Happy Friday the 13th all you horror lovers out there. I thought long and hard on how to celebrate this blog's first passing of something of a holiday to horror fanatics, and I've decided to simply make a special moment about the day and the movie that we all know and love. No matter what you want to trace it to, there's not a lot of solid connections to one story on why Friday the 13th is an unlucky day in western superstition/culture. After all, a lot of cultures actually believe that the number 13 is lucky, so what's up with us? Us being the same people who feel the need to get our nooky on while a machete crazed killer in a hockey mask is walking around trying to gut us.
I don't buy the idea that the Last Supper is the reason that Friday the 13th holds anything special to us. For those who don't know, the Last Supper was the meal that Jesus had with his 13 buddies and also the time when he said the bread was his body and the wine was his blood. Blood. That's a connection, right? Right? It's a loose connection.
Understandably we have a lot of horror tropes that spurn from religious context. Crucifix hurting vampires, the exorcism and possession movies, and who can forget Night of the Demons 2 which raps itself up in a cross being kicked in the wall to kill the demon that was actually really entertaining to watch run a muck. It's not a great film, but that's for a different blog post. Friday the 13th holds special places in our heart because its the moment that fans of horror and those who aren't really into it can share moments of unease and experience similar connections, at least in their consumption of art, media and stories. Halloween is similar to this, but Halloween has a lot of historical events that take place to give it more credibility to being a night for all holy hell to break loose. Let's face it, there's no reason for Friday the 13th to be more terrifying then Friday the 14th. I'm sure a biblical scholar can find some sort of way to make all the days of our calendar terrifying, but what would be the point?
The 13th is special and has engrained itself into the hearts and minds of the masses. Whether there's a religious connection or not, there's something uneasy about the uncertainty of our morality and holding onto our souls on that day. That leads me to briefly talk about the movie, Friday the 13th. This is not a review, an analysis nor even a discussion on the movie, I just want to point out its importance to us as fans of the creepy crawly things that go bump and slice our half naked friends in half. May 9, 1980 we were introduced to Camp Crystal Lake. Just thinking about the music of that film makes me shiver. I spent the night of the first time I watched that movie trying to shake the creepy feeling that music gave me. You have to understand that the 1970's - 1980's were opening the door to some of our greatest franchises (while some would sink in their later entries, we have to give credit to the love of the sequels. After all if we aren't buying tickets or merchandise they wouldn't make those films).
Friday the 13th started out with two good looking councilors about to do some good looking things before they are unexplainably murdered. Let's look at this historically. 1973 we had the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. A year later Black Christmas. A couple years later Halloween and then Friday the 13th in 1980. What a time to be alive and see some crazy things happening at the box office! By the end of 1980 you had Maniac. Enough about the time line, Roy! Let's just talk about Friday the 13th.
Alright! Alright!
Friday the 13th introduced us to an amazing sound track and without a lot of plot caused an audience to become uncomfortable and watch their backs when they went camping. It wasn't that this was the first slasher or that it used all of the elements of a good killer in the woods scenario perfectly, it was the brilliance of the scenes, the pacing of the film and how the film both said here's a killer but the killer was mostly unseen.
Let's take the scene where Marcie is using the bathroom. She hears sounds in the shower. Scary. What's going to be in there? We all know its not going to be good. She walks there, the tension is building, she looks in and NOTHING! Nothing! what? Wait! Why? Marcie turns around and receives an axe directly into her face. Brilliant!
We also have such an amazing chase scene with Alice and the mother Voorhees. The scene ranges all across the camp that we've learned to fear. Eventually Alice beats Voorhees not once but twice. Once when she knocks her out and the next when she decapitates poor Mrs. Voorhees. Alice then canoes to the middle of the lake, cause why the fuck not and falls asleep. She's attacked in her canoe after she awakes and we're left with one of the best endings to a film that has so many great parts.
"We didn't find any boy."
"Then he's still out there." Alice says.
Oh shit! He is still there! To be fair, all of the Friday the 13th films deserve their own post (foreshadowing!) and not all of them are good. This one and the next film are both incredibly interesting to the times (crazy violence, sexual revolution is strong and how we never get a full idea of how the rest of the world looks at all the killings. Friday the 13th was a smash hit, a classic and it still holds a special place in my heart.
The fact that Alice will later take a screw driver to the head is a brilliant end to the reign of Pamela Voorhees as the killer and Jason taking over. With all that said, watch your back dear fans, there's a lot of movie to watch in this series and a lot more to discuss. Always another Friday the 13th to come.
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