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Friday the 13th


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I meant to respond but spent the majority of the day being poked and prodded and scanned at the hospital. So it'll have to wait until Saturday the 14th.

 

Nothing past the original was plausible, but they were fun. Speaking of, are we ranking movies or Jasons?

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I liked him better before he became a zombie. I thought it was dumb how they jumped from the fairly plausible to the supernatural.

Damn it, John... I SWEAR....

 

I love zombie Jason, and I think the closest the series came to a legit protagonist was Tommy, hence 4 and 6 being tops.

 

I meant to respond but spent the majority of the day being poked and prodded and scanned at the hospital. So it'll have to wait until Saturday the 14th.

 

Nothing past the original was plausible, but they were fun. Speaking of, are we ranking movies or Jasons?

Oh crap-- that's a great question. Cause 7 Jason is my favorite, but that movie is a ways down the list.

 

Also, I hope you get a helpful diagnosis soon.

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I liked him better before he became a zombie. I thought it was dumb how they jumped from the fairly plausible to the supernatural.

Agreed. Aside from Freddy, I prefer my horror killers to have some semblance of realism. Zombie Jason played more like a comic book supervillain, i.e. his battle with Tina or his NY rampage. Not my cup of tea. (Though I'll admit that without zombie Jason a Freddy vs Jason would never have happened. I don't think it works with human Jason.)

 

I also liked the way 5 handled Tommy and then 6 ignored most of that.

 

IMO The Final Chapter is the best of all the Friday films, but Part 3 is my favorite. Seeing part 3 in 3-D in a theater is on my bucket list. Hopefully one day I'll be able to catch one of those special screenings.

 

With that being said, my list:

3

4 - Ted White's portrayal was scary as ****. Gave me so many nightmares as a kid.

2

5 (just him in Tommy's illusions, especially at the start of the film when young Tommy dreams of seeing him rise from the grave, was enough to scare the crap out of me)

7

8

6

FvsJ

JGTH

X

2009

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I think that conceptually, 5 is great. Had it been better made, and if Corey Feldman stayed in the role, it would be higher on my list for sure.

 

I think if Tommy had been the same actor throughout he could have been as well known as Laurie Strode. I think half the reason Halloween gets so many attempts to try again is because Jamie Lee Curtis became a legit superstar.

 

...not that Corey Feldman could have pulled off the same thing, at least, not past the early 90s.

 

But you get my point. After Leatherface, and before the lawsuit that has locked Jason up, I had a chance to pitch on a new F13 reboot. I wanted to cherry-pick 1, 4, 5, 6, and 7 to make Tommy a decent protagonist.

 

And you zombie-Jason haters are full of it. The entire appeal of Jason was that he always gets back up. Michael Myers came first, but by Halloween 4 they had gone supernatural as well in an effort to compete with Jason.

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From worst to best, because it's easier to rule out the bad ones first:

 

Jason Goes To Hell - Jason, as a character, exists for the blink of an eye and then it all goes the route of Halloween 6 (which technically came later, but I think H6 is a better marker for the folly of mid-nineties horror franchises).

 

 

Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan - Too low budget to spend much time in the city, the boat ended up being boring. Largely interchangable, Jason works best in remote locations with lots of space, and Michael Myers works in close quarters.

 

Jason X - Jason X is super cheesy, but done in a way that honors the rest of the franchise. It isn't trying to be cool, and does a decent job of balancing cheese with horror.

 

 

Part VII: New Blood - Not to be confused with First Blood. Telekinesis. Mentally unbalanced teenagers. Horny teens wanting to bone. So basically a slasher film with telekinesis. Not the worst thing they tried.

 

Freddy vs Jason - Two horror icons in the same film, but they really don't work well together. Gets bonus points for walking Freddy back in his ridiculousness.

 

A New Beginning: Doesn't Count

 

Part VI: Jason Lives - Screw you guys. Zombie Jason forever.

