Space Invader: Saturday the 14th
Does Jason Voorhees matter anymore?
The Tip Sheet has spun off. Introducing Space Invaders, a newsletter about movies and pop culture that invades this space on Saturday. Arrives irregularly during this pilot phase.
You probably noticed the date yesterday, horror fans definitely did.
You can make a horror movie based on any holiday (and I think we have), but no date on the calendar comes with better branding than “Friday the 13th” even if the movie series that bears that date was a simple slasher about a summer camp cook killing horny teens in retaliation for the accidental drowning death* of her son years earlier.
(*Of course, we learned in Friday the 13th Part 2 that Jason Voorhees didn’t die, though the series never establishes why, being so upset about the death of his mother at the end of part one, Jason never sought her out between his “drowning” and the day of her demise in order to comfort his one, dedicated and afflicted parent.)
Friday the 13th was a horror juggernaut in the 80s, releasing eight films in 10 years. It was the vanguard of the genre, a leader among a whole collection of serial slashers even if the film itself was swimming in the wake of Halloween, Black Christmas and other low budget films about a weirdo with a knife. Sure, Friday the 13th was not terribly original, but it had energy, humour, and a willingness to roll with whatever ludicrousness some director could squeeze out of a couple of million bucks. In eight movies, Jason Voorhees evolved from victim to a sack wearing vengeance seeker to a hockey mask-wearing waterlogged zombie.
But something weird occurred to me this Friday the 13th. One Twitter user on Thursday night noted the precipitous lack of a Friday the 13th movie marathon yesterday, even among the usual sources like AMC who’s already advertising their annual Fear Fest slate of Halloween horrors. I did a brief scan of the TV listings, and the only acknowledgement of the occasion is an airing of the first film on one of the Hollywood Suite channels.
So what happened to Friday the 13th?
The first, and most obvious answer, is legal. For the last several years, the original Friday the 13th movie has been subject to a fairly interesting copyright case that had barred the development of any further movie projects. Victor Miller, who wrote the original film, claimed that he owned the rights to the script and all the lucrative sequel potential there in, while producer Sean S. Cunningham said that Friday was a work-for-hire job and Miller was asked to merely execute on ideas by turning them into a coherent shooting script. A California court finally found in favour of Miller in March.
Having said that, Cunningham explained earlier this year that a new Friday is still years from reaching theatres, and it’s worth noting that it’s already been 15 years since we last saw a Friday the 13th movie. The last movie in the series was released on Friday February the 13th, 2009, surprisingly one of only five series entries that were released on the titular day. There’s supposedly a Camp Crystal Lake TV prequel in development, but it’s hit a number of hiccups and may or may not sill be happening depending on the day.
There’s certainly not an aversion to franchises, even in the horror space. Original horror movies are an easier sell in the current theatrical climate than period pieces or romantic comedies, but there’s still a backbone built on reliability, whether that’s The Conjuring universe or The Purge movies. It’s worth noting that these movies don’t depend on a totem like Jason or Freddy or Leatherface; they’re not based around a unkillable villain constantly meeting a new group of hapless victims.
It's also not like we still don’t have our slasher antiheroes. This time last year, Jigsaw made his grand return in Saw X but he’s not some mindless killer with an axe to grind, he’s the social justice slasher trying to make bad people pay for their corruption and/or criminality. There’s also Art the Clown, lead character of the Terrifier films who’s back with a new adventure next month in theatres. Like Friday the 13th, where make-up whiz Tom Savini saw a showcase for his talents, the Terrifier films are similarly styled to gross you out with every possible gory extravagance in the book of practical effects.
But is elevated horror to blame? Is there no room in this crazy world for a masked killer that just wants to kill some teens for their drug using and promiscuity while enjoying a weekend away by the lake? The recent Halloween movies ruminated on trauma and how easy hysteria can overtake a community, and it got to the point that Michael Myers was almost entirely incidental to the main plot of Halloween Ends. Ghostface is still making the rounds in the Scream movies, but that series has always been a commentary on the movies as much as they are movies themselves.
Speaking of heightened interpretations on a theme, In a Violent Nature premiered on Shudder Friday. Chris Nash’s film is highly influenced by the Friday the 13th series as a killer is resurrected from a forest grave when a group of young campers snatches the gold locket that marks his final resting place. Johnny, we hear, was developmentally delayed and killed in an accident involving a cruel prank played by some other young people. Sound familiar?
