Review: FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI: JASON LIVES (1986)

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI: JASON LIVES is a mixed bag. In some ways its the best film in the franchise, while in other ways it begins a decline that would lead to such travesties such as JASON GOES TO HELL and JASON X. Jason Lives takes the series for a spin; the films are no longer low-budget slasher fare that exploit nudity and gore but are instead bigger productions with more special effects. Jason Lives makes more "Hollywood" and less sleaze. Once again its a mixed bag.

There are a number of good things Jason Lives accomplishes. For starters, it has some of the best death scenes in the series, and some really creative ways to kill people. Fans pray for this film in its uncut glory. It has the highest body count in the series (up until Jason X) that includes dismembered limbs, a triple decapitation, heads being twisted off, people being bent in half, and the creative use of a broken liquor bottle for a deadly tracheotomy.

The film moves at a fast pace and doesn't allow one dull moment. From the opening scene where Tommy Jarvis (now played by Thom Matthews) and his unfortunate buddy (Ron Palillo) accidentally resurrect Jason (now played by C.J. Graham) to the end where Jason and Tommy have their final confrontation, it is a roller-coaster ride with some great entertainment value. If you're looking for a wild good time, look no further than Jason Lives.

The opening is the best part of the movie, starting with various shots of an eerie Crystal Lake that bulldoze into the story. From the first shots of the movie, writer/director Tom McLaughlin makes one thing clear - this is not going to be just another Friday the 13th. No, this time McLaughlin has set out to not only out-do the proceeding films, but actually make a good movie. A good movie? Yes, McLaughlin wants to make a good horror movie!

Oh, and kudos to actually setting the film on Friday the 13th - only the original FRIDAY THE 13TH and FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2 were actually set on the date.

Jason Lives was released in 1986, and it's tone fits in well with other mid-80's movies. Despite being a completely different genre with a different target audience, there are definite aesthetic similarities between Jason Lives and movies like BACK TO THE FUTURE, FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF, THE BREAKFAST CLUB, FRIGHT NIGHT, RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, and STAND BY ME, to name a few. Of all the Friday the 13th movies, Jason Lives is the only one that fits into the "brat pack" era.

However, is this a good thing? While Jason Lives is a well done movie, perhaps its too well done for a Friday the 13th flick. Basically, Jason Lives has such a drastic tone shift from the first five movies that it does not fit inline with the others. Rather, it is a parody of those movies in the same way that SCARY MOVIE is a spoof on SCREAM. People that love the first five Friday movies might find the sudden change a little jarring.

It's not fair to knock Jason Lives for being a parody, because that's what it aims to be. And that is made clear from the very beginning. But the problem is that Jason Lives still does not have the correct balance of a good satire, although it definitely tries. Jason Lives is much too outlandish and blatant, being more a comedy than a horror movie. It has more in common with Scary Movie than it does with a more subtle horror satire like Scream.

There is also a lack of interest with the characters in the film. Tommy Jarvis is way too different from his incarnation in FRIDAY THE 13TH PART V: A NEW BEGINNING, and he seems far too sane. In A New Beginning, the thing that made him interesting was his insanity. Here, Tommy is a kid who is obviously sane, only no one believes him because of his history. This makes him silly, not heroic.

There are problems with the other characters, too, such as Tommy's love interest Megan (Jennifer Cooke), the daughter of Sheriff Garris (David Kagen). Megan falls for Tommy too quickly, creating an unrealistic story arc between the two of them that never has time to breathe. For all Megan knows, Tommy is a lunatic who just escaped from the mental hospital! Hardly a turn-on. And the Garris also tends to be too stubborn: after Tommy's rants and raves that Jason has returned, Garris refuses to look for a few missing camp counselors. He's either the world's worst sheriff, or he's just plain lazy. But the worst are those paintballers, literally being used to fill frames between scenes. While they are kind of funny, they are also completely pointless and don't add to the plot in any way, except for body count!

There are other things in Jason Lives that are bothersome, but they aren't worth nitpicking over. Like Jason's eyes, for instance: after being dead and decomposing for over ten years, how does he still have fully intact, human eyeballs? You would think that to make him look scarier, the filmmakers would have either chosen to not show his eyes or make them even less human than before. Considering he had maggots eating his face for a decade...

