TYTD Reviews

The supposed ‘Final’ entry in the ‘Friday the 13th’ series ultimately ended up being more of a ‘Final chapter’ on the series up to this point rather than an all out full stop to the franchise. Jason would return with a complete break from the current continuity in later installments. But what we do have here in ‘The Final Chapter’ is basically a rounding off of all the core elements of the franchise and pretty much the firming up of the ‘core lore’ that would carry on well into the late 2000’s.

I also found it kind of funny as an aside that the first Friday the 13th film took place in 1979, and between then and this installment basically about a year or so has gone by (what with Part 1 leading into part 2, which more or less led into part 3 and part 4 picks up literal MINUTES after the events of 3…)

Its kind of a ‘best of’ the last 3 films really, with the plot being that a group of VERY horny teens taking a trip up to the cabins on the other side of Crystal Lake looking to vacation for a bit and get lucky. Equally up at the cabins is a family of 3 who stay there through the summer, their child Tommy is a rambunctious little tyke who enjoys making monster masks, special effects puppets and spying on naked ladies at every opportunity he can get…interesting.

Anyway; After being hung drawn and quartered in the last film, Jasons remains are taken to the local hospital to be stored pending morgue intervention. When its suddenly revealed he’s in fact VERY much alive and after dispatching the onsite doctor and nurse, he heads off out back to Crystal Lake for more Machete and stabby based shenanigans.

And thats…basically the movie. The kids talk about sex pretty much every 5 minutes, and Jason kills his way back to the lake, where he begins slowly picking them off.

A lot of people have a real soft spot for this entry, with some going as far as to call it the ‘best’ film in the series. Which has always kind of confused me.

This thing really isnt my vibe truthfully…I can fully acknowledge that its a technically proficient movie, it looks great in places. But stripping away the quirkyness and a couple interesting kill sequences, and there isnt really all that much here for me.

For a starters, while Jason is in the movie on and off across the runtime, we dont actually SEE much of Jason at all. Usually just a hand, the back of his shoulder or the POV of his kill, otherwise he’s largely AWOL, with the hocky mask only really getting a proper viewing in the last 15-20 minutes of this thing.

To that end, the script really isnt all that much to write home about, strip away the sex talk, sex scenes and nudity and really this is 95 minutes of teens drinking, dancing and badly quipping with only Tommy really having any kind of decent character arc or complexity, which they then labour by not really giving him much outside of the opening and closing acts.

The main appeal seems to be Crispin Glover, who has chosen to play his character ‘Jimmy’ in one of the most bizarre manners posed to cinema. He’s jerky, quirked up to the eyeballs and frankly strange throughout this thing. And I can understand why fans would be drawn to this utter oddity. But to me? It doesnt come across as a sincere eccentricity, it feels more like an actor who thought this was beneath him and decided to play about, and the crew just kind of…went with it.

As a result I kind of feel a layer of insincerity across the run of this thing. And without any other realy plots to turn to, the void becomes kind of all consuming.

Outside of that, the script has a decent enough, if not slightly lop sided 3 act structure, the transition between the acts is a little clunky, especially between 2nd and 3rd where it seems to not quite manage to smoothly move action from the teen house to the family house. The tones kind of hard to get a read on, but we’ve moved firmly into a campier area than the previous entry, the kills, while visually impressive arnt as good as the kills in the original I feel, and also they feel a lot less bloodier than previous entries. Tom Sevinis work here is appreciated, but a little underwealming compared to the work he did only 5 years previously.

The ending is kind of vague and dissatisfying and the characters are pretty much one note all thr way through.

Direction and cine isnt particularly improved over the previous entry, in fact its basically ‘more of the same’, just with less 3D heavy shots and a more toned down cast.

Its a bit of a step back on the performances for me too, I quite enjoyed ‘Part 3’s’ more campy, animtated and stereotypical casting choices, but here? we’re back to part 1 and 2 terratory, where you have about a dozen characters, 9 of which are kind of dull ‘avatars’ who just kind of wander around waiting to be killed, while 3 or 4 characters make up for all the other’s missing personalities by being HYPER animated, eccentric and strange.

it results in a film thats kind of dull for swathes of the runtime, then suddenly manic, then dull again.

The scoring hasnt really moved on much either, as we’re back firmly in the style of the first two movies with little variation…and by this point, 3 movies deep into the series. I’d have liked a little bit more variety for film four.

This review makes it sound like im completely down on this entry, but im not really, technically its as good as the previous entry and in some cases even more unique (I consider part 3 to be a high point in the series) the quirky moments from Glover are entertaining and strange, and the kills are decently planned out, despite being a little underwhelming compartively.

