FRED Entertainment

Tag: friday the 13th

  • Party Favors: FRIDAY THE 13th’s David Kagen

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    CAMP NOBEBOSCO, NJ — Critics enjoy mocking the Friday the 13th films as a mindless exercise in human slaughtering by the goalie masked wearing Jason. The body count was more important than the plot. But amongst the carnage of the dozen films was one that stood out. Friday 13th, Part VI: Jason Lives combined a ghoulish sense of humor without compromising the grotesque homicides. What’s even more astonishing is that it gave us Sheriff Michael Garris. He was a lawman that could handle the undead Jason Voorhees.

    “Don’t piss me off, junior, or I will repaint this office with your brains,” he announced. I had a chance to talk with the man behind Garris’ badge and mustache when David Kagen called the Party Favors hotline. He was ready to chat about the DVD release of Friday 13th, Part VI: Jason Lives: Deluxe Edition.

    While the earlier five parts were shot in the Northeast and California, the producers took this sixth outing deep down South to Covington, Georgia. The low budget production was also low profile to keep the locals happy.

    “When we were down in Georgia filming, they didn’t want people to know what was being filmed,” Kagen said. “When they posted signs, they called it something else.”

    Was it hard to keep Jason and his iconic goalie mask shielded from the locals?

    “We didn’t go out to eat that way,” Kagen said. “We did the killings and everything were done in secluded places. There was a lot of night shooting.”

    The amazing thought is how in today’s internet age, there would be little chance of a production keeping such a secret. Somebody would leak out the location via a twitter. But back in the mid-80s, the was no instant communications for film geeks.

    Most stories about filming in Georgia include descriptions of unbearable heat and humidity. There are nightmarish tales of film melting in the cans. What sort of weather did Kagen experience?

    “It was comfortable at night. We put a jacket on,” Kagen said. Anytime you can’t remember the weather in Georgia, it had to be good weather. For those curious of the days it was shot, Kagen went into Atlanta to see Tony Bennett and Rosemary Clooney at the Fox Theatre.

    How did he land the role of Sheriff Garris?

    “My manager was friendly with the people casting it. He got me in,” Kagen said.

    His manager might have got him the meeting, but it was his ultimate cop mustache that made him perfect for the role. Turns out he didn’t grow the facial hair just for the role.

    “I had the mustache for a lot of years,” Kagen declared. “It was just my thing. I played bad guys, cops and detectives, lawyers and hard-boiled businessmen. It was kinda related to what I did. Gave me a little edge.”

    As the film went on, the role of the Sheriff grew bigger for Kagen.

    “They added some things. They really liked what I was doing. That whole fight between Jason and myself was all added. They liked what they were seeing and they put together this whole thing. I was excited and flattered by that.

    “The way I did my work as an actor and the way the script was written with the jokes and the tongue and cheek, I just sunk my teeth into and did my thing. Tom (McLoughlin) just kept encouraging me. It was very satisfying and fun.”

    The film was rumored to have a budget of $3 million. Was it an extremely low budget film for its time? Or could you get a lot of film production for that price over two decades ago? Kagen didn’t know the actual budget, but he remembers it wasn’t a lavish set.

    “The guy who was the DP was also the camera operator, Jon Kranhouse,” Kagen. “I don’t know if that was by his choice or if it was a budget thing or both. It was nice for me. I can’t remember any other film that I quite had that experience. Usually there’s a separate camera operator. We only shot for six weeks or so. For a bigger budget feature film, you’re talking twelve weeks. So we got half. But I didn’t feel it. It was a wonderful experience.”

    The budget was big enough so the producer’s mom never showed up to cook all the meals. Even though Kagen wasn’t in a majority of the film, his time in Georgia wasn’t short.

    “I was there the last day when it wrapped. We shot all night and had a wrap party at six in the morning. I’m not sure if I was there from the very, very, very beginning. They tried to consolidate my time. I was in a lot of the movie so I was there for most of the shoot. It seemed like four or five weeks.”

    Kagen doesn’t mind getting to the set earlier and watching what’s going on when he’s not in front of the cameras.

    “You sort of get a feel for what’s going on for the whole movie,” Kagen said. “I like to do that whenever I do something. I’ll show up early. I like to be on the set and get a feeling of the style, the tone and the feeling of how everybody is working.”

    Was he able to hang with Ron Palilo (Horshack on Welcome Back, Kotter)? Ron bit it early.

    “Yeah,” Kagen said. “We talked. I was around. Nice guy. It’s just the way it is. I was around so much, I got to meet most of the people.”

    The film marked the cinematic debut of Tony Goldwyn (Ghost) in a memorable murder scene. Did Kagen get to see Goldwyn’s memorable VW Bug related death?

    “I was around for that, but we didn’t talk a lot,” Kagen said.

    The cool part about making a film in the mid-80s was that the stunts weren’t completely composited in CGI. The signature stunt of Friday 13th Part VI was an RV wreck that only Jason survives. Was Kagen around the day they launched the RV?

    “Oh yeah. That took a whole day to set that up. That was the last shot and they had to get it done while there was enough darkness so it would match. They had cameras planted here and planted there because that was a one time thing.

    “When that RV left the ground, you could see underneath the RV. There was air. You could see people standing across in the field. That thing left the ground. They really did it. God forbid they have to right that RV after it’s been damaged like that and shoot it again.”

    The actor had high praise for the tech guys who know how to make an audience squirm.

    “The people who have the most fun on the set are the special effects and make up guys,” Kagen said. “There will be a scene where somebody’s leg gets torn off. The first time they shoot they scene, they’ll shoot with the foot pointing towards the camera so you can’t see blood and guts. Then they say, ‘Now let’s turn the guts toward the camera. We need more green here and more disgusting colors.’ It’s really like kids at play. There is the one where the guy gets his head crushed by Jason and I fall down right in his face. That’s one where they did it one way and then added colors.”

    The multiple violence levels have led to alternate cuts of the film.

    “As I remember it, that was one of the problems with my killing. There are some versions out there where they show the whole in actual time. On some versions it’s very abbreviated. He’d be bending me and suddenly I’m bent.”

    When Kagen bumps into actors that appeared in Friday 13th films, is there a bond like students who survived Catholic High School?

    “I guess there’s a certain understanding,” he replied.

    There are numerous stories about the various actors that played Jason Voorhees in the Friday 13th film series. Did C.J. Young hide from the rest of the actors and only appear when the director yelled action? What was Kagen’s relationship with C.J. Young?

    “Good,” Kagen said. “We had fun. We got to be together a lot and talk. He really cared. He wanted to do a good job. He really wanted do what would make it most effective. He paid attention and committed. I haven’t seen him in years.”

    According to the imdb, Young might still be a casino manager at the Flamingo in Las Vegas. Jason Voorhees could be roaming the same hotel as Donny and Marie Osmond. Now that would be a Friday 13th worthy of being shot in Imax.

    How nasty was it for Kagen to look at the undead makeup Young had under the goalie mask?

    “I don’t know if I should tell, as far as I remember, they didn’t do stuff under the mask,” Kagen admitted.

    Young didn’t spend hours in the makeup room getting the gore goop applied?

    “I don’t think so,” Kagen said.

    While Kagen has performed in dozens of films and TV shows over the years, Jason Lives is the one that gets him noticed.

    “I run into fans in the strangest places. I was on a hike in the Angeles National Forest on a weekday. I’m walking down a trail and I see somebody coming toward me. As he gets ten feet away from me, he say, ‘Oh my God, you were in Friday 13th Part VI.’ I never expected this.

    “I never expected it would be so popular. I continue to get fan letters and run into people who tell me when they first saw it. I went to an autograph signing for the DVD and I got to hear stories about how old they were when they first saw it. This young kid came up to me. I said, ‘How old were you when you saw it?’ He said, ‘Six.’ I said, ‘What? You were six years old?’ He said, ‘My brother and his friends were watching it. I snuck into the room. They saw me there and said, you better not tell mom or we’ll kill you.”

    It struck home that Friday 13th Part VI came out around the time that VCRs and renting movies on videotape had become a normal way of watching R rated entertainment in the comfort of a living room. There would be no more tales of having to sneak past the ushers into the forbidden multiplex theater. A generation merely had to remember to hit play after the parental units went to bed.

    After the DVD autograph session, Kagen intends on attending more horror conventions.

    “I’m just starting to do that. It was really interesting,” Kagen said. “The fans were so nice, sweet and pleased. They’re very grateful for the opportunity to say hello.”

    Kagen played Major Klev on the “Detained” episode of Star Trek: Enterprise. Does this qualify him to also pop up at Star Trek conventions?

    “Evidently,” Kagen said. “We’re going to see.”

    Lately Kagen has been getting roles on shows such as Life, House M.D. and CSI. But I had to ask him about two of his early guest appearances on A-Team and 21 Jump Street. What did Kagen remember the most from his time around Mr. T?

