Anyone who knows The Movie Guy knows he can't let a Friday the 13th go by without doing a story on his favourite Movie Franchise of all time...the un-killable Friday the 13th!!! Here’s Guy's fond look back at the franchise that launched a thousand deaths…and kick started the classic 80’s slasher movie craze.

PHOTO CREDIT - MoviePoster.com

Edmonton - July 12, 2012 - Anyone who knows me knows I can't let a Friday the 13th go by without doing a story on my favourite Movie Franchise of all time...the Bond movies!!!

Uh...no...just kidding. Of course I’m referring to the un-killable Friday the 13th franchise - a franchise that started as a low-budget pickup for Paramount pictures in the spring of 1980, and led to 7 ‘official’ sequels from Paramount (ending with 1989’s atrocious Jason Takes Manhattan); a change of studios to New Line Cinema for 2 more sequels (Jason Goes to Hell and Jason X), an enormously crossover film with New Line ‘star’ Freddy Kreuger, and of course, the hit 2009 remake.

That’s 30 years of Friday the 13th films, and just when you think it’s safe to go back into the woods (both the Freddy Vs Jason and Friday the 13th remake follow-ups remains stalled in development hell)...along comes another announcement of yet another remake / mash-up / sequel / re-imagining. So don’t count out ol' Jason yet.

And without further ado, here’s my fond look back at the franchise that launched a thousand deaths...and kick-started the classic 80’s slasher movie craze.

FRIDAY THE 13th (1980) - this ultra-low budget (approx. $550,000) shocker was picked up by mighty Paramount Pictures, and released on over 1100 screens in May of 1980. A word of mouth sensation, this scary, bloody take on Agatha Christie’s ‘Ten Little Indians’ became one of the year’s biggest hits, pulling in nearly $40,000,000 (roughly translated to $200,000,000 in today’s box-office). Featuring ground-breaking (and very explicit) makeup effects by the up and coming makeup artist Tom Savini (Dawn of the Dead), young people lined up around the block to get scared senseless (particularly by the very effective ‘last-minute’ shock ending). Oh - and this is the film that launched Kevin Bacon’s career, so how can you NOT love it!



FRIDAY THE 13th PART 2 (1981) - After the shocking (and for Paramount execs, somewhat embarrassing) box office success of F13, a sequel was quickly commissioned and turned around in less than a year. Again launching it with an ultra-wide release strategy (Paramount initially released this on more screens than Raiders of the Lost Ark!), and saturating the airwaves with advance tv spots, Paramount all but guaranteed themselves a huge opening weekend (which they got) and a quick death at the box office (this sequel grossed just over half of what the original did just the summer before). This sequel IS notable, however, for the introduction of Jason Voorhees as the series’ main villain (remember, it was his mother doin’ the killing in the original) - complete with the oh-so-chic Elephant Man sack over his head. I love how the ‘body count tally’ continues, even in the trailer...



FRIDAY THE 13th PART 3 in 3D (1982) - Moving the release date to late summer (mid-August) proved to be a brilliant strategy on the part of Paramount (a strategy many studios use to this day, as a lot of lower-budgeted genre films tend to get released in August - after all the mega-budgeted blockbusters have run their course), and releasing it in 3D was an even bigger stroke of genius, as this 2nd sequel had an enormous opening weekend, and even showed some staying power, as box-office totals rose almost to the level of the original (to put things in perspective, keep in mind this film cost around 4 million bucks, and made more than Tron, Blade Runner, and Fast Times at Ridgemont High!). It’s also probably the greatest 3D experience I’ve ever had in a movie theatre...and the one where Jason gets his mask!



FRIDAY THE 13th : THE FINAL CHAPTER (1984) - After skipping the summer of ’83, Paramount pulled out all the stops, hiring director Joseph Zito (who had made his mark with 1981’s terrifying slasher, The Prowler) and bringing back Tom Savini to do the makeup effects. This was Paramount’s widest F13 release yet (opening on more screens than Footloose, Gremlins, and Beverly Hills Cop!?!), opening in the spring of ’84 to massive box office (it had the 6th biggest opening weekend of the year, after such juggernauts as Ghostbusters, Star Trek III, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Gremlins, and Beverly Hills Cop. And for what it’s worth, it even got the best reviews of any F13 film since the original, as even the harshest critics of the series agreed that it was a pretty good send-off for Mr. Voorhees & Co. (and it’s got CRISPIN GLOVER!)...



FRIDAY THE 13th PART V: A NEW BEGINNING (1985) - ...aaaand of course the massive success of the ‘Final’ chapter meant Paramount couldn’t leave well enough alone, so they ‘re-launched’ the franchise with this cheap and sleazy yawner, that brought to life everything critics of the series said it was - ugly, cynical, violent, misogynistic…the list goes on. Oh - and they inexplicably changed the titles to a ‘Roman numerals’ system. To top it all off, the MPAA - the U.S. ratings organization which had long hated this series - basically forced the studio to cut all the ‘good bits’, leaving a bloodless, scare-free mess of a film that doesn’t deserve a spot on the F13 mantle (and the totally misleading trailer doesn’t deserve a link here, either!). Still, a mega-wide release strategy meant big business opening weekend…followed by an even bigger drop in business than usual.

FRIDAY THE 13th PART VI: JASON LIVES (1986) - even though Paramount had long shown their contempt for this series (and its fans) and continued to pump out the films as easy cash grabs, one had to feel they made this one if only to atone for the disaster that was A New Beginning, and to actually reward fans for their loyalty to the series. The result was the freshest, funniest, scariest, and most purely ‘fun’ sequel of the entire series - and one that most definitely keeps its tongue planted firmly in cheek (one could argue that this movie did the whole Scream ‘deconstruction of the slasher movie genre’ thing a good ten years before Scream did). Highly recommended, and a perfect place to end Part 1 of our F13 retrospective. Don’t forget - you can catch Jason Lives on the big screen this Friday (the 13th) at Metro Cinema at the Garneau!