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Friday the 13th, directed by Sean S. Cunningham, became one of the most popular slasher films in history and spawned a long series of sequels. As of 2004 there have been eleven films in the franchise
Plot Summary
In the first movie, a group of teenagers return to a summer camp, called Camp Crystal Lake to prepare it for reopening. Many years earlier, a young boy named Jason Voorhees had drowned at the camp, and shortly thereafter, the two counselors responsible were murdered by an unknown assailant, after which the camp was closed. One by one, the new counsellors are brutally murdered, it transpires, by Jason's mother, Pamela.
In the second film, it's revealed that Jason had been living as a hermit in the woods next to the camp since he supposedly drowned. To avenge his mother, he hacks and slashes through numerous other victims at the camp while donning an attire that would not be familar with first-time viewers of the series.
After the events of the first sequel, Jason (sans burlap sack) wanders to continue his massacre at a nearby locale named Higgins Haven. During the spree he picks up the hockey mask that would become synonymous with the character.
The fourth instalment continues with his slaughter before he encounters a young Tommy Jarvis who is the one to end Jason's life.
The title's promise that this was the "Final Chapter" was a lie as the fifth film picks up with a mentally troubled adult Tommy at a halfway house when a series of familar murders start up. However, the killer turns out not to be Jason, but a copycat avenging the death of his son. Fans were not happy about the false Jason, and the reported approach to continue the series in this way was dropped and the producers realized that they had to bring the real Jason back.
To drive it home, the sixth entry flat-out made it clear in its title: Jason Lives! However, since Jason had been supposedly rotting through the years since Part 4, writer and director Tom McLoughlin brought back the monster in a classic Frankenstein approach. From here on, he is now a zombie (though many fans argue that Jason was never completely human in the previous films). The film's use of humour made it slightly more popular with stuffy critics and many fans consider it the best in the series.
In Part 7, a telekenetic girl revives him again from the bottom of the lake where Tommy had left him floating. The main character's powers had the film dubbed by many as "Jason vs. Carrie".
Jason Takes Manhattan picks up sometime after his questionable defeat at the end of the previous film, where Jason is resurrected again, this time by a cable tow. From there he boards upon the cleverly named cruise ship Lazarus where he stays for most of the film. Despite the title, only a third of the film actually takes place in New York.
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday decides to exposit Jason's nature where following his demise, his spirit jumps from body to body in order to find a relative through which Jason can be brought back. The film ends with Jason being seemingly sent straight to Hell with the last shot of Freddy Krueger pulling down Jason's left-behind hockey mask visage under the dirt. This fueled reports that the two slasher icons would finally clash, a battle hoped to be staged as far back as 1988 (the 7th Friday the 13th film was the first failed attempt at this), but was now a great possiblity as New Line Cinema had now acquired the rights to both films' sequels in the early 1990s, whereas Paramount previously held the rights to the Friday the 13th series before shedding the franchise due to the poor receipts from Jason Takes Manhattan. However, it was not that easy.
Freddy vs. Jason was going through numerous script developments (concept was the main bump). Meanwhile, Sean Cunningham was tired of waiting on the series to stand still, so he ordered a film to be made in the meantime. The idea was delevoped to set it in the future so as not to hamper the continuity of Freddy vs. Jason.
Taking place both in the future and in space, Jason X followed the cryogenically frozen Jason being thawed out in the ship Grendel where he wakes to, you guessed it, draw blood. The film went further by climaxing with Jason being turned into what has been dubbed "Uber-Jason" - a part cyborg/metallic combination and fairly indestructable (well, more so than he was before).
Two years later Freddy vs. Jason was finally released. Living out his killings in Hell, Jason "wakes up" in order to kill the children on Elm Street for his mother, who is actually Freddy Krueger needing the large lug to spread fear so that he can regain his powers lost due to a new drug the children are taking. But Jason won't stop killing Freddy's "children," and the two finally duke it out, ending the film with a fairly ambiguous image.
The film's success has been the conductor for a possible sequel. As of now, rumours have circulated about the character of Ash joining the fray (due to the Necronomicon and dagger from The Evil Dead trilogy making an appearance in Jason Goes to Hell), but Sam Raimi has been said to deny this, and the film seems to be set as a direct sequel with no further monster team-ups.
Actors who appeared in the series before going on to bigger roles include Kevin Bacon, Steven Culp, Corey Feldman, Crispin Glover, Kelly Hu, and Allison Smith.
The film series
- Friday the 13th (1980)
- Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
- Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982)
- Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
- Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)
- Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)
- Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)
- Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
- Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday (1993)*
- Jason X (2002)
- Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
- In 1991 New Line Cinema obtained the rights to the "Jason Voorhees" character hoping to make one final attempt at cashing in on the movie with 1993's "Jason Goes to Hell". New Line also owns the title "Friday the 13th" but has simply not chosen to utilize it; on its 2004 boxset, Paramount had to credit New Line for use of the name.
See also
External links
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