Greetings & Salutations, Y'all!
I'm certain there is not a single fan of slasher horror films on the planet Earth that is not familiar with the Friday The 13th movie franchise about a nearly-destructive, zombie-like serial killer named Jason Voorhees who wears a hockey mask and (usually armed with a machete) creatively slaughters groups of teenagers up and adults who are up to no good around the fictitious Camp Crystal Lake where he drowned as a child.
Yep the name Jason Voorhees is right up there at the top of the list with Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers (and no not the guy who played Austin Powers!), Pinhead, Chucky, and Leatherface in the annuals of brutally sadistic fictional killers.
Though unlike most of the others mentioned, while he can be rather creative when it comes to the manner of slaughtering his prey, and the gore levels can go right through the roof, Jason doesn't kill his victims out of any sick sense of pleasure, or sadism. He does it simply to fulfill the wishes of his dead mother -- namely to seek vengeance on anyone who enters his wilderness and commits the unforgivable sins of doing drugs, having per-marital sexual intercourse, and going skinny dipping in the lake he drowned in years ago....in short just about anything a vast majority of out-of-control horny teenagers would do in real life.
The Friday the 13th franchise, which began forty years ago this month on Friday, May 9, 1980 (yeah, not actually on Friday the 13th) a few days before Mother's Day (Sunday, May 11th of that year), would go on to spawn at least nine other sequels, one crossover film with the Nightmare On Elm Street horror franchise, and one reboot. The staying power of this franchise is a testament to the power of rabid fandom.
Set at a
rural New Jersey summer camp 21 years
after the accidental drowning of a severely deformed child named Jason
Voorhees, the movie follows a group of teenage camp councilors
attempting to re-open the seemingly cursed Camp Crystal Lake (nicknamed
"Camp Blood" by the superstitious locals), all the while being stalked
and murdered in rather creative ways by an unknown serial killer. Throughout much of the film, you see these murders largely through the point-of-view of the killer with next to no clue as to their actual identity.
When director Sean S. Cunningham's horror film premiered it captured the imagination of audiences everywhere, earning nearly $60 million worldwide on a budget of just over half a million. Although not popular with critics at the time, Friday the 13th is considered one of the most successful media franchises in the United States. It is widely referenced repeatedly in American popular culture that has generated a cult-like fanbase. Harry Manfredini's iconic musical score for the 1980 film, which includes the now infamous "ki-ki-ki, ma-ma-ma" sound effect for the killer's off-screen point of view, is probably one of the best known in the annuals of the horror genre. Jason's hockey mask has become probably one of the most recognizable images in horror and popular culture.
The biggest irony of all this is the fact that the nearly indestructible Jason Voorhees himself was not the killer the original film at all. In fact, Jason himself would not even begin his career as one of the big screen's most infamous slashers until the sequel film, Friday The 13th: Part 2 premiered a year later in 1981, and he would not actually sport the iconic hockey mask until a year later after almost two-thirds of the way into the third chapter of the franchise, Friday The 13th: Part 3 in 1982.
This little movie trivia detail actually made its way into the 1996 Wes Craven horror film Scream, first film of another well-known horror movie franchise where the first unfortunate victim in the film was asked who the killer in Friday The 13th was, then promptly fell for this trick question. Although the killer in the film -- well, one of them -- mocked the victim by erroneously claiming that Jason didn't show up until the sequel, which was not strictly speaking true. He actually did, though not as the menacing horror movie monster he would later become, but rather as the reanimated corpse of a drowned boy in what many still call one of the biggest jump-scare moment in horror movie history.
Perhaps the biggest irony of the original Friday The 13th film opening on Mother's Day weekend is evident when you realize that the original monster of this franchise was in fact Jason's mother, Pamela Voorhees, the psychopathic mother of the drowned boy who, quite rightly, blamed her son's death on the irresponsible actions of the camp councilors.
Through perhaps one of the best examples of audience manipulation in a horror film since the reveal that Norman Bates' mother was nothing but a corpse in a rocking chair; we never see, nor are we introduced to the killer until the final act in the film.
What makes this reveal even more unique at the time is that virtually nobody expected a female antagonist, much less someone capable of pulling off murders as grizzly and gory as anything Michael Myers did to his victims a few years before in John Carpenter's 1978 film Halloween.
Yep, the lesson here is never underestimate the power of a vengeful mother, especially one who hears the voice of her dead son in her head telling her to "Kill them mommy!" over and over -- the actual origin of the previously mentioned "ki-ki-ki, ma-ma-ma" sound effect from the killer's point of view.
Forty years later, and a decade since the last Friday The 13th reboot played in theaters, the legacy of this horror movie franchise which began ironically on Mother's Day weekend of 1980 continues to have a profound effect on the way horror films are made. They certainly made those of us who grew up with them in the 80s and 90s sit on the edge of our seats as we watched people our age getting taken apart in supremely gory fashion over the span of four decades.
They also set up the classic rules for horror movie survival if y'all ever find yourselves in a similar situation:
(1) No smoking pot, or doing drugs.
(2) No pre-marital sex.
(3) No eating after midnight....(oops, wrong 80s franchise!) I mean to say, never go off alone to investigate strange noises, or be alone when someone else does -- especially if both of y'all have done numbers 1 or 2.
