When we get a true Friday the 13th in October, it’s kind of begging you to watch that horror movie you’ve been putting off. But this month, I didn’t just pick up the obvious choice: I finally explored the full trilogy of Halloween murder classics!
FRIDAY THE 13TH
I didn’t just watch the original – I ended up watching the first three movies in this wide-spanning, unhinged series. After number one, after all, I was wondering when Jason put on that hockey mask!
Since I didn’t know any details about this franchise going into the first movie, I was in for many pleasant surprises. I wasn’t expecting to see Kevin Bacon, for one thing! The way the camera suspensefully hid the true villain until the end left me genuinely surprised at the twist – hearing Mrs. Voorhees introduce herself made my jaw drop.
Alice was a good virgin/final girl – don’t think I missed how she was the only one not to strip during that game of Monopoly! The reveal of her friends’ murders through her eyes was great, too. As much as I was rooting for her, it was more than a little frustrating when she kept knocking Mrs. Voorhees down and running away! Do you think that will stop her? But the ultimate decapitation – the same way she was too scared to kill the snake! – was unexpectedly good.
And then there’s the last-minute supernatural twist to show Jason is still a player here! There’s the moment I was waiting for!
Friday the 13th Part 2 follows a new unsuspecting group of counselors, and once again we’re treated to far too much teenage sex. Do we really need this? It’s the part where the girl flirting with the boy in the wheelchair basically asks him “yeah, but does your dick work?” that made me burst out laughing, so I guess there’s our levity!
Hey, at least the dog survived this movie! That dog in forest/hot dog transition made me nervous. And, like the film before, we’ve got even more white kids mouthing off to the police and ensuring they won’t be getting any help when Jason returns. And return he does!
I didn’t expect him to have a pillowcase over his head – somehow that’s creepier than the hockey mask I was waiting for. We get the usual formula – lots of graphic murders, the ingenuity of the final girl, and that eleventh-hour twist. Ginny was pretty damn smart, which isn’t always common in horror movies, so I appreciated her. It’s just a shame her actress didn’t want to bring her character back for part 3.
Once again, Friday the 13th Part 3 gives us camp counselors, a variety of characters, and a new outlet for Jason’s killing spree. With the loss of Ginny, the movie awkwardly presents Chris as our new final girl, someone who’s seen Jason before. The transition felt sudden, but I didn’t much mind. This movie’s addition of a biker gang harassing the teens and siphoning their fuel gave the atmosphere another layer of isolation and unease.
And at last, we have the hockey mask! And somehow, despite that, it’s Jason being a large, normal-looking man that set my teeth on edge. At least Chris knew not to leave him alive this time around! (Although we know he won’t be kept down for long.)
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET
Obviously, I knew of the existence of Freddy Kreuger going into this one, but I wasn’t familiar with his backstory. All I knew was that he had burn scars, claws, and that hat and sweater. I didn’t realize he was a full supernatural being – or just how bloody this movie was!
The scenes where Freddy kills people in their sleep and their bodies react to it in the real world, so cool and creepy. And the reveal of Freddy’s backstory and Nancy’s mother’s role in it was unexpectedly metal. “Mommy killed him” still stands out in my mind.
So far, Nancy is my favorite final girl I’ve seen. She’s clever, resourceful, and wildly daring to claim her victory. It was cool to see a young Johnny Depp in one of his first roles, but he really needed to listen to his girlfriend; she was the only one who knew what was going on!
As much as I liked this one, the ending had me rolling my eyes. It really needed one last cheap twist? Well, I guess you can’t have too sunshiney of an ending for a movie with this level of gore. I’ll have to see where the franchise headed next!
HALLOWEEN
Like the previous movies, I only knew about Halloween through popular media. That opening music is still the best horror theme ever written, and the POV skew in that first scene before you realize who you’re following… so good.
Earlier we had Johnny Depp, now here’s Jamie Lee Curtis in her first film! Once again, we have the shy virginal teenager surrounded by her bolder friends – I wonder who’s gonna make it out alive?
Just the mere setting of this movie on Halloween night charmed me; it’s very atmospheric. The music, the building of tension… ooh, it gives you chills. Laurie makes for a strong final girl, fighting to protect the kids she’s babysitting, although she falls prey to the Friday the 13th art of “knock over the killer and hope they stay down.”
Out of all the movies I’ve seen, though, none of them gave me goosebumps as badly as the scene where Laurie tries to get into her house. She’s injured, banging on the door and yelling for the kids to open it as Michael Myers takes his time walking across the street, just missing Laurie by the time she stumbles inside.
And then there’s Michael’s unmasking at the end of the movie, and it’s nothing like Jason’s. Despite a swollen eye from where Laurie stabbed him with a coat hanger, he looks… normal. It’s unsettling in its normalcy.
When comparing the franchises of each of these horror movies, Halloween comes out on top in terms of sheer quantity – but I had the most fun with it, too! This is the series I’m most looking forward to continuing!
