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Chris Sawin (602 KP) rated Friday the 13th (1980) in Movies

Jun 20, 2019 (Updated Jun 21, 2019)  
Friday the 13th (1980)
Friday the 13th (1980)
1980 | Horror
In 1980, Steve Christy has decided to re-open Camp Crystal Lake, otherwise known as Camp Blood. A young boy drowned in '57 and a double murder followed the year after. They have about two weeks before camp starts, so all of his counselors are beginning to show up to help get the camp ready. But when the counselors begin getting picked off one by one, it seems as though the same fate that cursed Camp Blood over twenty years ago still plagues the camp to this very day.

I don't like this film as much as other Friday the 13th fans seem to. I realize it's the original and it started the franchise, but I feel like something is missing. As much of a Jason fan that I am, I always viewed this one as the one in the franchise missing the key ingredient. That has always kinda made me overlook this film until I'm finally sitting down and watching it. The uncut version is a bit of a tease as I think with the uncut scenes we get an extra eight to ten seconds of extended footage of a few of the kills. It's nice to see the best parts of the film the way they were meant to be seen, but it won't make me rush out and buy the new DVD or Blu-ray at full price. I'll wait for the price to go down or find a used copy at a more reasonable price. I'm not taking anything away from this film though. It's still a lot of fun and I enjoy it. I'm just a sucker for Jason, I guess.
  
Fear Street Part Two: 1978 (2021)
Fear Street Part Two: 1978 (2021)
2021 | Horror
8
7.7 (12 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Contains spoilers, click to show
We get a recap of the previous movie, then when the movie starts properly we see a young woman who lives alone. This woman has alarms set for different times of the day, keeps her house locked up like a prison and appears to be scared of everything. It eventually turns out it was her who the teens in the previous movie had called for help, and they take a possessed Sam to her house in the hope that she would help. Initially she refuses, but then tells them a story about her time at camp when her sister died.

We get a flashback to 1978 where a young girl called Ziggy was being accused of being a witch and constantly bullied by a group of girls because of it. She isn't a witch but it isn't long before the first attack and ziggys sister Cindy realises something strange is going on and goes searching for answers.

Just like the first it was very teen Slasher, but I enjoyed this one more than the first one. There was more murders and more gore with a shocking twist at the end. It has the feel of the Friday the 13th movies, though I did find the scenes inside the cave difficult to watch, not because of the content but because it was so dark visually.

I find the movie let's you start to like certain characters and then when they're taken away you feel all the emotions because you get attached to them, especially the final kills, which was a surprisingly powerful moment, you tend not to get that in Slasher movies so I thought that was a nice touch.
  
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Chris Sawin (602 KP) rated Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993) in Movies

Jun 20, 2019 (Updated Jun 21, 2019)  
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)
1993 | Horror
4
5.6 (14 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Jason Voorhees is believed to be dead, but his murderous rampage lives on. He's able to transfer from body to body, but each host deteriorates at an incredible rate and he has to switch frequently. Meanwhile, Steven goes to meet Diana one night, who happens to be his ex-wife's mother. She has something very important to tell Steven. You see, Diana is the sister of Jason Voorhees and Jessica, Steven's ex, is his niece. Steven and Jessica have a baby named Stephanie, as well.

According to Creighton Duke, a bounty hunter, the only way anyone can kill Jason is by destroying his heart and it has to be done by a blood relative. Not only that, but he can also be reborn by transferring into the body of another Voorhees. So after Diana is killed in a scuffle with "Jason," that only leaves Jessica and Stephanie. Steven has no choice, but to protect his family even though he's believed to be the one who killed Diana and has the police hot on his trail every step of the way.


For a Friday the 13th film, the acting in this is surprisingly good. It still has a few actors that make you groan, but the actors who get the most face time are decent and get the job done. In fact, I probably would've rated this a few points higher if it wasn't for a few factors. The main one being that Jason is a worm. Not only that, but he's like this demonic worm thing that the sphincter-blasting worms in Dreamcatcher would probably find attractive. If they hadn't tried to give Jason this supernatural explanation and had something else in its place, this would have been a lot better.

Jason, like the actual Jason with the hockey mask, is really only in the film for maybe ten to fifteen minutes tops. So that hurts the film, in my eyes. They also made Jason make all these weird noises this time around. He was wheezing, breathing heavily, groaning, and grunting. It didn't fit the character. He was generally silent up until this film and is again in Jason X. So...what the hell? It's a disappointing sendoff overall for a film labeled as The Final Friday. I guess it wasn't completely pointless. We did get the Freddy Vs Jason tease at the end, which wasn't really followed up on for ten years. But I digress...
  
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KyleQ (267 KP) rated Halloween (2018) in Movies

Jul 20, 2020  
Halloween (2018)
Halloween (2018)
2018 | Horror
I wanted to like it.
Ignoring every entry other than Carpenter's original, 2018's Halloween attempts to reboot the Franchise in anew direction.
Oddly enough, comedian Danny McBride was a writer, while director David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express) directed.

