Emma Talks Nerdy About: Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)

Poster for Part 2

This review previously appeared on my other blog "When Franchises Attack!" 

Having helped solidify and codify the slasher genre with its first installment, it was inevitable that Friday the 13th part 2 would be the very definition of the quick and dirty slasher sequel. With the amount of profit the first film made the sequel was turned around and on the drive in screens inside a calender year. Arguably this is the first film in the series which is a true "Friday the 13th" as Jason takes over the serial killing duties from Mommy as after quickly dispatching the last movies final girl with an ice pick to the temple he goes back to the shores of Crystal Lake where five years after the events of the first film a training camp for counselors  has been set up.

Jason, rocking this seasons must have "Homicide" look

With a scant 87 minute running time it's a film that doesn't hang around, it knows what you want to see and gets straight down to business with a much larger body count and more gore to boot. The film is rather derivative to say the least, with a lot of the kills being copies of ones seen in the first film and the speedy turn around of the film means that problems with the plotting didn't get fixed, Ginny's escape is conveniently brushed over and Paul just disappears out of the film, fate unknown as Jason escapes into the woods. Also unexplained is Jason's growth in a mere five years from lake dwelling child to a hulking 7 foot tall hillbilly with the physique of a UFC fighter and a charming shack (death altar off the bedroom and lake views to die for). The unnecessary T&A synonymous with the horror genre is very much on the agenda here, Terry being subject to lingering shots of her rear.

Pamela, looking a bit worse for wear

These issues aside there is a lot to enjoy in this film, the kills are well directed and cool, with the ability to shock, Mark's brutal death a stand out. It takes a brave film to kill off the charming, handsome paraplegic with a machete to the face while the annoying camp clown survives. Ginny is for me the most likable final girl of the series and her fight with Jason is tense and exciting, I particularly like her attempt to fool Jason by donning Pamela's rather tatty jumper and trying to talk her way out of trouble. Jason is perhaps his most intimidating in this installment, wearing a burlap sack instead of his iconic hockey mask with dungarees and a plaid shirt he is the definition of every demented woodsman of many an urban legend. I touched on the decision to kill off Alice from the previous film and that, oddly, might be the best idea the franchise ever had. Friday the 13th had accusations of being a direct rip off of Halloween leveled at it after the first film and that's something I explored in my review of it. By killing off Alice rather than making her the heroine of the series, like the Halloween series did with Laurie Strode, it made it's own mark on the genre and strode off confidently in it's own direction, This is reinforced by the murder of poor old Crazy Ralph and the rise of Jason, it's a series unafraid to break it's own rules.

sadly, this is an edge Mark did not enjoy

While Friday the 13th Part 2 could certainly be viewed as a cheap and nasty remake of the first film, done solely to grind out a further profit for the studio there is plenty to admire in this film and while for me it's not as good as Friday the 13th, it has an enjoyable edge that can't be denied.

 EMMA'S SCORE: 65 out of 100

Emma Talks Nerdy About: Destination Star Trek London

My tickets for the event

This post previously appeared on my other blog "When Franchises Attack!"

This weekend I was lucky enough to attend what has turned out to be the biggest Star Trek convention ever, Destination Star Trek London, I chose to visit over two days, Saturday and Sunday and this post will be an overview of my adventure and my impression of the organisation of the event.

Saturday started for me at the frankly ridiculous hour of 6:30 am as I rose to get myself down to the ExCel Center for when the event opened. Although I knew this was going to be a big event the actual scale surprised me, I've been to quite a few conventions in my time but when I arrived and was ushered into an enormous aircraft hangar to wait for the doors to open at 9 am I found myself in a queue of at least 2000 people, a lot of whom were in full costume, an awesome sight,

Once I finally got inside the venue I had a quick circuit of the main hall to get my bearings then got down to the serious business of grabbing some merchandise while the stands were fairly quiet. Once that was all done I checked out the museum exhibits from a private collection then settled myself at Stage "C" for the "Meet The Producers" talk with Brannon Braga and Ronald D Moore. They were both on good form and spent most of their time on stage taking audience questions on many subjects such as at Kirk's death in Star Trek: Generations, Braga saying "Kirk should have died on HIS bridge not on A bridge" (to great applause), the future of Star Trek on TV and flaws of Star Trek Voyager. Braga intriguingly saying that he had originally planned an arc for 7 of 9 that after her discovery that she couldn't feel full emotion without it killing her in "Human Error" and feeling stuck between two worlds, unable to be "fully human" and not wanting to return to the Borg Collective she would have sacrificed her life so the crew would be able to get home in the final Voyager episode "Endgame".

Sir Patrick onstage

After a bit more wandering around and sitting down for a coffee and a chinwag with friends I took myself off for the main event of my day, the talk with Sir Patrick Stewart. He came on stage to rapturous applause and much like other guests he launched straight into taking questions from the huge audience. Luckily the questions he took were excellent and so he was able to riff off the answers, he spoke movingly about his long friendship with Brian Blessed, told an amazing anecdote about having his comb over forcibly cut off by a director friend and his wife in the middle of restaurant and expressed how proud his was to run the Olympic torch through Croydon. After Sir Patrick had left to stage I grabbed a quick dinner and headed home to prepare for Sunday...

