Canon-Strike XI: Never Ending Horror

[Neon Ignition]

I know the supernatural angle is a very hokey way to go and for me it didn't work at all with Halloween but with a franchise like F13th it just worked perfectly. It gets around his returns, allows them to have more fun but at the same time in each film he is still technically stoppable for that group of victims so it stops just short of killing all suspense. I was less keen on the Carrie aspects as there's a tipping point I find that the franchise uses most of its good will up on Jason himself but other franchises went much further in that regard so it's fine for that one.

[Neon Ignition]

Movie 08 - Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
Ah, the most expensive entry up till this point though you'd be forgiven for not knowing that given how much time is spent on a boat. The film was poorly received and was also the poorest performing entry in the franchise as well. The plan is said to have been to make an entry away from the lake and do it either with Jason trapped aboard a cruise ship, hunting the passengers and crew, or him being in New York and exploit all of the locations and setting options. The end result mashed the weakest elements of both ideas together.




Movie 09 - Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday
The new film leant heavily into the supernatural elements with Jason's spirit possessing different hosts and them attempting to defeat him with a mystical knife. Audiences didn't like not having classic Jason throughout the film or how heavily into the supernatural the series had leant. The film might not have been as well remembered as it has been were it not for the final shot, of Freddy Kreuger's hand clasping Jason's mask and dragging it down to hell. Less blatantly displayed is the Necronomicon from The Evil Dead connecting that franchise as well as part of explaining the nature of Jason.




Did these two more outlandish sequels push the boat out too far or do the additions to the canon make them more fun?

[Dogg Thang]

Both Jason Takes Manhattan and Jason Goes To Hell have misleading titles. They should be called Jason Goes For A Boat Trip and New Line Wants To Do Something Weird With Jason And Can They Even Call It Friday The 13th Anymore?

Jason Takes Manhattan, misleading name aside, is actually pretty entertaining. The disappointment mostly comes from that title, which is unfortunate because had expectations been managed or had the Manhattan sequence been a surprise I feel like the film would be rated higher. Don't get me wrong - it's not great by any means and the film totally goes overboard (ahem) on the teleporting Jason trick (there is no logic whatsoever to where he is in this movie) but it's still pretty entertaining once you accept it won't deliver on the name.

Jason Goes To Hell, on the other hand, is an absolute stinker. With New Line taking over and probably not even having the rights to the franchise name (I think they bought the character rights?), it feels like this was made probably around the time when Freddy's Dead was made - I'm not sure that's the case but these movies feel similar in the need to create needless extra lore and do sillier and sillier things. It turns Jason into a teleporting spirit and it's total rubbish. The only plus is that the mask effects in his early incarnation are fantastic.

[Neon Ignition]

Yep, I remember having a real struggle with the ninth film, like it had descended too much into the nonsense that lots of other late running horrors had drifted into. There's got to be a sense of self-awareness to the badness of the films to get away with it and Jason Goes to Hell didn't feel like it had that. Manhattan is a little bit the opposite. I remember the long boat section being a bit of a slog but it being much more fun once in New York. The best bit easily being when Jason punches that kids head off into a bin in the alley below

[Dogg Thang]

Yeah, that punch is a classic cinema moment. Also notable is that it features Kelly Hu who would go on to be in X-Men 2 and The Scorpion King. I wonder what happened to her.

[Neon Ignition]

Naturaly that sent me on a wiki hunt - seems she's veered heavily toward TV and voice work. Most recent notable stuff would be voicing a character in Mortal Kombat X and 11 as well as some animated DC stuff

[Dogg Thang]

Wow, she's 53. Where did the years go?!

[Neon Ignition]

Movie 10 - Jason X
Here's where some jumping around in the canon takes place as we reach the year 2008 and Jason is a recognised threat resulting in the military hunting him down and freezing him for over 400 years. Awakening in the distant future Jason hunts down another batch of students but this time in space and in a chain of events that lead to him being transformed into a cyborg. The film was largely made to try and maintain interest in Jason due to how overlong development was taking with the VS film. The move to space being because the filmmakers felt they were running out of ideas for the franchise and space was all that was left. The film was poorly reviewed and didn't perform well at the box office either but it remains a distinct entry in the franchise.




Movie 11 - Freddy vs Jason
The last film either franchise received before they were rebooted. This versus film sees the two killers face off after Freddy attempts to manipulate Jason as a means of bringing around his own full resurrection, this film taking place at the end of the Nightmare canon timeline and a few years before the events of Jason X. The film had a higher budget than normal but also brought in a lot more, despite this the planned sequel adding Ash from Evil Dead never happened barring a comic book run.