    “Well, I was on the set one day when Mr. T decided not to show up,” Kagen said. “They had to double him. He was at a football game or something like that, if I recall. They could double him because he was in a truck.”

    He did wish he could have talked with George Peppard since they both went to Carnegie Mellon University. But Peppard had a contract that set up the shoot day so he was last to arrive and first to split.

    What was his impression of a young Johnny Depp?

    “I didn’t have scenes with him, but I was around,” Kagen said. “What was interesting is that same kind of freedom and bravery and being his own person, you could see that on 21 Jump Street. Between takes there was a level of confidence. He wasn’t uptight. The main thing is he was brave. He wasn’t careful and I mean that in a good way. It’s good for an actor to not be careful. You need to be free to create and do your thing. To not censor yourself. Let people see what your feelings are about a particular scene or moment: do it. Stick your neck out, take a chance.”

    You can see what happened when David Kagen stuck his neck out while battling Jason Voorhees on the Friday 13th, Part VI: Jason Lives: Deluxe Edition DVD.

    SET SPY REPORT

    Our man on the set of Miley Cyrus’ upcoming The Last Song said that it’s impossible to get near the Hannah Montana gal with her wall of bodyguards. Although he reported Greg Kinnear wanders around the locations unprotected. Where are all the Auto Focus fanatics? This man ought to have the Hell’s Angels keeping away folks willing to scream out, “A day without sex is a day wasted!” Where are our society’s priorities?

    SUMMER TV FUN

    True Blood is back. I was so getting sick of those promise ring wearing Twilight vampires. We’re still trying to come up with a term for the blood snowball that was featured on the first episode. Hung has much promise with Thomas Jane getting back to his Boogie Nights roots. Weeds continues to roll out of control, but at least it’s an interesting tumble. Nurse Jackie reminds me why I hate going to hospitals. Edie Falco has topped her role on The Sopranos.

    Cake Boss on TLC is like what would happen if the guys at Ace of Cakes rented out their basement to a meth lab. While the Cake Boss pastries look delicious, the baking crew is too high strung.

    The teasers for Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian go to Miami has inspired my new show: Lon Cox: VD Hunter to the Stars. Each week Lon will track down what celebrity has spread a new strain of VD around Los Angeles. Lon is America’s greatest Matlock impersonator so his down home Southern folksie style will disarm people getting the harsh news about why they keep itching in bad places.

    DVD SHELF

    G.I. Joe A Real American Hero: Season 1.1 brings us the animated action before the live action film hits the screen. The series was a toy catalog come to life with all the amazing action figures in full motion in 1983. There’s lots of fighting, shooting, exploding, ass kicking and product placement. It’s easy to see why parent groups had major issues with it, but what did those loser know about being entertained? G.I. Joe isn’t an actual person, but the codename for an elite team of soldiers whose sole purpose is the defend the world from the evil plans of Cobra. Duke leads a force made up of characters that could be purchased individually at ChildWorld. Cobra was led by Cobra Commander and Destro, the evil scientist. They were the original terrorists that threatened America and the world. Unlike Super Friends, where a majority of the screen time features barely animated talking heads with a little action, the G.I. Joe episodes have more action than a Michael Bay flick. This is less talk, more rock. Cobra is a well-armed force with massive headquarters. Where do they get their funding? And why did they spend a fortune on a gladiator arena when that cash could have gone to buying more laser cannons? The first three miniseries (five episodes long) can be played like a movie even though they do include the bumpers for the commercial breaks. There’s 22 episodes spread over the 4 DVDs. They biggest bonus feature is the 1963 product introduction reel for the original G.I. Joe dolls. It’s a big thrill to see the four dolls with their numerous military outfits. Easy to see why they became a major seller with the cool weapons. Your father (or even grandfather) will get a kick out of this vintage footage. Prepare to freeze frame so he can figure out which accessories he got for his birthday in 1966. They also have numerous “Knowing Is Half the Battle” PSAs that get spoofed on Robot Chicken. There’s ads featuring the ’80s action figures. As an added bonus, you get a few G.I. Joe and Cobra tattoos.

    Reno 911: The Complete Sixth Season, Uncensored brings back America’s favorite messed up sheriff’s department. Things have changed on the force with Deputies Garcia, Johnson and Kimball gone. They’re replacements include Sgt. Declan (a suspected transvestite), Deputy Frank Rizzo (a drugged up undercover agent) and a receptionist (who enjoys giving extras). The chemistry change breaths a fresh breath into the act. Rizzo’s stake out with Jones is hilarious as they keep doing illegal acts to prove they’re legit. Jones and Williams infiltrate a swingers party that leads to a key exchange. The force does their best to make Reno unattractive to avoid a visit from the Pope. They don’t want to deal with the extra work. Two episodes deal with Dangle suspected of homicide at his murder mystery party. There are commentary tracks. The bonus features includes nearly an episode of outtakes including the complete commercials for linoleum floors and the sheriff’s department. A really long sketch features the guys from Human Giant pushing the worst vacation deal ever on the cops. There’s 15 more episodes on 2 DVDs. The incompetent cop humor is in full force in Reno once more.

    Arthur Hailey’s Hotel: The First Season is the Love Boat for people who get sea sick. The guest stars checked into San Francisco’s St. Gregory Hotel for adventures that were a little less light than on the Pacific Princess. The place is run by James Brolin (best known as Mr. Barbra Streisand or Josh Brolin’s dad). The pilot movie has Bette Davis owning the joint, but they cart her away before the regular season. The movie does have Erin Moran in her post Happy Days glam. She’s supposed to be a singer. This first season is packed with semi-major stars including Richard Hatch (both Battlestar Galacticas), Gary Collins (Drunk RV driver), Vic Tayback (Mel from Alice), Heather Locklear (pre-Cougar), Scatman Crothers (The Shining), and Adrienne Barbeau (Maude). Roy Thinnes (The Invaders) plays a guest who can’t remember who he is. If he walks out on his bill, they’ll know who he is. The most stunning moment is Tori Spelling as a little gal. She got this role without any help from her father, executive producer Aaron Spelling. Hotel‘s weird casting keeps it lighter than the scripts intended it to be.

  • Opinion In A Haystack: Bloody Cheese

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    Michael and Leatherface came back, Jason’s just passed through the re-birthing canal, and Freddy, Chucky, and Pinhead are clawing their way up the fallopian tubes. So…

    In Defense of the Crimson Cheese

    There is a sect of 80’s horror fans that do not adhere to the common adage of “once a franchise delves into self-parody it dies.” The absolute beauty of horror that originated in the decade of decadence is how they all started out as maniacal ideas, executed with a serious tone and passion. Freddy, Chucky, Jason, Michael Myers, and Pinhead all started out this way. Then, after success, there was an attempt to copy that tone and passion a few times, which for the most part resulted in a “meh” type of feeling. There are exceptions like Dream Warriors, but for the most part the median of these franchises are forgettable. This is of course when the self parody begins. Flicks such as Freddy’s Dead, Jason X, Bride of Chucky, and ultimately Freddy vs. Jason all delved back into the serious nature of their beginnings and made a joke out of it (some would argue it started even earlier then these movies.) Please, don’t get me wrong, straight horror can be amazing, but that is not the focal point here… it’s about this specific generation of mainstream horror franchises.

    Of course, this caused a lot of horror fans disappointment with their cries of how it isn’t scary anymore and how they are more comedic then horrific. So? What’s the problem? Are you seriously telling me that you were actually scared of the original movies? Are you seriously saying that the reason you enjoyed them so much was because they incited fear in you? If your answer is yes, then I need to ask if you have ever watched any of them more then once and more recently then 20 years ago? Are you really a fan, or do you just remember them being more brutal and horrific then they were? If you have such an austere lust for the most demented, gore spewing, psycho characters… what is more “psycho” then killing someone with a healthy sense of humor? Perhaps those of us who were never legitimately scared by slasher flicks are prone to enjoy the comedic, hedonistic side of things more; hence that is what gobbled up the straight terror end of the spectrum.

    Look, the first Nightmare, the first Child’s Play, the first Halloween, the first Friday are all beautifully made horror classics, but all these 80’s franchises were unique unto themselves and their time period in one way that really has never been replicated… we started to root for the villains. As for the sick, cold, beautiful bastards that always root for the villain no matter what… we love you, but this isn’t directed at you, now go masturbate to Cannibal Holocaust. The 80’s horror icons, our generation’s Universal Monsters, somehow became the heroic protagonists of the story. The first films in the franchises were created to scare and viewed to be scared, but time and sequels changed the social response to creating these flicks to “WOW” the audience with funny kills and viewing it to laugh at how many one dimensional nymphomaniac 20-somethings they will carve up next. Freddy Krueger was a child molesting murderer and yet it got to the point where we cheered as he slaughtered innocents. THAT WAS THE FUN OF ALL THIS!

