FRIDAY THE 13th
USA/2009/Directed by Marcus Nispel



Nearly 30 years after its original 1980 release, Friday the 13th remains one of the most seminal and influential horror films of modern times. While John Carpenter's classic Halloween (1978) set the template for what has become invariably known as the 'splatter' or 'slasher' film, the genre did not really explode until Friday the 13^th’s surprise success at the box-office (the years immediately following its release saw a rash of similar themed films such as Prom Night, He Knows You're Alone, The Prowler and Alone in the Dark dominate the independent horror cinema scene).

Originally conceived as a low-budget, exploitation potboiler that was bound for a short run at drive-ins and grindhouse cinemas, producer/director Sean S Cunningham hit paydirt when Friday the 13^th was picked up for distribution by Paramount, who dumped the film into thousands of mall cinemas across America, giving the movie a level of exposure that the filmmakers would never even have imagined during production.



The status which the Friday the 13^th films have established for themselves in modern pop cinema is puzzling to most, including an admitted fan like myself. While Halloween exuded a genuine sense of mood and atmosphere, and directorial flair, and Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) explored some interesting themes regarding the power of dreams and their effect on the psyche, the Friday the 13^th movies are little more than disposable junk. Entertaining junk certainly, but completely superficial, with little artistic flair (save for the creative make-up effects) or intellectual depth, and working purely on a cathartic level. The fact that they are still producing Friday the 13^th movies three decades after their inception is a testament to not only the longevity of Jason Voorhees – the iconic central character of the series – but of the timeless allure of fiction and fantasy which plays upon our primal fears.



After eleven movies where he’s been chopped up, burned, axed in the head, drowned, re-animated as a rotting zombie, shot spears at the audience in 3D, invaded Manhattan, spent time in Hell, pitted against a psychic and gone mano e mano with Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees now finds himself victim to Hollywood’s latest horror curse: the remake.

Directed by German born Marcus Nispel (who also helmed the 2003 remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), this Friday the 13^th tries to broaden its appeal by being both a remake and pseudo-sequel. Because it wasn’t Jason Voorhees, rather his mother, who did all the killing in the original film, a literal remake would not have been a wise commercial move. Thus, the first twenty minutes of the film take care of the remake portion, recapping the story of Camp Crystal Lake, a summer camp for kids which becomes cursed after the mongoloid (can we still use that term in these PC times?) child Jason Voorhees seemingly drowns in the lake. Blaming the inattentive (and oversexed) teenage counsellors for her son’s death, Jason’s mother goes on a killing spree across the camp, dispatching the counsellors one by one until she in turn is beheaded. Years later, Jason turns out to be very much alive and out for vengeance against the world, picking off a group of young adults who venture into his picturesque wooded domain in search of a rumoured cannabis crop (a plot point which has had some conspiracy theorist fans in the US claiming that Jason is really a drug harvester who’s simply protecting his stash!). The plight of a second (and much more annoying) group of young intruders provides Jason with the bulk of his exercise and entertainment.



There's really nothing new to be found in this Friday the 13^th reboot. The characters are just as clichéd, obnoxious and idiotic as always (and thankfully so, as it would be a lot tougher to watch characters you cared about being the victims of wholesale slaughter). However, one thing that is new is the level of brutality and viciousness on display, which is in keeping with the recent trend in horror movies, as witnessed in films such as the Saw and Hostel series’, and in the works of Rob Zombie (House of 1,000 Corpses, The Devil’s Rejects, the Halloween remake). In previous Friday the 13^th movies, Jason was depicted as very instinctual and shark like, doing simply what he needs to do with cool and calculated precision. His victims died horribly, but at least they died relatively quick. Here, we get more of a sense that Jason actually revels in and gains pleasure from his killings. We also get to see where Jason hides from the world, and where he stashes his collection of mementos from his kills (something never really touched upon in previous films).