The biggest flaw with Jason Lives is the "legend" of Jason. It has only been about ten years since twelve year old Tommy killed Jason in FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER. In Jason Lives, Tommy is about 22, meaning only a decade has passed. How come no one knows about Jason's existence except for the adults? Megan and her friends surely would have been young during The Final Chapter, but they would have remembered a massacre that made their town famous. This is a plot point that completely fails and is illogical. The Crystal Lake Massacre made the town famous, it wouldn't be easily forgotten.

Like all Friday the 13th movies, Jason Lives does not come without its flaws. Die-hard fans of the first five movies might not like the changes made, as Jason Lives features no nudity or drugs, but enhances the comedy and makes fun of the previous films with glee. But then again, by the time the sixth sequel rolled around, Friday the 13th needed something to become fresh again. And Jason Lives does a pretty good job at being a fresh entry in the long-running franchise. Oh, and the music makes this movie! It's the best soundtrack to any Friday the 13th film - check out "He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)" by Alice Cooper. A great tune!

Recommendations:
Bride of Chucky (1998)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)
The 'Burbs (1989)

Review: FRIDAY THE 13TH PART V: A NEW BEGINNING (1985)

When I first saw FRIDAY THE 13TH PART V: A NEW BEGINNING, my reaction was with the majority of the fan-base: it sucked. Upon first glance, the film is a bit of let-down following the first four films in the series, mainly due to confusion at the end when Jason turns out to not be the killer (sorry if I spoiled it). It was certainly a gutsey move on the filmmaker's part, and it definitely angered a lot of fans, who ridicule A New Beginning and write it off without ever looking past that one minor misleading plot point.

Upon multiple viewings, A New Beginning turns out to not be such a bad FRIDAY THE 13TH film after all. To be honest, it delivers exactly what the first four movies delivered, and stayed truer to the Friday the 13th spirit than anything that followed. Despite not having a Voorhees slashing people up, A New Beginning is a pretty solid entry in the saga that delivers on everything that the fans crave: violence, sex, nudity, drugs, and hockey masks.

What has grown on me the most in the many viewings of A New Beginning is the wacky array of characters. This is quite a rag-tag bunch in this entry, only to be rivaled by the crew of FRIDAY THE 13TH PART III. At first glance these people in this movie are either gross, boring, or just off putting. But there is also something about them that, in retrospect, is rather appealing. There are two types of people in A New Beginning: the mental patients at Pinehurst Halfway House and the Pinehurst Locals. But, to be fair, they're all nuttier than a fruitcake. And that makes them really fun.

The patients take some time to get used to, as they can be quite annoying at first glance. Perhaps no character in the entire Friday the 13th legacy is more annoying than the obnoxious, fat chocolate fiend Joey (Dominick Brascia), a character who is short lived but proves to be a vital part of the story. His peers are an unusual cadre of teens with all sorts of disorders, issues, and troubles. These youths are governed by the Halfway House staff, including the beautiful Pam (Melanie Kinnaman) and the head facility doctor Matt (Richard Young). Plus, the house cook George (Vernon Washington) and his grandson Reggie "the Reckless" (Shavar Ross) help out, and Reggie in particular is a comical smart-mouthed character.

There are also the Pinehurst locals, the most memorable of which includes foul-mouthed granny Ethel Hubbard (Carol Locatell) and her imbecile son Junior (Ron Sloan) whom she constantly insults. But you can't leave out the cocky cokehead hospital orderly, a vain diner waitress, two (possibly gay) greasers with car trouble, a weirdo derelict staying with Ethel, and a sheriff more bumbling than any before in a Friday film.

The star of the film is once again Tommy Jarvis (John Shepherd), now portrayed as ten years older than his last appearance in FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER. If you recall, at the end of The Final Chapter Tommy killed Jason once and for all, but seemed to pick up some disturbed traits in the process. Ever since then, Tommy has been living in hospitals and receiving treatments of all kinds, but nothing seems to work. And when he arrives at Pinehurst and bodies start piling up, Tommy begins to wonder what is going on - is it him? Has Jason returned? Shepherd plays the role with a refreshing amount of sophistication, and despite his limited dialogue he brings about a character to love and fear. We feel Tommy's awkwardness, and sense his internal trauma. The Tommy Jarvis of A New Beginning is the best Tommy Jarvis, because he is the deepest and most damaged, making him the most likable male hero in the entire Friday franchise. The Tommy of JASON LIVES is just silly.

