With the Friday The 13th remake coming to cinemas imminently I am reminded of an incident from university, when I was doing my Masters. We had a little meeting where we all gathered together to present our research proposals and discuss them with the lecturers. This guy gets up and says he was going to write his on representations of America ideology in action movies, but had decided this was a subject that was done to death (this was pretty soon after 9/11 - the alleged game breaker for the American world), so he decided to do it on horror movies instead. The nuance of his approach I forget, I think he was going to look at George A. Romero movies, in what context I really can't remember, but the point was, he was going to compare them to less artistic, bog-standard horror movies, in his words "rubbish like the Friday the 13th movies". At this point I, fresh from having watched all of them, in chronological order, asked him how many he had actually seen, the answer, after much stumbling, "the first one, and possibly the third one, I can't remember." "Case closed", I murmured under my breathe.
This exchange comes to mind because, with the release of the remake, there's been a certain amount written on the original series and pretty much everything is of an equally dismissive character. The problem seems to be that the films have become an easy shorthand for cheap, exploitative horror movies, a cliché of everything that is bad about the genre. They are not viewed on their own merits, indeed I doubt they are much viewed at all, instead everyone presumes to know what they are like Of course there's missteps in the series - there's 10 (or 11 counting Freddy vs Jason), how couldn't there be: I watched 1-7 on Sky Movies in the space of a week and then they stopped showing them; I discovered why when I paid good money for 8, Jason takes Manhattan, and discovered that whoever chooses films for Sky had saved everyone wasting an hour and a half - but taken as a whole they are superb, thought provoking, ahead of their time - classics of the genre in short.
Jason doesn't appear, in anything like his usual form, in the first film, doesn't wear the hockey mask till the third film, again doesn't appear in the fifth film and barely appears in the ninth, so already we have a series of films in which the most famous image is a lot more enigmatic than would appear. Jason is pure emptiness, he has no positive content, consequently it doesn't matter whether he officially appears in the film, he is still in the film. He is retrospectively in the first film, in the same way that his presence permeates the fifth - and not just for the central character (who is still haunted by him) - his very emptiness is what allows him to be present everywhere - he has no character to pin him down, thus pretty much every shot in all the films is from the angle of the killer following his prey, he is present everywhere threatening death, more so, I would argue, than in any comparable horror film.
The nearest is perhaps Michael Myers in Halloween, but here the beginning, featuring him as a child (and the ridiculous filling out of this in the remake), attempt a pyschologizing of the character everywhere absent from the Friday the 13th films - it is Jason's mother who is traumatized by his "death", not Jason himself; as well the fact that in Halloween Donald Pleasance spends the entire film telling us just how empty Michael Myers is. It is as if this must be continuously reinforced precisely because it actually isn't true. For instance the fact that Michael Myers returns to Haddonfield is presented as a mission, even though the status of that mission is unclear, whereas for Jason the continuous returns to Crystal Lake are merely a fact, he must return to Crystal Lake, not for any reason, but as pure, empty compulsion
The Friday the 13th films that fail are the films which attempt to give him character, in Jason Takes Manhattan we have the attempts at humour and Jason has become a misogynist (on which more later), both of which affect his killing; in Freddy vs Jason he is no longer the ruthlessly efficient killing machine of old but becomes the tool of Freddy and attains character through this relationship which affects his killing, as if he can't help killing, even though he knows he's just being used, so he manages to kill one person loudly, alerting the others to danger.
The mask is a very obvious signifier of this emptiness but it still appears misunderstood, even in the films themselves. In Nine we have the heart as the seat of Jason's "essence" (his heart must find another host in which to be reborn), whereas the point is that Jason has no essence, he is pure externality, the mask hides nothing, for there is nothing to hide, there is no character, Jason kills. That's it.
And here we have another misunderstanding. Jason as misogynist, or the Friday the 13th films as misogynistic. Jason makes no distinctions. I'm reminded of an anecdote about Steve Albini: when Courtney Love was asked if Albini was a misogynist she replied, "No, he's a misanthrope, he hates everyone equally". And this is Jason's position, at least until Jason Takes Manhattan. He kills whoever comes across his path. And he kills them all in a similar manner. The difference in treatment between ...Manhattan and the rest of the films is striking in this. In ...Manhattan every time he kills a woman he lingers over the kill, is just too sadistic, whereas the male kills are as quick and efficient as they ever were. He even strangles one of the women which would never have been an acceptable kill in any of the other films.
It is also a bit of a myth that he has something against people having sex. It is true that his mother has issues in the first film (Jason died while the counsellors who should have been watching him were having sex, so the story goes), but Jason isn't bothered by this, again, it's true that he kills a few people while they are having sex but the point is that it is an efficient time to kill people, firstly because they will have separated from the rest of the group to have sex and secondly because their defences are down.
So, as a whole, the films are classic, but also individually there are at least some classics. The first one I guess goes without saying, the final scare is one of the best in any horror film, and the whole (spoiler alert) mother as killer thing is a great device, playing with audience expectations of what the psychopathic killer should be like. The third one, which at first I didn't have much time for has some great moments, including a disgusting section in a roadside shop which is the equal of anything in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and has the flip side of the first film's ending, which is absolutely bizarre but brilliant because of it. The fifth film demonstrates that the self-referencing, tongue-in-cheek horror flick isn't the sole preserve of the post-modern horror film, but was alive and well in the midst of the Friday the 13th films. The moment when the ambulance driver pulls back the sheet on the mutilated body and, to the kids horrified reaction, mutters, "bunch of pussies", is one of the funniest moments in any horror film. Seven is also genius in this self-reference, playing with the series' expectations of screaming victims and inventive kills. The moments when Jason chases people around the forest are pure gold. He almost randomly changes weaponry, no thought for utility (at one point he has a chainsaw on the end of a huge stick?!), constantly stopping in the midst of the chase to wield his weapon at empty space, and the way that Jason is re-raised from the lake is the most inventive of all the films, showing how necessity (having Jason die at the end of a film but needing him alive for the start of the next film) can begat genius.
Yes, the series goes down hill with 8 and 9 (Jason X deserves an honourable mention for turning things round before the pointless Freddy vs Jason), but before then there is enough, both collectively and individually, to nominate the films as classics of the genre rather than looking down on them as somehow standard lowbrow horror films, to be contrasted with more self-reflexive, thinking horror films. The beauty of the Friday the 13th films is that they play with the clichés of the horror genre as a whole and the clichés generated by the series itself, while at the same time still using these clichés to create effective horror movies: the best of the films are those that play with the clichés rather than those which try to (literally in the case of Jason Takes Manhattan) escape from the clichés.
This exchange comes to mind because, with the release of the remake, there's been a certain amount written on the original series and pretty much everything is of an equally dismissive character. The problem seems to be that the films have become an easy shorthand for cheap, exploitative horror movies, a cliché of everything that is bad about the genre. They are not viewed on their own merits, indeed I doubt they are much viewed at all, instead everyone presumes to know what they are like Of course there's missteps in the series - there's 10 (or 11 counting Freddy vs Jason), how couldn't there be: I watched 1-7 on Sky Movies in the space of a week and then they stopped showing them; I discovered why when I paid good money for 8, Jason takes Manhattan, and discovered that whoever chooses films for Sky had saved everyone wasting an hour and a half - but taken as a whole they are superb, thought provoking, ahead of their time - classics of the genre in short.
Jason doesn't appear, in anything like his usual form, in the first film, doesn't wear the hockey mask till the third film, again doesn't appear in the fifth film and barely appears in the ninth, so already we have a series of films in which the most famous image is a lot more enigmatic than would appear. Jason is pure emptiness, he has no positive content, consequently it doesn't matter whether he officially appears in the film, he is still in the film. He is retrospectively in the first film, in the same way that his presence permeates the fifth - and not just for the central character (who is still haunted by him) - his very emptiness is what allows him to be present everywhere - he has no character to pin him down, thus pretty much every shot in all the films is from the angle of the killer following his prey, he is present everywhere threatening death, more so, I would argue, than in any comparable horror film.
