventually Tina uses her powers to resurrect her father and he pulls Jason into the lake with him. Yes you read right...Tina's father. Its cool yet lame at the same time.
Friday the 13th part 8: Jason takes Manhattan: The graduating class of the local high school is going on a cruise with Jason as a stowaway. The heroine believes she was almost drowned by Jason as a child. Jason eventually sinks the boat and kills many of the students on it, but many of them escape to Manhattan. A long battle with Jason ensues until Jason is washed away in the New York sewers by a midnight flooding of toxic waste. Apparently the ending of this film doesn't really happen as we see it, there is no way it could have. Jason reduced to childhood by Toxic waste? Yeah right! By the way, most of this movie was filmed in Vancouver B.C. and not Manhattan. The crew only did a few hours worth of filming in the Big Apple, and it pretty much shows.
Jason goes to Hell: The final Friday: An all-out FBI attack has killed Jason, but his heart allows him to possess the bodies of others. Only one man, Creighton Duke, realizes that Jason is still alive and can be reborn by possessing another of his relatives. He also realizes that only a Voorhees can destroy Jason for good. Back in Crystal Lake, Steven Freeman returns to find his old girlfriend has a baby. Battles ensue as Jason tries to possess a Voorhees and Creighton tries to get young Jessica Voorhees to listen to him. Jessica's mother, Diana, is killed by Jason early on and later her corpse allows for his birth. Creighton informs Jessica that only she can kill Jason, and the climactic battle has her sending him to Hell. How ever, the much-touted Jason vs. Freddy movie is cleverly plugged at the very end. This movie, IMHO, kicks the celluloid of all the other Friday films combined (With the exception of the first.)! Heck, even the actors are good! Its non-stop action! New Line knew what they were doin when they bought the franchise.
Links
Friday the 13th.ComSpooky graphics entice you to enter Jason's world, and a wonderful Crystal Lake imagemap guides you through upon entry. This site has it all! From Pics and videos, to a fan club and interviews. It's even awash with links, trivia, games, and a BBS! Now how much would you pay? But wait, there's more...and you'll have to go there to find out what awaits! My favorite Friday website!
The Dirt Mound presents Friday the 13thEasily among the creme' de la creme' of Friday the 13th websites. This awesome site is replete with Fan reviews and art, news, articles and pics. Visit now, lest Jason vent his wrath upon you and yours!
Friday the 13th by Charlie Perfetti Nicely gruesome graphics greet you when you enter. But this site isnt just fluff! It contains info and pics on all the films, bloopers, art, and info on Jason himself. Great site!
Friday the 13th part 3-D Extenisive info dealing with the 3rd and most unique of the Friday films, part 3, which was released into theatres in 3-D. Body count, behind the scenes, battles with the MPAA and more grace this introspective into Friday the 13th 3-D! Great reading!
Greg Duryea's Friday the 13th Also graphically pleasing, this Friday site delivers the goods, with extensive info, articles, multimedia, and plenty of stuff for and by the fans. Also contains some profiles on Friday the 13th conributors, and a nice chat area. Highly reccomended.
The Unofficial Freddy vs. Jason Homepage Keep up with the latest developments on the upcoming film featuring the two Titans of Terror! Reccomended.
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