AWSUM MOVIES: Friday The 13th Part IV: Jason Lives

AWSUM MOVIES:

Why 

Friday The 13^th Part IV: Jason Lives

is the most awsum slasher-movie ever made

I wasn’t really into slasher movies but my elder brother was. As kids, we would watch everything from Last house on the left to James Whales Frankenstein and usually I was hiding under the sofa, (the type with legs). And so at the tender age of 12, (and too big to fit under the sofa anymore)  I was properly initiated into the slasher realm, when my brother hired out a VHS copy of Friday The 13^th Part IV: Jason Lives. 

I had never seen a Friday the 13^th movie before and it didn’t disappoint. I was hooked from the get-go. I thought (and still do) that Jason Lives is the most awsum slasher-movie ever made. 

And heres why: 

WIDER APPEAL 

Since its release way back in 1986,  I've come to realise that Jason Lives appealed to a wider audience-   even my mother liked it, so there you go. Its the type of movie you could show your partner and maybe he/she/it,  wont think you're such a weirdo. 

Its this wider appeal aspect that makes this the quintessential Jason movie. Its the one that established him as a zombie-serial-killer but more importantly did it for laughs. Still, hard-core fans of the first five movies hated it because of that humour. I guess they just wanted more of the various hot chicks getting their kit off in showers type shit, while their boyfriends got (un)-ceremoniously butchered in the basement. But that formula was getting OLD and the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise was already way ahead of the curve, by introducing humour and thus widening its appeal. A trend set (but overlooked by) An American Werewolf in London made in 1981, which has since been misconstrued as a black comedy, which its anything but. 

Thus the humour of  Part IV, put this entry in a league of its own. Director Tom McLoughlin was given free reign on his film and (after watching the previous entries), he felt they were lacking a balance between the humour and the horror (and blatantly trying to cash-in on Halloween) and so he set out to correct all that with Jason Lives. Its also the only Camp Chrystal Lake entry to actually feature the controversial idea of KIDS ACTUALLY CAMPING !? Yes thats right, you heard me, KIDS: boyscouts, girl guides, call them what you will. ACTUAL KIDS CAMPING, at Camp Chrystal Lake. 

I shit you not. I mean the whole enchilada. Out with the old boring soft-porn and in with the horrified camp stewards trying to placate a group of unruly children, in the absence of their camp councillor bosses, slain by Jason, the night before. GENIUS. 

McLoughlin was also concerned about all the copy-cat killers out there (he felt anyone can pick up a machete or an axe) and so he made all the death scenes in this film totally outrageous. What also sets this film apart is the whole getting away from the soft porn angle. Up until then, the entire series was pretty much about a bunch of teens having sex and getting picked off one by one until Jason is defeated by the final girl, who of course is a virgin. So the rule book is thrown out in Jason Lives: We get Jason's awsum resurrection by lightening, the fantastic paintball scene, great car chases, hilarious kills, actual kids, humour, great stunts, memorable characters and the sound-track features Alice Cooper. So whats not to like ?? 

QUESTIONABLE PREQUELS

It was only inevitable that I watched its precursors. All five of em: I looked forward to seeing them, figuring that they would be as good as Jason Lives. Boy was I wrong! It took some adjustment to realise that Jason Lives was simply a fluke in the larger scheme of things. After all, Jason wasn’t even in the first movie and in the second he was a deformed mongoloid with a sugar sack on his head.  I found it hard to get into these first two pictures. They were of a different time, just slow and flat and A-typical of generic slasher films riding on the waves of the Halloween tsunami. 

I also started to realise how generic the formula was, despite we already know what Jason looks like now, each sequel would reset itself and start all over again with the non reveal of Jason, typified by feet shots, POV shots etc. My interest began to peak with part three, when we finally get to see the iconic hockey mask and part 4 (The Final Chapter) was actually pretty good. I attribute this to the work by Tom Savini, who had worked on George Romero's Zombie movies. 

Friday the 13th Part 4:  The Final Chapter - almost as good as Jason Lives. 

