Panned by critics during its initial release, Friday the 13th (1980) is arguably the quintessential American slasher. It also launched a seemingly unstoppable franchise. With an iconic villain (Jason Voorhees), an instantly identifiable location (Camp Crystal Lake), and a rabid fan base that expresses its adoration through everything from clothing to tattoos, the Friday the […]
This special issue celebrates the complexity, artistry, and cultural value of the Friday the 13th franchise, and it does so against four decades of reviewers who have dismissed and decried it. Indeed, the first essay of the issue shows pretty starkly how wrong mainstream film reviewers can be about horror film. In “‘It’s worth recognizing […]
Dustin Dunaway The slasher film is one of the few subgenres in which the female character gets most of the attention. “Final Girls” are a trope all their own, and rightly so, given the importance of gender to the slasher formula. But the surfeit of expendable male characters also leaves some areas unexamined. A genre […]
Wade Newhouse Though Mrs. Voorhees and Jason represent the archetypal fear of death by monster, the sylvan setting of summer camp in the original Friday the 13th movies is a particularly contemporary all-American place to stage such anxiety. Michael B. Smith’s account of the summer camp industry emphasizes that the impact of the historical camp […]
Kom Kunyosying and Carter Soles Jason Voorhees is the most popular backwoods slasher killer. While Leatherface and the largely suburban Michael Myers came first, neither of those masked psychopaths have achieved the same iconic status as Jason, whose identity can be evoked simply via the image of the hockey mask he wears from Friday the […]