It’s Day 11 on our 30 Days of Horror Challenge. Today’s topic is “Your Favorite Horror Franchise.”
Franchises are a mainstay of many a commercially-successful horror movie. Horror movies are bankrolled by producers, producers who see box office receipts and say “Fantastic, people like this one, and I made a lot of money from it. Now let’s do 26 more just like it, make me more money at all costs until people are so sick of the premise that they burn your house down. OK thanks byeeeee!” The only movie franchises more shameless in wringing movie from a fan base are Star Wars and Marvel.
Seriously, though… and I know I’m going to alienate many of the nerds who may or may not be reading this… from one nerd to another, I am so, so over comic book movies. There have been more than 60 superhero movies made in just the past ten years, and they all feel exactly the same to me. I mean Star Wars is kinda played-out but I can still watch them on occasion, and Paramount has pretty much ruined the Star Trek franchise in less than six years’ time but I can still geek out with my (something-that-rhymes-with-geek) out for anything Star Trek pre-2000 (2005 if I have a couple drinks first), but comic book movies are just a pseudo-artistic virus anymore.
Anyway, Friday the 13th is my franchise of choice for horror. They’re not great movies, they didn’t win too many awards and the critics hated them, but it’s good trash that I started following as an early-teen because, back then, this was a big scary bloody deal. Modern slasher films were in their infancy, and so the concept of watching a movie for the sake of murder alone as the point of interest. The plots are thin and unimportant, we just need bodies aged 18-24 (and a couple older ones here and there to provide filler as needed) and a wide array of sharp things to hack and stab with, with a few heavy things to bash and crush with for a little variety.
The third movie is where the infamous hockey mask gets introduced to the character. The third movie is also noteworthy for having been shown in 3D at the theater. This was the first one I saw in the theaters… which baffles me, because I wasn’t anywhere close to being old enough to be admitted to an R-rated movie. If I had to guess I either went with a larger group of other people, or I rode my bike out to the Skyway Theater to watch it, like I did two years later with Nightmare on Elm Street… because nine times out of ten if you went to the Skyway they’ll let you in no matter the age. It was a little theater outside of town, they just didn’t give a shit.
Mom says “You can’t watch that movie, I forbid it, if I find out you’ve gone you’re gonna be grounded!” “Okay Mom” I say.
(pedal-pedal-pedal)
“One ticket for Friday the 13th Part 3 in 3D, please!”
I was a pretty good kid, for the most part, but if I wanted to see a scary movie I was GOING to see that scary movie.