Ultimately, it is revealed that Tommy is not the killer. And it's not Jason this time around. It's kind of nice to see that the filmmakers wanted to take the series in a different direction without Jason, yet continuing his reign of terror through other characters. The whodunit aspect has not been seen since the original film, and it was a welcome return for this episode. But the problem is, there are tons of red-herrings but none of them have much motive (except for the crazy Ethel and Junior duo). This creates a inconsistency, as the audience doesn't know who to suspect, and eventually stops caring.

The killer in A New Beginning is a paramedic named Roy (Dick Wieand). His identity is revealed after Tommy kills him and his Jason mask slides off. It is a cheap reveal, considering all the bodies that have built up to this big moment. Roy's revelation is anticlimactic, and that might be why so many fans detest him as the murderer, wishing it was Jason the whole time (and this being the only reason why Jason was revived in Jason Lives). Roy's motive is also too much of a stretch to be near plausible, and could have used a little more clues dropped throughout the film. His motive is that his long lost son was the fat kid Joey, who was killed by another inmate, and the grief drove Roy insane. While Roy's motive is weak, his methods of murder are strong - anything from an axe to a machete to hedge-clippers to an outhouse to a flare are in his arsenal. But in the end, there is no substance behind his sudden killing spree, making him a failed slasher killer.

This film has a large number of death scenes, but there comes a point where there are too many to fill the space of the movie. It's almost every five minutes or so someone is killed. Most victims are not around long enough for the audience to care about them, and their deaths are never extremely memorable. One neat set-piece involves Reggie's older brother, a punk named Demon (Miguel A. Nunez, Jr.) who is trapped inside an outhouse while the killer keeps thrusting a sharp pole through the walls. Another neat scene involves a patient getting his head crushed between a tree. There are so many characters killed, and most of the significant ones are killed off-screen, whereas random and insignificant people get their guts spilled on screen.

The seedy atmosphere of the film works wonders, and A New Beginning marks the last entry in the series that truly has a low-budget, sleazy feel. The following films - Jason Lives and onward - would become reliant on special effects, comedy, and gimmicks (like JASON TAKES MANHATTAN) that change up the mood. After A New Beginning, the realism is replaced with over-the-top self-awareness and a pride for effects-laden plots. The gore and nudity in this film are classic, comparable to the nudity of The Final Chapter. But like The Final Chapter, a flaw with A New Beginning is the lack of suspense leading up to the death scenes. Without suspense, it's a waiting game for who will be offed.

Had Jason been in A New Beginning, I'm sure fans would be singing a different tune about the movie and praising it. It really has everything that Friday aficionados want - lots of gruesome deaths, tons of nudity and sex, a good amount of intentional and unintentional comedy, and a sleaze-filled atmosphere. But because it lacked the iconic Jason, moviegoers felt cheated and wanted to write it off as the first real disappointment in the series. It's a shame because there's a lot of good stuff to be had with A New Beginning. And maybe someday, it will get the respect it deserves in the Friday community.

Recommendations:
My Bloody Valentine (1981)
The Slumber Party Massacre (1982)
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)

Review: FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER (1984)

FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER is a mixed bag. In one hand you have the nastiest, darkest, most mean-spirited entry in the entire Jason saga with the most nudity and some incredibly gruesome deaths. On the other hand you have a movie filled with illogical characters (yes, even for a FRIDAY THE 13TH sequel), no plot to speak of, and major plot holes in continuity with the other movies. It's not that The Final Chapter is a bad entry in the series - it still stands as one of the best of the bunch. It's just that The Final Chapter is slightly overrated, and by no means the "ultimate Friday the 13th film."

The film's biggest problem is the characters. I'm no fool - I understand that when looking at a Friday the 13th film one must taken certain liberties and suspend a lot of disbelief concerning logic. But unlike the first three movies, where the legend of "Camp Blood" lingers throughout the movie (or in PART 3's case Jason's attack on Chris), the characters in The Final Chapter all seem too happily unaware of where they are living - a small town that has (recently) been transformed into a bloodbath.

