ROX-TV’s Friday night at the movies: Featuring the “Friday the 13th” series, the 1989 Nintendo video game, and a little Purple Zombie Brains to boot
Welcome to the “brief personal history of the Friday the 13th franchise and game”. I don’t know how to start this because I care so deeply about the subject matter. I’m convinced that no matter how I go about it, explaining the “Friday the 13th Series” will fail to capture the magic of the movies and the Nintendo game. How does one describe wonderful feelings of bliss? It’s hard to explain to another person how a movie can produce so many different feelings and emotions. It is important to remember that we are here to have fun and kick around the old days for a bit. I’m not a franchise super expert or even a paid Nintendo spokesperson. I’m just a guy on Friday night remembering a dope ass movie series from my perspective many years ago. If you didn’t come here to get high and laugh a little, maybe sip a drink, eat a cap, huff some nitrous oxide, well…..we got nothing for you. The library is just down the road homie.
My first dance with the seductive series was sometime in the mid-eighties. I was spending the night at my cousin Justin’s house. He and I were roughly the same age and then there were his three older brothers. I don’t remember the specific reason for the sleepover but I believe it was for one of their birthdays. Because I only have access to what my younger self chose to value and remember, the actual memory is a series of spliced material containing the movie and the party. The actual party took place during the day but my recollection picks up sometime after the sun had started to set. We had all piled into a back bedroom to watch “scary movies”. My mom would have fainted if she had known we were watching grade-A slasher flicks, and maybe that’s why it felt so cool. It could be why so much value is placed on these memories.
I was viewing “outlaw” material and its the very essence of childhood. Seeing a chance “titty” or a few seconds of Hollywood death meant everything to a bunch of kids from the eighties. Back then, we were still raised a little tougher than is done so today. Scraped knees, teeth knocked out, or bloody noses did little to elevate the blood pressure back then. Today kids get wheeled into the E.R. if they enter a room with trace amounts of peanut butter. I also have it on good authority that gym class of today is no longer really gym class. What the fuck is cup stacking all about? We played dodge ball and tried to hurt each other back in the day.
Anyways, I remember everyone piling in to watch the movie on the “VHS” machine. It was that time of year when the windows were still open and I remember feeling the cool air blowing through the windows and flipping the curtains. As with most things, my age made following the story line next to impossible. There weren’t any cartoons in this movie and I was still coming to terms with “adult” types of entertainment. From the hushed tones and the intense interest on the faces of the older kids, I knew that whatever we were watching was going to deliver.
This was back in a time, when all of life was slower. There was no internet or cell phones. A movie was a big deal and demanded absolute attention. There were no phones to check or lap tops lighting up the room. It was just us and the movie. I’m not saying it was better, it just had less distractions. I think its ok to do things one at a time with the focus being on the task at hand. People can do three things at once but the quality drops significantly.
Facts and Recollections: First Time
I remember terrifying chase sequences through the forest at dusk. It was most likely the scene from Part 2, involving the cop that had just rousted two counselors out at the old Crystal Lake Camp Site. The Bon Jovi look alike and his fine lady really capture the essence of that hold over era from the seventies. A little slice of hippy chick and the manufacturing town tough guy. So the two are visiting the old camp site, get picked up by the cop, and dropped off back at the camp counselor training school (lack of a better description). For some reason, the five-o is driving through the woods when he spots the sack wearing maniac dip into the woods. I remember the cop giving chase, although I’m not sure why? It’s not like you could jay walk in a forest and being there doesn’t seem like a reason for intervention, but the movie was what it was.
A small chase scene kicks off and the lawman eventually winds up at creepy shack in the woods. I guess if someone had to build a “serial killer’s homeless hideout” that shack is exactly what my imagination would have conjured up. There are other memories from Friday the 13th Part 2, which include the opening shot of the first film, where the wholesome camp counselors are jamming out. I remember the scene which involved two love birds, who had snuck off to fool around, only to be slaughtered by the killer (who is actually Jason’s mom). Jason doesn’t really show up until Part 2, but if you want to stump someone at horror movie trivia, there you go.
