Friday the 13th Part 3 - 1982

Getting home last night, I was again confronted with the recent phenomenon of desiring to watch a classic slasher.  I wanted the whole shebang.  I wanted death count, masked killer, the look and feel and essence of the 80's, and I specifically wanted it in the form of a Friday the 13th movie.

A while back on this blog, I randomly watched and reviewed Friday the 13th Part VI and Jason Goes to Hell and the Friday reboot.  I also did watch Jason takes Manhattan, which I did not review.  Some of these I watched because I simply hadn't seen them in a long time.  Some I watched because I had never seen them before at all.  Yes, dear reader, I had never seen Manhattan or Hell before the last few years.  I know.  Crucify me.

Friday the 13th Part 3 was the first to gimmick the franchise.  In this one, it was filmed in 3D and also it way ups the stakes in showing that Jason is un-killable and will survive just about anything you can do to him.  It invented the now classic look to Jason as well.  It joins him with the hockey mask and the machete, whereas in previous Friday part 2, he had a bag over his head and used a large variety of weapons.

Part 3 isn't as bad as one might think.  It's plot certainly is bad though, and HOW many times have we fucking seen this?!  Recite it with me here:  Several Friends Go Out To The Woods To a Remote House / Camping Trip.  Ugggggghhhghghghghghg.  I GET IT.

To continue my brief breakdown of horror I started in Iced I was thinking about masks a lot as I watched this.  I think I can take a shot at exactly why killers wear masks and why we're afraid of them.  We are all afraid of the instincts within us.  We're afraid of the animal impulse, the desire for blood or for vengeance, to overpower someone with rape or death or control.  We know from history we're entirely capable.  Humans having been acting in animalistic ways towards other humans for years.  And a mask is symbolic of someone making the choice to abandon their humanity.  Whatever mask it is, it's inhuman.  It's embracive of the instinct, it's embracing the animal, the desire we have within all of us.  Especially in movies like this and in Halloween where, as soon as the mask is partially removed, the killer stops everything and struggles to get it back on.  Masks are essential for them to survive.  To keep on being who they are.  Because to show their face is to admit their humanity.  So for the love of fucking god, in the next goddamn Star Wars film, have Kylo Ren put his goddamn mask back on!

The deaths are plenty and they are done well.  Creative to standard, there's a lot of them, and most of them are spread out within the last 40 minutes of the film.  Jason has a lot of screen time, and for a few parts of the film we actually follow him instead of the dumb blond or the hunky beefcake he's going to kill.  The characters are all averagely annoying, not very well written, and the dialogue is either non-existent or terrible.  There is supposed to be nudity, but the YouTube video I watched had it blurred out...?  The fuck?

So that's your "Horror Movie Breakdown" there, rating the normal things one would look for in a horror film.  It has mostly successes though, things in the "plus column" so it stands out as above average.  The 3D effects that would have been used, I didn't get to witness since I'm watching it in 2D, but let me sum it up in one word:  Gimmicky.  Unnecessary.  Stupid.  Okay, more that one word, but all three do apply.

Still though, it's a fun sequel, I can see why they made another, and it helped define Jason for years as the killer we picture when we hear Friday the 13th.  3.5 stars...?  Hmmm....  4 stars.

Blood Frenzy - 1987

We have been down this road before.  This is the tried and true "porn director makes a real movie" trope.  I wonder if porn directors are still trying this nowadays?  This was one of  13 projects listed for director Hal Freeman for 1987, check the whole list here:

 1987Best of Caught from Behind (Video) 

 1987Caught from Behind 7 

 1987Earthquake Survival (Documentary) 

 1987Erotic Dreams (Video) 

 1987Games Couples Play 

 1987Loose Morals 

 1987Love Notes (Video) 

 1987Restless Passion 

 1987Star Cuts 61: Keisha (Video short) 

 1987Sweet Nothings 

 1987The Million Dollar Screw (Video) 

 1987Young and Innocent 

 1987Blood Frenzy 

Now, IMDb does state that Earthquake Survival is an hour long "how to survive" documentary hosted by Shelley Duvall, but aside from that we have quite a bit of porn. Was he trying to branch out? Who knows.