The town of Crystal Lake has been savaged by numerous massacres throughout the past week, and the presumed dead killer has disappears from the morgue - yet no one seems concerned! The characters all jog and bike in the woods, leaves the doors open, and really seem to have no clue as to what just happened down the road from where they live! And this becomes even more illogical when Mrs. Jarvis (Joan Freeman) literally reads a newspaper article about the massacre. Wouldn't any good mother keep her children inside for a few days? It makes no sense.

While the characters in this movie each have full personalities, they are not quite as eclectic as previous entries. Certain characters like Doug (Peter Barton) and Sara (Barbara Howard) are interesting and have full arcs, but there is no time given to explore them. Out of all the kids in the film, their romance is the strongest, yet it never really shines. It's not as appealing as, say, Alice and Bill's relationship in the original movie, or Vickie and Mark's in PART II, or even Shelly and Vera's in Part 3. The teens of this movie, with the exception of the two Jarvis children, are slasher fodder with no purpose to the story but to be killed in various ways. They are there to heighten the body count, and that's it. And even minor characters, like that of the chubby hitchhiker girl (Bonnie Hellman) are wasted. That hitchhiker could have been a real entertaining character, had she been given a chance.

Of course, the most important character, aside from Jason, is the "final girl." Trish (Kimberly Beck) fills the role and she kicks ass at it. Like Ginny from Part II, Trish is self-sufficient, brave, and tough. She looks the frightening monster Jason right in the eye and tells him that she's going to "give him something to remember [her] by." But even still, at the end of the day, the writing for Trish is often flat; she needs a reason why she becomes the final girl in her battle against Jason. Ginny was a child psychologist who understood Jason's mongoloid mental problems, and Chris had been attacked by Jason in the past but survived the encounter. Trish is literally just a girl with no connection to him. In fact, if Rob Dier (E. Erich Anderson) had not shown her the newspaper clippings of the murders and explained to her who Jason was, then by the end of the film she still might not have a clue who the hockey masked killer that attacked her family was.

Speaking of Rob Dier, his whole story is without a doubt the film's biggest flaw. His character confuses the timeline, and messes with the movie's overall flow. Rob has come to Crystal Lake to avenge his slaughtered sister Sandra (who you might remember getting shish-kabobed in Part II). But according to the timeline, Part II's climax is on Friday the 13th, meaning that Part 3 takes place over the 14 and 15. This means that The Final Chapter starts on the 16... that's three days after Part II. Sandra's funeral would not have even taken place, let alone Rob having the time to travel to Crystal Lake and devise his revenge scheme. Once again, it doesn't make sense!

It's easy to go on a rant about a movie, especially when as a fan it's unclear why other fan's hold the film in such high regard (many fans of the franchise name it the best movie in the series). I am in no way a hater of The Final Chapter, as I have seen it multiple times and enjoyed it thoroughly each time.

I particularly like the opening of the movie, where it picks up after the events of Part 3 and then follows Jason's "corpse" to the hospital morgue. The entire opening was well constructed and set the mood for the rest of the movie very well. When you meet mortician Axel (Bruce Mahler) and Nurse Morgan (Lisa Freeman), you know they're going to get it, but director Joseph Zito plays with the audience, teasing them with the "when" and the "how."

Most of the film does an excellent job teasing the audience, as it is implied that Jason could be anywhere at anytime, ready to strike. But it is the third act of the movie that really is where things get stretched and become annoying. The best example of this is when Tommy Jarvis (Corey Feldman), Trish's younger brother, is preparing his assault on Jason by shaving his head to make himself look like a young Jason, "the boy that drowned in Crystal Lake in 1957." The pacing with this plot point is all off - while Trish is being chased by a bloodthirsty maniac, Tommy is upstairs cutting his hair? It's a far fetch, even for a Friday the 13th movie, and his transformation should have come sooner.

Ted White plays Jason this time around, and I have to admit that he's my favorite Jason in the entire series. Mr. White portrays the hockey masked madman with malice and brutality. He is hot on his victim's heels, and relentless in his pursuit of them. Jason may have been his creepiest in Part II, but he's his most intense in The Final Chapter.

Gore fans will notice a change in the tone and atmosphere; things are much meaner and nastier than the previous films. The deaths are stretched out, and the victims suffer this time around. For those who have seen Zito's earlier slasher THE PROWLER, the tone is very similar to that movie. And much of that nastiness, aside from Zito's vivid direction, is owed to Ted White.

