Transcription
Horror will always be my first love. It was there for me when I first started watching movies consistently. As a child, my local Fox channel after Saturday cartoons would play horror movies edited for television, of course. There was always something exciting about watching horror as a child because I felt like I was getting away with something, like it was subversive, like I was breaking the rules. And no matter how much my tastes in film have evolved over the years, horror will always have a special place in my heart.
As I mature, I find that the lens in which I view horror changes as well, as I've come to understand art not only as entertainment, but a mirror reflecting pre-existing attitudes, as well as the responsibility of art to be a positive force in society rather than something that reinforces harmful world views. But my feelings are mixed. For example, on one hand, I'm noticing more and more in slasher movies the uncomfortable connection between sex and violence, not to mention the gratuitous way women's bodies were portrayed for the audience. On the other hand, the victims in slasher movies frequently contain a woman who conquers the killer. This monster is usually male and often exhibits traits known to be poisonous in the culture of men, like violence and sexual aggressiveness. And it is the woman who triumphs and destroys the representative of these toxic traits. Plus, many slasher films portray women as highly inventive and skilled or even able to defeat the killer by emotionally and spiritually taking away his power through sheer force of will. Maybe that's empowering.
Horror movies, especially slashers, are often low-budget affairs with little more purpose or depth than a few jump scares to thrill the audience. On the other hand, horror as a genre has so much potential to be big and important and powerful because it taps into the part of our brain that affects us the most, fear. It's our most primal emotion because it relates to self-preservation. Because of this, fear motivates a lot of our actions. If art is about affecting the emotions of those witnessing it, horror may be uniquely suited to that end.
My feelings about horror are complicated. So keep that in mind as we Oh, hold on. There we go. As we explore Friday the 13th. I recently sat down and watched the first eight Friday the 13th movies in a row to find commonalities. I've seen all the other ones before as well. Friday the 13th is a prototypical slasher film series carrying many of the tropes and collective traits of the subgenre. It's like a skeletal framework for how slasher movies operate, function, and excel. And yet, in many ways, it's not one of the best slasher movie franchises, but it's the perfect measuring stick for slashers. I'll tell you what I mean. Like, Friday the 13th is somewhere in the middle. On a scale of 1 to 10, The Friday the 13th film series is a solid child's play, too. There are so many better slasher films out there. the first few in Nightmare on Elm Street movies, the first two Halloween movies, Black Christmas, Silent Night, Deadly Night, and a host of others. And yet, Friday the 13th outlasts most of them. It's memorable and is home to iconic imagery and such ingrained traits of its subgenre. When people talk about horror movie tropes like a woman suddenly being topless and being stabbed to death, that's more Friday the 13th than say Hellraiser. When people talk about an unstoppable, unkillable monster that keeps being resurrected, the best example is Jason Vorhees. Even Freddy Krueger didn't have as many rebirths as Jason. It's like Friday the 13th is the barometer by which we gauge all similar movies, even though it's not the best.
It also differs wildly with other long-running slasher film franchises in another way. The first three A Nightmare on Elm Street movies are considered the best. Parts four, five, and Freddy's dead are considered lesser nightmare films. New Nightmare is great, but I'm referring to the main continuity. The first two Halloween movies are considered their best. The third one is Love It or Hate It Territory, and the rest are forgettable. All the long-running slasher film franchises of the late '70s and '80s, the heyday of the subgenre, follow a similar pattern of diminishing returns. Friday the 13th is all over the map. The first one is honestly at best passable and parts two and three are worse. Then all of the sudden Friday the 13th realizes it is completely ridiculous. Starts to incorporate humor more and it's immediately more entertaining. "Don't you come near me, Sheriff. I'm warning you. I got a bomb on me. I swear to you." Part six is the best one. Six. Much later in the game than the others. It's the only Friday sequel in which the film critics, who are usually no fans of slashers, agree is a solid film. Friday the 13th is this weird outlier.
The original Friday the 13th film has noticeable parallels to Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 horror classic, Psycho. Friday the 13th is a story of a mother who lost her son and believes he is speaking through her and commanding her to kill. The famous Friday the 13th sound of either Mrs. before he's or Jason sneaking up on a would-be victim is actually a shortened version of "kill mommy." [Music] "Kill her mommy. Kill her." This is structurally Psycho in reverse. Psycho is a story of a son whose mother is dead but who guides him to kill through a split personality. Psycho engages in misdirection of the killer, making the audience believe it's a dead mother. Conversely, Friday the 13th misdirects us by having a police officer cite Ralph as a troublemaker and wanted by the police. Not to mention this scene. "It's got a death curse." Psycho also introduces us to a woman who the audience is made to believe will survive to the end, but is actually killed off halfway into the film. Similarly, Friday the 13th introduces us to a young woman who we are made to believe is the famous final girl of a slasher movie. She's naive, hopeful, cheerful, all the makings of a final girl, but she dies. It is someone else who takes the role of the final girl. In addition to these narrative elements, Friday the 13th also borrows from Psycho through its soundtrack. Both sound eerily similar.
Back to my feelings on horror in general. I feel that the Friday the 13th film series is not the best representative of the genre. It's full of the stuff that people who hate horror decry and sometimes with a valid point. Gratuitous nudity, substandard writing, bad acting, low budgets, and tired cliches. Though there is something very watchable about the Friday the 13th movies, for lack of a better word. There's bad and there's boring bad. And these movies are never boring. And that's definitely something. Though I always feel like I could be watching something better. Except Jason X, of course. Jason X is awesome. [Music] [Music]