Despite its overall familiarity, there are some definite highlights to be found here. The opening twenty minute sequence is great – compact and taut, and presented on a slicker and more grander scale that what we have seen before. The rest of the film never really lives up to it, but there are enough good scares peppered throughout it to make it worth the journey. The film looks great (and nice to see they have used original Texas Chainsaw Massacre lenser Daniel Pearl as cinematographer). More advantage is taken of the naturally foreboding elements of the woods at night, and there are some nice references to the older films, such as Jason’s original sack mask (as seen in Friday the 13^th Part 2), and the obtaining of his now famous hockey mask (actually given a different origin here than in Part 3). The film also benefits from a moody score by Steve Jablonsky (although the awful rap tracks I could have done without).

If you hated the movies that came before it, this is not likely to change your opinion one bit. Die-hards will nitpick it, but should also realise that what they got was a pretty good addition to the series, certainly the best film since 1984’s Friday the 13^th Part 4: The Final Chapter). Undemanding fans who like their horror movies simple and bloody should lap it up and devour it.

At the American box-office, Friday the 13^th has already taken more money than any other film in the series save for 2003’s Freddy Vs. Jason (which obviously benefited from having two horror icons as its focus). When they first started churning out the sequels, I remember reading (probably in the pages of Fangoria) that the producers’ ultimate goal was to produce a fitting total of thirteen films in the series. But considering the way people are still turning out in droves to see Jason Voorhees do his thing, I’m sure they’ve got no intention of stopping there...

Copyright John Harrison 2009

WATCHMEN
2009/USA/Directed by Zach Snyder

While it’s not the first film based on a comic book to be aimed squarely at an adult audience (think Sin City), Watchmen may be the first Hollywood film featuring what appear to be ‘classic’ superheroes that explicitly excludes kids from its potential audience demographic (and sacrificing quite a bit of box-office potential in the process).

Based on the landmark 1986 graphic novel, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons (originally published by DC Comics as a 12 issue mini-series), Watchmen casts itself in the reality based world on mid-1980s America. However, unlike Batman Begins and The Dark Knight (which cast Batman in a recognisable real world), the 1980s depicted in Watchmen is that of an alternative reality. A wonderful opening title sequence, accompanied by the laconic strains of Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are-A-Changing, takes us on a journey through the past decades as they happened within the film’s world: America has won the Vietnam War, Nixon is still the President of the USA, and a group of self-styled costumed superheros calling themselves ‘The Watchmen’ have virtually taken over the role of the uniformed police. 

By the 1980s, however, things have changed. Superheroes have been outlawed, and America and the USSR tetter on the brink of annihilating each other through nuclear assault. When one of the original Watchmen, the cigar chomping Comedian, is thrown to his death out of a high rise window, the remaining members of the group start to debate whether or not the Comedian’s murder was an isolated incident, or if they are caught up in a plot to rid the world of all its former masked heroes. Around this simplistic but effective noirish set-up, the story piles on layers of exposition and character development and interaction, as the Watchmen slowly find themselves drawn back to each other to confront a plot to assure world peace by the most insidious of methods.

The characters in Watchmen were inspired mostly from obscure comic book characters of the 1940s, something which is clearly evident in the style of their outfits and mannerisms. Nite Owl features owl themed gadgets, while the original Silk Spectre (her daughter goes on to take up the mantle) looks like she stepped straight out of the nose art of an American World War II bomber. Dr Manhattan, formerly the scientist Jonathan Osterman who was transformed into a quantum being that can command particles after he was trapped in a ‘Intrinsic Field Subtractor’ in 1959, is the only Watchman with any real super powers, and recalls the great science-fiction characters often found in Marvel Comics in the early 1960s.

Certainly, these aren’t your ordinary superheroes, and while they may break the clichés usually found in this genre, they do often conform to other well-established character stereotypes (the Comedian, for example, is a misogynistic rapist and woman killer with incestuous leanings, the type we have seen many times in other films outside of the superhero genre). By far the most interesting, and strongest, character is Rorschach, a small statured but lithe and volatile character who wears a grey mask that features a constantly changing ink blot pattern on its face. Continuing the fight against crime despite his outlaw status, the scenes where Rorschach is locked up in a brutal prison (where he must confront many of the sociopaths whom he helped put away), as well as a flashback sequence where he tracks down a child killer and makes his transition from crime fighter to vigilante, provide some of the film’s most powerful and memorable moments.