 

Part IV: The Final Chapter - Crispin Glover is creepy enough to rate this high, but it really stands out

 

Remake (2009) - It hits all the right notes and avoids a lot of the avoidable cheese.

 

Part III - This introduces the iconic Jason look. That alone almost got it even higher on the list.

 

Friday The 13th (original) - Started it all, has Kevin Bacon, a real twist with the killer, and does a good job with mood. Amazing movie that would've been a classic even if it didn't launch a franchise.

 

Part II - Top of the list. First real look at Jason as an adult killer. Mom's severed head. This is really the one that created a legend that changed pop culture.

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Part 2 really does deserve credit as being a reboot that set the course for things. I just never cared about the teens in that one, and I hate ol' baghead. But I hear you.

 

Taking cue from your other comment, here's my rankings of Jasons... worst to best.

 

Jason Goes To Hell - Hate this Jason with the big head growing around the mask. Even though it's Kane Hodder, it never felt right to me.
Freddy vs Jason - Similarly, the misshapen oversized mask makes him look more clumsy than scary.
X - He's classic for a bit, but let's focus on Cyber-Jason who basically looks like if the NHL was run by the WWE.
Part V - Never looks quite right, kinda boxy-- and it isn't Jason anyway, so...
Part II - Hillbilly Baghead is poop. But unmasked, he's actually kind of cool, so that ups the stock.
Part VI - Love the back from the dead vibe-- but at the same time, there's something kinda fumbly and clumsy about this one.
Part IV - While I love zombie Jason, his first outing is a little frumpy and baggy.
Remake (2009) - I liked the way they combined all the best features into one Jason, but his weird shaped head killed it a little. Great eye-acting and body language though.
Friday The 13th (original) - While Jason is scrawny as hell, the first time you see him pop out is creepy and unexpected. It only works once, and seems goofy forever after, but when that scare was envisioned (and I'd argue zombie Jason was sorta of established then and there) it was awesome.
Part III - Big Jason, hockey mask-- established here and instantly iconic. Also the unmasking sort of set the shape of things to follow. I liked that from Part 3 to Part 8 there was an effort to track his various woulds and move them along from film to film (like the axe-cut to the head from 3 still being there in 8.)
Part VIII - The reverse of Part II, mask on, Jason looks great, mask off though is one of the WORST reveals ever. He's a spongey muppet. That brings the stock down. Despite this movie being the lowest on my list, Jason looks so great, and facing down the punks in Times Square is one of the best Jason moments ever.
Part VII - Definitely my favorite Jason. Everyone knows Kane Hodder had the best body language. On top of that you have the cool chain around the neck, all the exposed bones, and a perfectly sized mask. It's amazing how wrong he looks when the mask is too big or too small. This Jason also had one of the better face reveals.
Not many people would argue that Kane Hodder was the best Jason, he had the perfect combo of size, agility, and body language with his acting. I actually find it odd watching Jason in the earlier films that are played by somebody else because Hodder's way of doing it was so iconic. It's just too bad that while his portrayal was the best, outside of New Blood, his run was in the worst of the films.
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You know, we're using the term "zombie Jason," and I know I was the first one to say such a thing in this thread, but now that I think about it, a more accurate term would probably be "revenant Jason." Classically, a zombie is simply a reanimated corpse, bearing little to no trace of its original personality and intellect in life, whereas a revenant is similar but the consciousness of the original person is present and in complete control of the reanimated corpse.

Just something I was thinking about.

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You know, we're using the term "zombie Jason," and I know I was the first one to say such a thing in this thread, but now that I think about it, a more accurate term would probably be "revenant Jason." Classically, a zombie is simply a reanimated corpse, bearing little to no trace of its original personality and intellect in life, whereas a revenant is similar but the consciousness of the original person is present and in complete control of the reanimated corpse.

 

Just something I was thinking about.

Well said... but fandom has been referring to the post Part IV Jason as "zombie" Jason for years.