But all in all the process by which Jason Lives came about was via five sequels, which paled in comparison. Part Five was the most painful of all. Again Jason wasn’t even in it. Technically Jason lives is actually part Four. And you could even lump it as a Hockey Mask trilogy, if you put parts three, four and six together in a DVD box set.

SEQUEL HELL

Disappointed by its previous counterparts, I was hoping the next Jason instalment would be even better. Enter The New Blood. And…oh… hmmm. It was hard to put my finger on why it wasn’t as good as Jason Lives. Jason looked pretty kool (his make-up was even better than in Jason Lives) but for some reason, the whole film seemed flat, like it was missing some vital ingredient. It had everything going for it, yet the film was just somehow…flat, two dimensional. 

I quickly realised that it was simply following (YET AGAIN) the boring so-so slasher template set up by the first five films and lacked any fun. 

Still, its worth watching for the whole Carrie type showdown with Tina but the MPAA board of censors cut it to shreds. Even so, part 7 lacks the vital humour of Jason Lives. Subsequent sequels, Jason Takes Manhattan, Jason X etc didnt fare much better and so my interest in Jason movies waned but Part Six still has a place in my heart. 

COMEDY VS TRAGEDY

And so its obvious that Part Six is remembered by most as one of the best of the series, mainly because it didn’t take itself too seriously, where as every other sequel maintained a rather serious, flat one-trick-pony approach: consisting of generic couples having sex, hearing a strange noise, being separated and killed off in shock horror moments of inventiveness. 

Certainly, these inventive deaths were the pulling power of the series but for my money, Jason Lives topped the lot for its inventive gags. Its slapstick-horror still holds up, even today. Where as its contemporary’s failed miserably and look dated. That’s not to say they are bad films but they certainly lack all the ingredients that made Jason Lives a classic. 

No sequel since has equalled it and a lot of that goes down to the directive prowess of Tom McLoughlin. Famous of all things for playing the black sentry robot STAR in Disney’s The Black Hole!

But I digress.

LICENCE TO KILL 

Gags are prevalent throughout Jason Lives: The paint-ball scene is a good example of this, where several meek office workers play soldiers in the forests near Chrystal Lake, only to be slain by Jason in various humorous ways.  The three head capitation scene however, was severely censored by our good ole pals the MPAA. 

Also the camper van scene is great, where Jason rams a teenagers face into the aluminium wall, making a perfect indent of her face, like a Wylie Coyote  cartoon. This effect was achieved by using a rubber membrane, over a tank of water and the actors face pushing through. 

Gags like this, remind us that Jason Lives is almost a parody of the tired formulaic ideas of the slasher genre itself.  This can be clearly recognised by the James Bond style gun barrel intro, where Jason walks on and slashes the screen! Fantastic! 

 

A NEW DIRECTION: ZOMBIE JASON

As a stand alone film, without any knowledge of the previous sequels, Jason Lives holds itself together pretty well. It is also the first time we see the main character develop, as Jason returns for the first time as an unstoppable zombie. Another thumbs up for McLoughlin, who had learned the lessons of the previous instalment (A New Beginning) which attempted to have another serial killer merely imitating Jason. A bad idea in anyone’s book. 

Not taking heed from the mistakes made in Halloween III (where Michael Myers is also totally absent) the producers of part five didn’t seem to think the plot twist of no Jason would be a problem. But having a Jason movie without Jason is like having a Freddy Kruger Movie without Freddy or a Herby movie without Herby. It becomes an anthology series riding on the success of the goose laying golden eggs, it has just killed.

So obviously if the next instalment was to work at all, it would have to (somehow) bring Jason back from the dead and thus McLoughlin made his genius gamble with the Jason Zombie Frankenstein Monster idea, which ultimately paid off, making his Friday instalment the best of the series so far and raising the credibility of the franchise. Since then, Jason has been regarded as the terminator of all zombies. But never again would the series touch upon the humour enthused gags that made this instalment, a slasher film classic.