What sets In a Violent Nature apart is that it’s told almost exclusively from Johnny’s point of view, unlike the Friday the 13th movies where we always see things through the eyes of the young people. It’s provocative to literally follow Johnny through the woods as he stomps from one kill to another, almost making the viewer an accessory to the murder. It makes you think about the misapplied rage of these slashers as they kill random people even if they’re unknowing accessories to crimes, which in this case is rather benign. Johnny kills about five people before finally getting around to the guy who took the locket in the first place, including one poor girl whose head he pulls through her abdomen.
In a Violent Nature is probably the closest thing to a Friday the 13th movie we’ll see for a while, and it might also be closest thing we get to a Friday the 13th movie ever again. Perhaps that era has passed. Consider that New Line Cinema outright owns the rights to A Nightmare on Elm Street, and yet there’s been no Freddy Krueger movie since 2010, and the last reference to future development on the franchise’s Wikipedia page is from 2019. Maybe their time is just over.
While there was eight Friday the 13th movies between 1980 and 1989, the other four – which, yes, includes Freddy Vs. Jason – were released between 1990 and 2009, which suggests that these movies were mostly an 80s phenomenon. Not every franchise can span the generations and matter to everyone, so maybe this Friday the 13th marks a passing of sorts. If the last few days are any indication, Jason is more meme than movie villain now, a symbol for the day his movie is named after.
And what else can we do with a Friday the 13th movie? Are there any corners of Jason Voorhees’ life, or afterlife, that are worth exploring? He’s been killed, resurrected, sent to space, fought a girl with psychic powers, gone to New York City, had a copycat, fought Freddy Krueger and been rebooted. What’s next, time travel? Do we even know why we want another Friday the 13th movie, or do we just know we want it? Are we so franchise obsessed that we have to roll out new entries even if we don’t know what to do with them?
As we learned again this week, we know what happens when you only have a “concept of a plan”.
You can now stream In a Violent Nature on Shudder or rent it from Prime Video. You can also rent all 12 of the Friday the 13th movies from your preferred video on demand platform.
The Bookshelf:
Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story (Wed-Thurs)
Coraline (Sat-Sun)
The Critic
Galaxy Cinemas – Woodlawn:
Alien: Romulus (thru Wed)
Ardaas Sarbat De Bhale Di
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Deadpool & Wolverine
Despicable Me 4 (Sat-Sun, Tues)
Everything Everywhere All at Once (Sat)
It Ends With Us (thru Wed)
Jung Kook: I Am Still (Wed)
The Matrix – 25th Anniversary
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 (Sat)
Ninja Scroll – 30th Anniversary (Sun)
PAW Patrol: The Movie (Sat)
Point Break (Tues)
Reagan
Speak No Evil
Transformers One (Sat, Thurs)
Twisters (thru Wed)
Starting Thursday: Never Let Go, The Substance
Galaxy Cinemas – Clair:
Temporarily closed due to flood damage.
Mustang Drive-In (open weekends):
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (early show)
Blink Twice (late show)
Princess Cinemas – Twin:
The Critic
Didi
Sing Sing
Strange Darling
Starting Thursday: The Substance
Princess Cinemas – Original:
Blink Twice (Sat, Mon-Tues)
Casablanca (Wed)
Ikiru or To Live (Sun, Thurs)
My Penguin Friend (Sun)
Seven Samurai – 4K Restoration (Fri)
The Straight Story – 4K Restoration
Apollo Cinema:
Ajayante Randam Moshanam (Sun, Wed)
Cabaret (Tues)
Cuckoo (Sun)
G.O.A.T. The Greatest of All Time (Sat-Sun, Thurs)
Kondal (Sat, Mon, Wed)
Where Olive Trees Weep (Thurs)
Widow Clicquot (Sun-Mon, Wed)
This week on End Credits, Peter Salmon co-hosts as we tackle racism, revenge and corruption in small town USA with the new Netflix film directed by Jeremy Saulnier called Rebel Ridge. We’re also going to go back three decades and talk about the year that Jim Carrey became a movie star by revisiting Ace Venture: Pet Detective, The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber.
And finally, feel free to reach out to me by email at adamadonaldson [at] gmail [dot] com, or find me on Facebook, Twitter, and, of course, GuelphPolitico.ca!