Comparing The Black Sheep Of The Friday The 13th And Halloween Franchises
We recently wrote a story with our look at the Black Sheep of the Friday The 13th franchise which compared Friday The 13th: A New Beginning and Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday. It was an interesting look at how those two films veered away from the normal formula of the Friday franchise and which film was thought of as worse by the fans. Today we thought it would be interesting to compare the Black Sheep of both the Friday The 13th and Halloween franchises.
In the 1980’s, Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers and Freddy Krueger were the kings of horror. Each character in their respective franchise commanded the attention of the fans and censors alike. Marketing and merchandising was at an all time high and profits were through the roof. Many in the film industry, as well as the fans of these movies, wondered why, after all of their successes, they would change the formula or stories altogether.
In 1982, the Halloween franchise shifted gears and left Michael Myers behind to embark on an entirely new story about the maniacal Conel Cochran with his terminator like robots and magically possessed Halloween masks in Halloween III: Season Of The Witch. The idea of John Carpenter and Debra Hill to create a type of Anthology series of holiday themed films seemed like a great idea at the time as everything Carpenter touched turned to gold. However, as everyone found out, you don’t change something that works, and fan backlash destroyed the franchise for six years.
Set for release in 1985, Friday The 13th: A New Beginning set out to exact it's own change on the Friday franchise with it own serious repercussions. The one constant in the Friday the 13th franchise is Jason Voorhees and the mere thought of eliminating him as the stories main villain indeed seems ludicrous. Even in the original 1980 film, Jason made his appearance towards the end of the movie to scare audiences around the world. So it baffled fans when Paramount decided to kill Jason Voorhees in 1984's Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter and eventually create a new Friday film a year later without their star as the main focus of the franchise. The decision to move forward with Tommy Jarvis as the new killer of the franchise still baffles many faithful Friday The 13th followers to this day and is still a focus of numerous discussions almost 30 years later.
Looking at these two films, which black sheep of their respective franchise is the hardest to swallow in terms of concept as it relates to the movie series they belong to? Is there one movie out of the two that is more superior to it’s predecessor in terms of production value and story concept? Are both just as relevant in their film series as the others within the Halloween and Friday the 13th franchises?
Some fans had a feeling of almost being cheated at the end of A New Beginning with the realization that Jason never came back to terrorize Crystal Lake while Halloween fans were upset at knowing going into their third film that Michael was to never make an appearance. What are thoughts of our readers.
In the 1980’s, Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers and Freddy Krueger were the kings of horror. Each character in their respective franchise commanded the attention of the fans and censors alike. Marketing and merchandising was at an all time high and profits were through the roof. Many in the film industry, as well as the fans of these movies, wondered why, after all of their successes, they would change the formula or stories altogether.
In 1982, the Halloween franchise shifted gears and left Michael Myers behind to embark on an entirely new story about the maniacal Conel Cochran with his terminator like robots and magically possessed Halloween masks in Halloween III: Season Of The Witch. The idea of John Carpenter and Debra Hill to create a type of Anthology series of holiday themed films seemed like a great idea at the time as everything Carpenter touched turned to gold. However, as everyone found out, you don’t change something that works, and fan backlash destroyed the franchise for six years.
Set for release in 1985, Friday The 13th: A New Beginning set out to exact it's own change on the Friday franchise with it own serious repercussions. The one constant in the Friday the 13th franchise is Jason Voorhees and the mere thought of eliminating him as the stories main villain indeed seems ludicrous. Even in the original 1980 film, Jason made his appearance towards the end of the movie to scare audiences around the world. So it baffled fans when Paramount decided to kill Jason Voorhees in 1984's Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter and eventually create a new Friday film a year later without their star as the main focus of the franchise. The decision to move forward with Tommy Jarvis as the new killer of the franchise still baffles many faithful Friday The 13th followers to this day and is still a focus of numerous discussions almost 30 years later.
Looking at these two films, which black sheep of their respective franchise is the hardest to swallow in terms of concept as it relates to the movie series they belong to? Is there one movie out of the two that is more superior to it’s predecessor in terms of production value and story concept? Are both just as relevant in their film series as the others within the Halloween and Friday the 13th franchises?
Some fans had a feeling of almost being cheated at the end of A New Beginning with the realization that Jason never came back to terrorize Crystal Lake while Halloween fans were upset at knowing going into their third film that Michael was to never make an appearance. What are thoughts of our readers.