I can’t stress how being the right age for certain things can be. When you’re a kid, movies that are well produced and even moderately budgeted can leave a lifetime of impacts on the viewers. Its the kind of fear that makes a person run up the stairs, or keep their vision straight ahead until the light can be turned on in a darkened room. The kind of fear that causes a person to peddle just a little faster through the woods at night. Those earliest memories of the series are pretty vague, but over the years I would watch them hundreds of times and expand my points of view.
After the first two movies came out, the decision was made to keep the series going. Money was probably the driving force behind that one, it always is. Four years ago I would have argued that the Part 3: 3D Version was the weakest link in the series. Where I sometimes watched parts one and two a few times a week (2017), part three was much tougher to watch and almost never got any play, like a dork on prom night. I’m not sure if it was because the first two movies were so good or if the writers were having trouble finding a new direction for part three.
The third movie picks up with Jason continuing on his maniac attack routine, focusing on a group of weekend revelers that were looking for love, pot, and a good time. From what I read about the movies, it was supposed to be the end of the series, although no one ever really came out and shouted it. I remember the movie as being more or less a drifting story line that seemed to highlight personalities as opposed to an actual scripted movie. It was like a group of sequences that were kind of odd, all crammed together in order to make the movie.
There’s something for everyone in part three and I guess that was the strategy when they cast the mold. There is a short lived conflict between a girl and her mom, a couple of stoners smoking down in a van, and the movie rolls on. There is some fun classic smoker imagery, but mostly this movie is a race through the nothing forest. The coolest part of the movie is the factoring in of the hockey mask, which would become Jason’s signature move. Not that the sack wasn’t scary, but the mask took things to another level. The reviews at the time were mostly negative and I think that is ok, because the movie was little more than a tin box, with “Friday the 13th” spray painted on the side.
It’s weird to think that Steve Miner directed part two and three, because two was such a dope flick. Part three sucked and still does today. The budget totaled just over two million dollars but the greatest shocker is that the third movie scored huge at the box office. It turns out that this bronze plated medallion of a movie actually knocked “ET The Extraterrestrial” out of first place at the theaters. This unusual time capsule from the early eighties dethroned a king before racking up an unbelievable thirty six million dollars in ticket sales. The only movie to beat 3D Jason that year was the scary ass “Poltergeist”. All in all, the ticket sales on part three totaled out at 11,762,400 sold. Who knew?
I certainly did not and the more I started to learn about the movie, eventually a soft spot in my heart started to develop. Yes, it probably is the worst in the series until at least Part 5, but I put it like this: I like Ringmaster and Carnival of Carnage a lot more than Bizaar Bizzar, but BB will always have a home in my Insane Clown Posse library. In for a penny, in for a pound.
In 1984 Friday the 13th Part 4 was released and I was happy to have a solid addition to the series. After Part 3, the series needed a good solid showing with a decent story line and direction. The movie picks up exactly where the third one left off and was billed as the “Final Chapter”, but everyone knows that the series did not stop. I’m not sure I could blame the decision makers on that. The operating budget was just over two million dollars and brought home almost thirty three million dollars in the U.S. alone.
There were more negative reviews when the movie came out, but as in all things where critics become bigger than their roles were ever intended, much less needed, the people spoke with their wallets. For the negative critics, I could understand getting worked up over number three, but parts one and two were solid movies and part four would deliver a pretty consistent theme and decent production value. The cast included a little boy who would go to become one of Hollywood’s more interesting child stars, the one and only Corey Feldman. Another hidden gem of an actor was Crispin Glover, who later stole the show as Marty McFly’s father in “Back to the Future”.
It was Glover who delivered one of the finest dance performances in any scary movie ever. I would recommend anyone who has not seen the sequence, to go out and get stoned, then fire up YouTube. The rather ingenious fluidity of his stylish and very personal dance is art and creation in the most basic terms. I have watched that scene a couple of hundred times and it never fails to deliver a hearty laugh or at least a smirk. No wonder that guy made it out of the horror circuit, just as Kevin Bacon had gone on to do. Most were not so lucky.
The usual suspects in Part 4 included marijuana, pre-marital sex (which at this point is the norm), and an occasional homicide, all leading up to the fantastic ending (which would have been pretty tough for Jason to actually set up, but that is for another time). Sadly, this is where the franchise began to get kind of wonky again, with the coming of Part five which was promised not to come, but nevertheless turned up in 1985.
