Written by Luke Barnes

Friday The 13^th part 5 is a slasher horror film directed by Danny Steinmann. The plot continues the saga of Tommy Jarvis (John Shepard, now playing an older Tommy), who has been left scarred after the brutal end of Jason (Tom Morga), in the previous film and now lives in fear of the killer’s return from beyond the grave.

I will applaud this film for what it was trying to do, it was trying to exist without Jason; an errand that was always fated to fail as the series lives because of Jason, but that is also bold and interesting. I also thought the decision to focus on the after effects of a final showdown with Jason on Tommy was inspired.

However, ultimately I think this film is disappointing. Mainly because it squanders the chance for where this series could have gone without being reliant on Jason, by introducing a newer and blander version of basically the same character who has nothing noteworthy about him at all.

Moreover, other than Tommy, who benefited from having a previous, good, film to set him up, the rest of the cast of slasher fodder were all very forgettable as were the kills.

Overall, what began as a project of promise ended up being very generic.

Pros.

The mental health focus

The gutsy decision to try and move the series beyond Jason

Tommy Jarvis as a character

Cons.

It is dull

It is more than a little repetitive

It squanders its promise

2.5/5

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Written by Luke Barnes

Friday The 13^th The Final Chapter is a horror slasher film directed by Joseph Zito. Originally billed as the last entry in the Friday The 13^th series, this film sees Jason (Ted White), finally die.

This along with Part 2, which in my mind are tied, are the best entries into the Friday the 13^th series (of the first 5, as I haven’t seen past that yet). However, both films fall just short of glory with one thing disrupting each. In this film’s case it is the ending tease of Tommy Jarvis (Corey Feldman), becoming the new Jason. I did not like this tease and I thought it spoilt the film somewhat, I would have preferred if the film had been left open ended, with the effects of the brutal killing on Tommy’s psyche being left up to our interpretation. Even if they do end up going into it in detail in the next film.

I think this film has some of the best teens in the series with Trish (Kimberly Beck), Rob (E. Erich Anderson) and Jimmy (Crispen Glover), all being standouts. Of course Feldman is very serviceable as the lead and is fine as far as child actors go. I would have preferred for Rob to get a wider focus as his storyline, of coming to kill Jason after he attacked his sister years prior would have been very interesting to explore- sadly we didn’t get that. However, the small amount of time we get with Rob and his plotline is enjoyable.

I think the final showdown and what would have been the death of Jason Voorhees, if he wasn’t brought back 2 films later, feels satisfying and well-paced. Much like a lot of the series kills, the death of Jason is suitably bloody and over the top, reveling in the deranged spectacle.

Overall, a nice ending for the series, sadly the final few minutes taint the film somewhat but can be ignored.

Pros.

The showdown

The ‘death’ of Jason

The teens are likeable and have personality

Rob and his storyline

Cons.

Teasing Tommy as the next Jason

4.5/5

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Written by Luke Barnes

Friday The 13^th Part 3 is a horror film directed by Steve Miner. The events of the film take place directly after Part 2 and sees a defeated and hurt Jason (Richard Brooker), taking a moment to heal up before getting back out their to slaughter more camp councillors.

Of the film’s I’ve seen so far on my rewatch of the series this is definitely the worst so far. That is mainly because this film feels like filler, it is the middle film between Jason being hurt and then being ‘killed’ in Part 4. In terms of moving the franchise forward, this film just feels like more of the same.

Honestly when thinking about this film to write my review, it just blends in with the other films and all the moments I think ‘oh wait that was pretty cool’ were in fact from other entries in the series and not this film- literally nothing interesting happens here.

The teens are generic, and so are the kills. The original idea to have Amy Steel come back as a scarred Ginny Fields would have worked so much better for this film, sadly Steel didn’t want to come back, so they just made the film generic instead.

Overall, there is not a lot to say about this film it is definitely a low point in the series and is also deeply generic maybe skip over this one.

Pros.

It is still mindless fun to watch

Cons.

