Film & Water #145 – Friday The 13th

THE FILM & WATER PODCAST

Episode 145: FRIDAY THE 13TH

Ch-ch-ch-ah-ah-ah! Just in time for the big day, Rob welcomes fellow podcaster Sean Ross to discuss the film that terrified him as a child, the original FRIDAY THE 13TH!

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21 responses to “Film & Water #145 – Friday The 13th

  1. Pretty fun (and thankfully honest) episode. I’d be interested to hear you going through the entire Friday the 13th franchise. But for some strange (yet obvious) reason I suspect you’ll decide not to.

    RE: the ending–I was always told the jumping out of the water ending was intended to only be a dream and they just went with Jason as the killer in the sequels (well, except for part 5) as a matter of simplicity.

  2. Great episode! I recalled Sean’s story from Midnight, but it was a pleasure to hear it again here, in even more depth. Since my kids have a 6 year gap between them, I can TOTALLY see my son doing something similar to his little sister.

    I haven’t seen first the Friday film in a LOOONG time. The franchise was always one of those that was just reserved for weekend overnight stays at friends’ houses. None of the films made much of an impression, except for Jason coming out of the lake here, and then Cory Feldman tricking Jason in the fourth (?) film, and Arnold Horeshack getting killed by newly-revived zombie Jason in the 6th movie (I think). Beyond that, it’s all a blur, but I know we watched them all at one time or another.

    That was a horrifying story about the mugging Rob. I can’t imagine going through that at ANY age, or having my kids go through that, so I can totally understand why your Dad lost it over that phone call!!!

    What a great discussion. Sean and Greg are knocking it out of the park on Secret Wars and Beyond, so it was nice to hear him here!

    Chris

  3. Friday the 13th is my favorite series. I take the day off work to marathon these movies. I can admit they aren’t masterpieces but I love them all.

    Ned is the 3rd wheel in his group. His way of getting attention is to be a goofball. We all know people like that.

  4. As a teenage boy, slasher horror was my jam. I loved Friday the 13th, Hellraiser, Nightmare on Elm Street. all of them. Even Candyman!

    So I think that you guys haven’t given this movie it’s appropriate due. Yes, it is slow now. But then, it felt suspenseful. When would the next person die. The surprise ending was out of nowhere but that made more sense than one of the new campers being the killer. The place had a death curse. It had to be something from before their time. And hearing the mother do both sides of the discussion was chilling.

    Even if you say that this was a clunker, I feel you need to judge it in the context of the first 4 Fridays. Part 2, the initiation of Jason as the killer complete with burlap bag mask and unveiling. Part 3 with cheesy effects and the start of the hockey mask symbology. And, of course, part 4 – the new beginning. You wouldn’t judge Lord of the Rings based on just Fellowship.

    All other movies after 4 are ephemera, sort of like the Silmarillion.

    My friends and I used to know these movies so well that we could rattle off our favorite kills. Road flare into the mouth? Machete down the middle of the guy doing a handstand? Machete to the head and push down the camp staircase? All good.

    Still, if you need to review a horror franchise, I say Hellraiser.

    1. I agree. Except part four was “Final Chapter”.

      I had composition note books dedicated to who died, how and in what order.

      1. Hahahaha! I had part of a composition notebook dedicated to analyzing the in-film time line and it’s various inconsistencies.

    2. I agree with you. As a teenager all these slasher films were my jam back then. I watched them with my friends, usually eating pizza, watched Nightmare on Elm Street films, Halloween, and 13th films. The pacing of the first 13th film was very indicative of 1970’s films with pacing. It wasn’t u til a few years after that, with the popularity of MTV, that they tightened the editing.

      1. Sorry for curt response. Dashed off to meeting after. Sorry for m6 mistake and thanks for correction.

        Corey Feldman should’ve been the new Jason.

        1. No problem. I have been writing between work assignments/meetings as well.

          Corey Feldman would have made a nice Jason. I enjoy part 5 but we could have gotten at least flashbacks of “Tommy” Jason. The one thing that always jumped out of “New Beginning” was the sheriff said Tommy’s mother and sister were killed by Jason. Trish survived.

  5. Betsy Palmer’s involvement and role was kept a secret so showing her on screen before the killer reveal would have blown it.

    Yes, the Camp is a real boyscout camp that cashes in on the involvement. But after the initial release they didn’t want to associated and would vehemently turn away any tourists.