Ah, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. A movie that, despite my many critiques, I still really enjoy. It's the best movie in the "Tommy Jarvis" trilogy by a long-shot - FRIDAY THE 13TH PART V: A NEW BEGINNING and FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI: JASON LIVES each lose the edge of the original four movies. And The Final Chapter has certainly had its influence, as seen in later entries like FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VII: THE NEW BLOOD and the 2009 version of FRIDAY THE 13TH, which used The Final Chapter almost like a blueprint for how to make a Friday movie. At the end of the day, if you're a slasher fan, you've got to see Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter - it might be flawed, but its also a landmark in the genre, and really marks the end of the Golden Age of Slasher films (this was the last movie released before A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET).

Recommendations:
The Prowler (1981)
Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)
Friday the 13th (2009)

Review: FRIDAY THE 13TH PART III (1982)

Today I did a FRIDAY THE 13TH mini-marathon - starting with the original Friday the 13th, then watching FRIDAY THE 13TH PART II (my personal favorite), and then FRIDAY THE 13TH PART III. When watching them back-to-back, its easy to see how Part 1 and Part II are companion pieces; they share the same tone, the same visual style, and basically the same plot. Both movies feature a mysterious killer hunting down camp counselors in the woods of Crystal Lake. But then there's Part III, a movie that's completely different in tone, visual style, and plot (not that there's much plot to begin with in Part III). While it is a different movie - and a truly unique slasher film - Friday the 13th Part III is by no means a bad flick. In fact, it is quite the opposite. It succeeds in what it sets out to do - give its audiences a frighteningly fun time!

Friday the 13th Part III is definitely cheesier than the first two movies, and is a lighter toned film overall. It is even obvious by the film's visual design - this movie is colorful with playful lighting, choosing not to stick with the dark shadows of the first two movies. What this lighter tone does is create an atmosphere that encourages audiences to have fun - laugh, jump, and scream - rather than being horrified. Really, Friday the 13th Part III is about as much fun as a slasher film can possibly be. It has all the right ingredients; the expected gore, doses of suspense, and laughs that never skip a beat.

Most horror fans would not argue that this entry in the series is best known for one thing - the hockey mask. Yes, Jason snags his now iconic hockey mask off some poor victim, and it is that image of a hockey masked killer that has become one of the most recognized images in horror. Aside from the hockey mask, Jason remains a prominent threat throughout the movie, always lurking in barns, rooms, and the forest. Because of this, he remains a surprisingly scary villain, as he chooses to stalk his victims before finally killing them. Richard Brooker, who plays the killer this time around, lacks the creepiness of Friday the 13th Part 2, but is still an intimidating killer - he's not the goofy walking zombie of FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI: JASON LIVES or the over-the-top anti-hero in FREDDY VS. JASON or JASON X.

Like the first two entries, the entire movie's appeal is built around its death scenes. There are more victims here than in the first two movies, and pretty much anyone who crosses paths with Jason winds up on the slab. But Friday the 13th Part III doesn't rush it, either, choosing to still spend a good amount of time getting to know the victims before slicing them up. And then, when Jason does set his sights on the unfortunate souls, he spends amount of time stalking them and waiting for the right moment. Fans will enjoy a lot of machete murders, but Jason also gets inventive with an axe, knitting needle, pitchfork, electric box, fire poker, harpoon, and even his bare hands. There is no shortage of gore and guts in this entry, despite the film's lighter approach.

Because of the change in visual approach, there is a change in atmosphere, too. The atmosphere is lighter this time around, but it still retains the essentials: eerie ominous woods surrounding an isolated, alienated location at Crystal Lake. This time, the main setting is the summer home Higgins Haven, a nice change of pace from the summer camp setting of Part I and Part II. Friday the 13th Part III is definitely a movie of its time, representing what was popular in the early 80's. Aside from the slasher film craze of the early 80's, there was a fading love for disco, and Friday the 13th Part III's corny disco theme only enhances the nostalgia for the movie. While the music might generate a few laughs today, it's also a nice slice of history and a trip back to a time that was very different from today.

However, Friday the 13th Part III is not without its negatives. It adds absolutely nothing new to the franchise's overall story. There really is not much a plot to even speak of: it takes place the day after Part II and pretty much features Jason taking refuge at Higgins Haven and killing off the college kids who are vacationing there. That's it. There is no growth or discoveries made throughout the film. It is a collection of random characters being brought to Higgins Haven for slaughter. And on top of that, there is no reference to Jason by name or to Crystal Lake. The film is oddly uninterested with continuity or story, choosing instead to make a movie that acts as a filler between Part II and the next entry, FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER.

The movie's one significant plot point revolves around heroine Chris Higgins (Dana Kimmell) who has brought her friends to her parent's summer home. But Chris has not been there in two years, because she was attacked by a mysterious figure in the woods. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to guess that Jason is the one that attacked Chris, but this subplot leaves more unanswered than it explains; why did Jason leave Chris alive when he could have killed her? A deeper history between Jason and Chris would have enhanced the story, and probably made the movie as great as an experience as Part II, if not better.

Chris has a great ending chase scene, where she battles Jason throughout Higgins Haven. Just like Alice's chase in Part I and Ginny's in Part II, the entire second act of the movie leads up to this point. In slasher films, the catharsis that the audience wants is generally found within the final climactic chase, where the heroine overpowers the villain. And Friday the 13th Part III might have the best chase scene in the entire series (yes, even better than my beloved Part II). Jason is at his absolute best here, and Chris puts up on hell of a fight.

The cliche "final scare" of the movie is a weak point in the film, and really does not work on any level. After Chris has defeated Jason, she takes a canoe out into the lake and falls asleep. When she wakes up in the morning, she thinks she sees Jason still alive and walking... and then is attacked by Mrs. Voorhees' corpse. Of course its a dream/hallucination, but still. Why would Chris be dreaming of Mrs. Voorhees' corpse? And isn't it too similar to the ending of the first film? A different, more original approach would have made all the difference.

But ultimately, none of that matters, because Friday the 13th Part III is a fun-filled slasher film that's just a good time. It has wonderful, dynamic characters. Chris is a great heroine; my second favorite in the series (behind Ginny). Her friends are great, too, and create the most likable characters in the series. You've got your potheads, your sexually active couple, your ugly dude, and your super sexy hispanic girl. Plus, Chris' boyfriend Rick (Paul Kratka) is surprisingly enjoyable, despite being set-up as a boring country boy. But the best characters are definitely the members of the biker gang, who comes to Higgins Haven to get revenge on the kids for an earlier event but end up meeting Jason.

So can it be argued that Friday the 13th Part III is a good movie? No, absolutely not. But can it be argued that Friday the 13th Part III is a fun, entertaining movie? Yes, and that's really the most important thing for a slasher movie, isn't it? To entertain it's audience? When watching Friday the 13th Part III and having a blast, you can't help but appreciate it. There's a reason why Friday the 13th Part III is the highest grossing sequel in the series, and as it stands Friday the 13th Part III is the second best entry in Jason's franchise.

Recommendations:
The Burning (1981)
Madman (1982)
The Slumber Party Massacre (1984)

Review: FRIDAY THE 13TH PART II (1981)

Rarely does a sequel of any genre surpass its original, and especially rare is the case that a slasher film sequel surpasses its original film. Most moviegoers will agree that original films in the HALLOWEEN, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, CHILD'S PLAY, THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE, SCREAM, PSYCHO, and SAW series' are the best of their respective franchise's. But in when it comes to FRIDAY THE 13TH, the 1980 original is not the best movie (although its still a great, iconic slasher film). No, the best film in that franchise would be FRIDAY THE 13TH PART II - the introduction of Jason Voorhees.

The thing that makes Friday the 13th Part II a superior successor is that it is able to keep the great strengths of the original, but enhance them. It's as if the filmmakers learned what didn't really work the first time, and what audiences wanted more of the second time. Because Part II brilliantly keeps the key ingredients that made the first film such a massive hit, and splices them with added elements that create a new beast. For instance, the atmosphere stays the same as in the original movie, but is more consistent. In the first film, the atmosphere was eventually lost by the third act, yet in this film the atmosphere increases throughout the story. At any given moment the killer is creeping in the dark bushes. The setting creates pure, eerie isolation; empty roads and seemingly endless stretches of land are the only places for victims to run to.

The first movie became famous for its death scenes, which critics would argue is what drew audiences to see it in the first place. In Part II there is a bigger body count, more gruesome and inventive deaths, and just as much suspense leading up to each and every victim's demise. Slasher fans often praise Friday the 13th Part II for having the infamous "double-impalement" scene, among other great machete deaths. And the suspense is never lost - the characters are stalked and chased for a good while before finally being dismembered. You see, while the filmmakers knew the visceral shock of gore was what the first Friday the 13th had become known for, they also knew that the suspense leading up to those death scenes was equally important.

Of course, what really makes Friday the 13th Part II a landmark is its villain - Jason Voorhees (Warrington Gillette). In the first film, Jason was a motive and ending scare-tactic, yet never really a physical threat to the characters. Now, Jason is a grown mongoloid human wearing a frightening burlap sac for a mask that mirrors the Phantom Killer of THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN. Maybe it was Jason's first appearance as an antagonist, before he became an anti-hero of sorts in later films like FREDDY VS. JASON, but in Friday the 13th Part II Jason has never been creepier or spookier. He is a demented, crazed, backwoods human psychopath, and that's scary.

While Jason himself is scary, the character does not come without his problems. The first movie made it pretty obvious that Jason drowned in the summer of 1957. Doing the math, it would have been twenty-three years later that the first Friday the 13th took place and Jason attacked Alice (Adrienne King). Then another five years pass until Friday the 13th Part II takes place, which would make it a total of 27 years since Jason drowned. It's hard to believe that he's been living as a hermit in the woods all those years undetected. It takes a large suspension of disbelief to accept Jason as the living, breathing killer in Part II. Furthermore, Jason's thematic origins seem to bare a striking resemblance to Michael Myers from Halloween, as the silent un-killable masked villain.

But ultimately, who cares about that? Really, when you're watching a film like Friday the 13th Part II you can't be too nit-picky about logic. What the movie sets out to do, it accomplishes. The opening scene of the film, which features Alice only months after the events of Part I trying to rebuild her life amidst terrifying nightmares of Jason and his mother, is a great stalker suspense scene. Like any good opening - say, Drew Barrymore's iconic scene in Scream - this scene with Alice build gradually in suspense and tension, until releasing it with a truly grotesque discover and a nasty kill. After Alice has had a ice-pick shoved through her temple, Friday the 13th Part II makes a statement to its audience - "Anything can happen now. Anything."

The death of Alice leaves room for a new heroine to enter and take her place, and that heroine certainly enters with a bang. Many fans will call Part II's Ginny (Amy Steel) the best final girl in the entire series; she's strong, resourceful, and kick-ass while also being vulnerable and frightened. Ginny has a great sense of humor, and is a likable person. Like her fellow camp counselors, she is a jokester and a prankster. And here's something else about Ginny - she defies the "rules" established by the first Friday the 13th and Halloween films - she drinks, parties, and has sex with her lover Paul (John Furey). If being the first girl to battle Jason Voorhees and break long-standing genre rules isn't a sign of Ginny's awesomeness, than I don't know what is.

The story moves at a quick, steady pace and never allows for any downtime in its runtime. Once again, the movie has a pretty standard three-act formula that helps keep this pace moving; there's the opening teaser with Alice, then the first act introducing the potential victims, than the second act killing off the victims, and finally the third act which acts as a showdown between Ginny and Jason. And unlike Part I, the ending moves swiftly and keeps up the tension - there are no unnecessary filler moments, and the chase keeps moving through the camp grounds, through the woods, and finally into a disturbing "shrine" to Mrs. Voorhees located at the ruins of Camp Crystal Lake.

Friday the 13th Part II is a great slasher film. It works as both a sequel to the original Friday the 13th while also working as its own "original" movie, being sure to establish the elements that would come later in the series, mainly Jason being an unstoppable killer out for revenge for his mother's death. In later sequels, much of the character would be lost to camp and cheese, but in his first appearance as a homicidal maniac with a wicked sharp machete, Jason is one scary dude. And that's why Friday the 13th Part II is not only the best in the series, but one of the most iconic, legendary slasher films ever made.

Recommendations:
The Burning (1981)
The Prowler (1981)
Halloween II (1981)