As you may know by now, I am nuts–NUTS I SAY–about the Friday the 13th series. I love the (relative) risks it's taken, I love its unabashed weirdness, I just...I don't know, at some point I really fell hard for this franchise. I'm not some big Jason fan, either! (At least, not after Part III.) I think maybe spending so much time with it when writing and drawing Death Count gave me some kind of Stockholm Syndrome or something because I feel a weird affection for the films in the series that I don't like...and trust me, the number of Friday films I don't like vastly outweighs the number I do (aka 1-3 and 5, if you must know).
For all the zillions of hours of Jason and Co, however, there's really only a small handful of moments that I've ever found legitimately scary. The biggest occurs near the end of Part 2, when Ginny is on the run from Jason and she comes across his little lean-to in the woods. She goes inside, thinking she might find help:
And boy oh boy! That's a terrible screencap, but seeing Jason through the window behind her, running toward the building, is downright terrifying. I love that he didn't disappear and they didn't try to build any mystery–you know, is he still following? Where will he appear? He's not trying to keep quiet. He's not trying to hide. He is still coming, running right at her. He knows exactly where she is. He's going to get to her, and he's going to kill her. It's just a really effective shot! That she's stumbled into his lair makes it even more frightening...and the fact that it's Baghead Jason chasing her makes it worth at least 100 chef kisses, for as all good people know, Baghead Jason is the best Jason.
The 'kids' in 80's horror movies were mostly quite wholesome and likeable. They looked like real young adults. Those movies weren't full of cursing. You were sad to see some of them die.
ReplyDeleteAnd (as if it needs to be said) Ginny is BAE 4-EVZ!
Are you OK? Are you trapped in a lean-to in the woods? If you need rescue, please scream twice
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ReplyDeleteDang it, I left this great comment about how reading the final paragraph of this piece felt just like watching it for the first time and it got eaten up.
ReplyDeleteI just dont have it in me to type it all out again, but just know that F13P2 is my favorite of the series, the one that I have seen the most times, and yep, reading that paragraph brought back the sheer terror and exhilaration of seeing it for the first time, so many years ago.