    Ari Lehman’s mongoloid form is somewhat foreshadowed by Mrs. Voorhees when she tells Alice.

    “ The counselors weren’t paying any attention… They were making love while that young boy drowned. His name was Jason. I was working the day that it happened. Preparing meals… here. I was the cook. Jason should’ve been watched. Every minute. He was… he wasn’t a very good swimmer. “

    A lot of the characters personalities are a little flat. Alice is torn on the choice to go back home “to take care of something” or her stay with her boss that is clearly flirting with her.

    Just before Marcie describes her “shower dream” , they handle “where is Ned”:

    Oh, wind’s come up. Shifted a good 180 degrees.
    MARCIE: I’ll need someone to hold onto (kisses Jack).What about Ned?
    JACK: I don’t love Ned!
    MARCIE: He’s acting like such a jerk.
    JACK: (yelling) Neddy?
    MARCIE: Don’t call him!
    JACK: I thought you wanted to give him one of your motherly lectures.
    Look, Neddy’s gonna do whatever Neddy wants to do, ya know?

    He has a history of running off.

  6. Great episode guys! Sean’s story was amazing and I liked how he compared the film to Kerouac‘s “The Road”.
    TRUE STORY: I was in Boy Scouts and in the 80’s we camped at the campsite. I didn’t know about it until it got late at night and a friend of mine , Frank, told me where we were camping at (they didn’t advertise it) I was older by then and I thought it was amazing. What we did was a terrible prank. My friend had a hockey mask and around 3am, while everyone was sleeping in these cabins, he taps at the window with the mask on and all the young kids freaked out. They zipped left/right and he ran after them with a plastic machete. The rest of the weekend was fun except I cooked a steak over a fire and I didn’t have a decent light to watch how it was cooking. I started chewing in it and it was so gummy because it was still raw. I hate rare steaks because of it today.

  7. I totally get why so many people love the movie. I think that, if I had seen it as an adolescent or young teen, it might have made a bigger impact and would have a big nostalgia factor, but since I encountered it in pre-school, it just doesn’t resonate. 🙂

    Also, I have to share that my sisters are mortified that I have now shared this story publicly twice. Ah….sweet revenge. 🙂

    Sean

  8. Saw this for the first time a few months ago. My parents did not allow this sort of the movie in the house and we (my brother and I) were deterred from sneaking after hours to the living room after being caught watching Spring Break on HBO.

    I more or less came to same conclusions as you gentlemen, particularly regarding the flat, one-note characters. I did like the ending though, especially in light of the franchise’s reputation. While there’s no need to watch this movie again, part of me is curious to see the other films, especially the one with Jason IN… SPACE…

  9. Thank god some finally agrees with me as to what a clunker this film actually is. There are so many better movies in this genre out there especially the first Halloween. Very entertaining show guys and I’ll take Ordinary People over this one lol!

  10. Frickin’ great episode. Just tickled me to pieces (Hacked to pieces?).

    It’s funny how delightfully bad you two found Friday the 13th to truly be. To me that’s always been such a staple of the entire franchise. Part of what makes them what they are.

    Now that doesn’t excuse bad film making or lazy script writing. But I watched these all through the mid-to-late 80’s and ’90s, knowing exactly what there were each time. Knowing that they were in no way Halloween, The Thing, JAWS or any other respectable horror movie. But, for myself and my cadre of usual suspects, they were the most fun to rip on. Like when you watch a MST3K movie.

    Matter of fact, my friend Wally and I watched FT13th 1-8 so much, that we created a timeline when we realized just how out of sync the films were in regard to the passage of time between each film. In the end, we came to the conclusion that Jason Take Manhattan should have actually been taking place at some point in the late 2020s. So delightfully bad.

    In closing, I’d actually like to mention that I have a bit of a soft spot for FT13th Part 6. The writer and director, Tom McLoughlin, added a strangely coherent sense of humor to the film that none of the others in series ever had. The acting is far better than it should be. The concept is stupidly clever. AND you get a pretty decent Alice Cooper tune to boot. So if you really have nothing to do on a dark and stormy night, do give Friday the 13th Part 6: Jason Lives a fair shot. Y’all could do soooo much worse (Like Friday the 13th Part 5. Now THAT’S bad film making).

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