At nearly three hours long, Watchmen demands a lot of attention and concentration from its audience. Let your mind wander for a moment, or duck out for a quick bathroom break, and you may struggle to find your way back into the film’s narrative. Director Zach Snyder (300) deserves credit for treating his source material with respect, as well as for eschewing a big name cast in favour of an ensemble of lesser names who work well together, although Jackie Earl Haley as Rorschach provides the only real stand-out performance.

Technically, the film is a mixed bag. Some moments of stunning visual impact are offset by some rather lacklustre CGI effects, while the soundtrack too often utilizes pop music numbers in an attempt to create an ironic juxtaposition with the violence occurring on screen.

As he has done with every filmic adaptation of his works (From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, V for Vendetta), writer Alan Moore, who hates Hollywood and its ‘blockbuster’ mentality with a vengeance, has refused to allow his name to be attached to the project, with the film’s credits making no mention of the man whose pen inspired it (Moore also refuses any monetary remuneration for films based on his work, donating all of his fees and royalties to the other artists who were involved in the original comic book project).

Ultimately, Watchmen succeeds as a well-crafted and occasionally intelligent piece of adult filmmaking, but I found it to be a somewhat dispassionate and uninvolving cinema experience – something to be admired rather than enjoyed, which is an admirable accomplishment on its own, but not exactly the first thing I look for in a comic book film.

Review by John Harrison
Copyright 2009

IT WAS A SAD DAY FOR THIS OLD ROCKER



It’s taken me a couple of days to really come to grips with the passing of iconic Cramps frontman Lux Interior. Maybe I just didn’t want to believe it, hoping that it was just gonna be another elaborate, cruel hoax…after all, it wouldn’t be the first time that Lux had been proclaimed dead, only to rise again (a famous 1978 hoax had him prematurely dying of a heroin overdose). But as the story started to appear on some of the more reliable news and music websites, it appeared there would be no relieving punchline this time.



While Kiss were the first band I ever felt passionate about, The Cramps were the first band to ever dictate and influence my lifestyle, my attitude, my way of thinking and – dare I say it? – the way I walked and the way I talked. Their music (and in particular, their majestic 1985 album A Date With Elvis) provided the soundtrack to many seminal moments (both sunny and dark) of my early 20s. Their encyclopaedic knowledge (and obvious love for) obscure pop culture led me to seek out film and music which has remained inspirational and integral to my life to this day.



Revolving around the nucleus of Lux and his life partner Poison Ivy Rorschach, the Cramps took everything that was great about obscure surf and rockabilly music, combined it with their genuine love of B movies and classic horror pulp comics, imbued it all with a punk aesthetic and created a unique sound that could often only be described as swamp rock from another planet. Often imitated, never equalled. Their live shows were equally as otherworldly, an aural and visual assault on the senses that never let up throughout their 30+ years of touring – even as he hit 60, Lux was still performing with such manic energy that the sweat would literally have to be poured from out of the skin tight vinyl jumpsuits he’d often favour. One need only watch the video of the concert they performed in front of inmates at the Napa State Mental Hospital in 1978 to see what a manic and galvanising live band the Cramps were.

I am old enough to remember the day I walked into class and my English teacher, Mr Devry, told us that Elvis had died. I remember the scorching hot day I was talking on the phone to my best friend David while my mum lay on the banana lounge in the hallway to catch the breeze when the radio she was listening to came to life with the news that John Lennon had been shot dead outside his New York apartment. And I remember getting the call from my friend Simone telling me that Kiss drummer Eric Carr had finally succumbed to horrendous heart cancer and brain haemorrhages (on the same day Freddie Mercury succumbed to Aids).

As we grow older, it’s only natural that the cultural heroes of our youth start to leave us. But for some reason, the passing of Lux has hit harder than most., and I’m struggling to understand why. Maybe because I’m at an age now where I’m looking at the reality of my own mortality. Maybe it’s because, unlike people like Elvis, Lennon and Johnny Cash, the loss of Lux is likely to go unnoticed and uncared about by the vast majority of people. Or maybe it’s because his death comes during a period when many of my favourite creative minds have left us (Famous Monsters of Filmland editor Forrest J Ackerman, 1950s pin-up legend Bettie Page, Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton and cult 1960s filmmaker Ray Dennis Steckler , among others).



