The title of this blog has to do with the classic slasher flicks from the late 70's - the early 90's Halloween, Friday The 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Child's Play . Lets look at each franchise shall we .
Note : I want to preface this by saying without "The Shape" in John Carpenter's ground breaking Halloween in 1978 there wouldn't be a Jason Voorhees or Freddy Kruger as "The Shape" later known as Michael Myers was the first of the big slasher baddies .
HALLOWEEN : The first Halloween film in 1978 is an ICONIC film and as I've said many time is my favorite movie of all time in any genre . That being said I loved the sequel Halloween II in 1981 just as much but then the franchise goes off the rails with Halloween III Season Of The Witch and struggles to recover from that point on . That's not to say that I didn't enjoy the movies from that point on because I did I love the Jamie Llyod story line and I love Halloween H20 but you have to really watch then differently to understand them . I've said it often if you watch the franchise in this order it makes more sense then if you watch them in order 1- .
Halloween, Halloween II, Halloween H20 and Halloween Resurrection.
Note : Resurrection is a waste of time for most fans but if you want the complete story of the Micheal / Laurie story line you add that
Halloween 4 - 6
This is what I call the Jamie Llyod story line and really has nothing to do with the original story line or plot for the franchise .
I watch Halloween III Season Of The Witch every year around Halloween because on it's own it's really an amazing film it's just hampered by being labeled a Halloween film, while I understand they wanted to make Halloween an anthology series with each film dealing with a different scary story or Halloween superstition they should've done that with Halloween II, the mistake they made was making Halloween II about Michael Myers and Laurie Strode when they should've made it about a different story if they wanted to make the anthology idea work .
FRIDAY THE 13TH : 1980's Friday The 13th was a major film in the slasher genre as it brought out a different side of the killer character a more violent, blood thirsty killer then we had seen in Halloween written by Victor Miller and directed by Sean S. Cunningham in an effort to "Keep the lights on" This film changed the way fans and Hollywood saw the slasher movie forever ! Then in 1981 we were given Friday The 13th part 2 which introduced the world to the now ICON Jason Voorhees watching Jason ply his craft for the first time on screen was amazing and that momentum continued through Friday The 13th part 3(D) which is where Jason gets the hockey mask . (poor Shelly)
They labeled part 4 The Final Chapter which I would say is an amazing film in the series and after this movie this franchise went off the rails (briefly) with part 5 A New Beginning which had no Jason, so they basically made the same mistake Halloween III made with no Michael Myers, Part VI : Jason Lives is one of my favorites in the series and has my second favorite Jason in it played by CJ Graham . Part VII The New Bllod was a cool take on Carrie VS Jason and Tina Shepard really kicks Jason's ass in the movie . Part VIII was the first attempt to do something "new" and "different" with Jason and take him out of Crystal Lake and move the movie to NYC which was interesting to me but really falls short in my opinion as most of the movie takes place on a boat (side note why do they need to take a boat from New Jersey to New York ? Does anyone else ask this question ? ) Part IX Jason Goes To Hell The Final Friday first off is a dumb title we already had the Final Chapter so saying this is the "Final Friday" is sort of stupid then you get into the movie and realize they did the same thing in this flick as they did and took Jason out of the movie except for a few scenes (I'm not even going to mention the stupid looking mask in this installment) . We wrap up the original series with Jason X which I really enjoy this movie because I think they were finally successful in doing something fresh and new with Jason by putting him 400+ years into the future and in space I created new ways for him to kill people and a completely different setting and who will ever forget Uber Jason which was fuckin' amazing !! .
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET : 1984 saw the release of something fresh and new in the slasher genre with the creation of Freddy Krueger a dream killer which was wicked cool . My issue with this series is that they went from serious to camp in one movie . 1985's A Nightmare On Elm Street 2 Freddy's Revenge while I personally love this movie really went way out there with the humor of Freddy and he became less scary with each passing movie Part 3 Dream Warriors was good but really too much funny not enough scary Freddy . Part 4 The Dream Master was just hard to watch and really lacked the scary kills of the original and the sequel . Part 5 The Dream Child was just fun and games for Freddy then in Freddy's Dead we get to meet the long lost daughter of Freddy which was interesting if
It wasn't marred with characters I couldn't care less about I will admit that Spencer and Carlos' deaths are very good until Wes Craven's New Nightmare It's an amazing story, well written and just all around great, so we went from scary in the 1984 original film then not scary again until the seventh film ?? New Nightmare Is an amazing story, well written and just all around great, re watch it some time I think you'll enjoy it alittle more .
CHILD'S PLAY : 1988 saw the release of Child's Play a story that was centered around serial killer Charles Lee Ray who places his soul into the body of a Good Guy doll and then the doll has to transform in soul into the body of the first person he told his secret too, that being the boy who is his owner Andy Barclay. this first moviue was amazing, well written and the story was on point for sure . The sequel was just as good as well as part 3 (one of my favorites in the series and in a change of pace this series goes off the rails in the fourth installment with Bride of Chucky which was really stupid I have seen this movie about a dozen times (my wife likes it) and I just can't get into it, I mean it doesn have Katherine Heigl in it as well as John Ritter who was awesome in this movie . The story is weak but I can also understand how fans could enjoy it as well then you follow this up with Seed of Chucky and this movie is very very hard to watch, the story is okay not good but okay . the casting is alittle weak and thankfully the series died with this movie until 2013 when we got Curse of Chucky which brought the Chuckster back to his scary roots and really brought new life into the series and we will await the release of Cult of Chucky later this year I'm very excited about this one as it's supposed to make Bride and Seed make more sense, we'll see about that ...
THE REMAKES : I didn't talk about the remakes in my thoughts on the franchises because the remakes are supposed to be the new beginnings of these beloved franchises . this is what the title of this blog is about if we keep going to the remakes of our beloved slasher classics then that's all Hollywood will give us is remakes and sequels to the remakes and never give us anything new .
If we want to change the way Hollywood makes movies and what they give us we need to let the slasher classic rest in peace (Unless they come up with something that blows the doors of the franchise (Personally I'm still waiting for that to happen)
Don't get me wrong I love The Friday The 13th reboot as well as both of the Rob Zombie Halloween flicks (I love Scout Compton as Laurie Strode / Angel Myers) I didn't like the reboot of A Nightmare On Elm Street (I've only seen it once and don't own it on DVD or Blu Ray) the many Texas Chainsaw remakes / Sequels and remakes / reboots were not on this list because of all the movies it has the most difficult timeline to follow and I haven't seen them all . I did enjoy Texas Chainsaw Massacre The Beginning and Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D the most .
Like the title of this blog says if we keep watching them, they'll keep making them . I want to see the next Halloween , Friday The 13th and Leatherface movie as much as any other fans but I ask you this question when is enough enough ?? Just a question for you to think about ..
When I started making movies I knew I wanted to always pay tribute to the films that came before me yet at the same time I wanted to make my own movies, while the slasher formula or story telling formula in general hasn't changed much over the years we all try to change it just alittle bit when we are writing so the story seems fresh and new for the audience and I honestly try to do that with every script I write . I will be really working hard on that when we start working on a couple of future projects . I think Sins of Man III : Tribulation will really shock long time fans who watch the first two movies . Stay Tuned :)
May The Force Be With You, Always .