A BREED APART 

It is this balance between comedy and tragedy, that makes this film memorable.  For one movie at least, it broke away from just being another stale Halloween imitation. Here was a fresh approach, which was fun and injected new life into the franchise, struggling to compete with Freddy Kruger.  

If only the network had signed Tom McLoughlin up to do a few more Jason movies. Why he was not, is in my opinion a major problem with the subsequent sequels, who’s various porn-directors all tried to put their own stamp on the franchise, only muddying the waters further. Leaving us, (the audience) rather dismayed at the rather messy lore that followed Jason Lives, all reverting to a more serious tone which ultimately fell flat on its ass. The only thing going for them was Kane Hodder as Jason but that was it. 

Imagine part Seven: The New Blood directed by Tom McLoughlin. – it would have been a hoot. Or part Eight: Jason Takes Manhattan (it might have even featured Jason actually in Manhattan!).  And part nine and ten would have been amazing. Alas it was never to be.

However, there are rumours in the pipeline that McLoughlin will be returning to the franchise to make one more Jason movie! So lets just hope that happens and the humour that made Jason Lives a success returns to the series. 

AWSUM MOVIES: An American Werewolf in London

AWSUM MOVIES: 

In Defence of

An American Werewolf in London

“Well I just watched An American Werewolf in London, 1981. I'd heard of it of course but hadn't ever actually watched it, so I recorded it. I must say a 37 year delay in seeing wasn't worth the wait. Films from the 80's are generally really shite.”

A Lecturer from Portsmouth University.

That was a post on facebook from a retired art lecturer I know. Well I disagree. So much so, that I felt compelled to write this essay and point out why ‘An American Werewolf in London’ was the most awsum movie ever made: a ground breaking film that took almost a decade to realise. Its trademark effects and ingenuity re- invigorated the horror film genre with a new perspective and inspired a whole generation of young film makers, including Michael Jacksons ‘Thriller’ Video. Without its influence you wouldn’t have had ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ or the ‘Underworld’ franchise.

The most iconic and memorable scene was of course the wolf transformation: (which won an academy award) but its easy to forget that there was no CGI way back in 1981 and this effect had to be handled painstakingly by FX artist Rick Baker.  

‘American Werewolf’ is also chock full of interesting and humorous characters, too many to mention here but included the delights of Jenny Agutter, Yorkshire man Brian Glover (playing chess with Rik Mayall of The Young Ones) stand up comedian Griffin Dunne, the Shakespearian John Woodvine, Frank Oz (voice of ‘Yoda’) and even a cameo with ‘The Muppets’. Even Alan Ford (of ‘Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels’ fame) appears as a typical cockney taxi driver.

The awsum climax of the film crowns the film perfectly as the werewolf goes on the killer rampage across Piccadilly Circus, achieved by actually closing off the area to traffic. Not an easy task to pull off but a little known fact was that John Landis bribed the London Met to get access to Piccadilly by giving 300 police officers free tickets to see his ‘Blue Brothers’ movie.

But its easy for us decadent internet savvy post-everthing’ist’s to dismiss such a gem as this John Landis cult classic. It was only in the last ten years or so that a box ticking culture emerged that found it difficult to situate this film. Was it a horror film or a comedy? Was it a black comedy? ‘Rolling Stone Magazine’ called it a Jewish ‘Bi-polar Horror Comedy’. Understandable I guess, since director John Landis was Jewish and cut his teeth on making comedies.

But if anything, ‘American Werewolf’ was a tragedy with sprinkles of humour. ‘a naked American man stole my balloons!’ says a school kid, as our hero scrabbles across London back to Jenny Agutter, after a howling night on the town but hardly is this a  black comedy. ‘Shaun of the Dead’ was a black comedy. Whatever. Tomata, Tomato.

In my humble opinion ‘American Werewolf’ just happened to be as equally funny as it was tragic. Much like life itself, it was simply a fun film with tragic consequences, taking a few light hearted digs at the horror genre and the fact that ‘80’s Britain, only had three Tv channels and the cinemas had really crap porno's. 

