3/25/2023 0 Comments Newsbar 4th and 13thThe thin storyline, which once again follows Jason as he stalks and terrorizes a variety of disparate figures, is compounded by a deliberateness that's aggressive even by the standards of this far-from-brisk franchise, with the movie's ongoing emphasis on the fun-loving antics of its characters (eg they party, they go skinny dipping, etc) ensuring that one's interest has vanished long before Jason makes his first proper entrance. There's little doubt that Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter marks the nadir of the series up to this point, as the movie suffers from a palpable lack of plot that results in an overflow of almost astonishingly pointless (and gore-free) sequences. It's worth noting, too, that the film's final girl climax is actually somewhat better and more entertaining than one might've anticipated, which ultimately does ensure that the movie, while ineffective as a whole, fares slightly better than either part one or part two. (There are a few entertaining examples of this, admittedly, including a detached eyeball that's propelled to the forefront of the screen.) Friday the 13th: Part III's deliberate pace ensures that its opening hour is essentially a total wash, and it goes without saying that the movie doesn't improve until Jason embarks on his inevitable killing spree in the movie's latter half. (At the very least, the trio meet a grisly end at Jason's murderous hands.) The less-than-terrifying atmosphere is compounded by the film's far-from-subtle use of 3D effects, with filmmaker Steve Miner thrusting an object to at the camera with woeful frequency. (It's worth noting that none of Jason's victims in the film are actually camp counselors, which is a little jarring, to put it mildly.) It's ultimately clear that Friday the 13th: Part III suffers from some seriously prominent instances of padding, far more so than either of its predecessors, with the best and most obvious example of this a continuing emphasis on the exploits of three laughably out-of-place thugs. The Friday the 13th saga continues with this typically underwhelming entry, with the storyline following Richard Brooker's Jason as he once again stalks and kills a group of young adults. But the final stretch, which predictably involves a tedious pursuit through overly dark environs, ensures that Friday the 13th: Part 2 ends on a decidedly underwhelming note, with the film ultimately right in line with its passable yet far-from-memorable predecessor. Filmmaker Steve Miner admittedly does a nice job of infusing the proceedings with bursts of agreeable style, and there are a handful of appreciatively brutal kill sequences sprinkled throughout the 87 minute running time. Once that's out of the way, however, the movie establishes itself as an all-too-typical slasher whose problems are compounded by an incongruously deliberate pace - with the less-than-engrossing atmosphere highlighting the narrative's absence of compelling characters. Though it opens with a series of fairly needless flashbacks, Friday the 13th: Part 2 quickly segues into a surprisingly suspenseful pre-credits sequence detailing the doomed exploits of Friday the 13th survivor Alice (Adrienne King). Picking up five years after the original film, Friday the 13th: Part 2 follows a whole new group of camp counselors as they arrive at Crystal Lake and are subsequently murdered by Warrington Gillette's Jason. The ongoing inclusion of needlessly light-hearted elements - ie there's a town nutjob (Walt Gorney's Crazy Ralph) and a goofy cop (Ron Millkie's Officer Dorf) - only cements Friday the 13th's place as a curiously uninvolving horror effort, although it's admittedly worth noting that the movie does fare marginally better than its overblown 2009 remake. And while it's hard to deny the strength of the increasingly sporadic kill sequences, the payoff for the almost interminable build-up ultimately comes off as anti-climactic and dull - with the last survivor's efforts at evading the murderer transpiring within the claustrophobic confines of the camp's poorly-lit environs. There quickly reaches a point, however, wherein the almost relentlessly routine storyline - which follows several camp counselors (including Kevin Bacon's Jack and Adrienne King's Alice) as they're individually knocked off by a mysterious figure - becomes oppressive in its uneventfulness, as the emphasis is consistently placed on the fun-loving shenanigans of the central characters (ie a group participates in a game of strip monopoly). As disposable and uneven as one might've expected, Friday the 13th nevertheless boasts an opening half hour that admittedly holds some promise - as screenwriter Victor Miller offers up an effective bit of misdirection in the form of a bubbly protagonist (Robbi Morgan's Annie) that unexpectedly becomes the film's first victim.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |