Friday the 13th Countdown, Day 7
May. 9th, 2005 09:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yendiPrevious entries can be found here.
We're looking at the top five movies in the series now. And we're at the movie that gave us the real debut of Jason as a killer:
Friday the 13th: Part 2
Concept: FIve years after the last slaughter at Crystal Lake, another camp is being opened on the Lake (not on the same campgrounds, in spite of what some folks think). And once again, bad things start happening to the counselors.
Primary Killer: Human Jason.
Kills: Nine or ten, depending on how you count Paul.
Really Bad Kills: None, per se.
Really Good Kills: There are quite a few stylish ones, notably the killing of wheelchair-bound Mark with a machete to the face (the subsequent scene in which Mark's body and wheelchair roll down a flight of steps being as intense as the death itself). The garroting of Crazy Ralph with barbed wire was also nifty (although flawed, as I'm not sure anyone can loop barbed wire over an entire tree as Jason did), as was the combination rope-trap/throat slitting of Scott. And, of course, Alice's death was not only shocking on its own (omg! That's Mrs. Vorhees's head in the refrigerator!), but because it established that surviving a horror movie once wasn't necessarily "happily ever after."
But the deaths that everyone remembers are the deaths of Jeff and Sandra, impaled on a spear while having sex. It's considered a classic scene, and it's unquestionably brilliant. Had it been original, the movie would probably rank higher. But this one's plagiarized straight out of Bava's Twitch of the Death Nerve. It's an unquestionably great idea, but nothing that hadn't been done before.
Celebrities: None of note.
Denouement: When Paul and Ginny get back from the bar and discover the carnage, a chase with Jason ensues (Paul gets laid out early, but comes back later on). After an extended chase, Ginny ends up in the squatter's cabin that Jason has been using at the old Camp Crystal Lake location, and sees all of Jason's victims piled up in a shrine around the severed head of Mrs. Vorhees. Before Jason can enter the cabin, Ginny grabs his mom's sweater, puts it on, and pretends to be Pamela Vorhees, getting Jason to pause for a bit. But he soon realizes that he's being duped, and attempts to attack Ginny. At that very moment, Paul bursts back into the room, distracting Jason long enough for Ginny to chop him with a machete. The two lovers head back to another cabin, where there's a dog-scare, followed by a last attack by Jason that results in Ginny waking up in an ambulance, with no sign of Paul or Jason.
Miscellany: Jason wears a burlap sack instead of a hockey mask in this movie.
Overall: There's a lot of great stuff here, marred slightly by the plagiarism. But we've got more developed characters than in the first movie, some great stalking moments, one of the best Final Girl chases ever, and a fun character (Ted) who has a major part in the movie and still manages to survive. In fact, unlike the first movie, this one has a large cast of counselors, like you might find at a real camp, and simply finds a good way to send a bunch of them offscreen for a while. And, of course, this is the movie that introduces the concept of Jason Vorhees, killer, to us. That said, there are flaws, from the use of a bad cat scare at the beginning and a bad dog scare at the end, to a cut (presumably MPAA-inspired, but I can only judge what I see) that reduces most of the kills to off-screen or quick-cuts. There are other minor flaws (if Muffin is still alive, what dog with the same bow got killed?), and some bad acting, but this is still a solid movie.
Tomorrow: Back to zombie Jason.
We're looking at the top five movies in the series now. And we're at the movie that gave us the real debut of Jason as a killer:
Friday the 13th: Part 2
Concept: FIve years after the last slaughter at Crystal Lake, another camp is being opened on the Lake (not on the same campgrounds, in spite of what some folks think). And once again, bad things start happening to the counselors.
Primary Killer: Human Jason.
Kills: Nine or ten, depending on how you count Paul.
Really Bad Kills: None, per se.
Really Good Kills: There are quite a few stylish ones, notably the killing of wheelchair-bound Mark with a machete to the face (the subsequent scene in which Mark's body and wheelchair roll down a flight of steps being as intense as the death itself). The garroting of Crazy Ralph with barbed wire was also nifty (although flawed, as I'm not sure anyone can loop barbed wire over an entire tree as Jason did), as was the combination rope-trap/throat slitting of Scott. And, of course, Alice's death was not only shocking on its own (omg! That's Mrs. Vorhees's head in the refrigerator!), but because it established that surviving a horror movie once wasn't necessarily "happily ever after."
But the deaths that everyone remembers are the deaths of Jeff and Sandra, impaled on a spear while having sex. It's considered a classic scene, and it's unquestionably brilliant. Had it been original, the movie would probably rank higher. But this one's plagiarized straight out of Bava's Twitch of the Death Nerve. It's an unquestionably great idea, but nothing that hadn't been done before.
Celebrities: None of note.
Denouement: When Paul and Ginny get back from the bar and discover the carnage, a chase with Jason ensues (Paul gets laid out early, but comes back later on). After an extended chase, Ginny ends up in the squatter's cabin that Jason has been using at the old Camp Crystal Lake location, and sees all of Jason's victims piled up in a shrine around the severed head of Mrs. Vorhees. Before Jason can enter the cabin, Ginny grabs his mom's sweater, puts it on, and pretends to be Pamela Vorhees, getting Jason to pause for a bit. But he soon realizes that he's being duped, and attempts to attack Ginny. At that very moment, Paul bursts back into the room, distracting Jason long enough for Ginny to chop him with a machete. The two lovers head back to another cabin, where there's a dog-scare, followed by a last attack by Jason that results in Ginny waking up in an ambulance, with no sign of Paul or Jason.
Miscellany: Jason wears a burlap sack instead of a hockey mask in this movie.
Overall: There's a lot of great stuff here, marred slightly by the plagiarism. But we've got more developed characters than in the first movie, some great stalking moments, one of the best Final Girl chases ever, and a fun character (Ted) who has a major part in the movie and still manages to survive. In fact, unlike the first movie, this one has a large cast of counselors, like you might find at a real camp, and simply finds a good way to send a bunch of them offscreen for a while. And, of course, this is the movie that introduces the concept of Jason Vorhees, killer, to us. That said, there are flaws, from the use of a bad cat scare at the beginning and a bad dog scare at the end, to a cut (presumably MPAA-inspired, but I can only judge what I see) that reduces most of the kills to off-screen or quick-cuts. There are other minor flaws (if Muffin is still alive, what dog with the same bow got killed?), and some bad acting, but this is still a solid movie.
Tomorrow: Back to zombie Jason.