I did this last week for Jason Voorhees, so I’m going to do it again with Freddy. I reached back into my stash of vintage Fangoria magazines and pulled out a few that had covers and articles about A Nightmare on Elm Street or Freddy Krueger.
The first issue I found was Fangoria #62 from 1987. It has a cover story on A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and the reunion of Nancy and Freddy. It was probably published a few months after the release of the movie.
This issue also featured the Friday the 13th Part 6 article about the gory scenes cut out of that film that I featured last week.
Here’s the cover article about Nightmare on Elm Street Part 3.
It’s an okay, mostly fluff article about what the new movie is supposed to be about. There are a lot of good photos, though, as Fangoria was always really good about including those in their main articles. No really good inside info, though.
Welcome to Week 3 of AWESOME-tober-fest 2012. Week 1 was Psycho Week in which I looked at Norman Bates. Week 2 was Friday the 13th Week in which I looked at Jason Voorhees. This week is Nightmare on Elm Street Week. So be prepared for some Freddy Krueger goodness all week.
In the late 80s St Martins published two collected volumes of novelizations to the first 5 Nightmare on Elm Street films.Both volumes were under The Nightmares on Elm Street banner.
The first volume was published in 1987 and called The Nightmares on Elm Street Parts 1, 2, 3: The Continuing Story. It was written by Jeffery Cooper.
Here is a review of the separate stories.
A Nightmare on Elm Street – This is very similar to the movie. You get a few more insights into Nancy’s thinking. However, honestly, I think this version is a bit abridged. It’s just over 70 pages. It seems like it should be longer. I feel like there were a few dream sequences that were cut from this novel. I could be wrong because it’s been a while since I’ve seen the movie. I know some of the Freddy-Nancy dream chases were a bit different in this book. But it felt short. But it was good nonetheless.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge – This particular movie gets so much crap from Nightmare fans. I know I hardly ever think about it. It’s not bad, it’s just not good either. The book is similar to the movie. Interesting at best. It continues the idea that Freddy feeds on fear, which is really dropped by the movie version of Part 3. I also feel like this is an abridged version. Again, it’s about 70 pages. I’m not sure what, if anything, was cut because I haven’t watched this movie in years, but nothing really jumped out at me as being different.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors – This one was the most fascinating. The book is apparently based on an early version of the script so the characters are mostly the same, but the story is wildly different. Especially the aspects of the Dream Warriors’ powers. Kirsten is mainly unchanged with her powers and character. Kincaid is a large, streetwise black man, but his dream power is flight instead of super strength like in the movie. Joey, who was mute for the majority of the movie but only part of this book, was the one that was super strong. Taryn, instead of being a punked out rocker chick with no powers actually breathed fire in the book (so much more awesome). Jennifer could turn invisible or phase out and the kid in the wheelchair, Will, that loved fantasy role playing and had wizard like powers was actually stupidly named Laredo in the book and not in a wheelchair at all. But he had the same wizard powers. Also, gone is the subplot involving Nancy’s dad and the burying of Freddy’s bones. Kirsten still tries to kill herself in the opening and gets sent to the hospital. There she meets the other Dream Warriors. Nancy shows up similar to in the movie. Nancy and Neil Guiness (Gordon in the movie) have a romantic attachment/affair. We find out about Freddy’s origin not from Amanda Krueger’s ghost but from plain and simple detective work by Nancy (which I like better). Joey isn’t seduced by the nurse but an old high school crush. The big dream fight where Freddy kills some of the Warriors is a lot bigger and more grandiose. Laredo (Will) actually has a pretty awesome shape-shifting fight with Freddy where he turns into a fire breathing dragon. If filmed, it would have been pretty epic as opposed to the lame fight that’s in the movie. Pretty much everyone dies. Kincaid, Taryn, Jennifer, Joey and Laredo (Will). Oh and Nancy dies killing Freddy. Kirsten and Neil are the only ones left. Somehow, Kirsten keeps Nancy alive in the Dream World and Neil visits her every night when he sleeps. It’s weird, honestly. The book ends similar to the movie in that Kirsten’s model Elm Street house has a light turn on. As if Freddy’s not dead. In many ways, I liked this story better. Especially the end battle between the Dream Warriors and Freddy. Plus, the themes from the first movie about Freddy feeding on fear and to defeat him you must take away that fear are more prevalent. However, with the novel, you don’t get the Dokken theme song, but I guess you can play that while you read the book.
At the end of the book there’s a short story that supposedly tells the “origin” of Freddy Krueger. It’s not really considered canon by anyone involved with the movies. And that’s fine because it’s not very good.
In 2009, New Line and Platinum Dunes released Friday the 13th. It was a reboot/re-imagining of the horror movie franchise from 1980.
I’m a big fan of Jason Vorhees and the Friday the 13th franchise. I enjoy most of the installments but my favorite ones are Part VI: Jason Lives and Part III in 3D. I also enjoy Jason X because it’s balls out crazy with Uber Jason. So I’m a fan going in and that means I have the potential to hate everything about this reboot. Let’s see if I do.
