Behind the Couch

Directed by Michael Felsher and written by Adam Marcus, this documentary commemorates the 30th anniversary of the most controversial entry in the Friday the 13th film series, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday . It unfolds as an irreverent and gushing love letter to not only the film’s avid fanbase, but its characters, cast and crew, and charts its ascent from maligned ‘dreck’  and ‘confusing mess’  to cult classic slasher. Several years in the making, Hearts of Darkness was funded entirely by a crowdfunding campaign on IndieGoGo and has been an obvious labour of love for all involved in its production.  Jason Goes to Hell was the ninth film in the Friday the 13th series and the first to be produced by New Line, who had purchased the rights to the character of Jason Voorhees from Paramount in the early Nineties. Co-written by Dean Lorey and Jay Huguely, and based on a story by Huguely and Adam Marcus, it is infamous for its daringly eschewed approach to the classic...

Betsy Palmer, 1926-2015 Actress Betsy Palmer, best known for portraying Pamela Voorhees in Friday the 13th and Friday the 13th Part II , has passed away at the age of 88. Palmer died of natural causes at a hospice care centre in Connecticut on Friday 29th May. She is survived by her daughter, Melissa Merendino. While Palmer will always be remembered for her role as Jason Voorhees’ tragic mother, she had a long and versatile career on stage - appearing in Broadway plays such as On Golden Pond, Cactus Flower and Same Time, Next Year - and television - starring in the likes of Knots Landing, As the World Turns and Murder, She Wrote.  Palmer famously stated that she only took on the role of Mrs Voorhees because she needed a new car. Despite initially disowning the film, and its sequel, in which she had a cameo appearance, Palmer eventually embraced it, frequently appearing at horror conventions to meet with hordes of adoring fans. In Peter M. Bracke’s 'Crystal Lake Memo...

2003 Dir. Ronny Yu With the memory of Freddy Krueger suppressed and vanquished from the youth of Springwood – rendering him powerless and incapable of claiming any more victims - the dream-dwelling killer resurrects the brutish Crystal Lake marauder Jason Voorhees and manipulates him into going to Springwood to carve up a few teens and strike fear and chaos into the community. As the bodies pile up, talk of Krueger once again haunts the suburban homes of Springwood, gradually increasing the dream demon’s powers. He soon realises however, that Jason’s bloodlust can never be quenched, and once the hockey-masked maniac starts killing, there’s just no stopping him. There’s eventually a big show down between the pair and some unfortunate teens get stuck in the middle of it all… I reviewed Freddy vs. Jason a couple of years ago when I trekked through the Friday the 13th franchise . After re-watching it recently, I concluded that my opinions hadn’t really changed. You can read m...

James Isaac directing Kane Hodder on Jason X Director James Isaac, best known for Jason X , werewolf flick Skinwalkers and his special effects work with David Cronenberg, has passed away at the age of 52 after battling a rare blood cancer. Isaac began his career in 1983 as a ‘creature technician’ on Return of the Jedi and Gremlins before moving on to work with Cronenberg on the likes of The Fly , Naked Lunch and eXistenZ . His feature directorial debut came in 1983 with The Horror Show aka House III . In 2002 Isaac directed the tenth instalment of the Friday the 13th series. Jason X's winning sense of humour and genuine adoration of Jason (and his fans) gave the series a much needed jolt of originality and devilish playfulness. Isaac’s work on the vastly underrated film is often overlooked due to its problematic shoot caused by interference from producers, constant re-writes and a delayed release. Isaac was always very candid about his feelings on the film, and was...

Dir. Marcus Nispel When his younger sister becomes the latest person to go missing during a camping trip to Crystal Lake, Clay Miller sets out to find her, with or without the help of the local police. Falling in with a crowd of teens staying in a holiday chalet on Crystal Lake, he is joined by sympathetic Jenna in his search of the local area, while her friends remain at the house to party. Before long it becomes apparent the area is stalked by a hulking psychopath who abducts and murders anyone who encroaches upon the grounds of an old summer camp… It would seem those old campfire tales of a hermetic psycho named Jason Voorhees may have had more of a grounding in reality than anyone ever dared dream of… Let the blood run free! When it was originally conceived, the remake of Friday the 13th was intended to be an origin story, detailing the genesis of mass murderer Jason Voorhees. Writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, who had previously worked on Freddy vs. Jason for New Line...

2003 Dir. Ronny Yu The memory of Freddy Krueger has been collectively suppressed and vanquished from the youth of Springwood – rendering him powerless and incapable of claiming any more victims. The dream-dwelling killer therefore resurrects the brutish Crystal Lake marauder Jason Voorhees and manipulates him into going to Springwood to carve up a few teens and strike fear and chaos into the community once again. Only problem is, once Jason starts a-killin’, there’s just no a-stoppin’ him. There’s eventually a big show down between the pair and some unfortunate teens who get stuck in the middle of it all… Since the initial idea of filming a face off between Freddy and Jason way back when Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood was being developed, there had been numerous screenplays by a plethora of writers over the course of a decade that tried to flesh it out and make it a reality. The show-down between two of horror cinema's most iconic antagonists was stuck in developm...

2001 Dir. Jim Isaac In the near future a team of government scientists finally succeed in capturing and containing the seemingly indestructible killer Jason Voorhees. They plan to cryogenically freeze him, but not before he breaks free and slaughters all but one of them. Sole survivor Rowan lures him into the chamber but is frozen in time with him. Flash forward to the year 2455; earth is an uninhabitable wasteland, devoid of life. Jason and Rowan are discovered by a team of interplanetary explorers on a scouting mission to earth, and taken back to their ship to be thawed out. Newly revived, Jason does what he does best. Murderlises people. In space (!).  The final shot of Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday AKA Friday the 13th Part IX promised us a confrontation between Jason and Freddy Krueger. Indeed, with that ‘final’ instalment of the series and with Krueger’s own franchise coming full circle with Wes Craven’s New Nightmare , the time to bring both villains together...

1993 Dir. Adam Marcus While up to his old tricks at Crystal Lake, Jason is blown to smithereens by the FBI. During the autopsy however, his demonic spirit possesses the coroner who sets off on a killing spree, in search of Jason’s hitherto unmentioned niece, Jessica, the only person who can stop him once and for all. With his spirit jumping from person to person by way of a parasitic, demonic heart (!) rendering those it possesses indestructible, it won’t be an easy task for Jessica to defeat him… “ Through a Voorhees was he born... Through a Voorhees may he be reborn... And only by the hands of a Voorhees will he die .” Another year, another Friday the 13th movie which claimed to be the last in the series. Wasn’t that supposed to be The Final Chapter back in ’84? My brain hurts. New Line Cinema now owned the rights to the series (well, to the name of 'Jason Voorhees', anyway), and Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday was also the first film in the series since the ...

1989 Dir. Rob Hedden When an anchor snags an underwater electricity cable at the bottom of Crystal Lake, the power surge reanimates the dormant corpse of Jason Voorhees who winds up onboard a boat filled with teens heading to New York to celebrate their graduation. Bloodless carnage and dreadful Eighties rock music ensue. While Freddy vs. Jason had been on the cards for some time, but wouldn't come to fruition for years yet, due to creative differences between New Line and Paramount, the two horror icons actually did go head to head back in 1989 (albeit at the box office and from within their own respective franchises). New Line released A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child at the same time Paramount was releasing this, the eighth instalment of the Friday the 13th series. Often considered the worst of the sequels (which arguably isn't very fair, or true!), Jason Takes Manhattan is, while terrifically good fun, also a wee bit of a mess. While director Hedden...