Last week in film...

Friday the 13th: Part III (1982)
So much can be said about this bloated monotonous 80's slasher franchise, but when it boils down to it they are all still pretty damn entertaining to me. Part III in particular though is one watch for two very awesome reasons: A) Its the first film in which Jason dawns his iconic hockey mask and B) It was recently released for the first time in its original 3-D format. Apparently giving Jason the hockey mask was a joke by the Canadian film crew to honor their homelands national past time, who knew it would stick and become such a classic image. The films 3-D points are for the most part laughable, but are entertaining none the less, i.e. a 3-D joint being passed out of the screen, juggling, playing with a yo-yo...a harpoon through the eye, Jason's outstretched arms and a pic axe attack. Part III isn't without some mega-cheese though, although to me its all so endearing rather than annoying (see film score below and the "biker gang.")

Friday the 13th: Part IV: The Final Chapter (1984)
Continuing the Friday the 13th binge comes Part IV aka "The [First] Final Chapter." Intended to be the last in the series, Part IV features none other than Corey Feldman, and Crispin Glover (aka George McFly.) This is where the films clearly start getting more focused on just the killing rather than having any sort of coherent story. Not that any of the other films were Grade A tales, but this one really just doesn't give a shit. Two high points in this one though A) George McFly's crazy ass dancing (see below) and B) Corey Feldman's horrific make-up when he decides to shave his head and look like Jason before taking a machete to him supposedly killing him once and for all. Was said to be the final chapter in the series...because well Jason is fucking chopped up...but turned out New Line realized the franchise was too much of a cash cow. Jason returned a year later for Part V and all other subsequent entries as a, for lack of a better word, zombie...


My Bloody Valentine (1981)
Having only seen the, actually sort of awesome, 3-D remake of this movie, I didn't know what to expect. The legend of the original cut of this film is well...legendary. Apparently the MPAA was having a huge crack down on violent films around this time and made Canadian director George Mihalka cut all the good juicy bits from this movie to get an "R" rating (Friday the 13th Part II is another film heavily affected by this). With the film seeing a highly edited release, it saw mixed reviews during its original run, but became quite the cult classic over the years (the irish band My Bloody Valentine is named after the damn film!) Not until the remakes release did the original cut of My Bloody Valentine (and around the same time the original cut of Friday the 13th Part II) see the light of day for the first time, this uncut version is what I had the pleasure of watching, and i'll be damned if it isn't one of the best slasher flicks of that early era. Hokey yes, but Harry Warden is one bad ass, pissed off coal miner, who fucking detest Valentines Day. The shit he pulls in this movie is stuff Jason, Freddy and Michael Meyers combined wouldn't try to pull. We get: an old woman pick axed and burnt to a bloody crisp in a dryer, nail gun to the dome, a shower head through the throat, a drowning in a boiling pot of hot dogs, decapitations, pick axings and Kano heart grabs galore. I'm almost certain if the movie wasn't so heavily edited at the time, Harry Warden would be as much of a house hold name as Freddy and Jason. Although once again not a golden piece of cinema the film is better crafted than any of it's American slasher movie counter parts by a long shot, and even has some sort of "mystery and suspense" to it.


Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (1994)
Gigantic piece of crap. The second one was no where near as classic as the first, but at least it had Reggie toting a 4-barrel shotgun! This one doesn't have anything remotely redeeming or B-Movie entertaining about it...its just plain bad.

Coming up this week: Friday the 13th Parts V / VI and Black Christmas (1974)