Behind the Couch

1986 Dir. Tom McLoughlin Not content that mass murderer Jason Voorhees is actually dead; Tommy Jarvis exhumes the brutish serial killer’s coffin and impales the body with a metal rod. Moments later a bolt of lightning strikes the rod, jolting life into Jason’s corpse, which rises and sets off on another killing spree at Camp Crystal Lake. Naturally. Can Tommy convince the authorities that Jason stalks the area again? Well, it’s a mid-Eighties’ slasher flick, so what do you reckon? Director Tom McLoughlin sticks to the basic rules of the series, but he slyly injects much needed humour into proceedings, without ever tumbling into out and out parody. The humour is evident from the opening titles; Jason adopts the role of 007, strutting into the centre of the screen and chucking his machete right at us – blood flows down the screen to reveal the titles. Much like Part V ’s underrated opening scene, this instalment also begins in atmospheric and irresistibly Gothic fashion; with two...

Behind the Couch  turns 2 years old today! Thanks so much to everyone who has swung by over the last year to share the good times , ride out the bad , celebrate the highs , endure the lows , gasp with delight at the absurd , marvel at the wondrous and swoon over Vincent Price . It has been a good year – there was even a book . Thanks to everyone who supported that and said nice things about it. Here’s to the next year of writing about horror movies! May it be as wine drenched and bloody as this one!

1985 Dir. Danny Steinmann Five years after his run in with hulking serial killer Jason Voorhees, the now 17 year old Tommy Jarvis remains traumatised by memories and nightmares of that fateful night. Released from an institution and sent to live in a halfway house for troubled teens undergoing rehabilitation, Tommy’s nightmare is far from over. A slew of brutal murders in the area would suggest Jason has returned from the grave – or that Tommy has descended into madness. But who’s that minor cast member over there with the wild ‘n’ crazy look in his eye? Is it someone who is pretending to be Jason to avenge the death of his son – also a resident at the halfway house? No.  Surely not. A New Beginning is often maligned by fans as it is the only film (aside from Part 1 ) not to feature Jason Voorhees as the killer. While the killer dresses as Jason and has a motive that also involves avenging the death of a family member, it isn’t the real Jason. You might be forgiven for th...

Given that this month has been dedicated to watching all the Friday the 13th movies (what was I thinking!?), I thought it most appropriate that the wine of the month to accompany my movie marathon should be none other than Crystal Lake Wine! As a fan of horror movies, I’m quite partial to a splash of the red stuff. No, the other red stuff. As such, I’m happy to report that Crystal Lake Wine is available in the form of a rich, full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon – described as having 'the classic cab flavours of black current, plum, herbs, and peppers, perfectly balanced with a touch of vanilla oak and moderately firm tannins .' Crystal Lake Wine also produces a beauteous Chardonnay (if that just happens to be your bag), 'loaded with flavours of pear, pineapple, and has a wonderful crisp finish. This is a perfect wine for your summer picnic! ' Or lakeside summer camp massacre. Your call. Crystal Lake Wine is produced and bottled by one of the oldest wineries in Sout...

1984 Dir. Joseph Zito Jason revives at the morgue and sets off to Crystal Lake on another killing spree. He doesn’t count on the resourcefulness of twelve year old Tommy Jarvis though. By this stage the formula for a Friday the 13th movie had become very recognisable. Heck, one could argue the formula was recognisable since Part II ! Each consecutive offering has essentially been a reworking of the one that came before it. Because of the popularity of the series thus far, producers didn’t want to deviate away from what had gone before. Therefore, The Final Chapter follows the same structure as its predecessors: Jason revives, stalks some teens who are staying at Crystal Lake – completely unaware of the danger they’re in - violently kills them one by one, until only one is left. The final survivor, usually a plucky young woman, goes head to head with Jason until he is seemingly defeated. Lather, rinse, repeat. The Final Chapter is slightly different in that it pits a family ...

1983 Dir. Steve Miner The not-quite-dead-yet Jason wrecks more havoc around Crystal Lake; this time honing in on a group of friends staying at a nearby holiday home. By 1983, the popularity of the slasher film was in gentle decline. Audiences seemed to be tiring of the bloody subgenre, and filmmakers were bleeding it drier than one of Jason’s victims – though some (not me) would argue it had been pretty dry of imagination and creativity to begin with. However, the financial success of the first two Friday the 13th movies meant that it was really a no-brainer for Paramount to produce another one. Taking the helm once again was Steve Miner, who had originally wanted to focus the story on the character of Ginny again. After failing to convince Amy Steel to reprise her role, the writers took a different approach. And when I say different, I mean they pretty much just wrote the same story from the first movies over again. Although they did at least provide a new cabin. Friday th...

1981 Dir. Steve Miner Five years after Mrs Voorhees slaughtered a group of counsellors attempting to reopen the summer camp where she believed her son to have drowned, a new spate of murders plagues a nearby camp. Could it be that Mrs Voorhees’ son Jason has returned from the grave to avenge his mother’s death? Or could it be he didn’t actually drown all those years ago, he lived as a feral hermit in the woods by the lake… Until now! Jason Voorhees was essentially an afterthought as far as the first Friday the 13th movie was concerned. His off screen death prior to that film's events provided the catalyst for his mother’s vengeful killing spree. That was of course until the film became a huge success and Paramount saw a way to make even more money, as cheaply as possible. Stepping away from the project to pursue more ‘family orientated’ projects, Sean Cunningham handed the directorial reins over to producer Steve Miner. Friday the 13th Part II was released at a time ...

1980 Dir. Sean Cunningham A group of eager young camp counsellors are stalked and brutally murdered by an unknown assailant while trying to re-open a summer camp that was previously the site of a child's drowning and a number of mysterious deaths. The original, and very openly cynical, copy-cat slasher, Friday the 13th is way better than it has any right to be, and despite it being the instigator of most of the clichés we now know (and love) of the slasher genre, it’s a film that still stands as an effectively executed and frequently suspenseful horror flick. Modelled on Mario Bava’s body-count classic Bay of Blood , Cunningham and writer Victor Miller also took the basic premise of John Carpenter’s Halloween – teens imperilled by a psychotic killer - and simply added more violence, blood and carnage. In its wake, Friday the 13th left us with all the standard rules and conventions of the slasher movie. Sure, Halloween exhibited them first, and Black Christmas before ...