With all the money pouring in, I’m sure it was hard to say no to more, like a crack head smoking on payday. Part five was directed by Danny Steinmann and had a budget of about two million dollars. The only problem was that the finished product did not deliver at the box office. The movie still brought in about twenty million dollars at the box office, the result was a dramatic drop from the previous four films. Maybe it was the unusual move of replacing Jason with a copy cat killer-type situation. There is a brief blip in the beginning featuring Corey Feldman watching two dumb ass guys digging up Jason’s grave for fun, but the movie skids after the scene.
The story picks up in a mental health facility in the sticks and Tommy Jarvis (Corey Feldman’s character in part four) has been dropped off for care before release back into the world. There is a lot going on, but the quality really seems to slip out of the room on this one. For a member of the “80’s series”, I find this one to be the least watched and most over looked in my house of horror. I just don’t dig this one at all. Maybe they wanted to try something new like “Halloween Part 3: Season of the witch” did, by removing the star of the series completely. Over the years, Halloween Part three and I have shared an interesting relationship. At one time I didn’t care for the movie for the lack of Michael Myers, but today I must admit that it’s my favorite in the Halloween series. Friday the 13th Part five sadly, would never win me over or even get me to think twice.
The removal of Jason is like cutting off the balls somehow and it didn’t work. The story line is less than desired and really has to reach for certain points to register as “believable”. I find the characters Ethel Hubbard and her son Junior, to be ridiculous. Demon is close behind with his far out character. I suppose the people could and probably do exist somewhere out in America….but not so frequently as to earn the time in the flick. I also had a hard time understanding why patient “Vic” would be allowed to chop wood in the yard. I’ve been to 9C once or twice in Ann Arbor and your not allowed to have shoe laces, so whoever authorized Vic to chop wood with a razor sharp axe should probably have been fired after that incident. I don’t know what to really say about number five, except that if they didn’t fix the series in double quick time, the series was in big trouble.
The only interesting thing about this movie was that it was cast under a fake name, “Repetition”. The actors that signed up for the project were surprised and in some cases disappointed by the revelation that is was a Friday the 13th series member. John Shepherd actually volunteered at a mental institution to prepare for his role, only to find out that it was slasher flick. In my own estimation if the next movie wasn’t good, then the series probably would have died off. But just like after part three, the series roared back to life with a good counter punch. In this case it would be the amazing part six installment.
Part six was needed and showed up at just the right time. It was the first of the Jason movies to actually bring the killer back from the dead. Before this movie, Jason was pretty much a flesh and blood dude, but there is no mistaking his deadness in Part 6. The “Tommy Jarvis” character turns up again with another friend from the nut house, to dig up Jason’s grave and destroy his remains. I’m not sure if this was a very good idea on Tommy’s part and the fact that he had to “dig him up” should have tipped him off that Jason really was dead. The grave should have served as a piece of mind for the troubled Tommy, but instead he becomes fixated on mutilating a dead body.
Crazy Tommy then tears a giant “rod” from the fence surrounding the cemetery and starts to stab and jab whatever was left of Jason. Whoever paid for that rod iron fence should have looked into getting a few bucks back, because the rod pulls out rather easily. Tommy gets his rocks off, stabbing the body and leaves the rod “in” Jason before a chance lighting strike changes everything.
Somehow the lightning was able to re-animate the semi rotten pumpkin corpse. The strange part is that Jason doesn’t just come back to life, he seems to have all his mental capabilities back as well, or at least the ones he had before being buried. I have to ask myself, how did the maggots’ manage to miss the brain and all the other vital organs needed to operate a body? No matter, Jason is back and the boys are in trouble. Tommy then tries to set Jason on fire, but the guy had already been dead, so killing him for a second time seems kind of pointless. Tommy flees after a chance rain storm ruins his matches, but not before Jason kills his friend.
