Welcome to a brand new episode of Film Club, The A.V. Club’s weekly movie-discussion series. The original Friday The 13th film was released on May 9, 1980 to middling reviews but staggering financial success, grossing $59 million on a estimated budget of $550,000. 40 years on and a dozen films later, the quintessential slasher franchise continues to lumber through our pop-culture consciousness. This week on Film Club, Katie Rife and A.A. Dowd are running down the Friday The 13th series, from Camp Crystal Lake to the year 2455, on an episode ominously taped on Wednesday the 13. In the episode—which you can listen to below, or wherever you get your podcasts—you’ll hear the pair discuss the franchise’s history, its influences and legacy, its unlikely future, and their favorite kills.
Because The A.V. Club office is closed for the time being, and everyone on staff is social distancing, this episode was recorded remotely. Listen to the podcast above, subscribe on iTunes, and give us a five-star rating to help other listeners find us.
19 Comments
Co co co vid vid vid…
Crystal Lake Memories is a pretty deep dive for that franchise, definitely worth it for beyond-casual fans, but for anyone else, I’m not so sure. You have to get near the end to get to its best aspect, which is gloriously spaced-out Monica Keena.
Who was the Cult Of Thorn defender, I want to read more from her
The sole value of this franchise was as a delivery vehicle for showing topless women.
And yet my favorite entry doesn’t have any nudity in it.
Right? It’s like this dude’s never heard of porn or something.
Most of us were surely there for the graphic violence, rather than the mediocre tits, my dude.
6 or 3?
*SpongeBob driving a car in a snobbish fashion GIF*
Don’t get me wrong, I *liked* seeing the topless women.
It was certainly a nice added bonus.
Counterpoint: Crispin Glover gets murdered with a corkscrew.
I have to totally disagree on Halloween vs. Friday the 13th (the original films). Neither of these films is original. Halloween is a total ripoff of Black Christmas which you never mention at all. Halloween is slow and boring and not at all frightening. It is rife with continuity and logistical errors (what’s with all the trees in full leaf in what is supposedly Illinois on October 31st? Pasadena is a poor substitute for Haddonfield). The biggest difference is that the original F13 is scary. I watched both of these at around 13 for the first time. Halloween had me saying, “meh.” F13 scared me shitless.
YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS ARE DEAD. GAME OVER.
I enjoyed this podcast. Jason X is my favorite, but you’ve convinced me I need to go back and rewatch part 6.
Also, I got to see part 3 in 3-D at the Alamo Drafthouse back around 2001, and it was a blast. But yeah, without the 3-D element, it’s pretty forgettable.Also also, I rewatched Freddy Vs Jason a couple weeks ago, and in addition to the racist joke, there was a homophobic slur that took me aback. Overall, I found it to be a much lousier movie than I remembered, more indebted to the late-90s horror revival than the 80s movies it should have been modeled on.
I guess I’m the only one who came here looking for Friday the 13th: The Series (TV).
Not to be a pedant, but the very fake color of the blood in Dawn of the Dead wasn’t Savini’s fault, it was the provider of the fake blood, 3M.
Late to the party but just to nitpick: Tommy Jarvis can’t possibly be a ripoff of Jamie Lloyd. The last Tommy Jarvis movie, Jason Lives, came out in 1986 while the the first Jamie Lloyd movie, The Return of Michael Myers, came out in 1988.