Friday The 13th originally released in the year of my birth, 1980. Therefore I’ve never known it as anything other than a multi-chaptered franchise. The iconic, hockey-masked Jason Vorhees has been a part of my consciousness for as long as I can remember.
As I’ve been working my way through the series once again in honor of the Blu-ray box set release featuring all twelve Jason films together for the first time, the most interesting thing to have struck me is hearing the first film’s creators really defend the credibility and artistic merit of Friday The 13th quite seriously. Look, filmmakers are the souls behind the films, and they should recoil at the notion of creating a franchise and placing Jason Vorhees (a very dead little deformed child in Part 1) into the antagonist role as a rage-filled and miraculously living adult. Make up artist Tom Savini refused to return for Friday The 13th Part 2, as did original director and writer Sean S. Cunningham, and rightly so, because nothing in Part 1 makes sense at all if “Jason lives.” So why was I so surprised to hear about their frustration over the studio’s proposed sequel?
I believe my shock comes as a generational thing. I’ve always given the resurrected Jason a pass because he has ALWAYS existed as an adult in my mind. And not only that, but a supernatural and unstoppable force. Countless others my age have this same understanding of who Jason Vorhees is. And, it seems, without a little studio greed, we just wouldn’t have Jason Vorhees as we know him today.
Much like the James Bond series, it seems like new creative teams are brought on for each installment. A glass half full-type fan might look at this as a new chance for creative visions to flourish, and new blood to be injected into each passing Jason Vorhees film. The more cynical take sees the suits and money-crunchers forcing each new team to never QUITE kill Jason off entirely, and forcing almost every single installment to tinker with the official endings to where almost every single installment on home video offers alternate endings that usually would have made more sense or been more effective than the theatrical ones.
And you know what? I feel like the Friday The 13th series exists right on the nexus where corporate greed meets fan boy cravings. And that isn’t entirely a bad thing. Every time a new re-make or re-boot or re-imagining comes up I do my best to judge them on a case by case basis. But I know in my gut that I generally side with the original artists behind the original works, or at the very least assume studio greed is the real motivator behind the project. It just feels more pure that way, right? But I can’t deny that this gut reaction may be a naïve one. Shoot, I can’t even deny that I end up watching and often liking said re-make or sequel.
And that is why I think the Friday The 13th franchise is a fascinating one. It seems CLEAR that the artists who created the Jason Vorhees IP had no interest in the continuation of the story. But the bigger, badder studio (Paramount) pressed on and brought us (thus far) an astonishing eleven sequels. And if I’m honest, I couldn’t be happier that the studio bullied their way to victory on this one. I love me some Jason Vorhees, whether hillbilly, zombie, swamp-monster, or space-mech.
In this case, I think fans would do well to realistically accept that insatiable studio greed has proven to be somewhat of a boon for Jason. Each progressive entry in the series compromises the integrity of the original film even more, until we wind up in space… where no one can hear us cheer. I’m still wrestling with how I feel about this reflection, but if I’m being totally honest… I find myself, in the case of the Friday The 13th series, a fan endebted to the decisions of a bunch of nameless suits for the continuation of Jason Vorhees’ legend. Sure, suits always follow the money, and we fans have been the one’s lining their pockets. When it comes to Friday The 13th, artistic integrity loses, but seemingly everyone else wins.
And I’m Out.