It’s a bit ironic that Tommy went to a cemetery to destroy the corpse of a dead person, accidently electrocutes the corpse, who then re-animates and goes on to kill a bunch of people who had nothing to do with either of them. Nice going dick head. Released on August 1st, 1986, the movie was still a gold bar. Things obviously happen in part six but it is mostly appropriate and well done. Part three and five could have learned a few things from this flick. Written and directed by Tom McLoughlin, Part 6 has a return to a believable camp setting, which all good Jason movies must have. The camp near the lake is what really gets people excited. The situations (besides the jumpstart at the beginning) are mostly believable and that works fine for me. Fantastic and over the top shit doesn’t scare me anyways, its the cabin with no power at dusk that gives me a chill. An alien might be scary to Sigourney Weaver, but the unknown shadow standing in the back of the concrete shit house makes my steps light as a feather.
I truly believe that a return to the basics is all any good horror movie needs. The only other crucial fact is that the product can not be poisoned by special interests. Special interests kills the magic of these films. Part six went on to gross almost twenty million dollars and is considered a classic by fans of the series.
Friday the 13th Part seven would be produced and released in 1988. Coined “The new blood”, the movie would gross roughly nineteen million dollars and guaranteed the series survival. The story line was based on a telekinetic girl named “Tina Shepard” (no relation) who does battle with the hockey masked devil. The really glaring thing that jumps out at me in this movie is how pathetic the lake looks. I’m from the Great Lakes and I’ve seen prettier mud puddles in the junk yard, than what was portrayed in the this movie. There are moments when the “lake” looks like a dead end swamp in the outlying landscapes of Eastern Canada. With the camp and the lake being so important to the story magic, its a real shame how the water took on less and less a serious role.
By the time Friday the 13th Part eight came out, the water implications were down right shameful. It’s like if a group of movie makers made a series about a basketball star, but as the story line continued, the shiny floor of the stadium sized arena slowly turned into an asphalt parking lot top, before reforming as a dusty dirt court in a field. Anyone watching the movie series might wonder how a lake could take on so many faces over such a short amount of time?
How could Crystal Lake be large enough for the original cast to play all day in the water, observe the Keven Bacon “tent scene”, rescue Ned from drowning, and still be the same lake that Tina dealt with in part seven? Maybe the lake was going through a rough time and turned into a swamp, before becoming large enough to house the floating yacht one movie later. Better yet, who in the fuck would drop a yacht in such a small “lake” with a giant power cable running unsafely down the middle near a submerged serial killer?
Some things do not mix well together, like cocaine and guns, alcohol and work, and last but not least…New York City and a campsite in the woods. Part eight received the worst reviews up until that time and highlights my instincts. Not that being correct proves anything but you can not have a series survive that relies so heavily on the relics (lake, camp) and then disregard them. Doing that will only cost you the purists and real fans, because by part eight of anything, who else is really watching?
The movie brought in about fourteen million dollars at the box office, with probably one of the largest budgets of the series at almost $5 Million dollars. If you take this into account with the working budget of the $550,000 that the first movie had, bringing in almost sixty million, there was definitely a problem in the wheelhouse. I say keep things where they make sense, but then again, I’m a reformed alcoholic, with a real shoddy work history, so who cares what the fuck I think?
The Game:
One of the first versions to be developed was the 1985 version which was released for Commodore 64 and called “Friday the 13th”, a version developed by Domark. The version was released for personal computers of the day, that version of the game came on a floppy disk and had an audio cassette tape. It apparently had five levels, allowing the player to explore settings and interact with other characters.
Nintendo Version:
This was the version released for the Nintendo (1989) and its one that I still own and play today, on a vintage Nintendo that stills works. The opening shot includes a hockey mask against an all black back drop. Just about the time a person wonders in the game is working correctly, a hunting knife flies out of nowhere and crash lands into the eye socket of the mask. Once this happens the black screen and mask light up in bright flashes, before leading the way to a title screen adorning the same name again.
Operation while stoned: Strain-Purple Zombie Brains by Will Oaks Genesee County Compassion Club
Once the start button is pushed, another screen appears with all the jive copyright stuff a person would expect from a movie giant. Mostly it just says that Paramount Pictures owns everything with a brief mention of LinToys and LJN. I decided to let the music play and absorb the sounds. The actual music is “slightly” creepy and probably works best when the player is alone in their bedroom. It’s mostly a simple tune, doing the best it can with the technology of the day. I will say that compared to other games, this composition is brilliant and actually is pleasing to listen too. If the reader doesn’t believe me, I can direct them to the “Knight Rider” or “Ikari Warriors II Victory Road” for comparison.