I’ll happily watch this thing if its on, But in terms of where this thing sits when compared to it’s other entries, I actually kind of always leave this one feeling rather underwhelmed. It doesnt feel coherent or as interesting as the previous entries, it seems INCREDIBLY horned up and not really able to move past that…Which is a shame, as I feel like with just a bit more of a plot line or at least a couple of twists…This could have been a totally different review.

Kind of repetative and largely retreading old ground, if you enjoyed the other films, and dont want the formula messed with, this’ll fit in nicely. But if you’re coming off the back of ‘Part 3’ expecting ‘the next level’…Im sorry to dissapoint.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/friday-the-13th-the-final-chapter/

Watched on Thursday October 5, 2023.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-evil-dead/1/

A formative entry in my journey into the art of reading film, ‘The Curse of Frankenstein’ was one of the first films I was ever asked to dissect as part of the film studies I undertook in school many MANY years ago. The brief was to write a compare and contrast on this film and the original ‘Universal’ entry. While I personally think the Universal ‘Frankenstein’ just about has the edge in terms of a personal preference between the two. It cant be denied that Hammers attempt at reimagining the terrifying tale of grave robbing scientists on a mission to create life is distinct, bold and striking for the time.

The film takes a few creative liberties in the telling the tale. We open with Victor Frankenstein in jail awaiting execution for his (at this point unknown) crimes. a priest visits him, and he proceeds to tell the tale of how him and his tutor began studying the science of ressurection and after perfecting it on animals, they decided to try their hand at a fully fleshed human…With terrifying results.

And what I love about this film is that it kind of strikes a nice balance of being gory enough to feel more mature and adult than some attempts at telling this story, while also NOT being SO gory that it feels like a torture porn flick (something quite a few modern entries fall a foul of)

The script here is acidic, scathing and angry for most of the runtime, as the Victor Frankenstein we’re introduced to here is quite a departure from his ‘Universal’ counterpart. While the former was a largely civil scientist, slowly driven insane by his ambitions. Victor as seen here is a cold and sociopathic sould almost right from the off, ensnaring and manipulating the people around him to get what he wants and equally as cold and uncaring right up until the end. His only shred of mortality exposed when either his head, or his experiment are on the line.

Its an ultra pacy 1 hour and 23 minutes, which feels perfect quite honestly, long enough to have a sense of grandness about it, but not so long as to drag things out. By the time of the end credits I felt like i’d had a good feed from this film, but could happily take more if offered.

The act structuring is a masterclass in setting up expectations and suspense, with a clean 3 act structure that effortlessly glides through proceedings with a freshness that far surpasses the year it was produced. The characters are all nicely developed, rich with deeper complexities and subtext which make them ripe for symbolic interpretaitons and ideological discussion.

It opens strong, maintains the bleak, but colourful tone across the whole runtime and ends strong. While I do feel the creature here has a bit less humanity present than in some interpretations of the work, It is nice to see they do give him some loose human elements as I feel without them, this could have been a bit autonimous. It also helps that Christopher Lee is a fantastic physical actor and helps bring a level of humanity to the character that…while maybe not as strong as Karloff, has subtleties and amazement of its own.

The direction is rock solid, with a clear creative vision from Terrance Fisher, given this was a first foray into unknown terratory, its amazing how much of the style and form of this era of the Hammer Horror movement would be pre-established seemingly from the very first picture. its an astounding work thats aged like a fine wine in my opinion with decent experimental choices on hand, and the decision to actually take a chance on a heavier gore usage (at the time a great taboo for british cinema) was clearly a wise choice made and established ‘Hammer Blood’ as being both the fakest, and most defining colour to come out of this studio.

The cine too is impressive, we have a clear vision being communicated from Terrance being delivered with great relish here, shots are well composed with a boldness behind the lens helping steer innovation and creative experimentation, scenes are wonderfully structured with a healthy use of cutaways and B-roll to help the sequences breath and a strong willed editor on hand who’s helped bring the film to life with a final cut that, to me? is pretty much perfect. It gives the audience everything they need, plus a few additional nice flourishes, and it gets out while the things still hot on the press. While this film from a direction and cine standpoint may not hold up to the more ‘expressionistic’ take of the Universal entry. Its own foray into the gothic macarbre and victoriana architecture and stylings helped pretty much shape the face of British horror for the better part of 20 years. (See: Twins of Evil, The Witchfinder general, Blood on Satans Claw, The Wicker Man etc…)

Performances are top of the class! Peter Cushing as Victor Frankenstein is an absolute delight to have on screen, with a cold, calculating take on the character, his range from affable (to your face) gentleman to sociopathic deranged murder is a broad church and he absolutely nails ever scene with relish and vigor. Christopher Lee equally shines as the ‘creation’ Is he as solid as Karloff? I personally dont think so. But then, when Universals Frankenstein design and performance is SO iconic, what else can you do but challenge the status quo? and I feel Lee here more than meets that mark, playing the creature as a much more damaged and aggressive being than Karloffs take. Lee, silent throughout, manages to give the creature so much more of a deeper broken humanity without the sanitization and grounding that the Universal entry introduced. He owns the role fully and has a stiff physicality that I feel is still unrivalled.