It’s a stinking hot day here in Melbourne, but to be honest I can barely feel the heat. I’m spending my day drinking cold Mexican beer and blasting my way through the entire Cramps discography. And while I do so I shall not only celebrate the life and work of this truly unique American artist, but I will be sending warm thoughts to Poison Ivy who has lost the love of her life, and I shall also be saying farewell to that special part of my youth that has left me forever.

I can never see there being another one like him.

Stay Sick! 1946 - 2009

John Harrison, Feb 7, 2009.



Live TV Clip of Can Your Pussy Do the Dog?:




Bikini Girls With Machine Guns Video:

Garbage Man Video:

Below are the opening pages of a new work I started over Christmas, a planned murder mystery set in St Kilda in the early 1980s. I am planning for it to be either a long novella or short novel in the vintage pulp paperback vein, depending on how it pans out. At the moment, the working title of the piece is Kill Me, My Love.

PROLOGUE

THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE RAY DENNIS STECKLER

'DEATH CULTS' INTERVIEW

Thought I would post this interview with me that was conducted a few years back for a Melbourne newspaper, to tie in with the publication of the Virgin Books title Death Cults, in which I contributed two chapters (one on Jim Jones/Jonestwon and the other on David Koresh/Waco).

Why do you think people seem so fascinated by characters such as David Koresh and Jim Jones?

I think a lot of it stems from the same fascination people have with serial killers and other true crime cases. Look at the way TV news ratings soar whenever there's a terrorist attack like September 11 or Bali, or when O J Simpson is being pursued down the Californian highway by a procession of cop cars and television news. It wasn't all that long ago that the market for true crime books was a very specialised one, and was usually relegated to covering the more notorious cases. Now almost every bookstore has its own true crime section, with mass-market paperbacks devoted to even the most obscure of crimes. Maybe reading about suffering and misery is a way of convincing ourselves that our own lives aren't as bad as what we sometimes think they are.

I think it's normal, healthy human nature to be drawn to and intrigued by tragedy. For most people, that simply equates to watching the news, reading the paper and indulging in some classroom psychology with workmates around the water cooler. For some, the fascination goes much deeper, and in the case of Koresh and Jones, I think part of their 'appeal', if I can use that term, is in the sheer enormity of their respective tragedies, and trying to comprehend how one person can induce such a large group of followers into committing mass suicide.

As independent, strong-minded people, we're fascinated by how these people think, and how they are seduced into genuinely believing that another person is the true Son of God. The mass suicide committed by the Heaven's Gate group is another idyllic example - how do nearly thirty people become convinced that by killing themselves they will be picked up by a spaceship travelling in the tail of a comet and transported back to their home planet? It's beyond the rational thinking of most people, yet the members of Heaven's Gate were by all accounts intelligent, highly educated people.

In the case of Jonestown, Jim Jones had on several occasions held rehearsals for a planned mass-suicide, often giving his followers no warning that it was in fact just a rehearsal....it was a deliberate test of faith, to weed out those who would not be prepared to sacrifice all for their leader.

I don't know if the Jonestown suicides was an inevitable outcome for Jones and his Peoples Temple. Jones was abusive - both physically and psychologically - and a sexual predator, but had the US government, and Congressman Leo Ryan in particular - not been so intrusive into the cult's affairs, I think he would have been quite happy to continue his life ruling over his own little world in the jungles of Guyana. It was Jones' paradise, and it was only the thought of him losing it, and his followers, that drove him to the mass suicide. It's the same predilection as when a parent in the grip of a bitter custody battle prefers to take their life and the life of their children rather than hand them over to the spouse, or when a child would break a new toy rather than have to give to someone else to play with, only on a much larger scale, of course. "If I can't have them, no one else can either".

Waco, on the other hand, seemed almost destined to end in a hailstorm of violence. Koresh had been stockpiling weapons for years prior to the Waco siege, and always preached about the inevitable showdown with the authorities. It was an apocalypse that was necessary to fulfil Koresh's interpretation of The Seven Seals, the passage of the Bible on which he based his entire religious philosophy.