I blame much of my distaste on their overhyping it. They said this would be a slower movie focused on creating suspense ala the original.
In reality, this more than tripled the body count, even surpassing Rob Zombie's remake which was 10 minutes longer.
From the get-go, Michael just wanders about killing people, at one point we just follow him walking down a street randomly killing people. This has more senseless violence then Zombie's outings.


Another thing I didn't like was that, with this only following the original in which after escaping, he killed 4 people. It doesn't make sense that he would be this popular legend still talked about 40 years later.
Also, victims are idiots, it's no shock who gets killed. Honestly, Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) was the only likable character, and even she pushed it a bit.

For positives, Carpenter's score was great, I liked some of the camera work. Intro credits were cool, throwing back to the original. And Curtis was good returning as Laurie Strode.

I really wanted to like 2018's Halloween, but it lacked suspense, characters were dumb, it felt more like a senseless action/comedy than horror. This would've fit the Friday the 13th franchise better. I really hope that the sequels are better.
  
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Steve Fearon (84 KP) rated Halloween (1978) in Movies

Sep 5, 2018 (Updated Sep 5, 2018)  
Halloween (1978)
Halloween (1978)
1978 | Horror
Well shot, intense, patient and the birth of a horror icon (0 more)
A little tame compared to the horrors that followed, at times the soundtrack can overwhelm the dialog to the detriment of the film. (0 more)
John Carpenter's Slasher still stands tallest
Contains spoilers, click to show
That theme song starts.

You feel it somewhere deep inside, that feeling that something special is going to happen.

Halloween is THE Slasher, with a silent antagonist, an over-the-top performance from Donald Pleasance, the introduction of Jamie Lee Curtis, and the establishment of John Carpenter as one of the foremost purveyors of horror.

Patiently paced, with little time given to explanation of exposition, we are taken on the slow build up of tension as we go from the legendary intro sequence, to a breakout at the asylum, through to the stalking of teenagers by the man in the William Shatner mask.

Lots of shots of Myers just watching, waiting, judging, which could be interpreted as boring on paper, but it is just the right side of unnerving, and it is this constant threat which means the viewer is constantly scanning the edges of the screen, looking for our antagonist.

It contrasts beautifully with the naivety and innocence of his victims, who are just trying to enjoy Halloween as most teenagers are wont to do.

Yes this film is relatively tame compared to the films that have come after, but few can touch the pure sinister feel and atmosphere that Carpenter creates, and it is a simply iconic entry in cinema history.

Watch it for what it is, a genre changing horror film, that changed all that followed it.

No Myers, No Friday 13th, No Scream, No Nightmare On Elm Street.

Its that important.
  
Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning (1985)
Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning (1985)
1985 | Horror
Tommy Jarvis has grown up, but killing a psychopath at twelve years old really takes a toll on your psyche. Tommy is enrolled in a mental institution in hopes of moving past the events in the last film. The same day he arrives, a fellow inmate is killed by somebody else enrolled in the institution and things only seem to get worse from there. Tommy is haunted by the image of Jason and sees him behind every corner, but when the inmates start disappearing Tommy realizes that his worst fear may have finally become a reality.

This might be my least favorite film in the franchise. I loathe the ending. I mean, they couldn't even get Jason Voorhees for a Friday the 13th film? Are you kidding me? That's beyond weak. Then, on top of all that, they make "Jason" be Roy the ambulance attendant. I'll admit that the "twist" is kind of interesting, but by the time that rolled around I had pretty much already lost interest. Let's pretend Jason was in the film and everything but the ending was the same. It'd still be pretty lame.

The kills are rather mediocre, at best. Ethel and Junior are two of the most annoying characters to ever be featured in a horror film. Both of them give Franklin from Texas Chainsaw Massacre a run for his money for most annoying douchebag in a horror film. Most of the kids in the halfway house are just a-holes and you can't wait for them to die. I can understand going in a new direction for the franchise and I admire the writers and director for having the balls to do something like that, but it wound up falling flat especially when it's sandwiched between two of the greatest films in the franchise.
  
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)
1989 | Horror
3
6.1 (10 Ratings)
Movie Rating
The fall of the franchise.
Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris) now has a psychic connection with Michael Myers, she has visions showing who and where he is going to kill next.

If that sounds dumb to you, then trust me, the movie will feel dumb too.
Halloween 5 feels more like a Friday the 13th movie, filled with dumb teens getting picked off one by one, featuring some unrealistic subplot to distinguish it from other entries.
Gone is the eerie suspense, the music is a shadow of the original's score. Gone too is the tension of asking "where is Michael?" As Jamie's visions literally show us where he is.