That not to underplay the rest of the cast, who all equally excel in their respective roles, honestly; there isnt a bad one amongst them, they all shine to a more than decent standard and its just a delight to see actors working with their craft to such a remarkable degree.

Thats not to mention the scoring! Which is a wonderfully ominous orchestral arrangement, acting as the bow that ties all the elements of this film together into one delightful end package.

I have a lot of love for ‘The Curse of Frankenstein’ it’s the film that launched a studio I care very dearly for, and in terms of setting up an impression, I dont think they could have done better. With a razor sharp darkly impressive script, a clear and explorative set of direction and cinematography to hand, astounding performances and great music. I adore this film, and highly recommend you check it out at your next convenience!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-curse-of-frankenstein/

I’ve had ‘The Haunting’ sat in my ‘To watch’ pile now for the better part of 2 and a half years, and having never seen it, coupled with the fact that Halloween upon us yet again. I decided to bite the bullet and check it out.

Plot wise, the film is a pretty generic ‘Haunted House’ picture, with one Dr. Markway, leading a scientifically driven paranormal hunt at the infamous ‘Hill House’ the location some 90 years previously of several unexplained gruesome deaths. With a small group of hand picked specialists in the field, Dr. Markway and his team make the journey to hill house with the intention to stay there for a long spell and document any interesting happenings that may occur.

However, one of the women involved in the team, by the name of Eleanor is currently grieving the death of her ill mother, and the films main focus through the runtime seems to be a psychological paranormal thriller in which Eleanor slowly starts to experience unusual happenings in the house, which when coupled with her fragile state of mind, begins to spiral her and the other associates into a world of fear and terror.

This ones kind of awkward to review for me honestly, chiefly because its successes and failures are so starkley polarised, I dont really have much more to say about this thing than ‘It’s amazing’ or ‘Its awful’.

The script is a wonderfully slow boiling pressure cooker of a picture, one of the finest ‘haunted house’ movies of the 20th century quite honestly. the tone is wonderfully macarbre, the characters are rich with multiple layers and influences that help drive their goals. the twists and turns are fun, the act structuring was superb. As a story, this things awesome honestly.

That being said…while I appreciate that the slowboil nature of this picture massively enhances the rich nuance of the storytelling, character arcs and intreague…at nearly 2 HOURS LONG…This thing wore its welcome out with me with about 40 minutes left to go on the runtime.

When the film gets moody, pondering and interesting, its fantastic. But with this thing being made in the early 1960s, it cant help itself but stop for large chunks of the runtime to overdeliver on character backstory or the history of Hill house. This is one of those circumstances where less ABSOLUTLEY gives you more. But it was made in an era that didnt trust the audience enough to let them get on with proceedings. As such we grind to a halt every 20 minutes or so for a 10 minute idle back and forth where we DO learn some backstory…but nothing that helps improve the film, nor anything that advances the plot. it’s chatter, additional lore for the people who REALLY want it…and I, really didnt.

Add into this that I personally struggled a little bit to really get a ‘read’ on Eleanor as a character, shes introduced to the film as an overly aggressive character, and for the rest of the runtime she seems to wildly swing between being overly timid and affable, to screechy, overly aggressive and unpleasent. the shifts are unexplained other than a passing remark on her deceased mother, and realistically…I think the film wants us to believe that our leading lady IS just that way, flipping hard between those two character types because ‘Thats just who she is’…

Anyway; outside of the script we have some utterly GORGEOUS cine and direction here. the composition and lighting have often been cited as being an influence on Sam Raimi, and I can very easily see the comparison. we have nothing short of a masterclass in how to properly light for black and white film here. OOZING with style and compositionally astounding for the time. ‘The Haunting’ is a creative powerhouse of a movie, unashamed to try new things, genre defying in the sheer amount of successful jib shots, thoughtful experimental edits and tracking. Given how busy the ‘Hill House’ set is, its a wonder the camera crew didnt take out half the set with some of the shots this thing tries to pull off.

It’s genius quite honestly, and a total testimony to Robert Wise. Who astounds here with is complex and considered approach to direction. This films art in places. dripping with character, its impossibly easy to find yourself lost in the composition of ‘Hill House’ and, for my money, I think this thing needs to be seen on the biggest possible screen for the maximum effect.

The performances are a little hoaky in places, just a smidge on the campy side, but they do pull some very sombre and macarbre performances out of their characters and because of how well defined our core cast is, it gives them all the more scope to really push the boat out in trying to explore and add subtlety to their roles. Scope I might add that they seize with great relish.