It is bland

It is forgettable

The new teens are painfully one note

Jason’s story is not furthered in any meaningful way

1/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Friday The 13^th Part 2 is a slasher film directed by Steve Miner. The film takes place 5 years after the events of the first film, except for the opening or at least that is the implication, and sees yet more camp councillors head down to Crystal Lake to try and reopen the summer camp once more. The wild parties and near constant sex soon turns ugly however, as a new killer begins killing councillors once again.

In my mind this is superior to the first film. Firstly, we get to see Jason not as a little zombie kid but as the killing machine we all know him as, yes in the space of 5 years Jason goes from a little kid to a huge fully grown man- don’t question it. Admittedly, he is minus his signature hockey mask, but it is still nice to see him in action.

Moreover, this film confirms the ending of part 1 was in fact real as Mrs Voorhees’ (Betsy Palmer), head is shown in the fridge of the final girl from part 1, she is then quickly killed by Jason. It is nice to get the closure, and finality to this plotline as it was a detriment of part 1.

Moreover, the teens of part 1, even Kevin Bacon, are all fairly forgettable and meh. However, Amy Steel’s Ginny Field is a terrific final girl; easily contending with other genre greats like Nancy and Sidney. The final showdown scene when Ginny becomes Mrs Voorhees, at least in Jason’s mind, is so well done and is actually quite creepy. On that note I also like how this film adds to the wider magic of the series and showcases the voodoo that is at play, again during this showdown scene in the form of dressing as we can see Mrs Voorhees’s severed head on top of a voodoo alter.

Overall, an improvement on the first film with an interesting final girl, a strong showdown and everyone’s favourite mask wearing zombie making his first proper appearance.

Pros.

Jason proper

Tying up the ending of the first film

Amy Steel

The showdown

Cons.

The ending feels a bit weak and too open ended.

4.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Friday The 13^th is a slasher film directed by Sean S. Cunningham. The plot sees a group of teen camp councillors head down to Crystal lake, the site of a grizzly murder years ago, to reopen a summer camp. However, as they do someone starts picking off the campers one by one.

So I have visited Elm Street and played a game with Jigsaw and now it is time to go camping at Crystal Lake and explore the Friday the 13^th series. So, in the past I have seen many of the films in this series, but I’ve never really taken them in, or looked at the series as a whole.

I think of all the slasher film franchises this series might be the most fun, sorry Freddy. There is something so campy and almost silly about this series, and this film, that just cant be ignored. Whether it is the camera angles and editing techniques that seem straight out of the modern youtuber playbook, or the preposterousness of the villain.

This is the only real entry in the series, apart from V, that doesn’t feature Jason as the villain and instead has Mrs Voorhees (Betsy Palmer). Mrs Voorhees makes for an interesting antagonist, and her motivations make her a believable threat.

Personally, I don’t think the end scare of having zombie Jason coming up out of the lake to attack the final girl works, and I think her surviving it, and it being played off as ‘oh maybe it was just a dream’ work even less.

Overall, a fun slasher film that benefits from being a little goofy, albeit unintentionally, and from having a strong antagonist.

Pros.

Mrs Voorhees

The goofier elements

It does slasher horror well

The kills are well executed

Cons.

The teens are very forgettable

4/5

Hush is a home invasion horror film directed by Mike Flanagan. The plot sees deaf mute writer Maddie (Kate Seigel), become terrorised by a masked killer and in order to survive she is forced to fight back.

I have heard people talk about this film for a while, it has been recommended to me several times over the year, yet it has remained in my Netflix que. However, that changed the other night as I finally decided to give it a go, and meh it was exactly what I was expecting it to be and nothing more.

I thought this was just going to be a run of the mill home invasion slasher film and it was just that, honestly it was just deeply average. As, someone who has seen a lot of these types of films I really found nothing of note about this film, nothing that made this film interesting or stand out from the rest of the subgenre; frankly I think the only reason it is even talked about is because the director also did The Haunting series for Netflix and they are popular.

The only real positive I can find with the film was that Seigel was a good lead. She is clearly doing the best with what she has to work with, but she makes the character rounded and interesting. We buy into her fight for survival as it feels genuine and relatable. It is also nice to see more deaf representation in the horror genre, even though the actor herself is not deaf.

Overall, if you like home invasion films and want to see the same old formula repeated again then you will enjoy this film, if you want something fresh that has an original idea, stay clear.