    This all lead to the characters being caricatures of themselves… which was never detrimental, if anything they stayed more honest to their origins this way, but were free to do anything under the sun. Look at Freddy vs. Jason, director Ronny Yu understood what made these guys great, the look, the back-story, the lore, the comedy, the kills. Sure the humans in that movie were garbage, who cares? This is not about “quality” or writing or any standardized pretentious film arguments. This is about understanding what made these characters stick around for so long and become so beloved. It wasn’t even specifically the flicks, it was the characters! Sure they all had their earnest moment at the beginning when it was supposed to be scary and we were supposed to be rooting for the good guys, and for most of them it was done right the first go around. Why do we always have to go back and try to make everything serious again? Re-release movies if you have to, some things should stay as artifacts and beacons of their time. If the franchises never embraced the villain’s status as a champion of hilarious murder they would NEVER have obtained the iconic heights they have now. Ok, how about we settle it with this… as long as the killer’s nature and persona are kept in tact, all is well. Period.

    (Also, none of the above pertains to any horror character, or franchise created in the 90s… that was a whole different animal of parody that was lame beyond belief.)

    With that said…

    Friday The 13th : A Review of the last 10 minutes that would make Larry David Proud.

    ******SPOILERS******SPOILERS********SPOILERS************

    There is really no need to review the whole movie; it was half travesty and half brutal fun. Jason looked physically bad ass (still not as iconically perfect as Ken Kirzinger or Kane Hodder); Derek Mears gave a good performance with his physical presence. Very akin to Rob Zombie’s Halloween the stuff that was added to the persona of the character destroyed it. Mr. Vorhees doesn’t set traps, he doesn’t keep hostages, he doesn’t practice archery and he most certainly doesn’t have an elaborate headquarters of death. Honestly, I think the best thing to come out of this film is the completely definitive image on the gorgeous theatrical release poster.

    It seemed at times that Marcus Nispel was trying to remake his other remake, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, with this remake. Add a slight dollop of Leatherface from the 1986 Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, with the whole sympathetic pseudo sexual victim relationship and a sprinkle of that awful too-close-shaky cam crud and you got the new Friday. The acting was good, the comic-relief surprisingly funny, the plot simple as it should be, and the intelligence/booby level was equalized appropriately. All I want to discuss, in brief, is the ending. If you want a well written full-review just head on over to the talented Christopher Stipp’s much more thorough and different assessment:

    http://asitecalledfred.com/2009/02/13/trailer-park-friday-the-13th-and-shopaholic-reviewed/

    **********EVEN BIGGER SPOILERS*********

    There are two groups of teenagers in the movie. The first, on a mission to find Crystal Lake’s best weed, get destroyed by Jason in the very beginning. The exception being the girl who supposedly looks like Jason’s mother, he takes her hostage, locks her up in his basement lair while he is out… um… bringing home the bacon. The second group is simply a bunch of wealthy kids going up to stay in daddy’s lake-side cabin for a weekend of boners, beer, and republican conversation.

    Supernatural‘s Jared Padalecki plays Clay Miller, the brother of Whitney, the chick locked in Jason’s love nest. Cut to after Jason is supposedly dead. It’s night time. Mr. Voorhees has a chain wrapped around his neck, the other end of said chain is tangled up inside a wood-chipper which is located in a barn. I will give the benefit of the doubt and say the barn is roughly a mile away from the lake. Also note that Clay has no knowledge of Jason’s story, legend, or origin. Cut to the scene of both Millers standing on the Camp Crystal Lake dock, it’s now day time, Clay kicks Jason’s dead body into the water… and then Jason pops back up through the dock to grab him. Cut to credits.

    Ok… I laughed out loud in the theater. Not because it was awful, not because it was badly shot, not because it was meant to be humorous, but because of the plethora of questions!!! Not questions about Jason returning to life… questions about WHY IN THE HELL DID THEY DRAG 300 POUNDS OF DEAD WEIGHT ALL THE WAY TO THE LAKE AND DUMP HIM IN? WHY!

    Think about it… There are somewhere around 12 freshly murdered corpses in the area, probably hundreds more in Jason’s home. You and your sister/brother have gone through the most traumatic and exhausting experience of your entire life, yet you manage to take down a lumbering psychotic professional killing machine whom you know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT. Would your first instinct be to spend the next 3 hours, cutting him down from the wood chipper, and doing your best to move a humongous, foul-smelling, corpse all the way to the lake and dump out the only evidence to prove to the cops, the world, and everyone that you yourself did not go on a brother/sister killing spree? They effectively spent all night moving this body… with no motive, they didn’t even consider going to get help? None of this occurred to them in the LONG arduous trek these two tired, broken victims spent transporting the corpse? Clay is shown to be a pretty smart guy throughout the whole movie too. I mean I can deal with stupid characters in horror films… but this is just beyond absurd, they are going WAY out of their way to do this meaningless act, which is actually a detriment to their future well being (a.k.a. Not going to jail.) Let’s not forget that a cop was brutally murdered here… No one is going to take this lightly.

    I realize I am over analyzing an extremely lazy storytelling device, one that only served to give Jason a chance to pop out of the water, but it’s absolutely hilarious. I also realize that Whitney heard her friend at the beginning of the film say something about Jason’s origin… but come on… she has been a hostage for 6 weeks! A month an a half in a constant state of fear and god only knows what Jason was giving her to eat, the last thing this chick would want to do is spend a few hours dragging a corpse through the woods in order to be symbolic! What truly made me laugh is the thought of the movie cutting away right after Clay kicks Jason into the lake, and then we go straight to a conversation with Clay Miller and the police:

    Cop: You kids ok?

    Clay Miller: Well I’m a little banged up, and she’s been held hostage for 6 weeks but yeah, we’ll live.

    Cop: so you say Jason Voorhees did this?

    Clay Miller: yes, he’s a psychopath… he brutally murdered everyone…

    Cop: WELL… where’s the body, got to call in forensics and such. You said you killed him in the barn right?

    Clay Miller: he died in the barn, yes sir, but we dumped his corpse in the lake… so…

    Cop: The lake? What the hell for? Because of the legends?

    Clay Miller: Legends? No… we just… we just figured the lake would be fitting, you know?

    Cop: Fitting? Your tellin’ me you disposed of the body of the prime suspect in well over hundreds of missing person cases including last nights murders?

    Clay Miller: hmm… should we not have done that? Was that a bad idea? “˜cause I gotta be honest, we started to question it ourselves as we were both crying and dragging his body through the woods.

    Cop: God damn…

    Clay Miller: So next time… no lake… check. Got it. Man… he was HEVVVVV-EEEE too… Haha.

    Cop: get in the car.

    You know what, it’s so absurd it actually makes the movie better. Thanks for reading!

  • Trailer Park: Aaron Yoo (FRIDAY THE 13th) – Interview

    By Christopher Stipp

    The Archives, Right Here

    I’m awesome. I wrote a book. It’s got little to do with movies. Download and read “Thank You, Goodnight”right HERE for free.

    And now, you can follow me on Twitter. Find me here, my oh so original name on the thing is Stipp so come on and follow my stray ramblings.

    Aaron Yoo is the funniest person in FRIDAY THE 13TH. It’s not a distinction that serves him well in this regard but Aaron provides some short and snappy comic relief before coming face to face with the homicidal maniac looking to kill everyone. The genuinely nice thing about Aaron’s performance, though, is that he represented one potential kill in this movie about, well, murder. As I mentioned in my review of the film this entry stands heads and shoulders (ones that haven’t yet been decapitated) above its peers if you were to stack it against the “horror” entries of the 90’s. Back then it seemed to be all about irony and not so much about the killin’. This FRIDAY THE 13TH, though, is all about the killing and I couldn’t have been more delighted. The screams are great, the creativity that went into the kills was inspired and you have what is a rock solid reboot of a film.

    The last time I talked with Aaron he was starring last year in 21 and so having the chance to talk to him again was something I could not pass up. I caught up with Aaron a couple of days ago, the night after the film’s premiere in LA, to talk about Voorhees, the nature of horror and whether Jason ever did a little soft shoe right before takes. FRIDAY THE 13TH opens everywhere today…

    AARON YOO: What’s up?

    CHRISTOPHER STIPP: I saw the movie last night.

    YOO: Were you at that big messy thing we were at?

    CS: No man. I live here in Arizona…so I don’t get to do any of that.

    YOO: Oh, OK. I more or less saw the movie last night myself.

    CS: Really?

    YOO: There was more of a disaster around it probably than was going on around your end. It was just the premiere and those are always like the equivalent of a human shipwreck.

    (Laughs)

    Chaos and more chaos and flashing lights and cameras and afterwords you are stranded on an island of alcohol.

    (Laughs)

    CS: Well, what was it like seeing it last night finally all put together?

