Friday the 13th: A Retrospective
A Look Back at Jason Voorhees and the Legendary Slasher Franchise
Jan 21, 2009
On the thirteenth of February, 2009, (a Friday as if you needed to ask) director Marcus Nispel will reintroduce cinema goers to the hockey-masked horror icon, Jason Voorhees. The first film, released on a shoestring budget back in 1980, went on to make $39.7 million at the box office and spawned ten sequels.
Over the years this series has enlisted the services of eleven directors, fifteen writers, and eight different 'Jasons'. It is little wonder that no one without an obsessive interest in the films has the faintest clue what has been going on at Camp Crystal Lake all these years. Ahead of Friday the 13th 2009, here's a look back at the story so far.
Friday the 13th (1980)
In the 1950's, at the forest resort of Camp Crystal Lake, a little boy drowns while the councillors charged with his welfare are having sex. In due course they are brutally murdered and the camp is closed - branded cursed by locals. Fast forward to the present day and an attempt to reopen the camp results once again in the death of all but one teenage volunteer.
It is revealed that the boy who drowned was called Jason Voorhees, and his mother, Pamela, is having her bloody revenge on those she sees as responsible. Alice, the lone survivor, manages to subdue and eventually decapitate Pamela Voorhees and is rescued by the police.
Friday the 13th Parts II, III, IV (1981-1984)
Retconning the original film's plot it transpires that Jason didn't drown after all, but lived out the intervening years as a disfigured hermit in the woods. Enraged by witnessing his mother's death he picks up where she left off and continues the massacre, disguising his face first by a burlap sack and then in his trademark hockey mask. He finally meets his match in Part IV, subtitled The Final Chapter, when Tommy Jarvis (a pre-Goonies Corey Feldman) buries a machete into the side of his head.
Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning (1985)
In what is commonly perceived to be the most unpopular entry of the franchise, a now adolescent Tommy Jarvis is haunted by visions of Jason and the body count continues. In the end the killer turns out to be a disgruntled cop who has donned the mask in order to divert the blame from himself.
Friday the 13th Parts VI - IX (1986-1993)
With the help of a metal stake and an opportunistic bolt of lightening Tommy Jarvis inadvertently reanimates Jason's corpse, turning the killer into a seemingly indestructible zombie. When several attempts to subdue him fail the FBI are called in and blow Jason away in suitably explosive style. With his immortal soul refusing to shift off the mortal coil his long lost niece comes to the rescue and sends him to hell.
Friday the 13th Part X (2002)
Chronologically the final instalment, a captive Jason is frozen in time only to be accidentally reawoken aboard a 25th Century spacecraft. Despite receiving a cybernetic upgrade he is jettisoned and burns up entering the atmosphere of a nearby planet.
Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
Picking up where Part IX left off, Jason Voorhees is rescued from Hell by fellow horror icon Freddy Kreuger and charged with spreading terror in the town of Springwood. When the chaos is blamed on Freddy as planned, Jason refuses to lie down and stop killing, leading to an epic showdown between the two titans. Jason emerges an ambiguous victor, clutching Freddy's severed, but still animated, head.
Friday the 13th (2009)
While not a sequel next month's film is not strictly a remake either. Writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, who also penned Freddy vs. Jason, have stated it was their intention to reboot the franchise, and as such the new Friday the 13th will take in elements from the first four films, as well as significant amounts of original material. That it will be financially successful probably goes without saying, but perhaps this will be the release to buck the curse and garner one or two positive reviews as well.
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