Where's Jason?

Last month, I volunteered to take over reviewing the Friday the 13th films for Kevin Olson at Hugo Stiglitz Makes Movies. Kevin had reviewed the first four films as part of his Summer of Slash series before succumbing to what I can only call "Jason fatigue." I was looking for stuff to write about, and I figured I'd pick up where he left off and review the remaining six (!) films in the first series, in addition to the Nightmare on Elm Street crossover Freddy vs. Jason and the 2009 reboot. In retrospect, I have to ask myself, "What the hell was I thinking?" As you may have noticed, all I've delivered so far is a write-up on the fifth film, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning. So where's the rest?

First of all, I made the decision to go back and watch the first four films myself. Rather than depending on Kevin's analysis, I wanted to have them fresh in my mind for context when viewing the later films. This was perhaps a mistake, as by the time I got to films five and six (the only other ones I've watched so far), I was developing my own case of "Jason fatigue." I haven't seen most of them in years, and while the earlier ones are still a lot of fun, they do get progressively worse as they go along. The idea of plowing through the rest seems a lot more daunting now than it did before I started. Additionally, Kevin recently drew his Summer of Slash series to a close, so it seems like Elvis may have already left the building at this point. (Blame me and my slow output.)

Finally, as I was trying to finish up my review of Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, actor Ron Palillo (best known for portraying Horshack on the 1970s sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter) passed away at the absurdly young age of 63. What does that have to do with Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives? Well, Palillo has a small role in the film's pre-credits sequence. He's funny and charming, and his role, while brief, is easily one of the best things about the movie; this being a Friday the 13th film, however, the scene culminates with his character's gruesome death, and it just seems kind of weird to me to highlight it right now.

Excuses, excuses, I know. The bottom line is, I do plan on completing this task at some point in the future, but rather than trying to get it all done before the summer's over, I'm going to spread it out. Between this and my abject failure to complete my proposed Summer of Sam series last year, I've learned my lesson. From now on, I'm not going to bite off more than I can chew.