Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)

Before Ghostface and Leslie Vernon came along, Jason rose from the grave and started poking fun at the slasher genre.  Though Friday the 13^th: Jason Lives might not fit the definition as of meta-horror as we know it today, writer/director Tom McLoughlin injects the film with a sly ability to laugh at how silly the genre is while delivering on the bloody mayhem.

By the way, the next paragraph contains spoilers for the previous two Friday the 13^th films.  You have been warned.

Janson really hates unmarked spoilers.

After dispatching Jason in Part IV, than being terrorized by a Jason wanna-be in Part V, Tommy Jarvis was to put on the hockey mask for this film.  However, after negative fan reactions, and a drop in the domestic box office numbers, the producers decided to bring Jason back from the grave for Part VI. 

McLoughlin disregarded the ending in Part V (a trend other films in the series were happy to follow), and opened with Tommy (Thom Mathews) driving to Jason’s grave.  His plan is to burn the killer’s corpse and bring an end to his nightmares of Jason’s return.  Aided by Allen (Welcome Back Kotter actor Ron Pallio), Tommy exhumes Jason, but instead of simply incinerating the corpse, Tommy’s anger takes over and begins stabbing at Jason’s chest with a metal rod.

Bad move, Tommy, as an inconvenient thunderstorm sends a few bolts of lightening down the makeshift lightning rod and into Jason’s chest.  As the reanimated slasher kills Allen, Tommy runs off to the nearest police station, conveniently located at Camp Crystal Lake, to warn the cops of Jason’s return.

Today's lesson is that lightning, a metal rod and a corpse

 always leads to that "Oh CRAP, HE'S ALIVE!" moment.

I guess Tommy’s councilors weren’t too good at reintroducing their clients into normal society.  To no one’s surprise, Tommy is locked up for the night, than driven out of town by the sheriff (David Kagen).  But during this time, Jason’s been trekking back to the former Camp Crystal Lake, while killing anyone he meets on his way.  As the bodies pile up, the cops figure Tommy is behind the mayhem, motivated by his desire to prove Jason is alive.  Ah, movie psychology.

Meanwhile, Tommy finds the only occult bookstore in a three state radius and formulates a plan to put Jason to rest for good.  Aided by the sheriff’s daughter, Megan (Jennifer Cooke), the pair heads back to the former Camp Crystal Lake, dodging Jason and the cops. 

Okay, we all know how this ends.  But while the basic plot remains faithful to the formula established earlier in the series, this entry not only makes fun of the franchise, but also hints that Jason’s motivation for killing might not be as simple as making teens pay for drinking, doing drugs and having sex.

Well, there's at least one drunk, drugged sex fiend in every crowd.

To start, McLoughlin’s Jason is more menacing.  He not only kills innocent victims (like the two female councilors who are doing their job and NOT partying), but also threatens children.  While it shouldn’t be a surprise that all the kids survive, the film contains two scenes where things might have ended badly for a child had circumstances not drawn Jason’s attention away from them.  By suggesting that Jason would kill children makes him a more deadly and menacing figure than previous incarnations.  No longer the punisher of hormonal transgressions (as deemed by puritanical society), Jason is now a harbinger of death to anyone trespassing in his domain.  

I suspect the MPAA's reaction to this scene involved hysterics at some point.

Another surprise is the film’s lack of nudity.  Unlike previous entries (though, to be honest, my memories of Part V are a bit hazy), no actress takes her top off during this film.  Thought the film contains a sex scene, and one unconsummated act, the moments are more chaise than some network television shows.  Whether this was a decision on director McLoughlin’s part, or fear of incurring the wrath of the MPAA, it is a bit of a shock, coming from the franchise that started the blood and boobs trend in slasher films.

But it’s McLoughlin’s injection of humor into the script, often at the expense of the slasher genre, that might have influenced future filmmakers.  Victims comment about how horror films inform them that a masked figure in the road is never a good sign, young campers wonder what they would be IF they grew up, and, most telling, a scene when one character turns to the camera and exclaims, “Some folks have a sick idea of entertainment.”  It’s quite funny, but a surprising jab at the fans of the franchise. 