    YOO: It’s really interesting. I’ve never done a full on horror movie. I found it interesting. I’ve done scare stuff in the past but when you know a scare is coming it’s kind of, it comes sort of as a intellectual exercise so it’s hard to tell. I’m not really sure and curious to know how editors and directors and such of horror films put movies together because if you are not scared by yourself, what’s the mathematics of what scares a person? People were being scared around me and so I was like, “OK…” It’s a really odd experience.

    CS: I was reading a little of what happened on the set and found out that your first day on the set came after you had your appendix taken out.

    YOO: Yeah, I actually had a bit of a complication from appendix surgery from years ago and so it was just something that acted up and was at the Kayne concert and I thought I don’t feel good. So it’s basically the equivalent of having appendicitis again. Brutal to have that twice in your life. I went the morning after and called my cast mate Arlen Escarpeta at 8:30 or 9:00 in the morning and said, “Hey, I think you need to take me to the hospital.” So he was like, “OK, I’m coming.” And then the docs said, “You need surgery.”

    I initially thought it was going to be schedule prohibitive of me doing this movie but give all credit to Platinum Dunes and everyone in the film and Marcus, and Brand, Andrew and Michael over at Platinum Dunes and everybody. They wanted me to stay on the film so they filled the whole schedule around so I could have time off and I came back on set 10 days after surgery or something like that and started shooting again. So it was pretty cool. I did a fair amount of the movie. My own little trivia question is more like how much of the movie did I do? But I did a fair amount of the movie with 18 staples so it was a pretty interesting experience.

    CS: Based on that, there is a lot of wiggling on your part. You get a little physical with Jason.

    YOO: Yeah, if you could have seen ““ I guess what a horror movie is is to see the expressions of my producers every time ““ I did a lot of falls and stuff and did that on purpose and I didn’t really them I was going to do it until I started doing it. And people thought I should say hey, I might fall here. The first time I would do it in rehearsal or do it in a take people were like, “Cut, cut, cut. Are you OK?” And I’m like, “Really, I’m OK. I’m doing that on purpose. Don’t. That’s a good take.”

    So people would just hold their breath. I would freak them out like maybe I should have given them an advanced warning. Andrew Form, one of our producers, would say I was giving him a heart attack every time you do that. But sometimes, and I always feel like, getting to do what we do is a gift so you just have to have fun with it and don’t worry about anything else and you often don’t want to come back and not be doing my job. When I did my scene with Jason they were saying just kind of push him in the wall and mess him up and Derek and I…we were doing the scene and did a couple of takes and it didn’t feel like it was working and I said to him “Can you just push me into the wall?” and he said, “Are you are asking me if that is physically possible? Come on. I could do that with one arm.” So, I said, “OK, do it.”

    And then he threw me into the wall and everyone was, “Whoa!” Because it looked real, right?

    CS: One of the things that makes this movie so great is that it does. It feels brutal.

    YOO: Yeah. I felt like that too, even if you know what’s coming or not, is the brutality of it. There were definitely scenes ““ there were scenes that surprised me and I don’t scare easily in general ““ but there were scenes where people were dying and the first couple of times you could hear the whole theater going, ah, ah, ah, oh, oh, oh. I think my character landed the biggest one of those.

    CS: And well deserved because I was going to tell you when it does happen, and I’m not going to ruin anything for anybody, but it’s definitely one that caused a lot of reaction from the crowd.

    YOO: Can I ask you what was the audience like where you were seeing it? Was it critics?

    CS: No, it was a little bit of both. Very big theater. Maybe a dozen or so critics and maybe 100-200 regular fans.

    YOO: Awesome. Awesome. It’s really interesting to see ““ a bunch of us are trying to see opening night screenings Friday ““ just to see what’s that like. The photographers at the premiere were wearing Jason masks. I was recently traveling out of the country and anywhere I went people knew Friday the 13th. They couldn’t speak any English at all and I’d say Friday the 13th in their language and they would say “Jason”, “hockey mask” and it’s incredible. So, I’m really curious to see what opening night audiences will be like for this movie. Should be a lot of fun.

    CS: I think, genuinely, and I’m being honest, it does count as one of the best entries into the series because it takes out the goofiness and the high sheen of the previous entries.

    YOO: Like what?

    CS: I’m thinking when he kicks over the boom-box in JASON TAKES MANHATTAN.

    (Laughs)

    YOO: You know the whole story about Friday the 13th is about where the hockey mask came from. It was only thing they could find to cover his head up. They lost the original cover they were using. It was a total accident. So, the whole series, the original, it’s amazing the cultural credit it has because there’s, and no disrespect to the filmmakers, but there’s a lot of on-the-fly patching things together in that original series so I think the plan they had over at New Line and Platinum Dunes was that, “Hey, we have this thing that everybody is so part of our sub-cultural sub-conscious but never been done well.”

    I’m not sure what well is but, and you’re probably thinking what the heck am I talking about, this is not going to compete for an Oscar, but it’s a fun, if I may say, it’s a really fun ride.

    CS: It absolutely is. You have Marcus directing and he did a great job of bringing back Texas Chainsaw but when you first initially got around this project, was it, and it’s OK to be honest to say a job is a job and I’ll take it, “I’ll do it” but were there any reservations on your part that it was not going to live up to what people were hoping it was in that this was going to be hopefully a straight up horror movie?

    YOO: Well, I actually took my time thinking of it before getting on board the project. I went back and watched Marcus’s Texas Chainsaw and enjoyed the hell out of it. I was invited to take a look at the script which they were keeping under lockdown over at the Platinum Dunes offices and you roll up and there’s Transformers all over the place and all these posters and it was, I should have never asked the guys if this was done on purpose but they were like, here, why don’t you go take this script and go read it in Andrew’s office. And the office is just covered in mock-ups in pre-production art, costume posters, all this Friday the 13th stuff ““ all over the room. I was like, wow, this is Friday, the f’n 13th. Wow! And I was like, “If you’re going to do a horror movie, this is the way to go.” And it made sense from the beginning, Andrew, Marcus, Brad, everybody were like, we say sex, drugs, and Jason Voorhees. Bring back that kind of horror movie they stopped making in the early 80’s. You get the ones that are totally gruesome then you get all the iterations of the Scream genre and the Japanese and Korean horror remakes where it’s all atmospheric. But Friday the 13th is kind of like a theme park and that was the goal and hopefully it delivers.

    When we were making it we were in Austin, Texas, one of the best places on earth and we said, “Let’s just have fun.” And one of the good things about having surgery while you are shooting is that it really puts things ““ makes things very simple ““ I just had a serious health issue which is now past, and this thing we do is just fun. So I had such a blast.

    CS: I have to know, did you ever stand along side Jason at the craft services table, with him in full regalia?

    YOO: Yeah! Derek and I didn’t shoot a lot of scenes together. We didn’t actually work together for the first month and so we were all hanging out off set and then we would shoot two sets at the same time on stage and we would kick it. Derek is genuinely ““ and I don’t know if I should tell people this because I don’t want to ruin their experience at the film ““ but he’s a genuinely a wonderful human being and hilarious and actually a riot to work with. He will make you laugh with his mask on right before you are about to do a take and then they call “action” and you’re laughing and like, “I hate you.”

    (Laughs)

    “First of all, you ruined me. I can’t do the scene.” It’s interesting. I think maybe it’s best to meet Derek after you’ve seen Friday the 13th. The guy is a specimen. A physical specimen. He’s about 6’7″, maybe 270. He literally could chuck me with one arm, but just a genuine and hilarious human being.

    CS: I saw him last year at Comic-Con when I previewed the footage. It was just sick. It was great when they showed it and Derek seems to know how to make Jason seem more than what he is.

    YOO: Absolutely. We had such a good time working together. Last night I meant to tell him ““ I’m not sure I ever told him ““ that there’s this thing about my death scene with Jason where people say it’s just crazy with this certain thing I’m doing and I basically got ““ Derek and I were riffing between takes and he said this one thing and made me think of this other thing and I tried to do something in the take but it totally failed but in trying to do it, it made the take longer than it was meant to so I died for a really long time and it got really messy, my accident, not intentional at all. I was trying to do something and it wasn’t working but somehow my failure made it a keeper take. I love that how movies and scenes sometimes weird things happen. You’re trying to do something and makes this other thing happen which is what should have happened and everything comes together by mistakes.

    CS: How dis that work out, doing your death scene – When are you blocking it out and is it tightly choreographed? I ask because sometimes it looks like people are flopping around, you in particular, like a fish.