Was it time to end the franchise here or did these more self aware films suggest a road that should have been taken?

[Dogg Thang]

Jason X is pretty ridiculous and, on this one, it’s the tag line that is a little misleading because evil got an upgrade very late into the movie. Still, I find it fun and it has one of the most horrible yet impressive kills of the entire series with the face smash. I enjoy the movie.

Freddy vs Jason is, without a doubt and with all sincerity, a cinematic classic. I think it is the perfect merging of both franchises and manages to be one of the best movies in both series. I adore the movie. At its heart, it feels like an Elm Street movie and yet brings Jason into it really well, giving Jason more depth in the process yet without losing the character. Englund is clearly revelling in the movie and does “fun” Freddy yet with a streak of darkness that was getting lost in the rest of the Elm Street series. A great final Freddy movie for Englund. I love it.

[Asura]

Yeah, [MENTION=3144]Dogg Thang[/MENTION], I remember Freddie vs. Jason being a huge surprise. We went to see it on a boring Sunday afternoon when there was simply nothing else to do and nothing else on - we absolutely loved it.

Also, another memory of it didn't it have a character who really felt like it was written for Jason Mewes?

[Dogg Thang]

That’s right! There is a stoner character who is so like him.

[Neon Ignition]

Jason X was the first Friday film I saw at the cinema so I kind of went in as a blank slate. It was nuts from the outset and just becomes more an more nuts as it goes on but it was enjoyable from the first viewing. On paper it's a terrible film but every second of it is just the right amount of self-aware. I don't doubt for a second that you couldn't successfully make a sequel to it despite the end tease. It took things to the point where a reboot was essential but as a blow out of the stupidity the franchise indulged in it was a fun one.

With Freddy vs Jason I kind of feel in some ways it's aged a little more than Jason X. X was never a polished film so it wears its cheapness on its sleeve but elements of FvJ reek of early 00's horror in that many of the tropes, gloss and lack of scares are all there. It doesn't help either that Freddy has always looked good as a horror icon but never been scary of effective but the premise of this film means he doesn't need to be and as has been said, it's amazing how well balanced the film is when it comes to the two of them interacting. I'd say they even come up with with right battle outcome too which is an accomplishment in of itself with these projects.

[Neon Ignition]

Halloween is over so it's time to wrap things up for the year with the final entry:


Movie 12 - Friday the 13th
Reboot time, this time directed by the guy who made the reboot of The Hills Have Eyes and written by the screenwriters of Freddy vs Jason. The film sets itself up as a clean slate but effectively mashes up elements of the first four original films into a single plot that see's the main character arriving at Crystal Lake to hunt for his missing sister, chance meeting a group who are shacking up at a lake side lodge. Sporting a reworked version of Jason modelled on Part III's appearance, the film still opens with Jason witnessing his murderous mother's head being severed by a camp councillor in 1980 then jumps forward thirty years. Background details exist in the film such as the wheelchair of one of the early films victims and so if you consider 2008 as being when the film is set you could bend it to make the case that the film fits in within the existing canon of the other films, placing it years after Freddy vs Jason and months at most before the intro to Jason X. The film was the second highest grossing entry in the franchise, the highest if you discount FvJ, but another film never happened due to legal issues that persist to this day.




As the last taste of Jason we received, was the film a disappointment or would it have been nice to see it herald in a new era of entries?

[Neon Ignition]

I'm going to kind of put a bit of a mark in the sand here by saying... I kind of think the most recent film is one of if not close to the best one.

When I first watched it I felt somewhat indifferent, the criticism it recieved that it doesn't do anything new is right but the execution has felt more on point with each time I've watched it. Jason looks great and you get some new angles on how he operates without overdoing the supernatural elements of his character or demything his backstory. Even in the gif it shows how he feels like an effective brutal killing machine. He's not a runner but that burst of speed when he needs it makes him feel like a more visceral threat than his slowly T-800ing his way around. So, whilst the film might not do anything new I feel like it boils the key elements of the franchise down in a really well told way.

[Dogg Thang]

Yep, I really like it. It feels very true to the series in my view and, as you say, could almost be interpreted as a sequel more than a reboot. There was one oddity in Jason essentially kidnapping someone and not killing them, which felt very different to the character we have seen in other movies but, overall, it was very in keeping with the other movies. It was well made and he came across as relentless and dangerous. I liked it.