Yes, the smilie face is in the movie.  I didn't say all the jokes worked.

Perhaps these moments are not as self aware as current meta-horror films, but it’s hard not to admire McLoughlin’s daring script.  Not only did he inject a sense of humor that poked fun at a beloved genre franchise, he also had the guts to question the audience’s taste in wanting Jason brought back to the screen.  And though the box office take was low (no surprise, considering the reaction to Part V), McLoughlin’s attempt to move the series in a new direction garnered a surprising amount of favorable critical response.  Had Part VII found a filmmaker daring enough to follow in his footsteps, the franchise might not be in need of a second reboot.

He's practicing on the RV.  Up next, space stations!

A PG-13 version of At the Mountains of Madness IS NOT a bad thing

As expected, the Internet is full of opinions concerning the recent announcement that Guillermo Del Toro is willing to film his long awaited version of H. P. Lovecraft's novella, At the Mountains of Madness, in a PG-13 rated version.  As I write a horror blog with a title that’s more than a bit of a wink to one of Lovecraft's more famous stories, I figure I'll weigh in on this topic as well.

Now, I can just state that I think that a PG-13 version will be just fine, but I won't make such a blanket statement without providing evidence to support that claim.  So, here are six reasons why a PG-13 version of the tale will work as well, if not better, than an R-rated film.

1) PG-13 Horror Films Can Be Scary

This might be heresy to some, but nothing says a horror films must receive an R-rating.  It just depends on the subject matter and how it is presented.  And just because a horror film is rated R does mean the film is gory.  The Blair Witch Project was rated R due to language only. 

Had the language been toned down to a PG-13 level, the film would not have lost its impact.  The filmmakers relied more on atmosphere and the threat of the unseen (themes found in Lovecraft's writing) to scare the audience and, whether you like the film or not, it’s a great example of getting more by using less.

But let’s focus on a horror film with a PG-13 rating.  Gore Verbinski’s American remake of The Ring is one of the most atmospheric and creepy horror films in recent years.  The film contained a few graphic moments, but relies more on mood to ratchet up the sense of unease, making the more horrific moments more intense than simply dumping a bunch of gore on the floor.

If you're still not convinced, just remember that Poltergeist was rated PG, with a stuffed clown that induced nightmares in kids and a few parents.  

I'm BAAAACK!

2) An R-rating doesn't equal a scary (or even good) horror film

You might think I'm repeating myself with this one, but it's important to remember that an R-rating, and buckets of blood, does not make a horror film scary.  Or even any good.

The best way to explain this is to talk about the remake of 2008’s Prom Night, the PG-13 slasher remake.  Once the rating for this film was announced, fans of the 1980 original proclaimed the film would be a disaster without R-rated levels of gore (forgetting that the original Prom Night is not very gory and might earn a PG-13 rating today).

But, if you've seen the remake, it’s easy to realize the filmmakers could have painted the screen red with spurting blood and flung entrails, and it wouldn't have made the film any better.  Sure, a few gross out moments might make you feel a bit better about spending your time and money on an abysmally bad film, but it would still be a rotten movie.

Yep, nothing could have helped this turkey.

A horror film with graphic depictions of gore won’t make up for a bad script and poor filmmaking.  You can have both gore and scares, but once the FX crew comes in, it seems directors and studios are willing to spend more time grossing the audience out, than engrossing them with a spooky, engaging story.

3) PG-13 movies can be graphic

It might seem unlikely that a horror film could ever get a PG-13 rating, the default rating for the average studio blockbusters.  And, in a sense, the rating is more a marketing tool now, designed to give a film an adult edge, only without any real mature content.  It makes young boys and adult audience members more comfortable, assured that the film is not for kids (as a PG rating now indicates the film would be rated G were it not for the fart jokes).

In a few seconds, you'll hear the only fart-like sound in this PG rated move. 