 There is also a weird change, in Halloween 4 Leslie L. Rohland played the part of Lindsey Wallace, shown as a friend to both Jamie and Rachel (Ellie Cornell), Leslie did not return for H5. In Halloween 5, they cast Wendy Foxworth as Tina Williams. What's confusing is Leslie and Tina are very similar to one another, they look alike and their characters were similar. In H5 they played off like Tina had known Jamie from before. So it begs the question, if you had to recast why not keep the same character? And if you had to change character, why not cast someone unlike Leslie? I don't know but it's always bugged me.

There are a couple of good things to say about it. Some death scenes are intense and brutal, the ending is good, intense with a decent twist.

Overall though, Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers is the first entry in the series that really truly disappointed me, mostly due to its dumb story.
  
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
1989 | Horror
2
5.0 (23 Ratings)
Movie Rating
A group of students are taking a cruise to New York. A couple, who's part of the group, ventures off on their own in their own private boat. They wind up drifting through Camp Crystal Lake for a little quality time together. They set anchor and wind up resurrecting Jason in the process. Now as the cruise ship sets off, with Jason in tow, our students may have more than their biology projects to worry about.


Re-watching this was not a pleasant experience. I really had to force myself to watch it and once I finally did it was almost painful to make myself sit through the entire thing. Continuity is probably the film's biggest flaw. When we see young Jason drown, he looks like a normal little boy. Whenever Rennie sees him, however, he suddenly looks like he has down syndrome and like somebody beat him with a 2x4 made from every ugly branch they could get a hold of. On top of that, he pretty much has a different appearance every time Rennie sees him. Then there's the whole Crystal Lake leading into the ocean thing and the ending. Heavens, the ending is atrocious.

The script isn't so hot either. Julius is probably the best example. After Wayne asks him what weapon he's going to take after they realize Jason is on the ship, Julius replies, "Nothing," then pauses for a moment before following with, "...but this gun." The kills were also lacking. Jason takes a guitar to a girl's head and throws a guy onto an antenna. That's about as inventive as we get this time around. The one enjoyable factor of the film is Kane Hodder as Jason. The scene in Times Square is probably the highlight of the film. It's disappointing that the last film with "Friday the 13th" in the title is so bad.
  
Predator: Hunting Grounds
Predator: Hunting Grounds
2020 | Action, Horror, Shooter
Mission Variety (2 more)
Teamwork
Character/Weapon Customisation
A few bugs/glitches (0 more)
A fun game to play solo or with friends
Predator: Hunting Grounds is a new game from IllFonic, who previously created Friday the 13th: The Game - and it's easy to see the similarities between these games.

The idea is simple, you either play as the Predator, or as part of a 4 man fireteam.

As the Predator, your mission is simple, kill everything! To do this you will be able to seamlessly jump through the trees, using your various weapons/gear to hunt down and ruthlessly kill anything that moves.

As part of the fireteam, you and 3 other players will be given a mission to complete. You will have various objectives to complete within a time limit, before calling for a chopper and getting the hell out of there! During your mission you will have to fight your way through various waves of AI enemies to avoid being killed in action. Oh, there's also the small matter of avoiding the Predator as well, obviously.

Having played this game for a few hours, I'm finding it very fun so far. As you level up you will be able to unlock new weapons and gear, and the customisation options are quite impressive.

This game is totally online so you will be playing with other players around the world, however if you can I would suggest getting a fireteam full of your friends, it makes it a lot easier to complete the missions when you can communicate properly with your team.

As this game is very new, and it is an online game, there are a few bugs/glitches at the moment, however I'd imagine these will be fixed within a few updates.
  
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Scott Tostik (389 KP) rated Happy Death Day (2017) in Movies

Oct 23, 2017 (Updated Jan 11, 2019)  
Happy Death Day (2017)
Happy Death Day (2017)
2017 | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Weird, workable idea (0 more)
Funnier than a horror film and bloodier than a comedy
Have you ever just wanted to watch someone die??? Over and over and over and over again???
Well... This movie gives you the opportunity to watch an annoying sorority girl get slaughtered time and time again.
Mind you, she does lighten up a little bit as she dies again and again... Eventually streaking theough a full quad on campus because she just knows she's going to croak.
Overall, this movie is fun. A little silly, but it's horror... Its supposed to be silly...ish... But not too silly like Saturday the 14th and Student Bodies from the 80's... Which i recommend if you want to fall into a deep sleep... Happy Death Day is a vicious little horror film... That has the ability to make you belly laugh so hard it can hurt.
The sequel... Happy Death Day 2 U comes out on Febuary 14th of this year(2019). And i am already trying to get tickets...
In closing just let me add that I am not a huge fan of the newer horror film. If you've read my reviews you know that I hate the fact that everything Netflix comes out with horror wise, with the exceptions of 1922 and The Haunting of Hill House, is complete garbage. But Jason Blum knows good horror. He is a seriously deranged individual who completely gets what horror fans want... He's had his hands in some of the finest. The Purge series, Insidious series.
I only hope he gets his hands on the rights for Friday the 13th and finally does it some justice.
So Happy Death Day.... Give er. Ita worth it.