Countdown to Friday the 13th

I watched one more movie from our Christmas stack today, 28 Weeks Later, the sequel to 28 Days Later. And while the film was better than The Happening, my choice from earlier today (and how could it not be?) I wasn't motivated to write a review. I came into my office with the intention of getting some blogging done, but fell into a Wiki-hole and an IMDB.com-hole, reading about how bad The Happening was. Most everybody agreed with me.

Anyway, along my travels, I happened upon this nifty "Countdown to Friday the 13th" series. It's a retrospective of all of the previous films, leading up to the release of the remake, which comes out next Friday. As a long-time fan, I thought I'd pass it along.

[Excerpt]

12 Days of Friday, Day 1: Friday the 13th

So here we are. Crystal Lake. First blood. Friday the 13th isn't necessarily a good movie, but it does seem to develop beyond its origins, at least more than when I last saw it. Grabbing my attention this time is how Friday the 13th is less a slasher and more a giallo flick, that subgenre of horror combining mystery plots and slick kills, popularized by early Dario Argento and Mario Bava. Even from their first movies, the Halloweens and A Nightmare on Elm Streets maintain momentum by forcing audiences to guess who will survive. Friday the 13th's driving question is less who will survive, but rather who is the killer? (Of course, we all know now it's Jason's mother.) . . .

Read more at: Rotten Tomatoes

UPDATE: I found a much more exhaustive and detailed series of articles with the same theme.

[Excerpt]

Introducing 13 Days of Friday the 13th: Day One - Friday the 13th (1980)

For a horror fan, there is no escaping Jason Voorhees or Friday the 13th. Even if you have never seen a single movie (for shame!), you know who he is, what he does, and what he looks like. But that's from my perspective. I grew up in the 80s, played the video game on a system known as Nintendo (now referred to as "The 8 Bit"), and suffered the indignity of that comic where he fought a talking Leatherface. . .

Read more at: Bloody-Disgusting.com

Photo from Wikipedia.org

And you can read my own take on the series here:
Halloween Horrors: Guide to Friday the 13th