Without going into a "When is was young,,," rant, I remember when PG movies contained blood squibs, harsh language, adult content and even brief nudity.  As movies like Jaws, Gremlins and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom pushed the level of acceptable violence for the PG rating, the MPAA created the PG-13 rating in 1984.  It worked pretty well, until studios started using it as a marketing tool for their summer blockbusters.

Based on the past, a PG-13 film can go into territory darker than giant robot fights, but that might depend on how the MPAA feels that day.  And we will get to that later, but first, let's talk gore.

4) Gore is becoming more acceptable

Graphic gore is becoming commonplace on television, and the best example of this is NBC's Hannibal.  During the show's two year run, viewers have seen murder victims skinned, used as brain dead mushroom fertilizer, turned into a cello, and vertically bisected several times like a gruesome science project.  This is not a cable show, but shown on a national broadcast network and as always been given a TV-14 rating. 

TV has changed.

One can argue such moments the (rather noticeable at times) lack of blood is what allows these effects to get on the air.  Still, shows like Hannibal and The Walking Dead prove that gore is becoming acceptable to mainstream audiences, the same people that might pay to see a PG-13 horror film with similar effects. 

5) Lovecraft's story isn't gory

Early in the novella, the story’s narrator and other explorers come across the dissected remains of other party members.  While quite gruesome, it is the story's only moment of gore.  The rest of Lovecraft's tale has to do with exploring a mysterious city filled with albino penguins, Shoggoths and the origins of humanity. 

As the story relies more on atmosphere than gore, it makes no sense to push the gore in one early scene to an R-rating level.  Chances are such a moment would seem gratuitous and unwarranted, but also feel out of place with the rest of the tale (unless the script deviates from the source material). 

Handled with a bit more restrain, perhaps only showing brief glimpses of the bodies during a dimly lit search of the tent, the sequence could as intense and disturbing as the flashbulb illumination of the desecrated grave and it's contents during the opening moments of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  And it would be more suited to the atmosphere Lovecraft generates in the rest of his story.

6) The MPAA might not be a problem

Most horror fans don't have a high opinion of the MPAA, with good reason.  The organization dislikes horror films with the same intensity they reserve for nudity.  So, the chance of AtMoM getting a PG-13 rating might seem a long shot, unless you remember how the MPAA works.

As pointed out in the documentary, This Film Is Not Yet Rated, the MPAA is supported by the major Hollywood studios and tends to act favorably towards their benefactors.  So, not only will the MPAA assure studio properties are rated with the studio’s target audience in mind, the organization limits the competition by making it difficult for more adult-oriented fare to get an appropriate rating (hello, NC-17).  That’s how The Expendables 3 got a PG-13 rating (despite assumptions that the violence will be the same as an R-rated version, but without CGI blood added), yet movies like The Kings of Summer (an indie film released last year) was rated R strictly for language.

All del Toro has to do is find a way to include a scene like this in the film.

The MPAA will freak out and allow anything else to stay in, as long as Eva Green's breast is out of the picture. 

Now, back to the point.  A $120 million dollar version of AtMoM will not be an independent feature, but a studio backed film.  And, as the MPAA loathes biting the hand stuffing its wallet, del Toro should be able to get a pretty graphic scene into a PG-13 rated film.  Sure, he might have to trim a couple of frames in a few spots, but those concessions will all the MPAA to maintain the illusion of doing its job.  And it’s doubtful such excised footage will change the impact of the film, or any individual scene, in any noticeable way.

I think a PG-13 version of At the Mountains of Madness will work.  And though I’m hopeful he pulls this one off, we can’t forget that del Toro has only started discussion the project with a studio.  Between now and whatever release date gets announced, a multitude of other factors will determine whether fans get to see a big screen Lovecraft adaptation or not.  All we can do is hope the stars will align.  

  

Jillian Clare of Alien Abduction talks to The Shadow Over Portland!

Alien Abduction, a sci fi/horror found footage film, screens this Friday, May 2 at 10 pm, at The Clinton Street Theater, part of the IFC Midnight series of films screening over the next few months.  I was lucky enough to get Jillian Clare, who appears in the film and will be at the screening, to answer a few questions via email.

The Shadow Over Portland: Can you tell me about Alien Abduction, and your character in the movie?

Jillian Clare: Alien Abduction is a film about a family who is on vacation in the Brown Mountains and get caught in a fight for survival against aliens.  I play Jillian Morris.  The character is actually pretty close to me.  Because it is a found footage film, the director and producers really went for people who were the characters.  They even changed our character names to our real names!!!   I'd say the only difference between me and the character is that I don't have brothers in real life.  So that was a fun element for me to add in.  I've never really experienced that type of sibling bickering/love.  

Never a good sign

TSOP: This appears to be one of your first ventures into the sci fi and horror genre.  Was acting in a genre film different from your previous film roles?

For me, it wasn't much different.  Every role I do is just me in different circumstances.  I didn't really go into it thinking of it being a certain type of genre film.  It was just me being truthful and reacting to the given circumstances….which in this case, just happened to be aliens.

I assume things don't end well in this film

TSOP: Your IMDb page includes a horror/comedy TV series called Acting Dead, about zombies working as actors in zombie movies.   I found the Indiegogo page for the show and it appears funding wasn’t reached, however, IMDb claims the season was completed.  I have to admit, the basic storyline sounds fun and, from what I’ve been able to gather, you got to play a zombie.  What was it like playing a zombie struggling to make it in Hollywood?  And where, or when, can zombie fans see the show?

JC: I'm actually not a zombie!!!  My co-star Brian Beacock is a zombie!  My character Alex went to have the "zombification procedure" performed and as they say in the show, she was "over-cooked" and therefore, died.  So, I'm actually a ghost!!  Which is surprising for most people to find out!!!  The show just started airing!  We currently have 2 episodes out!!  You can go to the site actingdead.com for more information.  It's currently airing on jts.tv !

TSOP: Any plans to return to genre films?

JC: I shot another horror film not too long ago called "Cora".  I'm not quite sure when that one will be released.  That was my first time working with vampires, which was pretty cool!!  My favorite part about that film is that we went back to the old ways of vampires ala Interview With A Vampire.  They're so fun to film, so I'm definitely open to more in the future!

TSOP: I understand you were born in Portland and lived in the area until you were 8 years old.  Any plans when you come back to the Northwest for the screening of Alien Abduction?

JC: Visit family and my old friends!!!  I'm also shooting a new film called "Free For All" in Portland later this year, so I believe I'll be meeting up with my director and writer as well to workshop the script a little!

TSOP: I also read you were named for a character in Star Trek: The Voyage Home.  Are you a fan of the series?

JC: I don't think I've seen the film since I was a child.  I always said I wanted to work with marine life though, which is funny because that's what the character I was named after does in the film!!

Nice bit of set design

TSOP: As this is a horror-centric blog, I have to ask what are your favorite scary movies?

JC: I'm a huuuuuge horror fan!!!  I actually like to fall asleep to horror films because they comfort me.  Weird, I know.  "Scream" will always be in my top 10 movies.  I was terrified of "Nightmare on Elm Street "when I was a kid!!  And "It"!  That movie scarred me for life!  My all time favorite though has to be "The Strangers".  It was so well done.

TSOP: I see you have a holiday film, By God’s Grace, in post-production.  When is that coming out, and do you have any other projects on the horizon?  

JC: I'm not quite sure when "By God's Grace" will be out.  I know they are still editing it.  As I mentioned earlier, I'm filming a new movie called "Free For All" later this year.  I'm really excited about that one!!!  It's my first real adult role.  It's also the first time I'm the center of a feature film.  Here's the synopsis:  Lindsey, an unemployed college drop-out on the verge of divorce, finds herself couch surfing at her childhood home while her family grieves the death of her father.

TSOP: Last question.  Do you have a fan page where people can follow your projects?

