Che che che che ha ha ha ha

Che che che che ha ha ha ha

That sound. That beautiful bastard of a sound. When you hear its breathy cadence, you know what’s coming; the hockey mask horror, Jason Voorhees, is here to stir shit up. Friday the 13th Part 1 and Part 2 embody the cheesy paint-by-number horror movies that saturated plenty of the cinematic pulp of the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s. When I think of the Halloween season, the first images that come to mind (aside from Michael Myers) are of the overtly horny characters and the ridiculous ways they meet their ends. The first two films in the Friday anthology are cornerstones for modern horror cinema in their establishment of a seemingly invulnerable antagonist who cuts bloody swathes through groups unsuspecting young adults who are just trying to get laid and buck the man.

For whatever reason, I’m drawn to the Friday the 13th movies. As the series progresses, the ridiculousness becomes nearly too much to watch, but the first couple entries are gold, tarnished gold. Friday the 13th Part 1 and Part 2 are full of imperfections (like ripping off parts of the Jaws soundtrack when the characters are being hunted), but they feel like the most unique films of the anthology. These movies benefit from laying the foundation for backstory and the antagonists’ motives. Like Jason always coming back for another round of slaughter, the subsequent films stick to a certified slasher-film template, and the predictive repetition works. Heck, Scream riffed on this formulaic approach for the basis of its plot!

Author’s note: For the purists out there, I KNOW the antagonist changes between the first and second movies, and I realize Jason doesn’t don the infamous hockey mask in either of the films. I’m taking liberties in flipping between specifics of the first two films and the anthology overall, which is consistent with these movies: it doesn’t all have to make sense!

My mind boggles some wondering what made these movies, particularly the Jason character, so iconic. I mean, these are not “good” movies, and yet, they kept getting made. Friday the 13th after Friday the 13th rolled out the same plot, the same inescapable scenarios, and the same “final girl” scenario. When Hollywood does that today, it’s called a reboot and intended to breath fresh life into a stagnant franchise. Here, it’s almost as though the producers had the following conversation:

“Well, that movie did surprisingly well. We should make another one.”

“Yessir! But what’s it about? The last one didn’t leave many loose ends.”

“Sure it did! Did you understand the ending?”

“Not really.”

“Neither did I! So, we’ll start with a flashback from the prior movie. That will occupy the first ten minutes, and then we’ll just jump into it.”

“Okay, yeah, I’d pay to see that. But what actually happens?”

“So there’s going to be this group of young adults, and they’re going to be spending time together at an isolated location. There has to be at least one couple with an air of purity that will make it to the end. But everyone else? They’ll just start having sex or alluding to having sex, and that’s when Jason starts knocking heads.”