AWSUM SERIALS: Space 1999: S1 vs. S2

AWSUM SERIALS: 

Chalk and Cheese:

Space 1999, 
Season One vs. Season Two

 

For anyone who grew up loving Gerry and Silvia Andersons Season One, the shock finally came when entering the Fred Freiburger world of Season Two. Freiburger of course had previously worked on Star Trek and his vision for Season Two, was to make it more Trek and dumbed down for American audiences. As a result, Season Two became the bi-polar opposite of Season One. Chalk and Cheese. Gone were the existential and philosophical aspects of Season One, along with half the original cast, film sets and even the grand iconic theme music.

            What we were left with, was more Space 1979 than Space 1999, if that makes sense. It could be said that under Fred Freiburger’s reins the series had taken a serious nose dive into oblivion. To be fair, the second season isn’t terrible but its just quite jarring to see all the major elements of Season One blown out the proverbial air lock, including: the awsum Professor Bergman, Second in Command Paul Marrow, Dr Mathias and computer specialist David Kano, without a word of explanation. Its almost as if the production team really couldn't care less if we missed them or not. After all, its just a dumbass sci-fi series right? 

Wrong. 

Most notably missing, is Season Ones iconic theme music (a masterpiece of orchestral and funk rock all at the same time, its up there with 2001: a Space Odyssey and probably the most memorable sci fi theme tune ever. Enter Season Two and its crazy generic Starsky Hutch theme tune. Cue action shots of Commander Koenig, (seated at desk) suddenly swivel round and fires laser gun, James Bond Style. Bam ! Cut to head shot of actress Barbara Bain walking through a set of doors, looking mean and pissed off. Peow!

However, the slap dash approach to Season Two made it more Starsky and Hutch than Space Odyssey, as Freiburger attempted to revamp the show to appeal to American markets. Where as Season One, with its Neo Italian approach, was slow paced, atmospheric and often enjoyably surreal in experience,  Season Two hits us with condescending action, all the way.

The rest of Season Two is pretty much elementary stuff, marketed at Americans: Over the top Aliens, overpowering Moon Base Alpha with a click of a finger and taking Commander Koenig etc prisoner. There’s lots of hot chicks too and plenty of pointless shots of them in skimpy bikinis (on sun beds) lathering themselves with coco butter, at which point it begins to border on what used to be the 9 o’clock watershed. Perhaps the only saving grace of Season Two, was actress Catherine Schell as the Spock like character Maya, who’s performance was anything but. Mayas character was unsurprisingly, created by Freiburger but Schell brought the character to life and took it way beyond any similarity to Mr Spock other than appearance. But despite her best efforts, it wasn’t enough to save the series from what was already a foregone conclusion. The series was dead in the water.

INEVITABLE DEMISE

In a way, Space 1999’s demise was inevitable. It in itself, was simply a continuation of UFO but American broadcasters were getting tired of space shows with attacking aliens and so, (to save face) UFO had a major make over as Space 1999 and became the most expensive Sci-fi series produced at the time. However, the shows production was rife with disagreements on almost every level. Barbara Bain enjoyed the high life, so much so, that she would insist on coming to work in a Limo and then complained about not getting paid enough. Payment in itself was not just confined to her, other cast members, were expected to carry on (without Limos) despite a significant salary decrease. Storylines also suffered from various interference, resulting in them being pulled in too many different directions. A classic case of too many cooks.

Martin Landau in particular, was noted for clashing with producer Sylvia Anderson on numerous occasions: his childish outbursts on set (and trying to hog as much screen time as poss), often damaged the series relations with Italian actors (and investors) who endorsed the show. Landau went even as far as re-writing certain script elements to be more in his favour, leaving many promising actors battling for screen time, over Martin Landaus relentless re-writes. As a result, many of the plots in Season One became nonsensical and somewhat open to interpretation, falling into confusing philosophical drudgery, that tended to ruin the story’s basic premise.