JC: My Facebook is: https://www.facebook.com/officialjillianclare

Instagram: http://instagram.com/jillianclare

Twitter: http://twitter.com/jillianclare

I'm also the editor of a fashion and beauty blog called Teenage Wonderland that you can checkout here: teenagewonderland.com 



My thanks to Jillian Clare for taking the time to answer a few questions for The Shadow Over Portland.  If you have a question for her, be sure to catch the screening of Alien Abduction at The Clinton Street Theater at 10 pm on Friday, May 2.  Jillian Clare will be present for a Q & A after the screening!

For more information, follow the link here.  

Interview with Kara Sowles, stop motion animator, at the 2013 H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival

Kara Sowles was part of Team Amelus, winners of the Lovecraft Under the Gun competition at last year’s H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland, OR.  She did stop motion work on Follie a Nix, Uno, Deux, Tres, a short stop motion film completed in just 72 hours!

TSOP: You participated in the Lovecraft Under the Gun Film Challenge, or I think that’s close to the title.

KS: Film Race.  I say that to other people, and they think I’ve been running for a film, so yeah.

TSOP: And you did a stop motion film, which I find amazing.  It’s something I can’t see being completed in 72 hours.  What was that like?

KS: It’s a little crazy.  I don’t know why anyone in their right mind would do stop motion in that short a time.  But it’s how I learned to do stop motion, so I’m looking forward to getting to slow down and take more time at it, having learned how to do it in a short period of time. 

TSOP: Your film had basic claymation characters, but also had a knit dog.  And I’m assuming that’s because of the quote that was stipulated by contest rules to be included in the film.  So, tell me about the dog.

KS: We saw the quote and we throw up our hands and went, “Oh, no, we’re not doing this.  We’re going home.”  That was a long and difficult quote, what was it, “the puerile stick throwing of the alien bipeds?’

TSOP: Something about dogs and cats, and we all know Lovecraft preferred cats.

KS: Yeah, but there was no mention of the word dog or cat in the quote, and with the word alien in it, it throws off the groove, so the best we could think of was to have a dog say it in French, so it seemed like the person hearing it is crazy, because dogs don’t speak and dogs don’t speak French. 

So, I wanted a dog that looked a little fuzzier than the clay, because the people we were using had clothes and I thought the clay wouldn’t look very much like hair.  So we made a little wire armature for the dog and I bulked it up with tin foil, than wrapped electrical tape around it.  Than I sewed on a thick fabric that kind of looked like fur.  But in my exhaustion, and in the light, I thought it looked brown, and it turns out it is kind of a magenta.  So bit of a mistake there.

TSOP: But it worked well.  And to have a dog speak that line was perfect.

KS: Well, I’m glad it seemed to work.

TSOP: A lot of people consider stop motion a dying art.  What got you into it?

KS: I’m not a great artist.  I wouldn’t be very good at making films either.  And we all have to find something how our creative abilities fall into something that they can work with.  What I have is an excess of enthusiasm, and I find that stop motion, the concoction that makes it, is large parts enthusiasm mixed in with a little bit of other things. 

I don’t know why or how I started.  A friend of mine and I said, “Oh, stop motion.  I’ve never done that.”  So we broke into a friend’s apartment while he was out at a concert…

TSOP:  Wait.  You broke into your friend’s apartment?

KS: We found a key to his apartment and went in without asking and we made a stop motion film of all his stuff moving, than we put all his stuff back and we left before he got home.  Than we emailed him and said, “Oh, I found this cool video.”  And he’s like, “Wait.  Is that my stuff?”  He couldn’t figure out what happened and that got us hooked on stop motion pretty fast. 

TSOP: Did you watch stop motion films as a kid?

KS:  Definitely.  Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  A Christmas classic, everyone loves that movie.  In retrospective, it’s a little sexist, a little questionable in some ways, but it’s a great film.  And the stop motion in that is just lovely.  The little kittle felt animals are darling. 

You get an effect you can’t get otherwise.  CGI, no matter how realistic you can make it look, at least at this point, we can tell it’s not real.  And that’s why a badly made puppet coming at you is going to be scarier than the entirety of an enormous tentacled, freakish monster in CGI.  We feel that there is something real there and that’s hard to capture otherwise.

Like Jason and the Argonauts.  Damn, kids love those, because you feel it, right?  They’re fighting skeletons!  I mean, you’ve never seen anything that cool, and a CGI skeleton, it can’t convey that same charm and excitement as a real object.    

TSOP: Where do you want to go with stop motion?  We have a fabulous stop motion studio here in Portland.  Is that a dream for you?

KS: I highly doubt I will ever make a profession related to this.  As I said, I’m creative and have a lot of enthusiasm, but not a lot of actual raw, or trained, artistic talent.  The great thing about stop motion though, is people without the training or talent can still make awesome, cool stuff. 

I’d like to do something beyond film races.  I started something I’d like to have submitted to this festival, but you know how life catches up to you.

The person I worked on this with, Michael Entler, he’s absolutely fantastic.  He’s been doing this for quite a while, much longer than I have.  We met last year, because we were the only two people who put in Lovecraft Under the Gun entries, and he did live action, while I did stop motion.  And it was the first time he did live action, and here someone comes in doing stop motion.  So we teamed up, but he has a lot more experience.  He went to Cannes once, and absolutely fantastic guy.

TSOP: If people want to see more of your work, where can they go?

KS: I’m really new to stop motion, so my work isn’t really anywhere yet. 

TSOP: One other question.  Did you make the dice used in the movie, or did you find them somewhere?

KS: Guardian Games is where the kick off happens for the Under the Gun event, so we were right next door after it kicked off, thinking our brains out, and someone thought to walk back and find out if they had miniature dice, and thank god they did.  Thank you, Guardian Games.  We are so grateful.

So we painted over the numbers, and painted new numbers on, but we did not have to make ten-sided die.  So grateful for that.

TSOP: Did you already have armatures to use for the characters, or did you have to build those in the 72-hour time frame?

KS: We did the whole thing from scratch.  The music, the story and I made the armatures on the spot.   We had someone sewing the costumes for them.  That whole set you saw (in the film), cobbled streets, buildings, all from scratch.  The only thing not from scratch was the chair.  I’m very proud of it, it’s a beautiful chair that you only see for a moment.  It took me a whole afternoon to make, on a different afternoon, and we pulled it in for this project. 

TSOP: What did you make the armatures out of?  I imagine you can’t make ball and socket armatures in 72 hours. 

KS: Fortunately for me, I don’t have the skill or equipment to make nicer armatures outside of film races.  So I’ve had time to adjust and find fast, cheap ways to do them.  These I’m particularly proud of.  These are made out of wire Michael found, that we pulled apart.  It was multiple wires coated in plastic we pulled apart and I twisted into the shape of people.  Then I padded them out with tin foil and clay on the legs, so it was light on the upper half, but heavier the lower half was heavy enough to hold down.  Then I wrapped the whole thing in electrical tape because it’s bendy, stretchy and holds the clay in.  And it gives a more skin like appearance to the tin foil.  I gave them clay feet, which ideally you will never see, but in this film you will.  And you’ll see them smushing their way across the cobblestones, that’s why I don’t shoot feet.  Then I put clay heads and hands on them. 

TSOP:  Well, it looked great.  Best of luck with the contest.  I know they are announcing the winners soon, and I don’t want to keep you. 

KS: Thank you.  The other two films were really excellent and I’m really excited to see who wins, but getting to see all three films was a big treat.

TSOP: Thank you.

Kara is listed as part of Monsieur Soeur, a group of filmmakers specializing in stop motion, miniature and animated shorts.  Check out The Monsieur Soeur Facebook page for more information about their films, and be sure to check out their latest entry in this year’s Lovecraft Under the Gun Film Challenge at the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival this weekend at The Hollywood Theatre in Portland, OR.  Festival passes are still available, as of this post.