They’re very physically animate, use set space perfectly and, while not every line delivery is a winner. the hits do outweigh the misses. That’s equally not even BEGINNING to get into the scoring, which is a wonderful orchestral arrangement that perfectly compliments the uneasy cinematography, they experiment with sound throughout the film to give a ‘Ghostly’ impression to Hill House and I feel they absolutely succeed on their brief.

All in all, if it wasnt for the length, i’d wholeheartedly recommend ‘The Haunting’ it’s a super moody, very richly written and solidly paced haunted house psychological piece. Unfortunately, the sheer length of the thing and a few wobbly performances, tonal issues and the ending being a bit of a damp squib, do stop this from being an out and out rec from me. I really enjoyed the tone. But I think it’s best watched when your in the right headspace, and at just shy of 2 hours, i’d basically have to take an afternoon or evening out to catch it again…which is seldom possible these days unfortunately.

Good film, but it just fell short for me.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-haunting/

A quite decent little subversion of the standard ‘modern horror’ tropes, ‘Tucker and Dale Vs Evil’ is basically ‘Cabin in the Woods’ by way of ‘Abbot and Costello’. And I have ALL the time for those kind of shenanigans.

The film follows Tucker and Dale, two of the worlds unluckiest hillbillies, as they head out into the sticks after purchasing a log cabin that’s to become their new holiday home. Unfortunately for them, a group of college folks are also heading out into the woods on a camping trip and through a series of unfortunate misunderstandings, the college kids are lead to believe that Tucker and Dale (the softest, kindest hillbillies seen since Jethro) are infact the murderous backwater sort, and through a series of even more unfortunate events the college kids, generally in a blind panic, end up accidentally killing themselves, while Tucker and Dale try to keep the peace and untangle this ever escalating predicament.

and i’ve gotta say, while this one didnt give me any MAJOR belly laughs, I really enjoyed it’s tone and pacing. In the age of ‘Scary movie’ and other horror parody flicks, its so easy to play stupid humour to the lowest common denominator. But theres some ‘Smart person, stupid humour’ embedded in this thing, and it’s genuinely a delight to watch a film that appreciates its audiences time as much as this thing does.

There a pretty even distribution of laughs throughout, they work a good range of humour from witty jibes to slapstick and all the flavours in between, the pacings pretty breakneck with a wickedly dark tone. As I mentioned, while the humour didnt quite truely win me over. I chuckled a few times and had a good time with this thing all the same.

Its got a clean three act structure that transitions pretty effortlessly, but for my money the biggest reason to see this is the really well handled subversion of the traditional ‘hillbillies vs city folk’ dynamic. Here, the hillbillies genuinely did nothing wrong, but the kids preset prejudice and panicked attitude around them sets the city folk up to be the badguys almost by accident, while putting Tucker and Dale firmly in the ‘WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?’ firing line.

That subversion I feel works really well here and makes this quite the unique viewing experience, Im not going to lie, theres nothing earthshatteringly groundbreaking to be found with this one. But it works a good range of emotion, tonally it’s on the level, it keeps good pace and timing ending just around the point i’d personally had my fill.

The direction and cine are to studio standard, with decent composition, a solid attempt at styalisation, some nice homages to movies like ‘The Evil Dead’ and ‘Cabin in the Woods’, I was a bit dissapointed at the lack of colour usage here, with this being quite a bloody picture, it would have been nice to see the reds really pop here. But, with that being said 2010 was the age of ‘brown and sludgey’ coloured horror films, so I understand why they went for the washed out look ultimately.

The cast are all utterly delightful and perfectly aware of the kind of movie they’re making, leading to some really solid performances that nail exactly what this kind of movie needs tonally, they’re VERY animated, utilize props and set spaces well, and most importantly, they come across as sincere, and at no point does it feel phoned in.

I had a quite enjoyable time with ‘Tucker and Dale Vs Evil’ its incredibly hard to get the comedic tone of horror comedy about right, but I feel with this one, they’ve just about managed it. its got a studio grade look to it and it works a good range of horror to humour, so theres going to be at least one gag for everyone. While I wouldnt personally say it was a laugh out loud feature. It came across as ‘plucky’ to me, and I appreciated it’s tone for that.

Definitely worth checking at least once, I could easily see this one entering my rotation in future Halloweens!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/tucker-and-dale-vs-evil/

I really consider ‘Friday the 13th: Part 3 (IN 3D!!!)’ to be the series highpoint. The moment where all the elements that I want in a ‘Friday the 13th’ movie kind of come together and crystalize into the format that’ll act as the template for the rest of the series up to but not including ‘Jason X’

The basic plot? a group of friends consisting of a handful of ‘normies’ the obligatory ‘practical joker friend’ and a couple of Hippies head up to a cabin near ‘Camp Crystal Lake’ for a weekend of fun, where they end up getting more than they bargained for when a group of punks follow them up to the cabin after the practical Joke friend (Shelly) wrecks their bikes. Jason Vorhees turns up for a slice of the action too, and what follows is essentially 95 minutes of stalker/slasher in the woods fodder that manages to be deeply satisfying, campy and bloody all in equal measures.

