Whilst I've only see three of the Friday the 13th movies I'm a regular coniseur when it comes to everyones favourite wise cracking homocidal paedophile (maybe the entire horror community splits into Elm Street people and Friday 13th people).
As a series of films they're not good, but my teenage years were spent with all of these films and New Nightmare is one of the first films I remember sneaking into. Time and the onset of critical thinking have certainly not been kind to the latter movies but I still find myself drawn to the original and number III Dream Warriors.
The original is such a great, great film. I was just watching it yesterday and it amazes me that despite some odd ADR moments the film kind of stands up and seems to reverse the usual horror paradigm for franchises to get progressively bloodier as they go on (nothing in the films that follows really matches the sheer visceral horror of Tina's death and even after a couple of dozen viewings that scene still gets really under my skin). It's bloody and kind of scary and the focus is on the kids rather than Freddy (who is sort of broadly lecherous as opposed to his more sympathetic/charismatic latter incarnations). The kids themselves are surprisingly good, they're not world class thespians but their lack of numbers means that the two we're supposed to give a shit about get a lot of focus. In fact I think Heather's* up there with Laurie in terms of great survivor girls and the remastered DVD, bizarrely, is one of the best looking DVDs I've used with my HD-TV thus far.
Number III seems to start the pattern for Freddy being the dominant force in the films (number II's general bizarreness rules it out of this equation) and whilst it's nowhere near as scary as the original it manages to retain some tension in its dream sequences (even if the Dream Warriors angle is wondrously campy). There's enough good ideas to keep the film afloat and its also never, ever, boring.
Quick question in the original Heather sort of spots some dude in sunglasses and a black suit that I've always assumed to be Fred Kruger. He's never mentioned again and I was wondering if my summation was correct or not.
So what are you guys favourite films in the series.
*Upon watching this film again recently the cast who had always seemed 'older' than me suddenly became kids, I don't think I've ever been more aware of my mortality than when I was watching a slasher film and marvelling at how young looking the cast were.
As a series of films they're not good, but my teenage years were spent with all of these films and New Nightmare is one of the first films I remember sneaking into. Time and the onset of critical thinking have certainly not been kind to the latter movies but I still find myself drawn to the original and number III Dream Warriors.
The original is such a great, great film. I was just watching it yesterday and it amazes me that despite some odd ADR moments the film kind of stands up and seems to reverse the usual horror paradigm for franchises to get progressively bloodier as they go on (nothing in the films that follows really matches the sheer visceral horror of Tina's death and even after a couple of dozen viewings that scene still gets really under my skin). It's bloody and kind of scary and the focus is on the kids rather than Freddy (who is sort of broadly lecherous as opposed to his more sympathetic/charismatic latter incarnations). The kids themselves are surprisingly good, they're not world class thespians but their lack of numbers means that the two we're supposed to give a shit about get a lot of focus. In fact I think Heather's* up there with Laurie in terms of great survivor girls and the remastered DVD, bizarrely, is one of the best looking DVDs I've used with my HD-TV thus far.
Number III seems to start the pattern for Freddy being the dominant force in the films (number II's general bizarreness rules it out of this equation) and whilst it's nowhere near as scary as the original it manages to retain some tension in its dream sequences (even if the Dream Warriors angle is wondrously campy). There's enough good ideas to keep the film afloat and its also never, ever, boring.
Quick question in the original Heather sort of spots some dude in sunglasses and a black suit that I've always assumed to be Fred Kruger. He's never mentioned again and I was wondering if my summation was correct or not.
So what are you guys favourite films in the series.
*Upon watching this film again recently the cast who had always seemed 'older' than me suddenly became kids, I don't think I've ever been more aware of my mortality than when I was watching a slasher film and marvelling at how young looking the cast were.
