This is old, but the fascination of myself and John with Friday the 13th continues. He sent this to me yesterday; I’m passing it on as a Halloween treat. The A.V. Club does a year-by-year with Friday The 13th

Sadly, because it’s old, it doesn’t include the newer film — but I’ll go so far as to say (again) see the new one and then part 10. Done and done.

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I saw Paranormal Activity late in the day today because 1. Rachael was in class and 2. because I thought it was still only playing in a few select cities. (2. turns out to be totally false.)

How was it, you might ask?

Actually, firstly, you might ask ‘what is it?’
It’s a teeny tiny film made for 11k in a week in 2007 that Paramount/Spielberg bought (to remake) and have since decided to screen and show. It’s a horror film ala Blair Witch. The trailers for it are on the official site, but youtube, apple and all have them too.

OK, so it’s a freaky ‘demonic poltergeist/possession/haunted house’ movie. And how is it?

Well, considering the hype, considering April texted me last week saying it made her cry it was so scary, I expected big things. And it turned out to be good, not great. Well worth seeing, but not as freaky as I expected.

And I really don’t want to ruin anything, simply because it’s a pretty basic movie, plot-wise. So saying much would totally color your fun.

Worth seeing, even in the theater — which is high praise coming from me. A solid ‘B’ mainly because it reminded me just a little bit too much of the aforementioned Blair Witch…without offering too much new in the scares department.*

Just see it.

* Please note I’d say there are some exceptions to this. But no, I’m not going to say what they might be.

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Friday the 13th (2009) is really good.

Take a breath, relax and re-read that sentence. It isn’t a typo. I say B+. And I say this having seen all the other ones (and the past 2 in the theater) with John several years ago. This is the post where he reviews the first 10; here is a great montage of all the deaths in those same 10 movies.

There is a caveat, however: you have to like the notion of Friday the 13th movies. You have to enjoy Jason, teenage dumbassery, tits, unrelenting murders and the usual horror movie tropes. But this movie is one that does all of this very, very well.

Firstly, the movie combines the strongest plot points from the first 4 original movies into a single cohesive narrative. (Sidenote: It is sad to me that out of 12 films, only 5 of them have actually opened on a Friday the 13th.) This is not a huge feat (much in the way summarizing a porn franchise into a single film), but it impressive the amount of respect given to the original material — and the fact that it works so well.

Secondly, it’s fun. It has several jokes in it that work. Jason X (In Space) had some genius moments and great jokes in it; theose were all self-aware of the history of the franchise. In this new film, the jokes work mostly as commentary on the genre itself, self-aware in much the same way Scream was — the jokes are not gags, but nods to the ver notion of teenage slasher films.

The movie itself is heavily influenced by the Rob Zombie type of horror movie — not only did Zombie direct the remake of Halloween a few years ago (which, originally, Friday the 13th was created to capitalize off of way back in the day), but the very atmosphere and design decisions of the film are clearly influenced from Zombie’s other movies.

There seems to be a sweeping trend between these Michael Bay produced remakes (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes*, Friday the 13th, The Amityville Horror, The Hitcher and next year’s remake of Nightmare on Elm Street) and Zombie’s films — a fear of rural life and “backwoods” mentality. Now, this isn’t a new topic in film — Straw Dogs and Deliverance spring to mind immediately.

But I think this trend, in horror, is somewhat new. The original Friday the 13th premise focused around sex=death for teenagers; Jason was an avenging moral executioner. Now, however, sex is included because it is expected and sells; no longer are teenagers punished for screwing; they are punished for intruding. (You can also make the argument that this is not new either — even the miserable Hallowen Resurrection (2002) revolves around student intruding on Michael Myers space as opposed to him actively seeking out victims.

The easiest example in the new Friday the 13th film is this: Jason has tunnels. Dug out, earth-worn tunnels under buildings in the camp. When I told a friend, his response was, “Jason doesn’t dig! That’s not a skill he has.” This is true. Or was. Regardless, I find it interesting that the film becomes more about Jason punishing those that intrude upon his primitive and rural space (the Camp) instead of actively seeking out victims that he then passes moral judgment upon.

It’s also really interesting to me that the fear of rural life is so overwhelmingly visible in horror films right now. This is marked comparsion to imported Asian horror films of the last 10 years or so — which are all about fear of technology and scientific irresponsibility (The Ring, The Eye, The Host). Watch “House of 1000 Corpses” and then “Friday the 13th.” The influences are unmistakable.

* Not actually produced by Michael Bay, but I’m throwing it in because I believe it squares up here.

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“Jesus, everybody’s dead!”

Her thesis statement about my second novel. We spoke* for almost two hours about the book and she said this several times. It made me laugh every single time.

* iChat video conferencing with her in Japan and me sitting on my futon. I never have a reason to do this, but man, it really does rock.

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it’s halloween.

so spooky halloween to you! i point you to this discobelle post of fun halloween music. i am currently rocking out to the halloween mix*. loudly, as i am the only one in the office right now.

(* track 15 on this mix: The Bulgarian (ft. Spoek) – The Zombie Door (Vox version) turns out to be rather filthy. the chorus seems to be ‘jack it like a zombie’ repeated. just letting you know so you don’t, say, for instance, blast it in your place of work for everyone to hear.)

due to a miscommunication of sorts, half the team is working in san jose today, with two of us up here in the city. not a big deal, but annoying, as i had to buy a train ticket to get up here. goodbye 11 dollars it turns out i didn’t need to spend.

also, mike sent me a list from the av club of bad horror movie villians. shockingly, i have not seen most of these films. more shockingly, mike claims to have. and triply shocking — morty, from ‘the fear’, jack frost (the evil snowman) from ‘jack frost’, or the gingerbread man from ‘the gingerdead man’ are not represented. i might have to call sheningans on the article now.

also, i need to tell you the taglines for ‘jack frost’: “He’s chillin…and killin”
and for ‘the gingerdead man’: “Out of the oven… and into your heart!”
wow.

and i am in a funk. for a multitude of reasons.

but this morning, walking into the office, i passed an older, bald man with horns attached. i, myself, am wearing my old devil ‘headband’ which is an easy, lazy, pretend costume. but it was great fun to pass someone else in the street who had dressed up the same way. we said hello to each other and it made me smile a lot.

that made the trip up here worthwhile, i would say.

in other news, robert goulet died. this is not huge news and, sadly, i remember him most for his excellent emerald nuts ad last superbowl.

and if we want to really cheapen his memory, how about will ferrell impersonating him singing the thong song?

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i don’t know what to say about this. there is something here, something about the japanese schoolgirl fetish, when crossed with zombies. something to say other than ‘ow, my head’ — something about niches culture, trends overstaying their welcome, etc.

but really, im so amazed by this trailer, no logic is helping me assemble it in my head.

(and, even better, i got to use the zombiedanceparty tag)

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of hating things today:
bratz, the movie.

again, i’m serious: can we string up the people responsible? is it too much to ask that i would never be aware of this? sadly, i had to sit through the preview on friday night when i saw ratatouille.

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