    YOO: It’s very highly choreographed. I don’t know about all actors but half of why I got into this whole crazy business. I remember being in Disturbia I get hit with a bat. I got to do everything except for, David Morse’s character hits me so hard that they wind up having a stunt guy flip over and fall to the ground and I’m watching that and said, I can totally do that. So I fell over the fence and stuff and said, “Why can’t I do that? I can totally do that.” And they said, “Uh, what are we going to do if you break something?” So I always ask to do as much of that stuff as possible because I get such a kick out of it. It’s like playing when you were a kid. You get to mark it all the way through. You play choreographer. We had a lot of fun. You know my death scene came up the day of. There was no blocking. Most of the death’s you have a blocking rehearsal earlier on some day you weren’t shooting and work out the kinks. And you show up the day of and just agree on realities of the day and the space and schedule of shooting and everything but we didn’t even have the set built and second of all in the original script you don’t see me die on screen. Somewhere along the line they said, “That’s stupid. Why are we not showing that?” And so, it was just back and forth and tossing ideas at the brain trust and then the day of we come in in the morning and they say, we got it.

    (Laughs)

    And they told me, “Now we just have to figure out how to make this work by 2:00 this afternoon.” And, of course, we’re shooting other scenes. The special effects dept ““ Scott Stoddard is amazing does all the fake heads and amazing stuff and onset blood ““ very little computer CGI stuff. It’s old school, well done effects. So he had to come up with how it all was going to be done by 2:00 in the afternoon. He had basically 6 hours and we showed up on set and looking at the basic general idea and the tool shed and said, “What if it was over here, and that was over there….” We just kind of made it up. It was really fun. It’s really like when you are 7 years old and say, “No, I stabbed you, you’re dead. Honestly. This is a sword and you are honestly dead.” It’s just that sort of thing and I loved that when I was a kid. The one difference is that you have to get used to being covered in fake blood which is not comfortable after the third hour.

    (Laughs)

    CS: Well, in order to get his up by Friday I have to cut it short but I definitely want to end with a question. Looking back at your experience, seeing the film finished on the screen last night, what did you take away with the nature of what Jason represents to movie history?

    YOO: I think of Jason as the id…No, not really. I can’t intellectualize what I hope is a fun movie. I don’t know when that kind of horror film really came in, whether it was originally Halloween or whatnot, but I think it is the kind of movie that titillates people in a good and healthy way. Like scaring the pants off of you is sometimes good for your general well being. And Jason is the boogey man that you know you are going to enjoy being frightened of. He’s not trying to teach you anything. He’s not trying to scare you for any reason other than for you to have a good time. And hopefully that’s what we are putting in a box and giving people for Valentine’s Day.

    (Laughs)
    —————————–
    And now, for those still reading, who would like to win some FRIDAY THE 13TH swag? I have 6 FRIDAY THE 13TH branded hoodies to give away and if you’re interested in winning just jot me a note at Christopher_Stipp@yahoo.com and just write somewhere in that e-mail what your favorite entry is of this series. These things are L and XL, have a red little swath on the front saying FRIDAY THE 13TH and a pimp looking Jason mask that will always be looking behind you. They’re pretty pimp so big thanks to the sponsors who tossed some my way.

  • Trailer Park: FRIDAY THE 13TH and CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC – Reviewed

    By Christopher Stipp

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    CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC – REVIEW

    For anyone wanting to know the bottom line on this film here, verbatim, are the notes I sent to the studio rep about the movie:

    “I thought the movie was formulaic, the writing was pretty weak and a little derivative but I thought Isla Fisher was positively effervescent and bubbly. She performed well in the role that she was given with other standouts being Krysten Ritter, who does Winona Ryder better than Winona Ryder, and Fred Armisen who I wished was given more to do. Overall, a movie that will positively work well with women who will gravitate towards the female-friendly material.”

    Those still sticking around to read my additional thoughts on the movie I have to start by saying producer Jerry Bruckheimer was brilliant, getting in on this action. A man who usually has more to do with guns and bombs than he does with pantyhose and bombshells obviously saw something worth producing in a movie that is insipidly simple in its construction and wretchedly executed from the standpoint that there is no thinking involved at all by those in attendance. He saw, or at least I think he did, that there was a story that a large swath of the population not usually served by his usual fare deserved to hear because of what’s popular right now in our female society’s zeitgeist. It’s not a polemic on Middle Eastern relations, it’s a treatise on how one broke woman deals with shopping a lot, wants to write for a fashion magazine and then ends up falling in love.

    That’s it. There’s nothing else you need to know about the film because it’s all filler and fodder to push along the 3 basic tenants of debt, shopping and fictionalized love. Isla Fisher, who plays Rebecca Bloomwood, absolutely shines in a role that requires nothing more than to be endearing, funny and charming. And she does it especially well when you consider how painful some other actresses have tried to pull this off in the pantheon of vapid female romantic comedy leads. Isla is a delight every single time she is on the screen and what’s impressive is that she was able to be compelling in her turn as a down-on-her-luck (self-inflicted down-on-her-luck, natch) writer who yearns to be part of the fashion world by writing for a prestigious magazine dedicated to all things glamorous. Her best friend, Suze (Krysten Ritter), is amazing insofar that, like I mentioned, oozes Wynona Rider all over her face but she manages to radiate the kind of peace and love that even Ringo Starr wouldn’t be able to resist autographing; she’s a delight.

    After a series of wacky coincidences and unbelievable opportunities that defy any sense of logic, she becomes a lightning rod of attention for a staid and stuffy financial publication by writing a female-centric column focused on dumbing down complex issues dealing with money in a cheeky fashion. Her editor, Luke Brandon (played by the affable and likable Hugh Dancy), takes a fancy to this young wordsmith and the two end up playing the hackneyed game of girl likes boy, boy likes someone else, boy ends up liking girl.

    Apart from these written elements there is an inordinate amount of slapstick. From fighting over boots at an exclusive sale of couture clothing to Isla actually putting palm to face of a foreigner from Finland at a cocktail party there is more to keep the ladies laughing from start to finish. And that’s the other thing. The movie appeals to women for reasons that should be abundantly clear when you understand that this movie is not predicated on looking at love from the perspective of that other fashion-centric movie, SEX AND THE CITY, as if you were to compare the two SEX would be considered an introverted examination of amour, this film just wants to be easy breezy.

    There is a sub-plot of Isla dealing with a hard-nosed debt collector throughout the film as she avoids his calls, his visits and, ultimately, the fallout was a pleasant diversion that actually pays off at a pivotal moment in the film and there’s no denying that all the roles that are on the screen are used to their greatest potential. It’s not to say that all the performances are great or particularly pleasant, I wish there was more done with Fred Armisen who turns in a sublime and comical performance as Dancy’s boss, but there isn’t any long, drawn out moments that can at times disrupt the quick flow to these comedies.

    In sum, this isn’t a movie I will ever purchase or pay to see again. I think the strongest comment I can make is that it’s a pleasant diversion to some of the fare out there that this could have been a lot worse if not for Isla Fisher. Fisher is the reason why this movie excels and you cannot help but notice that she is a comedic talent who actually manages to delight.

    FRIDAY THE 13TH – REVIEW

    I’m not one to begin with a quote so I apologize in advance. It’s gauche, I know that, I hate it when I see it in other publications, but it’s completely appropriate and relevant to what follows. It comes from SUMMER SCHOOL:

    Dave: Have you seen the movie, Texas Chainsaw Massacre?

    Anna-Maria: No. It is good?

    Dave: Oh, I’ve got to tell you, I love this film. It had passion and a plucky spirit. And, the characters had integrity, like when Leatherface went on that strict diet of human flesh, he had to cut out chicken and fish completely.

    Francis “Chainsaw” Grimp: Dave, I agree with you. I’ll go a step further, sure Leatherface, he wore a mask made out of human skin, and he hung people on meat-hooks, but hey, we’ve all got quirks, I got ’em, you’ve got ’em Dave, that’s what makes this character so, so compelling. Thumbs up for me.

    Thumbs up, indeed.

    FRIDAY THE 13th absolutely deserves to be hugged and coddled by those wanting to go back to the days when horror meant killing, horror meant sparking up a spliff and getting nuts with your lady friend and when horror meant Jason was actually menacing.

    One thing that Marcus Nispel deserves credit for as director on this film is knowing what this property used to mean to those who were weaned on a hearty diet of straight-forward hack/slash films in the 80’s and why it was absolutely time to deconstruct the deconstructors that brought us the SCREAM franchise. Damian Shannon and Mark Swift as writers deserve equal credit for making a movie that walks that fine line of knowing what makes good horror good and bad horror, well, unwatchable. One of the biggest compliments you can give a movie like this, then, is that it managed to actually thrill and excite without it ever feeling goofy or having too high a polish.

    When you look at the pretty teen entries in the 90’s (I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, SCREAM, FINAL DESTINATION, HALLOWEEN H20, et al.) the clean and clear cinematography put a polish on things stuck out a frayed thread that you wish you could just unravel. These movies are supposed to be gritty, overexposed at times, dirty. Now, while Marcus’ previous reboot of TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE wasn’t deserving of any great praise overall he at least got the atmosphere right. And he gets it right in this film.