I could see the script kind of being the make or break for people with this one as its essentially a combination of plot lines from the first two movies. Some people may be put off by it being a little generic and not really breaking new ground over. But I think theres a bit more going on with this one than just a generic retreading of the old plot threads.

What we have here is a clear break from the two films with the ‘whodunnit’/’murder mystery’ elements having been formally binned off and your left here with an incredibly polished script that feels like the production took the best elements of the first two films and slammed them together.

The tone isnt quite as serious this time around, its a little tongue in cheek, but they offset that humour with some very gory and dark kill sequences and a few more harrowing monologuey sections with our core cast, on the subject of which, our characters here are all largely playing stereotypes of the genre…but then…in 1982, the slasher genre was still kind of in its infancy, so really they wernt *proper* stereotypes at this point, THESE were the characters later stereotypes would be based on.

The pacings pretty solid, though i’ll be the first to admit the opening 15 minutes or so add NOTHING to the overall plot, really do feel like a drag and its pretty much there exclusively to try and set a tone AND make the ‘3D’ part of this 3D movie feel like an investment well spent.

Beyond that 15 minutes though it keeps a decent pace for most of the runtime, never getting too dry and always keeping a nice contrast of macarbe to silly. Which I quite enjoyed.

Theres a clean 3 act structure, its clear a lot of lessons have been learnt from previous entries about how to pace this one, and the end result is a script that, as mentioned just feels like a really solid crystalization of all the ideas from the last two movies, brought together to form a finished production here.

The directions is a little bit of a mixed bag, I personally really like the style the director was going for here, and its clear the vision he wanted to create was well communicated with the cast. Unfortunately with this being a 3D movie a lot of creative decisions appear to have been outside of the directors hands…Expect plenty of shots of things jumping directly into the camera or of the cast holding things up directly in front of the camera.

It also has to be said that because this film was shot on 3D cameras, the 2D version of this film (which I watched for this review) looks a little soft comparatively and suffers quite badly from Chromatic abberations across the runtime. Its not unwatchable by any means, but it does just take the edge off it visually.

Equally the cine is largely great too, but those 3D shots do drag the production down in my opinion and the murky softness of the downconversion did leave a bit to be desired. It’s not all doom and gloom though! This being the first film featuring Jason in his Hocky mask, we get some lovely ‘Iconic’ shots of the big man running aound with huge axes, pitch forks and other such fodder, theres a great shot with a harpoon gun which works a treat and compositionally, while its maybe a little cheaper looking than previous entries. I think when this film shines, it really doesnt dissapoint.

Its also quite nice to see a return of bloodier, gorier scenes here. The 2nd film felt quite subdued by contrast with minimal blood and only a few visable gore sequences, whereas this film feels much more in line with the original, with plenty of ‘Axes to the head’ and ‘being shot through the eyeball’ to make the thing feel right at home with the other entries, could it have gone harder? I think so. But I feel the get the gore to lighthearted comedy about right and the end result is satisfying to me.

The edits rock solid, it could probably have been 5-10 minutes shorter for me personally, but I didnt clockwatch through this, I was always pretty engaged with it, the sequences are well structured with plenty of cutaway footage to help keep things interesting, without also overwhelming the sequences. Its given plenty of room to breath.

Its the performances that really shine here and help just push this film up to the next level, our gang of teens are all animated, vibrant and pleasent to watch, and while they may be a bit stereotypical, I feel that kind of tone actually quite suits this film, because of this it feels less like a serious film trying to compete with the likes of ‘The Exorcist’ or some of the more darker Amacus/Hammer productions, and more like a film that wants to entertain, have some laughs and not take itself terrifically seriously.

With the standard F13 scoring style running over the top of this thing, theres very little that I dislike about ‘Part 3’ It’s the film I usually end up revisiting the most out of the franchise, and its the one I recommend to people who havent seen a F13 movie before. To me? its the quitessential ‘Friday the 13th’ film, its defining of exactly what this series should be about and is, and Id say it’s definitely worth checking out.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/friday-the-13th-part-iii/

After the first film did gangbusters at the boxoffice, it was only a matter of time before a sequel to ‘Friday the 13th’ made its way up to the big screen. And basically? this is simultaineously probably one of the laziest sequels in the mainstream slasher genre, and one of the most defining.