Only a handful of episodes survived this hacksaw approach and tend to be the best of the series. While Deaths Other Dominion is a good example of strong characterisation, End of Eternity, shows actor Brian Bowels capabilities beyond his usual type cast of sombre millionaires and British spivs.

The best story without doubt of Season One is The Last Sunset, offering actors a real chance at proper character development for a change. Paul gets jiggy with Sandra and later shows children at home, the adverse effects of taking mushrooms but all this unfortunately wouldn’t last. By the next episode all characters are ‘reset’ and no romance continues at all.   

Lack of continuity in Season One is especially noticeable right off the bat:  immediately after the Pilot episode, is Force of Life, which simply cracks on without any reference to the previous story (of the Moon being blasted out into space with no hope of return). There’s no mention as to how long the moon has been set adrift and no indication that anyone is particularly traumatised by it. Nope, Force of Life simply just gets on with it, in a sort of generic Space 1999 episode, that could fit pretty much anywhere in Season One. 

It wasn’t long before all the confusing storylines, budgetary cuts and diminished salary’s came to a head with cast and crew: Actor Barry Morse, (forever immortalised as Professor Bergman) soon became sick of being treated as a second rate actor and quit the series, while the majority of the cast, either followed in his footsteps or were simply fired under Freiburger’s new direction for the show.

FRIEBURGER: THE SERIAL KILLER

Freiburgers reputation as “The Serial Killer” would go down infamy: as every series he ever worked on (such as Star Trek) was cancelled. However, Freiburger wasn’t entirely to blame, since budgetary constraints tended to limit what was possible, in a supposedly high end Tv serial such as Star Treks latter seasons.

His experience on Star Trek however had severely blighted his approach to saving Space 1999 in Season Two. The bulk of the budget for Season One was originally supplied by Italian investors, RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana, the biggest Tv company in Italy at the time but by Season Two they had already pulled out, (possibly because Martin Landau had pissed off too many Italian actors).

The end result was a second season, rife with substandard plots and continuity errors. Barbara Bain in particular would play the part of Captains Log, giving us totally inconsistent dates from one episode to the next. In one story she states ‘Its been 8066 days since we were blasted out of the Earths Orbit…” the next episode, it would be 329 days and so on. The only continuity prevalent is the likable Tony Verdeschi’s hap hazard attempts at brewing drinkable beer, yet romantic suggestions between the commander and Maya are initiated but soon mulled over and forgotten. 

THE SHOWS LEGACY

Perhaps the only aspect of the show that more or less survived the budgetary culling and revamps was the general special effects: The iconic Eagle transporters look great as ever and the miniature work is top notch. In many respects, the series was a kids show with adult potential but like its American counterpart Battle Star Galactica, the imaginative but Star Wars approach to the model work, tended to stand out as the most memorable aspect of the entire series.

On a whole, the model work of the iconic Eagles, general explosions and awsum alien space ships and costumes etc, tended to hold the fraying threads of the show together. Season Twos The Bringers of Wonder, is most memorable for giving the show a memorable monster, in the form of the horrifying brain washing Jelloid Creatures. If only the rest of the series was as consistent as Gerry Andersons direction over the effects, which in most cases tended to out stage the actors themselves.

It is perhaps the special effects and general aesthetics that made Space 1999 the series we all love so well but it was also the bone of contention with the actors, having to play second fiddle to the monsters, props and FX work. Series creator Gerry Anderson, was used to working with marionettes in Thunderbirds but this approach didn’t work too well when dealing with real actors, who’s performances as a result,  tended to be as wooden as their puppet counterparts. You only need to watch the 2005 re-imagined Battle Star Galactica to get a good idea of how good strong characterisation can engage even the most cynical sci fi sceptic.

In summary, Season Two of Space 1999 may have packed the punch but Season One had all the best elements of a great Tv show, its just a shame that many of the differences between actor Barry Morse and the Italian RAI Tv company were not resolved when shooting began for Season Two. Never the less, Space 1999 still remains a fan favourite and despite all the in house fighting behind camera, the show survives, as a great example of the universal tale:  Mankind’s humility, in the face of extraordinary odds.