Blood Frenzy plays out and follows the cliched name it has.  It is a horror slasher, sort of continuing my recent line of horror slashers.  The Prey and Iced and hopefully more are coming soon, as I need a dramatic tone shift from the 70's boxset every once in a while.  

YouTube users go through and create entire playlists of terrible slashers.  I'm watching a bunch from this user Jofer Jeff and pretty much just watching anything that I haven't seen before, which is most of them.  I also watched The Night Brings Charlie, Silent Madness, and I watched 1992's Winterbeast, still contemplating if Winterbeast should have a review.  I'll settle for a mini review here:  Terribly awesome, so bad it's fantastic with terrible effects and acting, great Ray Harryhausen type claymation, awesome monsters, great cult night weed smoky movie with nonsensical plot.  4 stars.

Blood Frenzy was similar in the way that it's terribly acted, minimal, filmed in the desert with a small cast.  They're supposedly all mental patients and thus get asked to act, which was a mistake cause most of them cannot.  The kills are average, the pacing is okay, the scare factor is zilch, and nothing really interesting happens the whole movie.  When the best part of your entire movie is the hint and beginning of a lesbian sex scene...yeah your movie sucks.

It's fun though, it could be worse, and it has the cheesiness factor that you can enjoy for drinking and watching with buddies.  I give it a B movie 2 stars.

Mr. Sycamore - 1975

Returning from a bit of a break, I watched Mr. Sycamore last night.  This is the movie on the boxset which I would have to say I was the most excited about.  I remember leafing through the boxset's booklet early on when I got the set, reading through the different movies synopsis.

Mr. Sycamore, I was going to try to find the exact wording and I couldn't, had a very short synopsis.  It basically said that the main character John became obsessed with the idea of becoming a tree, so he goes into his backyard and "plants himself" and awaits the metamorphosis.

And yeah, that is what happens.  No, it's not all that happens though.  In fact, I had a eerie feeling pretty early on, because by minute 20 or so, John has already made up his mind and he was already in the backyard.  It was then I knew, some dumb crap will probably happen to throw all this shit for a loop, cause otherwise this movie would barely make 30 minutes.

And it does.  I will say, this movie never went full on bad, but it has many unnecessary and extraneous moments.  There's a whole bit of "comedy" about the mental hospital coming for John with a straight jacket.  There's a "groovy" surreal bit where he watches a woman ride a horse.  But most interestingly, and perhaps even well done, was a bit of a deep dive into the relationship between John and his wife Jane, who generic names aside, have what appears to be a very deep and loving relationship.  We can see the true depth of feelings Jane has for John as he gets more and more into the tree idea, which would obviously point to future marital problems.

This being 1975, I was genuinely curious to see how this movie would end.  A big part of me suspected he would actually turn into a tree.  After all, the movie had already stepped into surreal territory once, and obviously it wasn't going to end with the main character going to the hospital, killing himself, or waking up.  Spoiler warning, in the end John does turn into a tree.  His wife comes and touches his leaves.  Pan out.  Credits.  Okay...?

In the end, I wasn't sure exactly if I liked this or not.  I will categorize it as something that if you watch it when you're young it would probably stick with you.  It reminds me a bit of all the bizarre weird shit I saw on the other boxset.  The movie with the whale song dude.  The weird movie with the aliens.  Alien Prey.  By the way it's been a full year since I finished Sci Fi Invasion and reviewed it!  My god time flies.

Maybe this movie could have actually been on that set...?  It felt thematically similar wherein it has an interesting premise, but for some reason it's hard to follow, and it leaves you with a general feeling of "wait...what?"  It has an ambiguity about it and I won't lie, it's an ambiguity I am growing to really appreciate.  For some reason, these movies have stayed with me.  I guess it's the perfect amount of bizarre feel, unanswered questions, strange but likable characters, and at times parts of the film that were actually quite good.  The acting, the way the characters interact, it's actually really good in a lot of these films.  It feels heartfelt.

This movie was based on a play, which again points to things I normally enjoy.  Dialogue is cryptic yet refreshing, enigmatically pushing forward.  I don't want to sound like I'm hyping this movie too much though, cause it certainly was a bit boring and very difficult to love.  But I did like it, and I do give it 3.5 stars.  Which seems awfully high, but who cares.