Because ‘Friday the 13th Part 2’ is basically just a tightened up rerun of the first movie, only insteady of Mrs. Vorhees being the killer, this time, it’s Jason…who appears to be going through his ‘Hillbilly Elephant Man’ era. Sporting dungarees, a checkered shirt and a flour sack over his head for most of the runtime.

The plots exactly the same as last time, out of town kids breeze into town to take on a summer camp job at a camp NEXT to ‘Camp Crystal Lake’, Crazy Ralph warns them not to go to Crystal lake and to leave town as quickly as possible. He’s ignored. cue goofing around at the new camp, and shenanigans. But when some of the teens do stray away to go and see why ‘Crystal Lake’ is off limits, they accidentally draw the attention of Jason who finds his way over to the new camp and killings galore happen again.

And, like I mentioned above, this things basically just a rerun of the first ‘Friday the 13th’ but in some ways its a bit tighter than the previous film and in some ways its a bit poorer.

The scripts more or less a rerun, but it’s 10 minutes shorter (which automatically makes it better) the characters are much more charismatic and interesting, which only helps make the endless scenes of them running around and causing mischief more engaging. The pacings a little quicker than the previous entry and we’re slowly losing that ‘Whodunnit!?’ aspect of the series in favour of folk tales and more slasher oriented fodder. Which I quite liked.

The kills are a bit more subdued this time around compared to the last one, which is a bit of a shame, im led to believe a good chunk of the kills ended up on the cutting room floor due to MPAA restrictions (they were recently recovered on a VHS tape and feature on Scream factories ‘Friday the 13th’ bluray set)

Most critically though, theres no ambiguity over who the killer is in this film, last time the film basically misled the audience by using a male body double in place of Betsy Palmer. making her reveal as the killer feel like a bit of a cheat. Here, it’s all Jason, through and through, which at least means it doesnt feel quite as meandering, and it helps keep the rewatch value up!

The direction and cine are pretty much on a par with the last entry, maybe just a smidge above the ‘studio grade’ average you’d expect of a Paramount production, it’s to standard and does get a little creative here and there which is nice. But theres nothing here that particularly blew me away and for the most part I just kind of got on with whatever it was trying to do, it does put more focus on trying to make the cabin and night shots look a bit more interesting with more use of blue lighting and yellow lighting for the cabin sequences. But this isnt a particularly stylish affair…really something a bit more utilitarian.

The performances have shifted slightly, the previous entry seemed to want to try and capture a real and more naturalistic side to the campers, here they’re much more filmic in tone, a little obnoxious, a little overly jokey, they have knowledge that normal people wouldnt typically possess letalone actively use. These are people who, in the real world, would have got bopped in the face MULTIPLE times before the thing had even got to the second act. But in the ‘film universe’ they’re the standard, so they’re tolerated.

They’re animated across the runtime, they really do help bring the film up a bit in terms of quality, they’re a tad annoying, but you show me a slasher with sincere and genuine character models and i’ll show you a green dog.

Throw in a return of the wonderful Harry Manfredini scoring, now with a couple of new tracks helping to shore things up, and ‘Friday the 13th part 2’ is basically just a ‘2.0’ redux of the original. They looked at what didnt quite work in the first one, tightened it up, tried a couple new things which I feel worked more than they didnt…and the end result is the basic template not only for how the rest of this franchise will run for the next 27 years, but it’ll basically chart the blueprint for most of the contemporary slashers of this era.

Do you need to watch this one? Well…if anything I’d recommend starting with this one over the original. All the essential notes needed to understand whats going on from the first film are shown in a quick recap sequence at the very beginning of this film (which is notable as they only show footage from the last 10 minutes of the original…mainly because bugger all else happens in the first one) and this one basically manages to do everything the first film does WAY better. PLUS this film is referenced in parts 3 and 4 and some later entries…So i’d say if you wanna do an F13 marathon, you could save yourself 95 minutes and just start with this one. Its worth watching at least once.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/friday-the-13th-part-2/

‘Friday the 13th’ as a franchise has, over the years, more than established itself as a cornerstone of the ‘Slasher’ genre. The series has been parodied, riffed, ripped off, copied and homaged more times than I could care to mention. And as any horror afficionado worth their salt knows, the opening entry in the series is quite different to anything that would follow on from it.

Its a bit of a guilty admission here, but while I love the rest of the series, the first ‘Friday’ movie just never quite sat right with me. It’s one I always really struggled to get into for a number of reasons. The chief issue among others being that its rewatch value after the first couple of viewings (unless you have a deep nostalgia for it) is through the floor.

While this film did help solidify the ‘Slasher’ genre’s rules and boundaries, the actual plot is a kind of ‘whodunnit’ but a really really slowburn and slightly dull one that…once you know who the killer is, it immediately creates issues.