(4) Never be the annoying person in a group of friends -- you're not coming back.
I'm certain there is not a single fan of slasher horror films on the planet Earth that is not familiar with the Friday The 13th movie franchise about a nearly-destructive, zombie-like serial killer named Jason Voorhees who wears a hockey mask and (usually armed with a machete) creatively slaughters groups of teenagers up and adults who are up to no good around the fictitious Camp Crystal Lake where he drowned as a child.
Yep the name Jason Voorhees is right up there at the top of the list with Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers (and no not the guy who played Austin Powers!), Pinhead, Chucky, and Leatherface in the annuals of brutally sadistic fictional killers.
Though unlike most of the others mentioned, while he can be rather creative when it comes to the manner of slaughtering his prey, and the gore levels can go right through the roof, Jason doesn't kill his victims out of any sick sense of pleasure, or sadism. He does it simply to fulfill the wishes of his dead mother -- namely to seek vengeance on anyone who enters his wilderness and commits the unforgivable sins of doing drugs, having per-marital sexual intercourse, and going skinny dipping in the lake he drowned in years ago....in short just about anything a vast majority of out-of-control horny teenagers would do in real life.
The Friday the 13th franchise, which began forty years ago this month on Friday, May 9, 1980 (yeah, not actually on Friday the 13th) a few days before Mother's Day (Sunday, May 11th of that year), would go on to spawn at least nine other sequels, one crossover film with the Nightmare On Elm Street horror franchise, and one reboot. The staying power of this franchise is a testament to the power of rabid fandom.
 |
| Poster for Friday The 13th (1980) which premiered on Friday, May 9, 1980....not actually on Friday the 13th. |
When director Sean S. Cunningham's horror film premiered it captured the imagination of audiences everywhere, earning nearly $60 million worldwide on a budget of just over half a million. Although not popular with critics at the time, Friday the 13th is considered one of the most successful media franchises in the United States. It is widely referenced repeatedly in American popular culture that has generated a cult-like fanbase. Harry Manfredini's iconic musical score for the 1980 film, which includes the now infamous "ki-ki-ki, ma-ma-ma" sound effect for the killer's off-screen point of view, is probably one of the best known in the annuals of the horror genre. Jason's hockey mask has become probably one of the most recognizable images in horror and popular culture.
The biggest irony of all this is the fact that the nearly indestructible Jason Voorhees himself was not the killer the original film at all. In fact, Jason himself would not even begin his career as one of the big screen's most infamous slashers until the sequel film, Friday The 13th: Part 2 premiered a year later in 1981, and he would not actually sport the iconic hockey mask until a year later after almost two-thirds of the way into the third chapter of the franchise, Friday The 13th: Part 3 in 1982.
This little movie trivia detail actually made its way into the 1996 Wes Craven horror film Scream, first film of another well-known horror movie franchise where the first unfortunate victim in the film was asked who the killer in Friday The 13th was, then promptly fell for this trick question. Although the killer in the film -- well, one of them -- mocked the victim by erroneously claiming that Jason didn't show up until the sequel, which was not strictly speaking true. He actually did, though not as the menacing horror movie monster he would later become, but rather as the reanimated corpse of a drowned boy in what many still call one of the biggest jump-scare moment in horror movie history.
Perhaps the biggest irony of the original Friday The 13th film opening on Mother's Day weekend is evident when you realize that the original monster of this franchise was in fact Jason's mother, Pamela Voorhees, the psychopathic mother of the drowned boy who, quite rightly, blamed her son's death on the irresponsible actions of the camp councilors.
 |
| "Jason is my son, and today is his birthday." |
Through perhaps one of the best examples of audience manipulation in a horror film since the reveal that Norman Bates' mother was nothing but a corpse in a rocking chair; we never see, nor are we introduced to the killer until the final act in the film.
What makes this reveal even more unique at the time is that virtually nobody expected a female antagonist, much less someone capable of pulling off murders as grizzly and gory as anything Michael Myers did to his victims a few years before in John Carpenter's 1978 film Halloween.
Yep, the lesson here is never underestimate the power of a vengeful mother, especially one who hears the voice of her dead son in her head telling her to "Kill them mommy!" over and over -- the actual origin of the previously mentioned "ki-ki-ki, ma-ma-ma" sound effect from the killer's point of view.
Forty years later, and a decade since the last Friday The 13th reboot played in theaters, the legacy of this horror movie franchise which began ironically on Mother's Day weekend of 1980 continues to have a profound effect on the way horror films are made. They certainly made those of us who grew up with them in the 80s and 90s sit on the edge of our seats as we watched people our age getting taken apart in supremely gory fashion over the span of four decades.
They also set up the classic rules for horror movie survival if y'all ever find yourselves in a similar situation:
(1) No smoking pot, or doing drugs.
(2) No pre-marital sex.
(3) No eating after midnight....(oops, wrong 80s franchise!) I mean to say, never go off alone to investigate strange noises, or be alone when someone else does -- especially if both of y'all have done numbers 1 or 2.
(4) Never be the annoying person in a group of friends -- you're not coming back.
 |
| Happy Mother's Day, Y'all! |
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