So if you haven’t seen the movies here is a run down of all the movies in the series.
While rebuilding a summer camp that has been closed for many years (Camp Crystal Lake) a bunch of teens are picked off one by one by a killer that lurks around them. The first one to bite it, Annie, is warned by near by town locals about the places tarnished reputation for accidents and bad luck.
The murderer is Pamela Voorhees who is reeking revenge for all those years ago when her son Jason drowned in the lake and the camp counsellors weren’t paying proper attention (they were rutting like polecats instead)
With excellent gore work by the master Tom Savini, Friday the 13th set the standard for eighties slashers. Also stars a young Kevin Bacon in his first major role.
The survivor of the original still coming to terms with what happened at Crystal Lake. She is haunted by nightmares, until an unseen man breaks into her house and kills her. We jump forward five years and another group of counsellors are training at a camp near to Crystal Lake which has now been nicknamed “Camp Blood. Jason didn’t drown in the lake all those years ago and he’s back to avenge his mother’s death. (As you can see Scream 1+2 took the first two F13th’s and switched them around)
After receive a machete to the shoulder at the end of part two, Jason is mighty pissed, and goes on another rampage of teen destruction. This time also having to deal with a biker gang along the way.
This film is most notable in the series for two reasons, this is the movie when Jason dons his beloved hockey mask, and it was originally released in 3D. Which gets rather annoying when your watching the video version and it seems like people are shoving inanimate objects at the screen for no reason. The score is decidedly dodgy as well. It’s just a pity that director Steve Miner went on to direct the piss that was Halloween H2O.
Of course it isn’t the final chapter at all….
After taking out a doctor and a nurse in some classically gory ways, Jason heads back out to a summer camp to kick yet more botty. This time getting a run for his money when he comes up against young Tommy Jarvis (Played by a pre-Goonies Corey Feldman). Another notable eighties actor that makes an appearance here is Crispin Glover, most famous for playing George McFly in Back to the Future. Tom Savini also returned for SFX duty on this one.
With Tommy Jarvis now in a mental institution, he is still haunted by visions of Jason even though he is dead. But when someone else dons the hockey mask and machete combo things get ugly again. Seen by some as the worst in the series because of it being a cheap ploy to get people back in cinemas. But people wanted the REAL Jason. It’s a pity though because this film has the highest body count in the series, 22!
Yes, Jason is back ladies and gentlemen….
Tommy Jarvis returns to Jason’s grave to make sure that the nightmares go away once and for all. His plan is to cremate him but when Tommy loses it and begins to stab Jason’s corpse with a steel rod that was loose on a fence, lightening strikes the rod and brings Jason back to life. Cue yet more limb hacking and decapitations. Contains a great triple beheading and a James Bond spin off with Jason in the opening credits.
This is one of the best in the series, probably due to its tongue in cheek style humour that festers in alot of the scenes. And if you recognise Thom Matthews who plays Tommy its because he was on of the main characters in Return of the Living dead.
A young woman with psychic powers returns to Crystal Lake to try and get over the death of her father, which she caused by making him drown in the lake. When thinking about the night it happened she accidentally raises Jason from the lake with her powers, who has been lying there dormant since part 6.
So Jason is off on one again, look out for the hilarious sleeping bag death, this is probably my favourite in the series because of that scene. And because this is where Kane Hodder took over playing Jason, he makes him seem a lot tougher and indestructible than before somehow.
A boat passing through Crystal Lake manages to drag Jason from the depths of it, first he offs the occupants of the boat, then he hops on a ferry trip to New York with a bunch of teens. Less gore in this one folks you’ll be sorry to hear. Not all that bad really, it still has the punching head decapitation to recommend it. And a few comic moments when they reach New York, like Jason frightening a group of punks by lifting up his mask after kicking there “Boom box” to pieces. It is rather odd though how Jason can walk down a crowded New York street in blood stained Clothes and a Hock mask and no one batters an eyelid. That’s New York for you I guess…
Once again they have lied…as Jason X is out next year.
No explanations why Jason is alive and well, but he is so just go along with it ok?
A FBI team blows Jason to pieces after an ambush and his remains are taken to the local hospital where a doctor gets the urge to eat Jason’s black (literally) heart. When he does, the spirit of Jason possesses him. Throughout the film the spirit is passed on to other people also. We find out that Jason can only be killed by another Voorhees, but is there another? Probably the weakest in the series, but its great for references. Like the Nekromomakon and Knife used in the Evil Dead movies show up. And my personal favourite, when Jason’s mask is laying on the ground after being pulled into hell, Freddy Krugers bladed hand comes up and grabs it. This was probably a cue to Freddy Vs Jason, a film that has still not been made yet, sadly.
So if you’re in need of a horror movie in which to switch your brain off and relax, why not grab a Friday the 13th flick from the video shop and have a roaring good time.