Pros.

Seigel

Cons.

It is more of the same

I’ve seen it done better before

It is boring and predictable

It lacks any kind of freshness

1.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

A Nightmare On Elm Street 5 is a slasher horror film directed by Stephen Hopkins. The plot continues to follow new dream warrior Alice (Lisa Wilcox), as she once again has to fight Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund), who has returned from the dead this time using Alice’s unborn babies dreams as a gateway back into our world.

This is by far the strangest nightmare yet, there is a lot of out there ideas that range from the goofy to the downright disturbed. Though Hopkins himself does not like this film, studio meddling once again, I think it has a place amongst the better trips to Elm street. I enjoyed the surreal feel to it and a lot of imagery was unsettling which I felt heightened the film.

Furthermore, the deeper dive into the origins of Freddy was interesting to see how it all began, the monster baby stuff not so much, but the rest of it was intriguing. That said, I found the focus on Alice’s baby, who is or isn’t Freddy’s son? Was bad, I did not care about this future character that is barley set up at all and just appears.

The deaths were a lot of fun, I thought the dinner party kill and the comic book esque kill were probably the best of the bunch, though they all have an entertaining campiness to them that makes them so fun to watch.

Overall, though some of the ideas were poorly thought out, baby Freddy springs to mind, I think because of the clear vison and style this film feels better than a lot of the other instalments.

Pros.

The Kills

The focus on Freddy’s origins

The campy fun

The visuals

Cons

Jacob as a character

Zombie baby Freddy

3.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Nightmare On Elm Street 4: Dream Master is a slasher horror film directed by Renny Harlin. The plot this time sees Freddy find a way to bring himself back to life, after seemingly being killed in the last film. He once again goes after the remainder of the Elm Street children, to strong degrees of success, and then sets his sights on new prey.

My first thoughts about this film is that it is odd that Kristen is no longer played by the same actor from the last film (Patricia Arquette), and is now re-cast younger for some reason despite this film supposedly being set after the third film. I understand they probably couldn’t afford her, but if that is the case why bring back the character at all?

The kills were so so this time around, which is not what you want to hear from a slasher film. There were a couple of funny and or well-done ones such as the water bed and the dojo fight scene. The rest, however, were fairly generic and fade almost immediately from memory.  The final fight was even more forgettable than that, and it all hinged on some strange nursey rhyme that was not set up, and despite him quoting it (implying he knew it), somehow served as Freddy’s death which makes very little sense.

Overall, other than a few inspired deaths this was a forgettable follow up that fails to live up to Dream Warriors in almost every way.

Pros.

Campy slasher fun

It is very watchable

A few good deaths

Cons.

Most of the deaths are generic

The final battle doesn’t make sense

Why bring back Kristen at all?

2.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is a slasher horror film directed by Chuck Russell. The plot sees Freddy (Robert Englund), terrorise and try to kill the remaining Elm Street children, who are locked away in a mental intuition. However, the remaining Elm Street Kids realise that they have dream powers themselves and that together they can fight back against Freddy.

I was getting strong X-Men vibes from this film, I know it is because I have recently seen the New Mutants and stylistically they share some similarities, but I just couldn’t shake the feeling throughout.

I thought this was a step up from the previous film as it gave me what I was asking for, more Freddy. Freddy really gets his time to shine here, his kills are more out there and oddly inventive and we get to see his past explored in more detail, which I found interesting.

I enjoyed seeing Nancy (Heather Langenkamp), return I thought it was a great way of tying the series together outside of Freddy, sadly she was not given all that much to do beside be a mentor for the new cast of kids. Said kids were okay, none of them really struck me or left any kind of impression, their powers were neat, but underdeveloped we needed more time seeing them use them for it to be believable and make sense.

Overall, this might be my favourite of the Elm Street films so far I enjoyed the focus on Freddy and the dream warriors are a cool concept, even if the execution is a bit shaky.

Pros

The focus on Freddy and his backstory

The return of Nancy

The powers (as an idea)

The kills

Cons.

The powers were not fleshed out enough and the dream warriors themselves were all very bland

4/5

Reviewed by Luke