I hit start again, but the music doesn’t’ seem to want to stop. For the moment, I am fine with that, but it’s not hard to imagine a day where it might get old after seven or eight hours of play. The next screen to pop up is the Crystal Lake Camp Map and this is where the player gets to pick his or her camp counselor. There are only six and they include: George, Mark, Paul, Laura, Debbie, and Crissy. Some of the camp counselors are better at running and jumping than others so beware when picking. I selected George because I thought he was the best runner and jumper. The game then took me to another graphic screen and gave loose instructions about lighting the damn fireplaces in bigger cabins, which are spread out over the campsite.
Once all the cabins have roaring fires, the kids are safe….I guess. Even though I picked George, the old blinking machine assigned me Laura instead. I’m not sure if it was a glitch in the system or the Purple Zombie Brains (Will Oaks special strain, G3C) I was smoking on. I suppose it didn’t really matter, it wasn’t like I set out to beat the game anyway. My counselor is slow and throws rocks for defense. There are zombies everywhere and I don’t really remember them from the franchise, but the developers needed more than one bad guy, so zombies work I guess.
My progress was amazing and after killing two zombies, I was given a lighter and a key (that could open cabins in the woods and in the cave). Although in reality, I’ve never lived long enough in the game to really find out. No matter how many honest to goodness attempts I’ve tried over the years, the results are always the same. I usually manage to stay alive for awhile, kill a few zombies, bats, and wolves…even fight off Jason when he shows up, but the kids are eventually all killed and the game ends (or all my counselors get killed).
I try to rise above the inevitable, but in the end, this game has always been an exercise in staying alive for a time. I’ve never even come close to beating it, and there have been times over the last thirty some years where I really tried. As with so many times before, I light a few fires, before Jason shows up. He kills one of my counselors and then starts going after the kids. Whenever this happens, the music changes on the game until the Jason is found and attacked. Normally I can never figure out what cabin Jason is in, and then wander around aimlessly until everyone is dead. The children meter starts at “60” and starts counting down. When the numbers run out, the next cabin gets lined up for the slaughter. For years this part of the game has frustrated me and I usually just lose all hope once the countdown begins.
This game is really good at getting a player “turned around” after a while. The problem is usually that I have a general idea of where I’m going, until my concentration gets disrupted. Say for instance, I know that I have to get to the lake, because a note on the floor of the cabin says so, but after the four moves it takes to clear a cabin, I no longer remember where to go. Hitting pause brings me time to think but does little in ways of providing a path forward. In my own defense, my game is not accompanied by the box or the instructions. Back in the 80’s those were usually discarded after opening. The internet has all the maps, secrets, and clues to assist in killing Jason and winning, but I just never seem to care long enough to do so.
I guess there is a bit of unknown magic in that I’ve never beaten the Friday the 13th game in all these years and probably never will. I like to leave the option open, because if I ever beat the game, there would be no more mystery associated with the game for me, no forbidden fruit to lust after. Taking away the mystery can sometimes ruin a good thing, so I refuse to advance after a certain point with this Nintendo game.
As long as I never get too good at playing this game, I will never beat it, which means I will always feel the need to play it, thus continually fueling the relationship I have with it, which at this point is thirty some years in the making. I will keep the status quo. Some of the most unhappy people I have ever met were either too successful or they were driven crazy by the search for the new and better shit. I’ve got my Nintendo and a game I can’t beat, and I’m happy with that.
Well, that’s where the dusty trail ends tonight. I know more movies came down the line, but as far as I’m concerned, those first eight are the core of the franchise’s soul. All opinions are my own and are subject to change for no reason. Thanks for joining us at ROX-TV for some Friday night movie memories around the camp fire. Until next time…..
Signing Off,
Mike Shepard
ROX-TV Head Writer
shepard2909@hotmail.com
kidvicious810 on IG
For more ROX-TV Friday night movie articles, please check out the following articles:
https://rox-tv.com/2021/03/26/rox-tv-takes-a-look-at-the-basketball-diaries/
https://rox-tv.com/2021/03/23/rox-tv-revisits-the-warriors/