    From the start we push right through some of the basic tenants of what made Jason, well, Jason. He sees his mom beheaded from afar in a flashback sequence, drenched in blackness and rain, which takes all of 5 minutes. Whereas some would love to dwell on this moment Marcus and Co. just plow through this information and you can feel this is a story that is going to move at a quick clip. When we get into the actual narrative we’re led to believe that a pack of kids who are off wandering around, backpacks in tow, looking for a stash of marijuana that has been planted somewhere deep in the recesses of tall grass, tall trees, far away from humanity, the backwoods. It’s effective in setting up of how distant all these events are taking place, how susceptible they are to the natural environs or any other danger that will fall upon them. Cell phones don’t work here either, natch.

    The first pre-act, an extended moment really, of the kids looking for a plantation full of weed takes up a solid 15 minutes and is really a definitive look at how the rest of the film will unfold. We’ve got ourselves a story that knows how to pace itself, how to generate good tension with its characters as we all wait for the killing to go full throttle and how to execute its executions.

    I have to hand it to the filmmakers in that they’ve properly figured out the proportions of sex, drugs and violence. The first two kind of take care of themselves, I think Jeffrey Wells won’t want for pictures of these ladies, but the latter was done with a little creativity. It’s hard not to be able and spoil things with descriptions of how there were some quality kills at the outset but it is sufficient to explain that there are messy ways to go here; America Olivio and Jonathan Sadowski both deserve a golf clap for setting things off in the right manner and it’s absolutely terrifying to see Jason have a spring in his step as the conversation, come Monday, will probably revolve around slow lumbering Jason versus Olympic sprinter Jason. I like the fast moving one because you can really feel the physics behind every machete hack and every ax toss.

    As we settle into the story proper I was struck by the pacing. Whereas in the other entries you had Jason mostly attacking people in the night (there are exceptions to this) Jason is not relegated to being the boogie man who only strikes at night. As judged by the preview you do have Jason coming out to terrorize some young swimmer and this only enhances the experience in that you are left to wonder where and when he might strike.

    The main players in this feature, Jared Padalecki (playing Clay Miller) and Danielle Panabaker (playing Jenna) were solid entries as the focus of this film. The two of them are relatively unknowns, most everyone in this film are unknowns, and again this only enhances the experience as you subconsciously are left wondering who is going to be spared and who’s going to die next. Thankfully this movie doesn’t play favorites and this is, perhaps, the film’s greatest advantage. Whereas other films in the 90’s played with young actors on the bubble you had some good beads on who was going to live and who was not. For the most part, this film keeps it all going as we traipse from one kill to another.

    However, I will mention that the Jason Lair is a little goofy and idiotic. Its presence was the one thing that kept this film from being absolutely great and took me out of the 3rd act somewhat. This area seemed awfully well-constructed, not to mention well-lit, for a man who is supposed to be a mentally deficient, homicidal maniac and it’s completely unbelievable in every regard. Also, its eventual use as we head home toward the ending is equally bizarre and logic defying but it does deserve a little credit for reasons that deserve to be seen to be believed.

    One of the other issues that are raised when reviewing a horror movie is that you run in to a lot of things that are simply too goofy to try and be eloquent about: the drug use; the promiscuity; the nudity; the bad choices; and, subsequently, the bad decisions don’t really deserve to be scrutinized in the conventional sense. These elements made good horror films good then and it certainly makes it good now. To pick apart at these things would only serve to unravel the tight noose that is wrapped around your expectations for what you hope this movie will deliver. You go into this film wishing for these things and, if you’re really a fan of the genre, you hope things honor its heritage and you hope its fun. Derek Mears delivers an excellent, reenergized Jason Voorhees and even though there is nothing more to do than to act menacing his performance competes with that of C.J. Graham from FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI. I am recusing any talk of the subtleties of Derek’s performance as really any talk beyond his form would just spoil the goodness of his heinousness with how he dispatches his victims to the afterlife.

    This movie delivers on delivering a solid horror experience with its thrilling pacing and dark atmosphere. Terror seems to be around many corners and it deserves credit for not only erasing the awfulness and shame the sequels have inflicted on the more respectable entries into this much maligned franchise. There is nothing intellectual going on in these movies and I think this accounts for why many have failed to “get it” when it comes to what makes these good movies. It’s about nudity, about gettin’ high and about how people are gonna die. And this movie delivers on all three. Chainsaw and Dave would have absolutely given this a thumbs-up.

    And now, for those still reading, who would like to win some FRIDAY THE 13TH swag? I have 6 FRIDAY THE 13TH branded hoodies to give away and if you’re interested in winning just jot me a note at Christopher_Stipp@yahoo.com and just write somewhere in that e-mail what your favorite entry is of this series. These things are L and XL, have a red little swath on the front saying FRIDAY THE 13TH and a pimp looking Jason mask that will always be looking behind you. They’re pretty pimp so big thanks to the sponsors who tossed some my way.

  • Party Favors: Crystal Lake Memories

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    CRYSTAL LAKE – Jason-mania is hacking its way across the country. The Marcus Nispel re-imagining of Friday 13th hits screens nationwide on Friday 13th. The original film recently came out on Blu-ray. They even put out a DVD of Friday 13th Part 3 with the 3-D effect. Everywhere you turn there’s a hockey mask and a machete coming at you.

    Even though you’re warned in a scary movie to never answer the phone, I picked up the receiver and heard the voice of Adrienne King. She was Alice in the 1980 tale of camp counselor carnage. At this point, if you haven’t seen the films, don’t start whining about how I spoiled Friday 13th for you. Get the original film on Blu-ray, watch it in a dark room lit by a 65 inch 1080p HDTV. Then you can comeback and join this interview with King.

    King’s character Alice survived an intense battle with Mrs. Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) only to receive a major surprise while seeking safety in a canoe. Even three decades later, she has strong memories of making the scream-fest.

    The story is always told how special effects artist Tom Savini and others slept in the camp cabins to help save on the budget. King didn’t stick around the set after a night of being chased through the wilderness. However her location accommodations weren’t a Trump hotel for her slumber.

    “It was not a hotel. It was a motel,” King said. “A motel means it has no bathtub. It was a little shower and the lumpiest mattress in the world. I was so cold that I couldn’t stop my teeth from chattering. I would plug up the drain in the shower so I could sit in three inches of hot water. It was so disgusting.”

    While the movie takes place before the summer camp season, the filming wasn’t close to that season.

    “We started at the end of Labor Day weekend,” King said. “We shot until the middle of October. We did the scene three times where Jason pulls Alice into the lake. They didn’t quite get what they needed. They saved up enough money to get a slo-mo camera (for the third try). The last day it was 28 degrees outside. We had no wetsuits cause we couldn’t afford them. You can see my goosebumps on the Blu-ray. That’s how incredible that Blu-ray is.”

    King has gotten a lot out of rewatching the film in the Blu-ray format. “I saw my turquoise jewelry for the first time. One of them is still on my finger,” she said. She promises that fans of the horror film series will be impressed if they upgrade to the HighDef transfer.

    The ending of Friday 13th was the big “gotcha” moment that jolted crowds. There was Alice having survived the night by floating in a canoe. The cops finally arrive. But before she reaches safety, an undead boy leaps out of the water and into her canoe. The kids in junior high had to tell everyone that jaw dropper to prove their fake ID got them into an R-rated film. After the traumatic ending of the film, I asked if she had issues with canoes. Ned Beatty was not a fan of paddling down the river after Deliverance.

    “No,” King replied. “I don’t have a canoe phobia. I live on a river.” Although she has to be careful while on the water. “There’s always somebody in the family that wants to play with me.”

    Was Jason attacking Alice in the canoe was inspired by Jimmy Carter and the Killer Rabbit?

    “I’ve never heard that question before,” King said. “I have no clue. First question I didn’t have the answer to.”

    The biggest name to come out of the movie was Kevin Bacon. Did she understand the monumental nature of being in the same film as Bacon’s first memorable butt role?

    “I was not in the scene obviously, but I was around when it happening,” King said. Unfortunately nobody understood the impact Bacon’s rump would have in cinema history. “We knew that he was the only star among us. He had been in something that actually made it to the screen. But he was just one of us.”

    He wasn’t quite like King. Bacon was part of the body count after flashing his ass. Willie Adams ended up as production assistant after his Barry was added to the terrible tally. One of his jobs was driving King to the motel.

    During post-production, King used a little family help to sell this movie to Paramount.

    “I asked Sean (S. Cunningham, the director) if I could sneak my mom into a screening. They were showing it to potential buyers. It was a good rough cut. During the strip Monopoly scene she almost had a heart attack. She’s a Catholic girl. Then we’re at the end of that and she’s like ‘thank God it’s over.’ I’m sitting there smiling to myself and holding her hand. I knew what was coming. She literally jumped 25 feet in the air. I turned around and saw Sean in the back shaking somebody’s hand.” She suspects it was Frank Mancuso of Paramount. “I certainly think we helped seal the deal.”