The nearest is perhaps Michael Myers in Halloween, but here the beginning, featuring him as a child (and the ridiculous filling out of this in the remake), attempt a pyschologizing of the character everywhere absent from the Friday the 13th films - it is Jason's mother who is traumatized by his "death", not Jason himself; as well the fact that in Halloween Donald Pleasance spends the entire film telling us just how empty Michael Myers is. It is as if this must be continuously reinforced precisely because it actually isn't true. For instance the fact that Michael Myers returns to Haddonfield is presented as a mission, even though the status of that mission is unclear, whereas for Jason the continuous returns to Crystal Lake are merely a fact, he must return to Crystal Lake, not for any reason, but as pure, empty compulsion
The Friday the 13th films that fail are the films which attempt to give him character, in Jason Takes Manhattan we have the attempts at humour and Jason has become a misogynist (on which more later), both of which affect his killing; in Freddy vs Jason he is no longer the ruthlessly efficient killing machine of old but becomes the tool of Freddy and attains character through this relationship which affects his killing, as if he can't help killing, even though he knows he's just being used, so he manages to kill one person loudly, alerting the others to danger.
The mask is a very obvious signifier of this emptiness but it still appears misunderstood, even in the films themselves. In Nine we have the heart as the seat of Jason's "essence" (his heart must find another host in which to be reborn), whereas the point is that Jason has no essence, he is pure externality, the mask hides nothing, for there is nothing to hide, there is no character, Jason kills. That's it.
And here we have another misunderstanding. Jason as misogynist, or the Friday the 13th films as misogynistic. Jason makes no distinctions. I'm reminded of an anecdote about Steve Albini: when Courtney Love was asked if Albini was a misogynist she replied, "No, he's a misanthrope, he hates everyone equally". And this is Jason's position, at least until Jason Takes Manhattan. He kills whoever comes across his path. And he kills them all in a similar manner. The difference in treatment between ...Manhattan and the rest of the films is striking in this. In ...Manhattan every time he kills a woman he lingers over the kill, is just too sadistic, whereas the male kills are as quick and efficient as they ever were. He even strangles one of the women which would never have been an acceptable kill in any of the other films.
It is also a bit of a myth that he has something against people having sex. It is true that his mother has issues in the first film (Jason died while the counsellors who should have been watching him were having sex, so the story goes), but Jason isn't bothered by this, again, it's true that he kills a few people while they are having sex but the point is that it is an efficient time to kill people, firstly because they will have separated from the rest of the group to have sex and secondly because their defences are down.
So, as a whole, the films are classic, but also individually there are at least some classics. The first one I guess goes without saying, the final scare is one of the best in any horror film, and the whole (spoiler alert) mother as killer thing is a great device, playing with audience expectations of what the psychopathic killer should be like. The third one, which at first I didn't have much time for has some great moments, including a disgusting section in a roadside shop which is the equal of anything in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and has the flip side of the first film's ending, which is absolutely bizarre but brilliant because of it. The fifth film demonstrates that the self-referencing, tongue-in-cheek horror flick isn't the sole preserve of the post-modern horror film, but was alive and well in the midst of the Friday the 13th films. The moment when the ambulance driver pulls back the sheet on the mutilated body and, to the kids horrified reaction, mutters, "bunch of pussies", is one of the funniest moments in any horror film. Seven is also genius in this self-reference, playing with the series' expectations of screaming victims and inventive kills. The moments when Jason chases people around the forest are pure gold. He almost randomly changes weaponry, no thought for utility (at one point he has a chainsaw on the end of a huge stick?!), constantly stopping in the midst of the chase to wield his weapon at empty space, and the way that Jason is re-raised from the lake is the most inventive of all the films, showing how necessity (having Jason die at the end of a film but needing him alive for the start of the next film) can begat genius.
Yes, the series goes down hill with 8 and 9 (Jason X deserves an honourable mention for turning things round before the pointless Freddy vs Jason), but before then there is enough, both collectively and individually, to nominate the films as classics of the genre rather than looking down on them as somehow standard lowbrow horror films, to be contrasted with more self-reflexive, thinking horror films. The beauty of the Friday the 13th films is that they play with the clichés of the horror genre as a whole and the clichés generated by the series itself, while at the same time still using these clichés to create effective horror movies: the best of the films are those that play with the clichés rather than those which try to (literally in the case of Jason Takes Manhattan) escape from the clichés.
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