That's an interesting question. Certainly since the vicious killings committed by the Manson Family in 1969, the word 'cult' - when used in any form of religious context - inspires paranoia and fear, and a lot of that is fuelled by media hype and hysteria. While I doubt that groups like the Jehovah's Witnesses would have gone the way of Waco or Jonestown, I'm sure they would have been looked upon and treated differently - and a lot more suspiciously - had they first emerged in the post-Manson age. As it is, these groups still evoke a paranoia and suspicion in some, but because they have been around for so long, and in such enormous numbers, most people do not look upon them as any kind of dangerous minority faction.

Only in a very vague way - I think it would be dangerous to categorise them as a cult. Many of these groups are seeking retribution for what they see as decades, even centuries, of repression by other countries, and their actions are often seen as both political and religious statements.  These movements will continue long after their current leaders are gone, which is why the so-called War Against Terrorism will be almost impossible to win outright. The beliefs of cults, on the other hand, usually die along with their leaders.

What is it in human nature that seems to make us prone to being seduced by ideas that must inevitably see our selves completely immolated? Obviously dying for "King and Country" isn't that far removed from the sort of loyalty that saw people die in Waco and Jonestown.

The majority of human beings are terrified at the thought of death being the end of it all - that big, black and eternal void which no one can escape, regardless of wealth, social standing, political power or any other factor which shapes their mortal life. Death really is the big equalizer, and no doubt many people follow their own religion because it is based on the promise that there is some kind of paradise waiting beyond for them.

I see dying for King and Country as more of a political self-sacrifice - we are willing, or at least prepared to take the chance, of being killed in battle because it is seen as a way of defending the things we love and hold scared, such as country, family and way of life. The stakes are clearly defined, and conscription notwithstanding, the choice is usually ours to make. By the time a cult decides to mass-suicide, their choices - along with their ability to form independent thoughts and rationales - have usually been taken away from them.

LONELY MONSTER:
AN INTERVIEW WITH MATTHEW DUNN

by John Harrison

Matthew Dunn is the Melbourne based creator and artist behind the Lonely Monsters series of comic books and graphic novels (see my piece on the first issue of Lonely Monsters, which I had the privilege of contributing to, in a previous blog on my My Space page), as well as several offshoots such as the Savage Bastard web comic. With his first exhibition coming up on Friday, November 7 at Melbourne's 696 Gallery in Brunswick (see flyer below), I thought it would be a good opportunity to catch up with the artist and grill him with a few questions about his art, the exhibition, his influences and future plans.

John Harrison: Tell me a little bit about where you come from as an artist? Who were your earliest influences?

Matthew Dunn: I've been reading and drawing comics for as long as I can remember. My first comic was a crudely drawn collection of lame "gags" back in primary school featuring Australian animals. Unfortunately I shortened all their animal names in order to give them their character names, and as a result had a Wombat named "Womb" (which, at that tender young age, seemed totally fine to me).

Early on I was heavily influenced by the greats (Kirby, Ditko, Adams, etc) but would go out of my way to track down copies of the old black & white masterpieces like Creepy and Eerie, and to this day I still find that stuff amazing. Then as a teen I picked up a copy of Gotham By Gaslight which was the start of my ongoing love affair with the work of Mike Mignola. Although in the last 5 years the affair has been threatened with my infatuation of Ashley Wood's work.

JH: What mediums to you work with, and do you have a preferred or favourite one?

MD: Comics, comics, and more comics, with the occasional larger canvas piece. I work with whatever suits what I'm trying to do at the time, but mostly use various inks and push things around in Photoshop. My Photoshop work doesn't involve much filtering, mostly just layering textured pages on top of each other. I've also broken out the acrylics recently to work on some larger pieces for the exhibition and that's been a nice change of pace from the storytelling aspect of comics (which can really break your brain sometimes).

JH: Zombies have always proven to be consistently popular in pop culture, particularly in terms of film and comic books/graphic novels, but in recent years they have broken out into other fields as well (I recently saw a flyer for a Zombie finger puppet show!). What do you see as the primary appeal of the living dead, and to what do you attribute their current popularity to?

MD: Zombies are, in my opinion, the scariest of all horror fiends. They're relentless monsters who wish you nothing but harm, however the biggest fear is that you will become one yourself. At least if you're a vampire or werewolf you still retain a part of your personality/soul and are able to keep living in some capacity. But as a zombie you don't have anything but hunger that overrides every other desire and cannot be satisfied.

