Friday the 13th, Friday the 13th Part II, Friday the 13th 3D (Paramount), His Name was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th (Anchor Bay).
Instead of lining up at the box office to catch another schlocky revised remake that's nowhere near as good as the original, we suggest investing in DVDs of the first three "Friday the 13th" films, which provide all you need to know about the hulking, invulnerable killer in the hockey mask who pretty much gave birth to just about every hack-n-slash film from the '80s. And if you're craving more from Jason and his sharpened machete, ignore Friday "IV" - "X" ("XI: Jason Vs. Freddy" was actually pretty good) and take a stab at "His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th." The double-disc set, narrated by special effects guru Tom Savini, features interviews with the directors, producers, actors, actresses and effects folks who helped turned Jason into a mythic antihero, and includes plot summaries and scenes from each of the movies in the series.
The original "Friday the 13th" came out in 1980, seriously upping the ante on John Carpenter's "Halloween," which came two years earlier, but featured very little graphic bloodshed. By contrast, the early "Friday the 13th" films took pride in showing machetes tearing flesh, spears piercing bodies and eyeballs popping from skull-crushed victims. Interestingly, Jason Vorhees didn't have much of a role in the original film by Sean S. Cunningham, and didn't kill anyone at all. The murderer was actually Jason's mom, wonderfully portrayed by Betsy Palmer. Her motive? What else, revenge.
See, her deformed son, Jason, drowned in Crystal Lake a year or so ago while the counselors on duty were too busy gettin' it on to pay attention to her flailing kid. So, when a new crop of young, horny pubescents arrive, Mrs. Vorhees picks them off one by one until the lone survivor, the most virtuous and clean-living of the batch takes her out. The message delivered in the movie is clear, and has been pilfered and spoofed by countless horror films that followed: premarital sex, drug use and drinking are punishable by death.
"Friday the 13 Part II" takes place five years after the original and features a new batch of debauched counselors who were never taught the lesson: you party, you die. This time, the killer is Jason, returned from the grave. But the poor dude is kind of a novice and hasn't even discovered his trademark hockey mask, instead, wearing a burlap sack with holes cut out so he can see. Fortunately, he sems to have gotten the right genes for serial killing, and he effectively disposes teenager after hapless teenager. Since the identity of the killer here is clearly established, director Steve Miner relies on a combination of atmpshere, suspense and Jason's ghastly deeds to keep the audience's attention. And even though the scene of a couple impaled while having sex was stolen straight from the 1971 Mario Bava film "Bay of Blood," the movie is captivating, brutal and backwards, leaving the audience almost rooting for Jason and hungering for the body count to rise victim by victim.
"Friday the 13th Part 3D" was also directed by Miner and adds a new novelty to the terror -- 3D glasses. But even without the gimmick, the film holds its own as one of the best of the series. In the beginning of the movie, Jason survives his ordeal from "Part II" and begins his killing spree, and along the way he discovers that special hockey mask. Mostly, the movie is a mindless exercise in camp counselor carnage, but if you're okay with that, the creative kill techniques are enough to keep you cheering between cringes.
The new theatrical version of "Friday the 13th" basically takes the first four "Friday the 13th" films and boils them down into one violent escapade. For the sake of expediency, it works like the Monarch Notes version of "Moby Dick." But when you're dealing with a horror franchise, what's the point? We'd much rather savor the slaughters, drop by bloody drop.
Quarantine (Sony)
Based on the 2007 Spanish film "REC," "Quarantine" is a reality TV-style film that documents the outbreak of a deadly virus which contaminates Los Angeles. In the film, reporter Angela Vidal (Jennifer Carpenter) and her crew are assigned to cover the night shift of the local fire department. After fielding a 911 call that takes them to a small apartment building, they discover that a woman inside has been infected by an unknown disease. When the CDC realize what they're dealing with, they quarantine everyone inside, including the firemen and the news team. But the can't stop the cameras from rolling and Vidal and her crew are able to capture the terror and violence caused by the unknown contagion. Gritty, ominous and sometimes shocking, "Quarantine" succeeds alongside similarly themed point-of-view movies like "Diary of the Dead" and "Cloverfield."
Feast III: The Happy Finish (Dimension Extreme)
We completely missed "Feast II," but that hasn't seemed to impair our understanding of or appreciation for "Feast III: The Happy Finish." In the movie, a group of stereotype individuals are trapped by a horde of man eating beasts. We can't imagine that's much of a deviation from the second film since it was the basic premise of the first, but it doesn't detract from the violent, maniacal fun. The team is joined by a prophet and a martial arts master, both of whom contribute to the humor value. There isn't a whole lot of depth here and while the settings change -- rooftop, sheriff's office, drainage pipe -- the results remain the same: abundant gore plus black humor equals 90 minutes of guilt-free kicks.
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