The story starts with a mother going crazy and killing all the counselors (except one) at Camp Crystal Lake after her son drowns. Unknown to the mother, the son, Jason, was still alive and watches her get beheaded by the last surviving counselor. Years later, Jason is surviving off the land and lives in the tunnels hidden underneath the camp. A group of partying kids stumble upon the remains of Camp Crystal Lake and Jason does everything he can to protect “his turf” against the interlopers. Now, that synopsis is decidedly biased towards Jason, but that is essentially what happens. Overall, the story follows a typical Friday the 13th structure. Teenagers partying, stumble upon abandoned camp, show boobies, incur the wrath of Jason, get killed.
Check out the trailer:
However, when you delve into the details of this movie, it is slightly different than the formula. Most especially with the behavior of Jason. The movie turns Jason into a survivalist. He isn’t just killing to kill. It is implied that Jason has lived on the grounds of old Camp Crystal Lake for years by himself. He only becomes “active” when someone “invades his area”. He’s protecting his ground in the most egregious way possible. They’ve also made this Jason leaner, faster and more calculating. He’s actually laying traps for his victims. I for one love this portrayal of Jason and I love that we see his lair and that he can get around camp underground in the tunnels without being seen. I always wondered how this giant murderous dude in a hockey mask walked around the wide open camp without being seen except at the last moment. Jason knows this camp like the back of his hand, so this combined with the tunnels is a great solution.
Now, I guess, let’s discuss the teens. They were what they were. You have the hot, horny party chicks. The prude chick. The douchebag guy. The sweet guy. The stoner. The black guy. They are all there and they all serve their purpose, to be killed off in a spectactular fashion. For instance, Jason scores a sweet bow and arrow kill on a guy around the 45 min mark. Yes, he actually shoots an arrow with a bow into a guy’s head that is driving a boat on the lake. BAD. ASS. Jason also stabs one of the horny blondes in the head from above. So the kills are pretty good and imaginative.
As for the hot girls, the movie delivers. For me, the hottest chick in the movie was Bree, who is played by Juliana Guill (see pic below). Followed very closely by Amanda, played by America Olivo with Willa Ford as Chelsea a close third. All three of these chicks are smoking hot and make a fine addition to the Friday the 13th babe museum. And all three show boobs (BONUS).
Hello, I’m Bree and I’m incredibly hot. And drunk.
So, overall, this reboot isn’t that bad. I really like what they did with Jason and I liked a lot of the kills. I also enjoyed how Jason started off with the sack over his head for the first few kills in an homage to the original Part II. Jason Vorhees didn’t get the hockey mask until the mid point of Part III so this version also doesn’t get the mask until mid-way through the movie. That was a nice touch. And the black and white intro that replayed the climatic scene of Mrs Vorhees getting beheaded was also really well done. I liked what this movie did with the Jason mythos and I would enjoy seeing more of this Jason on the big screen. However, it’s unclear whether we are actually going to get a sequel, even though this movie made pretty good money.
Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.
Today, we are going to look at a novelization for one of my favorite entries in the Friday the 13th franchise, Part VI: Jason Lives.
This novelization was written by Simon Hawke and published during the original release of the movie in 1986. Hawke would go on to write novelizations of the first three Friday the 13th movies in 1987 and 1988. Hawke’s novelization of Part III would be the second novelization for that film. I reviewed both novelizations in yesterday’s article. And I don’t know about you, but that book cover is AWFUL. I don’t know why they didn’t just use the awesome poster for the movie.
This would have been a much better book cover.
This particular novelization, like many of the other F13 and Nightmare books, has become very hard to find. Again, I want to thank my friend Jason for loaning me them for the purpose of this review.
This novelization is a very good adaptation of the movie. Not much new in so far as cut scenes. However, what Hawke does here that he would carry over into his novelizations of Parts I-III is to go into the heads of not only the main characters, but also Jason himself. There are many passages in which Jason questions his undying existence and wonders about his constant blood lust. It makes the story more interesting and adds an extra depth to the mute Jason. These inner monologues are used to fill in backstories for many of the other characters as well like Sheriff Garris and Tommy Jarvis.
And so continues our second week of AWESOME-tober-fest 2012. Last week was Norman Bates/Psycho week. This week is Jason Vorhees/Friday the 13th week. Let’s start off this week with TWO novelizations written for the same movie; Friday the 13th Part 3 in 3-D.
Yes, there were two novelizations written for Friday the 13th Part 3. The first was by Michael Avallone and published the same year as the movie’s release in 1982. This particular novelization was the first published for any of the Jason movies.
Right away, the cover for this novelization is pretty awesome. First of all, the hockey mask isn’t the standard Jason mask. However, Jason didn’t actually get the mask until Part 3, so the Jason hockey mask was not the iconic symbol when this book was published that it is today. Also, I love that they included the 3-D moniker in the title. Like the book is actually written in 3-D (IT SHOULD TOTALLY BE WRITTEN IN 3-D!!!).
For most of the book, the story sticks pretty close to the movie. A few deviations here and there, nothing really to mention. However, that is, until the end. This novelization is interesting in that it features an alternate ending from the one used in the actual movie. In this ending, Chris, who is in the canoe in the lake, hears her boyfriend’s voice back at the lake house. She gets out of the lake and runs back up to the house and opens the door only to have Jason decapitate her. This is vastly different than the “it was all a nightmare” ending that was actually used.
This novelization would go out of print and become fairly hard to find until Paramount decided to publish Friday the 13th novelizations for the release of Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives.
Cavalcade of Awesome 