    Almost overnight King became a major scream queen. She was on par with Jamie Lee Curtis from her pursuit in Halloween. The low budget film sold an astronomical amount of tickets. The studio wanted to crank out a sequel fast. Rumors swirled that King was playing hard ball for a massive payday. However in the midst of this blockbuster success, she experienced the darker side of fame. She had a stalker who wanted to finish Jason’s job.

    “The only reluctance that had to do with it was the fact that I couldn’t focus,” King said. “I don’t like to do anything unless it’s done right. I knew I was their only thread. I did not have a script. I had no clue what they were going to do. My agent, this was a new agent I didn’t know very well, said they were going to leave it open ended.”

    Her return in Friday 13th Part 2 was a grizzly scene on both sides of the camera.

    “I showed up on the last day of shooting. Everybody wanted to get home. We started at night and worked till dawn. It was a night from hell. There was no love on the set. I was walking into this hornets nest. Unbeknownst to me, Steve Miner (the director) thought I was holding out for more bucks. That was farthest from the truth.”

    No matter how much the original movie made, King wasn’t getting chased in Gucci heels in the sequel.

    “This was done before SAG participation kicked in,” King said. “For Part One and Part Two, we got just our weekly rate and that was it. We got very little from this movie. But it nothing to do with money. For me it had to do with the fact that I had to basically survive – mentally as well as physically. It’s not like there were big stalking (stories) in the news before that. It was like, ‘What the hell is going on?’ And then you have your agents telling you to ‘pull it together or they’ll think you’re a nut.’ And you’re going, ‘But you don’t understand.’ And they didn’t. But you take a deep breath, do what you have to do and hopefully it will all work out. It might take twenty five years, but eventually it worked itself out.”

    King’s appearance in Friday 13th Part 2 is limited to the opening scene.. An unidentified character appears to kill her in a dilapidated house. While some believe that Jason has finally claimed his revenge for his mom, this killing makes no sense. In Part 2, Jason terrorizes a new batch of counselors at Crystal Lake. He hasn’t gone off the campground. King also has issues with her appearance in the film.

    “In Part 2, we never see Jason and Alice together. You see an ice pick into the temple. You don’t see blood. You never see a body. There is some sort of thing that has clothing that looks like Alice’s clothing from the first movie. But Alice is in a robe when she supposedly met her demise.” King emphasized, “Meaning she might not be dead.”

    King hopes that she will get her own resurrection of the character so she can finally have a true showdown with Jason. “Get Mrs. Voorhees back – head or no head,” she demanded.

    At one point, King thought she’d be part of the new Friday 13th. The producers had contacted her agent about having her and Betsy Palmer pop up in the film.

    “I was getting ready. I’m pumping iron to have Linda Hamilton arms. I’m going to look good if I’m coming back. Then they decided no. But it got me moving. I had not found a script I wanted to do until I found Walking Distance.” She went down to Texas to make this sci-fi horror film. It was her first role before the cameras in nearly 25 years. “It reminded me of being on the set of Friday 13th. They filmed at night and did their day jobs.”

    Did she ever find out why they decided against cameos in the new film?

    “I’ve never spoken to (Marcus Nispel). I wish I knew why. I think it would have been fun for the fans besides us. Granted it would be nice to do a Friday 13th with a residual payment,” King said.

    While other horror actresses had gone on to more films, King stepped away from being in front of the camera after her day of work on Friday 13th Part 2. Nobody could quite understand the stalker and how he had spooked her.

    “I was trying to survive a real live stalker. A real live Jason times 100. A wack job. I would have people going, ‘Are you serious. You can’t separate reality from fantasy.’ It was a very hard time for me psychological and physically. I ran off and studied Shakespeare at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. They were kind enough to take me in. I played Desdemona opposite Ted Lange. Ted’s a good guy.”

    That’s right. She starred in a version of Othello with Isaac from The Love Boat.

    Even when she quit acting in front of the camera, she become a scream queen as an ADR voice artist. Instead of putzing around on a bunch of straight to video horror flicks, King let her vocal cords dominate the biggest film of all time: Titanic. Many of the women screaming as the luxury liner snaps and sinks belong to King. She also had a softer role as Gloria Stuart’s last breath before her fateful plunge.

    “If there’s screams in the movie, I’m probably one of them. Back when I did ADR, if they needed a screamer, they’d go, ‘Call Adrienne.’” She had a major voice roles in Johnny Depp’s What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and Almost Famous.

    King and her husband moved far away from Hollywood a few years back. She now contemplates raising goats and lamas like her neighbors. However with interest from the new Friday 13th, she’s getting back in the filmmaking game. “Now I have a sci-fi horror movie coming out called Walking Distance. It’s a role well worthy of Alice,” King said. She is also currently busy with the opportunity to be a director for an all female anthology of horror films. “I’m reading scripts right now.. I’m so jazzed. I never thought that would be in my future.”

    She is very futuristic with her own website. Her www.adrienneking.com website features her paintings. She also has posted a collection of Polaroids and notes from the original Friday 13th. If she sells enough paintings, she’ll buy her own goat herd. Unlike some original actors, she’s looking forward to seeing the new Friday 13th.

    “If you could have told this New York City girl that she’d be living in the boonies with goats and lamas, planting a garden, resurrected by the fans and playing in her favorite playground….. My life has been an amazing rollercoaster,” King said. “I wouldn’t trade it in for anything even though it had its really dark moments. It got me to where I am now and I’m happy here.”

    STAYING ALIVE

    Among the film credits on Adrienne King’s resume is the greatest film ever made.

    “In Saturday Night Fever I was a dancer,” King said. “You can’t find me. I’ve got three different hairdos and three different dresses in the same scene.”

    The shoot was fatiguing with all the choreography and a less than ideal breathing situation inside the disco.

    “It was all before SAG said no smoke machines,” she said. “We were all dying of nicotine. Every day on the way back to Manhattan on the subway, the dancers would peel off the layers of grossness.”

    They were like coal miners working the disco shaft.

    I brought up my theory that Saturday Night Fever was an anti-disco movie since the end of the film has John Travolta turning his back on the 4/4 beat to become a real dancer. Was there a buzz on the set about the film’s message being disco music is evil?

    “God no. I still didn’t know that until now,” King said. “I think we were all really into the dance.”

    A SYMBOL OF WHAT?

    Anyone else crack up when Jane Seymour promotes her “Open Hearts” necklace? How can you not laugh when she announces, “My wish is to make my open heart design a universal symbol of hope and love.” Take a quick look at the design:

    Is that really what two open hearts would look like? Couldn’t Sunny Lane and Jenna Jameson use that shape to promote a “Boobs and Butt” necklace? Wouldn’t you imagine such naughty jewelry being stocked at Adam & Eve? Or as the reward for a woman posing as the centerfold in Racks and Backs Illustrated? This design rates up there with the naked woman on a truck’s mudflaps. Is Jane getting away with a dirty drawing? She does strike me as the naughty English lass. Is it wrong that when thinking of a universal symbol of T&A, I imagine Jane Seymour emerging from a hottub?

    Remember this Valentine’s Day to give Jane’s “Rack and Back” necklace to your favorite Hooter’s waitress. She’ll think you’re a sweet customer instead of a pervert.

    GIVEAWAY THE STILL

    The fine folks at CBS DVD have supplied me with 5 copies of Beverly Hillbillies: The Official Third Season to give away. This is one of the greatest shows in sit-com history. Season three gives us cinema superstar Dash Riprock. In order to win one of the copies, you have to tell me what’s my favorite other Mammoth Picture star. Email me the answer along with your name and address to mokaha@aol.com. My family, my crack research staff, Jethro and Larry Pennell are not eligible to answer. Contest closes on Feb. 16.
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    DANCE AWAY THE HEARTBREAK

    ABC has announced it’s new cast of Dancing With the Stars. What a completely mixed bag. Belinda Carlisle of the Go-Gos should be fun. How many judges will ask if she “got the beat?” David Alan Grier better bring the smooth chocolate to the dance floor. He’s my pick to win. In a strange “couple’s feud” there’s singer Jewel and bullriding legend Ty Murray. Can Ty hang onto his dance partner for 8 seconds? Shawn Johnson will need booster heels for her little gymnast body to reach her partner’s waist. Gilles Marini is French and pops up on tons of shows. He’ll make the top 3 based on the French angle. Steve-O might staple his balls to his partner’s thigh to stay in rhythm. Denise Richards will be propping up her amazing acting career with this turn. Expect to hear Charlie Sheen complain when Denise keeps working their kids in to the routines. Nancy O’Dell of Access Hollywood will do the report from the scene of her crimes angle. Chuck Wicks will be thankful for other dead weight below him. Plus he’s hooked up with Julianna Houghs so he’ll get to grind on her without looking like a cheating husband. Former Apple biggie Steve Wozniak has caught a case of Celebuwhoreitis from boffing Kathy Griffin. We should have like a major music festival to raise money to cure him like an Us Festival. He’ll be lasting longer than Mark Cuban. In the Dancing With the Stars: Lockdown Edition comes Lawrence Taylor and Lil’ Kim. Taylor is the first NFL Hall of Famer to get busted for buying macadamia nuts instead of crack. Lil ‘ Kim will wear the trashiest of dresses – which is hard to tell with ballroom fashion. Are they doing this show as community service?