 

Also, forgot to add a couple semi-canon favorites to my list:

 

The F13 game's bonus Jasons-- one that's colored with the same scheme as the old 8Bit F13 video game Jason, and a new design by Tom Savini...

 

Jason-Retro.jpg#main

 

Screen-Shot-2017-04-19-at-5.31.08-PM-e15

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Jason Goes to Hell is the only one I can say I don't enjoy. The only part that even has real Jason feels like a sitcom spoof of what they should do in Friday the 13th. I watched it a couple of years ago and I just kept thinking that it was exactly how Community would handle it.

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I know it's blasphemy but I find the original tedious. I appreciate it for what it was at the time, but it's a bit of a slog.

 

I actually liked how the 2009 remake was able to basically go through the first three films. Doing Mrs. Voorhees as the open was genius.

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Not blasphemy. I used to HAAATE it. When I was a kid, I actually started with part 2 and saw the following sequels, and didn't see part one for a few years because a friend said I didn't need to see it. Then when I finally did, I was like "where's Jason," not realizing that it was the Mom who was supposed to be the killer, sort of like a reverse Psycho.

Same thing happened to me. I wasn't old enough to see the earlier films in theaters and my parents hated horror films so they would never take me. I didn't get to watch them until they aired on The Movie Channel and so I watched them out of order. Part 3 was the first one I saw in its entirety. By the time I did get to watch the original, when Mrs. Voorhees finally makes her appearance and Alice pleads with her not to go into the cabin, Mrs. Voorhees replies, "I'm not afraid." I remember thinking, of course you're not, your his mom, he won't do anything to you, not realizing she was the killer and not Jason.

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I think that conceptually, 5 is great. Had it been better made, and if Corey Feldman stayed in the role, it would be higher on my list for sure.

 

I think if Tommy had been the same actor throughout he could have been as well known as Laurie Strode. I think half the reason Halloween gets so many attempts to try again is because Jamie Lee Curtis became a legit superstar.

 

...not that Corey Feldman could have pulled off the same thing, at least, not past the early 90s.

 

But you get my point. After Leatherface, and before the lawsuit that has locked Jason up, I had a chance to pitch on a new F13 reboot. I wanted to cherry-pick 1, 4, 5, 6, and 7 to make Tommy a decent protagonist.

 

And you zombie-Jason haters are full of it. The entire appeal of Jason was that he always gets back up. Michael Myers came first, but by Halloween 4 they had gone supernatural as well in an effort to compete with Jason.

I wonder how successful the franchise would've been, if at all, had they followed through with Tommy as the new killer. They did a good job of setting it up. Feldman at the end of 4 when hugging Trish opens his eyes and gives that psycho stare to the camera. Then his decent into madness in 5. I loved at the end of 5 when Tommy finally snaps and stares down the Jason illusion in his hospital bed and almost starts smiling, the subtle change from "ki ki ki, ma ma ma" to "Tommy Tommy Tommy, kill kill kill."

 

Halloween did the same thing with Jamie. She was set up to be the new killer at the end of 4 and then they changed their minds. I'm not understanding the reference to Halloween 4 being when the franchise went the supernatural route.

 

Even though I love Halloween 1978 and Halloween II 1981, I prefer human Jason in the same sense of it being more realistic. From the very first Halloween, Myers is being riddled with bullets and he continues to come at you. With human Jason they at least tried to make it more plausible that he'd survive his wounds by keeping guns out of the films.

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Michael one bullet in H1, and seemingly survived. Took a few more in 2, but technically died. In 4 he was supposedly in a coma the whole time.

 

The supernatural stuff started by saying he and niece Jamie (Laurie's daughter) had a psychic link. He started shrugging off bullets. In 5 he was as indestructible as Jason, and in 6 there was a whole demonic cult subplot to explain his abilities.

 

Funny how Michael, Freddie, and Jason all got some demon-ish origin to their powers in their last films before reboots and retcons and jumping to the future.

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