So; the film follows a group of fresh faced camp councillors as an attempt is made to reopen ‘Camp Crystal Lake’ some 20ish years after a string of grizzly murders, only for someone to start cutting down the councillors one by one, leading to a grand reveal and final fight.

The problem is (and mild spoilers here) …The killer isnt actually shown at any point on screen until the final 10 minutes, most of their ‘kill’ scenes are shot POV style and the couple of times we do get to see them fleetingly, it’s clearly not them once you know who IS the killer.

It creates a situation where the only hint this film gives you as to who the killer is, is a passing line from one of the cast in the opening 10 minutes. a line that doesnt even DIRECTLY tell you who the killer might be. You have to take that line, and go two steps removed from it to figure it out.

And once you know who the killer is, and you go back and rewatch the film and realise that theres literally almost NO WAY you could have predicted that on the first viewing because the film purposfully tries to mislead you, it all becomes a bit stupid, dull and pointless to me.

Thats not to mention the fact that, for a good half of this movie…NOTHING happens. we literally just follow a group of teen and 20 something campers running around Crystal lake causing mischief. thats all. theres a couple of fake out moments for kills, and a couple of semi nude scenes that are crammed in pretty needlessly, but otherwise all this thing seems to have to trade on is a real attempt at atmosphere and Tom Savinis fantastic visual effects.

The script feels overly long, its plodding, takes ages to progress from scene to scene, tonally its kind of all over the place, uncertain as to whether it wants to be a comedy or a straight horror. the blatent attempts by the film makers to mislead us as to the killer makes it feel like i’m being cheated out of working the film out for myself and while this thing does have a cleanish 3 act structure. the total lack of anything really happening in this thing till the second half of the 2nd act, meant that…by the time the film actually DID get into gear plot wise, it’d already kind of lost me.

While I will say the last 15 minutes or so are easily the best part of this movie, and do hold not only some of the better written sections of the film but also, easily the most interesting visual elements of the film. It all seems to come too little, too late.

I cant fault the direction and cine. This is a studio picture, at its worst it was going to be ‘to standard’ and this does go further than that delivering a stylish and competent production that looks good and is very visually appealing.

I caught the ‘uncut’ version of this release, and I feel like while the cine is sharp, coherent, visually interesting and engaging, the sequencing and editing for this is a little too slack for my taste. I could have easly lost 20-30 minutes off this thing and only had nicer things to say about it…Did I need to see an extended sex scene? the strip monopoly scene? the sequence of the campers having a swim that went on for far too long? probably not. But they decided to keep it in anyway.

I will say the cast are all largely decent, they’re all playing things pretty naturalistically for teens being let loose at a summer camp, and I think they pull off what they’re trying to do quite nicely with a decent enough range. Though, it is a little dissapointing that, because they’re all trying to play it fairly naturally, theres no real ham or standout performance (other than Betsy Palmer, who absolutely steals the show as ‘Mrs. Vorhees’) It all just kind of feels a bit milquetoast honestly.

The scores nice though…especially the closing track…that thing hits hard.

I dunno…The first time I watched this, I was genuinely kind of impressed by the twists and turns, then I watched it back and realised the film purposfully misled its audience by making it impossible for the killer to be who they said it was…and then every viewing after thats just felt like diminishing returns to me. This time around I was interested in the opening 15 minutes, and the closing 15 minutes…everything between those points just felt like filler.

Had it not been for Tom Savinis effects, some decent direction and cine and a cast giving decent performances that just about met the mark, this thing would have been rated MUCH lower than i’ve rated it. As it stands, Its not one I’ll likely return to in a hurry, its just…SO drawn out and boring.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/friday-the-13th/

‘Luther the Geek’ is a home invasion horror picture with the DNA of a slasher firmly wedged inside it. And while I cant say it’s the most ‘involved’ film i’ve ever sat through, it definitely has a lot of personality that it brings to the table on top of a hearty amount of shock imagery…Put it this way, I understand why Troma picked this one up for distribution.

The plot of the film is kind of overly simple really. We open with a brief introduction to the concept of a ‘Geek’ these were people at Carnivals and Fairgrounds who’d quite literally debase themselves for money, booze or a combination of the two…Basically, they’d do whatever it took to earn their keep and generally the centerpiece of a ‘Geek’s’ arsenal was the show stopping finale in which they’d bite the head off a chicken.

The opening sets up in the early 1930’s as a drunk and angry mob swarm a barn thats holding the local Carnivals ‘Geek’ behind bars. they wanna see a show, so they toss a chicken in there and the ‘Geek’ does what he does best. Unfortunatley while the shows going on a small boy called ‘Luther’ gets knocked into by a drunken reveller and ends up smashing his face on the wheel of the cage that the ‘Geek’ is trapped in.

