My First "Friday"

If you grew up in the 80’s, then at some point in your life you were likely to come across a little horror franchise called “Friday the 13th.” The first in this twelve film series was released in 1980 through Paramount Pictures and was directed by Sean S. Cunningham. It was the film that first introduced us (albeit briefly) to a future film icon, Jason Voorhees. Stalk and slash films were big business in the 80’s and there was none bigger than the Friday the 13th series, that churned out a new film practically every year. The only two years we didn’t get a Friday film were 1983 and 1987. No one anticipated the success of the franchise, nor did anyone think it would last. In 1984, “The Final Chapter” was released and everyone believed that was the last we would see of the hockey-masked hacker from Crystal Lake. But something else happened in 1984 that kept ole’ Jason coming back for more. New Line Cinema and director Wes Craven introduced us to a new screen villain, Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street. The enormous success of that film sparked new interest in the genre and Paramount decided it was time to bring Jason back from the grave and go toe to toe with dream killer Freddy in the box office numbers game. Never before in the history of film has two terror titans gone at each other the way Freddy and Jason did. They both had their audiences and their own share of success, but the real winners were the horror fans. They got to see all the mayhem they wanted, I know, because I was one of them. Horror magazines, toy lines, tee-shirts, music videos, and of course movies flooded horror fans with all we could handle.

I had seen the first six Friday the 13th films on videocassette up to 1988. But on May 13th of ‘88, I got to see my first Friday on the big screen. It was one of the advantages of having a really cool mom who would watch anything with me. “Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood” was the name of that film and I have never missed a Friday film in theaters since. Most I would see multiple times before their run in the theater was over. However, I only got to see “Part VII” in theaters once. My mom had all she could handle in one viewing, and she let my Dad take me to see part eight the next year.

Friday the 13th part VII was also the first time we got to see actor/stuntman Kane Hodder take on the role of Jason who by now was no more than a jacked-up ghoul in shredded clothes, but still donned his trademark hockey mask. Kane was amazing as Jason and would be the only guy to play the killer more than once (he actually played Jason in the next four films). This time Jason would take on a lovely young girl named Tina (Lar Park Lincoln) who has a special skill that even Jason couldn’t match. She used her psychokinesis to pretty much kick Jason’s ass all over the house and lake side. It was an interesting twist to the traditional hack ‘em up storyline and made for a great climatic ending. But, never fear Jason fans. The big guy got to bump off a handful of other twenty-somethings who really made you cheer for the killer. I know it is commonplace to have some annoying characters in these types of films, but they really went all out in this one. Never before has a group of meat bags been so worthy of being chopped, hacked, and weed-eated (yes, I know that is not a word, but it was a fun way to describe the kill).

My favorite death in this one would be the very sexy Heidi Kozak, who strips down for a little skinny dipping and gets pulled under by Jason, who now seems to be able to move in the water without any issues. If you remember his first “death” was by drowning. But I guess he took lessons. Who knows, and who cares. Its campy horror at it’s best.

The film was directed by John Carl Buechler, an FX artist turned director who sadly passed away a few months ago on March 18th. In addition to Lincoln, Hodder, and Kozak, the rest of the cast included cartoon voice actress Susan Blu (look her up on IMDB, her list of voice over credits are amazing!), Terry Kiser of Weekend at Bernie’s and Night Court fame, scream queen Elizabeth Kaitan, Kevin Spirtas, Susan Jennifer Sullivan, William Butler (Hollywood’s favorite guy to kill), Staci Greason, Larry Cox, Jeff Bennett, Diana Barrows, Jennifer Banko, Jon Renfield, Craig Thomas, and Debora Kessler. The film did well at the box office, bringing in almost $20 million on a $2 million dollar budget with a $8.2 million dollar opening night. My financial contribution would not be made until the following weekend, but hey I did contribute.

I have many years of fond memories of Friday the 13th, but this one will always hold a special place in my heart, because it was the first one that I got to see in the big theater. It was not the best film in the series, but you always remember your first. Am I right?

#JasonVoorhees #Fridaythe13th #ANewBlood #KaneHodder