On Sunday I elected to have a lie in and rolled into the convention center around midday, one of my friends had managed to get tickets to the afternoon's free talks, so after a quick visit to the DVD stand to pick up a couple of bargains and check out some snippets from the upcoming Next Generation Season 2 blurau (which looks absolutely stunning) we plonked ourselves down for the Deep Space Nine crew talk. Stage B was packed to the rafters as Andrew Robinson, Cirroc Lofton, Rene Auberjonois, Nana Vistor and Chase Masterson came on stage. After telling us a little bit about what they're up to these days they took audience questions. They ranged from some fairly serious as an audience member asked if in a post 9/11 world a character like Major Kira would be in Trek to the fairly silly as Andrew Robinson was prompted to do a headstand! After they departed it was time for co-star Micheal Dorn to step up in a solo talk, he launched immediately into taking questions and although he refused to do a "Worf voice" he gave us a blast from what he revealed to be his favourite post Trek project "I Am Weasel", told us about the culture shock of moving from The Next Generation to Deep Space Nine and of his evening round at Patrick Stewart's flat with Brent Spiner and Scott Bakula. 

The Grew holds court

After this I went straight into my final event of the weekend, Kate Mulgrew's talk and what a way to finish the weekend off, The Grew was on sparkling form and had the crowd roaring with laughter as she told anecdotes about being wound up by her co stars, having to live in the trailer next Robert Duncan McNeill's and how she wished if anyone on Voyager had been gay that it would have been 7 of 9 before raising a saucy eyebrow! 

So as I made my way home, out into a dark, rainy Sunday evening I thought over the whole weekend, Showmasters and Media 10 did a great job getting big names over to the UK for a convention and attracting more that 17,000 fans over three days. There were some problems, the access to Stage B in particular, there  was nowhere near enough capacity for the crowds that wanted to see their heroes and the queuing system broke down to the point that I heard some people had stood in line for over an hour before staff members finally told them they had all gone for the day. The decor of the show hall left a lot to be desired and while The Klingon and Federation Zones were a nice idea they looked cheap didn't have any activities going on to amuse people, games tables or video games would have nice. Also the amount of ambient noise they created  caused problems for the guests, The Klingon Zone was right next to Stage B and had a huge gong which was being constantly banged to the point where guests couldn't hear audience questions. I also wish that more fanclubs, merchandise sellers and podcasts get invited along next time as I felt they were sorely underrepresented.

These niggles aside I had a wonderful time at Destination Star Trek London, I really hope that the huge attendance of this event will mean that another will take place in the near future and if it does, I'll be there!

Goodbye DSTL, hope you come back real  soon

Emma Talks Nerdy About: Friday the 13th (1980)

The theatrical poster

This review previously appeared on my other blog "When Franchises Attack!" 

It could be argued that before Friday the 13th there was no slasher genre. The concept had been explored in many a important date themed slice n’ dice flicks that flooded the drive-ins in the early eighties. Thanks to word of mouth and the groundbreaking special effects from Dawn of the Dead‘s Tom Savini, the movie’s reputation quickly grew.

The makers Friday the 13th were always the first to admit how many ideas they stole from John Carpenter’s Halloween, and watching the movie with a critical eye the similarities certainty show through, you have as faceless killer, the promiscuous kids and the prophet of doom, here in the shape of Crazy Ralph. The thing the thing that sticks out most to me is the use of the camera to show us things that the characters don't know, like the phone lines being cut. The camera is also a voyeur, putting us not only in the position of the killer, spying on teen sex but also in the position of the victims.

well, that's going to ruin his day

On the surface Friday the 13th seems to be a cheap exploitation film directed by a businessman for a relative tuppence to turn a quick profit, the part we all watch horror movies for, the kills, are surprisingly low key, 30 years on what once caused moral watchdogs to collectively foam at the mouth now may cause a giggle rather than a gasp with a couple even happening off screen but they are elevated beyond the ordinary Tom Savini's remarkable effects work. The deaths of Jack (arrow through the neck) and Marcie (ax to the face) still made me wince, even though I must have seen them a dozen times. The fact that the cast are genuinely likable  unlike a lot of its horror fellows does much to elevate the film above its peers.

Pamela attacks!

Alice proves to be a suitable final girl, even if she has no less than three opportunities to kill Pamela before finally relieving her of her head. When I watched the film with a more analytic eye I found myself starting to feel quite sorry for Mommy Dearest, far from being a rampaging monster (that ironically her son would become) she's been driven insane by grief and guilt, while this doesn't excuse her appalling actions it gives a welcome layer of complexity and for me it played a massive part in why Friday the 13th went on to huge success and many a sequel. However once you start to think about it too hard the idea of a small woman overpowering healthy young people and being able to chuck them through windows makes the film feel slightly ridiculous and for me diminishes its power. Moving the mantle from mother to son them becomes a very wise decision.

The other factor for me is the final twist which is unique and unpredictable and promises so much more to come. Its shortcomings aside, Friday the 13th is an inventive and enjoyable movie and unlike most of the films that followed, Friday the 13th felt fresh and fun and still feels that way today.

EMMA'S SCORE: 85 out of 100