Luther smashes all his teeth out, and after making a sort of ‘knowing’ look to the ‘Geek’ he’s whisked away from the scene. We then flash forward to the present day (1989) and Luther appears to have been in prison for 20 years after a violent string of biting offenses, he’s up for parole and his doctor makes a good enough case that he’s reformed, that he’s let go.

This proves to be a mistake, as pretty much immediatley on leaving, Luther gets razor sharp metal teeth implants, and heads out into the city. He has ZERO filter, so he pretty much does what he wants…and he can only communicate through clucks and wails. After stealing from a restaurant and eating raw eggs in the supermarket while being shouted at. He eventually spots a young woman leaving the store and decides to follow her.

It turns out she owns a house out in the middle of farm country in a very secluded part of town, where her Daughter and her boyfriend are staying while on a break from college.

Aaaaaannd the rest of the movie is just a very surreal home invasion flick, with Luther tying up the mother and stalking the perimeter of the house picking off people who come to visit one by one, all the while the cops have a high alert call to bring Luther back in, but…with them being movie cops…Columbo they aint.

And really? at it’s core. This is just a fairly generic slasher/home invasion pic that happens to have an eccentric flourish in the casting. The scripts decent enough, but it is a little bit on the thin side plot wise, especially once we get to the house and the film locks into ‘luther stalks around, finds someone, kills someone, the family find the corpse, dissassociate, go into hiding, luther stalks around again’ terratory. Which does eat up a big chunk of the latter half of the 2nd act and most of the 3rd…

Also compounding issues, on top of their not being much in the way of actual meaty plot here, the characters are all written circumstantially…They hit every generic ‘wrong thing for a character to do in a slasher picture’ trope going…from running upstairs when they should be running out the front door, to trying to attack someone at arms range with a rifle longer than the persons body. To saying ‘I’ll be right back’ to trying to physically untie someone from a bed, when a pair of scissors would have done the job in seconds. If you can think of the wrong way to do something, the characters in this movie will have tried it as the only option.

This results in LONG periods of intense eye rolling, and by the 3rd act I did end up clockwatching a bit as I felt it’d overstayed its welcome by not developing past the ‘stalking around’ section of its scripting.

It equally isnt a particularly good look to your movie when all the women in your film are either incredibly incompitent for most of the runtime, sex objects, or screaming or crying for men to come and help them do stuff. I wouldnt go as far as to say this film has a mysoginistic streak to it. But (in my opinion) theres definitely some uncomfortable rumblings going on in the background of this thing.

What DOES save this film though is it’s pacing, its a zippy little number in that regard and while it does get repetative towards the end, the gore and fight scenes do help to *just about* keep you watching, even if you’re just starting to drift away.

Equally, all the characters in this, while incompetent. ARE interesting to some degree. Whether its through eccentricity or just being quite endearing characters, I feel they really helped save the film. they’re bright, animate and all of them get at least a couple of strange scenes to work in which really helps pep this thing up a fair bit.

The direction here is nice, crisp and clean, It reminded me stylistically of ‘Mikey’ for a reason I havent yet fully placed, just the way it was put together and looks really put my headspace into that films style…But! its competent, there seems to have been good communication between the director, crew and cast and the end results are a solid work, if not a *tad* generic. I’d have been interested to see a more styalised take, as they seemed to have tried really hard to get a ‘natural’ look to all there scenes, rather than anything outlandish.

The cine too is solid enough, we have a good variety of B-roll, the sequences are well structure, flow nicely and have good breathing space, composition can be a tad spotty here and there, but its way more hits than misses and, while it is a little generic in terms of its looks, its a solid end product that I think succeeds on the brief being asked.

The performances are where this thing really shines and is pretty much the biggest reason to check this out. Edward Terry as ‘Luther’ is a cinematic FORCE. Playing a character thats running on near pure instinct, Edward really gives it his all, delivering some of the grossest and enthralling moments of this picture. He’s animate, aggressive and relentless and I really enjoyed his piece here.

Of course the best unsettling performances need a straight man/woman to play off of in order to maximise the obscenity. and we have Joan Roth as Hilray for that offering, and she’s absolutely perfect for the role, giving a genuinely terrified range that runs from concern to outright terror to a loss into insanity herself. shes equally animated, utilises her set space well and comes across perfectly in this thing. The pair are easily worth the price of admission alone.

I cant say you’ll find something truely *unique* in ‘Luther the Geek’, it’s by the numbers in almost every regard, but those character performances punctuated with some genuinely unpleasent gore scenes and its generally unsettling tone were enough to keep me more or less invested. While it didnt fully win me over, I enjoyed this one, and i’d say it was at least worth checking out once.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/luther-the-geek/

Watched on Thursday September 28, 2023.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-dragon-lives-again/2/