    What happened to Donny Osmond being a cast member?

    BLU-RAY HEAVEN

    Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa – Blu-ray won me over when the penguins beat up the annoying fishing boy in the Dreamworks’ moon. I hate that kid. The movie features the lion (Ben Stiller) returning to his African roots when his flight back to the Central Park Zoo has mechanical difficulties. You’d think penguins would be better pilots. He reunites with his family. The only problem is that dancing lions don’t get much respect in the jungle. Oddly enough, Ben Stiller’s dad is voiced by the late- Bernie Mac. Was Jerry Stiller booked up? The best part of the film is an old lady stranded in the jungle who turns into a John Locke super-survivor. She turns her tour group into a well behaved Lord of the Flies outfit. This was more entertaining than the original just for Alec Baldwin’s role as a rival lion who goes after Bernie Mac’s power. The Blu-ray captures all the CGI detail. There’s even two bonus cartoons featuring the Penguins. These have the penguins back at the zoo dealing with the chimps and the lemurs. It’s kind of Tennessee Tuxedo without the 3-D blackboard. These new shorts are HD on the disc. Exclusive to the Blu-ray is the storyboard and interviews with the animators. The series appears to be coming soon from Nickelodeon. “Jambo Jambo: Swahili Speak” is a quickie lesson in the language. There is a game that lets you play the penguins trying to land the airplane. Shame there’s not a game that lets you have a penguin pummel the Dreamworks boy.

    DVD Shelf

    Friday 13th The Series: The 2nd Season has nothing to do with Jason hacking apart people. This was the syndicated series out of Canada that dealt with an evil antique store. Two cousins (Robey & John D. LeMay) inherit their uncle’s shop. They have to run around finding all the evil items he sold over the years. This second season has them discover their uncle isn’t quite dead. “Doorway to Hell” kicks off the season with a soul possessing battle out of the inferno. “The Secret Agenda of Mesmer’s Bauble” has former Prince protege Vanity playing a rock star. You might also remember her from The Last Dragon. Sho’nuff! Robey is so hot with her ’80s hair. Will she show up and attempt to retrieve my demonic Timex-Sinclair computer?

    Tales From the Darkside: The First Season was a 30 minute long horror anthology that featured stories from George Romero (Night of the Living Dead) and Stephen King (Cujo). “Trick or Treat” goes straight for the haunted house goodness. Bob Balaban (Seinfeld) directed it. “The New Man” has a stranger declare he’s the son of Vic Tayback (Alice). Vic is clueless, but his friends and family swear they’ve always known the son. Guess he ate too much of his chili at Mel’s and fried his brain. My favorite of this first season is “Djinn, No Chaser” when a couple buy a magic lamp and get a big surprise. Kareem Abdul-Jabber plays the genie. And he’s not happy to give out wishes. Years later, Shaq would retread Kareem’s performance in the Oscar dominating Kazaam. The legendary Harlan Ellison (Star Trek‘s “City on the Edge of Forever”) wrote the story and script. This is Kareem’s best work between Airplane and Slam Dunk Ernest.

    Christopher Titus: Love is Evol is the best stand up routine of the last three years. He opens up a vein as he breaks down his recent divorce. He gives a blow by blow description of how he found out his wife was cheating on him with several other guys. The first half of this show really makes you laugh at the toxicity of Titus’ failing marriage. No matter how ugly it gets, he makes sure to find the grotesque humor. However this is not anti-relationships pity party. Turns out that for now, he’s happy with his extremely young girlfriend. He has a field day with tales of his future father-in-law. Fans of Titus will be gasping for breath at these tales of betrayal and love. Titus delivers a theatrical performance piece that goes to core of a divorced guy who upgrades.

    The Beverly Hillbillies: The Official Third Season brings more country humor to the big city slickers. This was the time when Jed bought Mammoth Pictures and became a movie mogul. The family decides to move onto the Western backlot thinking its a working town. Elly hooks up with Dash Riprock. He’s such a cinematic stud, how will she go back to her monkey when exposed to such a man? “Double Naught Jethro” brings the James Bond mania to the Clampetts. Jethro decides being a spy is better than brain surgery. He loads up on the undercover gadgets. Who didn’t want their own lead lined hat? “Big Daddy, Jed” brings the beatniks into the picture.. They’re crazy and far out hipsters. Jack Kerouac cried when he saw this.. There’s 34 episodes in this boxset. They also have the original sponsor promos attached to the shows including ones for Winston Cigarettes.

    Melrose Place Fifth Season, Volume 1 continues the tale of the craziest apartment complex in SoCal. Josie Bissett and Laura Leighton think they are murderers for taking out Patrick Muldoon and tossing him a shallow grave. You can’t keep a good creep down in a primetime soap opera. The big changes happen when Lisa Rinna and Rob Estes move into the complex. It’s strange to look at Lisa before she became a plastic surgery disaster area. “Jane’s Addiction” has the double guest star whammy of Greg Evigan (BJ and the Bear) and Michael Des Barres (guy who replaced Robert Palmer when Power Station toured). “Escape from LA” has Josie Bissett departing the series. It’s so sad to see her part because outside of Traci Lords, she was the sweetest nutcase on this show. She was married to Estes in real life so why did she split? Guess she didn’t see too much left for her character to do besides become a cannibal. The series lasted seven seasons. Hopefully they’ll get all the DVDs out before CW revives it. Rumor has the second half of the fifth season coming out in July.

    Untamed and Uncut is my kind of nature special. The folks at Animal Planet put together these four episodes that show how dangerous animals will attack humans. They especially like the taste of stupid humans. A guy gets bit by a King Cobra. A bear trapped on a telephone pole gets a big jolt on his way down. A really dumb guy decides to stick his hand in the mouth of a landed shark. There’s a great white shark attack on surfers. A dog falls down a ski slope. A nature show hostess gets attacked by a cheetah. Extensive interviews surround the shocking footage and not merely washed up stars tossing out wisecracks like a VH1 special.

    Closing the Ring is an epic romance that soars from World War II to IRA activity in Belfast in the mid-90s. This Richard Attenborough film is a throwback without relying on a relic plot. Three young flyboys find themselves involved with Mischa Barton (The O.C.). We time skip to 50 years later when Barton grows up to be Shirley MacLaine. She’s putting her husband in the grave. Christopher Plummer is the last of the flyboys and the keeper of the secret of the three. Outside Belfast, Pete Postlethwaite (The Usual Suspects) and a kid (Martin McCann) pick through the wreckage of an old bomber. The kids finds Mischa’s wedding ring which forces Neve Campbell (Shirley’s daughter) to learn the family truth. For the guys, there’s plane wrecks and bombs exploding.

    Chocolate is the sweetest buttkicking film of the season. An autistic girl (Yanin Wismitanant) learns how to kickbox from watching TV. When her mom can’t afford a medical treatment, the daughter is called into service to collect old debts. She either return home with cash or broken bones. The last hour is pure teen destruction. She fights in a butcher shop and hanging off street signs. She’s a fearless killing machine. Things get plenty weird when she has to shown down with her real dad, a major mobster. The mayhem is first class. This Thai action film is directed by Prachya Pinkaew of Ong-Bak fame. A thrilling selection for anyone’s Kung Fu Theater night.

    Sabrina The Teenage Witch: The Fifth Season unleashes more of Nick Bakay’s vocal wizardry from Salem the cat’s mouth. This was the season that Sabrina (Melissa Joan Hart) went off to college in Boston. She gets a trio of roommates including Soleil Moon Frye. That’s right, it’s Clarrisa Explains It All meets Punky Brewster in a girl’s dorm room. Will there be pillow fighting? Sabrina resorts to magic to overcome the normal freshmen difficulties. The only magic we had in college was Jolt Soda and “Truckers Twilight.” We get to meet her evil twin in “You Can’t Twin.” There’s only two more seasons left.

    Girlfriends: Season 6 takes us back to a time when Tyler Perry wasn’t making every TV series with a black cast. Girlfriends was produced by Kelsey Grammer (Fraser). There’s a lot of consternation on the series. Maya and Darnell retie the knot in Las Vegas. However they quickly learn that there was a reason they divorced in the first place. Todd and Toni kick around getting divorced. One couple argue over getting a nanny. Although you know in a series like this, an extra female character is another “cheating” moment to begin a bicker war. There’s also a custody battle that goes into overdrive. This series must have been funded by the divorce lawyers of America.