Part of their current popularity just has to do with people finally making really strong zombie movies/comics/etc/etc. Zach Snyder's remake of Dawn of the Dead as well as the hilarious Shaun of the Dead definitely helped to get them in limelight, as did Marvel's hilarious Marvel Zombies series, and the utterly amazing novel World War Z by Max Brooks. But for me the highpoint has got to be Chris Ryall and Ashley Wood's Zombies VS Robots series (following by Zombies VS Robots VS Amazons, and with more craziness coming in the future) which was just pure insane bliss.

People also apply a social commentary more often than not within the zombie genre these days, and I think that just makes it a more complete, real, and satisfying experience.

JH: What was the inspiration behind the whole Lonely Monsters concept? Is it something that you see continuing and evolving or does it have a set life span?

MD: Lonely Monsters started out as a 6 page short story that I put together to send around in an effort to break into the industry. At the time I was also working my ass off for a guy in the US who had a comic in the works that was a "sure thing" with one of the larger companies. I spent a few months working on that only to discover it wasn't a "sure thing" at all and I had in fact been completely wasting my time. This really bummed me out so I focused my energies ..ing the 6 page sample, and once it was done I had enjoyed it so much (and was happy with the results) that I decided to just dive right into making it a comic series.

I was going to release it as a quarterly comic, and did in fact release a first issue, but wasn't happy with the finished pages at all and decided to redo them. In the process I thought rather than re-release the first issue the story would work best within the larger page-count of a graphic novel.

At this stage Lonely Monsters is going to be a series of 5 graphic novels, but there may be more books depending on where things go. Book 1 is basically my love letter to zombies, and Book 2 is my love letter to Mad Max-style road movies, then Book 3......well I don't want to give anymore away so I'll leave it at that.

JH: What can we expect to see at your exhibition opening?

MD: More zombies than you can handle, including people in make-up wandering around making others feel uneasy (and maybe even a zombie DJ). There will be a stack of first prints of the book, a few special limited edition prints I've done for the night, as well as t-shirts, a bunch of large acrylic and stencilled canvases, and more.

JH: Have you thought much about your future plans beyond the gallery showing?

I've been running on 4 hours sleep a night for the last month so I can barely remember my name at the moment, but I do have a few things planned. But for now the focus is on putting together the best possible solo show I can.

I do plan on doing something special with a US band named The Hope Symphony, who have provided a soundtrack for Lonely Monsters (which will be packaged on CD with the book itself). The music is beautifully creepy and fragile and weird and wonderful and I just can't get enough of it, so I hope to do more with them in the future.

Anyone wanting to keep up with what I'm working on can visit me at www. lonelymonsters. blogspot. com or www. myspace. com/lonelymonsters

KINGS CROSS
Sydney 1970/71

As a kid I was always intrigued by stories of Kings Cross and what an unsavoury place it was - the hub of Sydney's drug and prostitution rackets, with grimy neon streets filled with strip clubs, seedy bars and illegal gambling dens.

Needless to say the place is no longer what it used to be (much like Melbourne's Fitzroy Street), but these photos, taken by Rennie Ellis in 1970 and 1971, capture the Cross and it's characters at its best.





































http://www.rennieellis.com.au/

NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD

Had the chance to check out this new documentary by Melbourne filmmaker Mark Hartley during the week. It's an informative, entertaining, and above all celebatory, look back at Australian exploitation films of the 1970s and early-80s, when local films like Alvin Purple, The Man from Hong Kong, Patrick, Fantasm, Mad Max and Turkey Shoot were packing the drive-ins.

Featuring interviews with many of the performers and filmmakers involved (who recount some great anecdotes about the often renegade production methods utilised in these films), as well as high profile fan Quentin Tarantino (whose interest helped get the film financed), Not Quite Hollywood is a great document of it subject.

While it's made primarly for DVD, it is still worth trying to catch it on its limited current cinema run if you can, just so you can enjoy seeing the great clips and remembering just how cool a lot of these movies actually looked on the big screen.

A few classic original Aussie Exploitation trailers:

The Man from Hong Kong

Stone

Turkey Shoot

High Rolling