friday the 13th Archives - Page 3 of 3

Halloween 1990

Posted on October 4, 2010 by sexyarmpit

Halloween 1990

I love to look at photos from Halloween years ago. It’s fun to reminisce about the various costumes my friends and I wore through the years, although sometimes it’s mind boggling. I’m still operating in the mode that 1990 was 10 years ago, but clearly my calculator has proven me wrong. This is a picture of my friends and I in front of our school, oh my Lord…20 years ago! I loved dressing up for Halloween when I was a kid but as I got a little older I started to grow tired of putting so much effort into going home and changing and putting on makeup etc. I phased out of getting dressed up when I stopped going trick or treating. So this photo marks the beginning of my lazy phase for Halloween, a phase that many of us have gone through.

Friday the 13th was one of my favorite horror film franchises and until that point I never dressed up as Jason Voorhees for Halloween so I wanted to see how it felt to live behind the hockey mask for a day. My least favorite film of the series, Jason Takes Manhattan was released a year earlier but it didn’t hinder me from deciding to be J.V. At that time, anyone who dressed as Jason for Halloween was considered to have a “copout” costume. That was the easiest way to go; the lazy man’s Halloween costume. I bought the mask real cheap and I recycled the knife from a Rambo Combat set I had and just slathered some fake blood on it!

My friends in the picture all had outstanding costumes. From left to right you’ll see my life long friend Greg who was way ahead of his time dressed in drag. This guy always had a great sense of humor and to think that he had the balls to dress as a woman when we were kids was awesome. I’m not sure if he would do it now though! I don’t remember too many kids dressed in drag back then. To make things even more bizarre, he was holding a bloody axe making him some sort of deranged cross dressing serial killer.

To the right of me is the absolute greatest homemade Flash costume ever. My best friend Frank kept his costume a secret for a whole month! Then, on Halloween day, after we all came back to school after going home to change for the school parade, he walked into class in full Flash costume and I was literally in awe. The Flash TV series was only a few episodes in and we were both hooked since we were DC comics freaks. The costume had that extra authenticity because there wasn’t even real Flash costumes or cowls available at that time so his mom just went ahead and made it for him herself! Beside The Flash was an awesome Invisible Man costume and underneath those wraps was my friend Steve. Superb costume!

Toxic Avenger vs. Jason Voorhees by deadhunterkd

Posted on February 18, 2010 by sexyarmpit

new jersey,tocie,toxic avenger,jason,jason voorhees,friday the 13th

Toxie vs. Jason by deadhunterkd on Deviant Art

Horror buffs pined to see Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash in a Triple Threat Match. Eventually they got their chance in comic book form, but even as a huge horror fan I was never too interested in seeing Ash take on Freddy and Jason. I was actually left quite satisfied with the 2003 film, Freddy vs. Jason. It never seems to get much credit, but it stands up nicely with the rest of the respective films in each series. That was a feat considering it was made basically 10 years after the final films in the Freddy and Jason series (except Jason X).

After Freddy vs. Jason, there isn’t much more ground to cover. As the character of Freddy trades down to being inhabited by a new actor in the upcoming reboot of Nightmare on Elm Street, Jason is left scratching his hockey mask with his machete. Who better to face off with Camp Crystal Lake’s Jason Voorhees than New Jersey’s own superhero, The Toxic Avenger? As previously detailed at The Sexy Armpit here and here, the Friday the 13th series has several ties to the Garden State, so this sounds like a dream match to me! Of course, when you bring Lloyd Kaufman’s Toxie into the equation, there’s bound to be comedy involved, which works perfectly because Jason is usually the straight man. Imagine the possibilities? We may have the first Abbott and Costello of the horror genre on our hands.

Notice how Toxie sort of looks like Jason without his mask on? At the very least, I’d love to see this play out in a late night HBO animated movie or an online comic book mini series. Who do you think would win this freakish face off?

New Jersey’s Great Pop Culture Moments Vol. 21: Jason Takes New Jersey!

Posted on July 13, 2009 by sexyarmpit

Nothing would have broken my listlessness upon hearing the news that one of my favorite horror franchises would be getting the goldigging Hollywood reboot. At that point, not even Jason Voorhees stabbing me through my brain couldn’t have elicited a response from me. In fact, Jason himself could’ve launched himself out of Crystal Lake, jogged to my condo, crashed through my window, and took off his hockey mask and told me personally that Michael Bay would be bringing him to life once again and I would’ve shook my head somberly with a question mark floating over my head. I have to accept that remakes are and always will be a fact of life, and I have to take the good and take the bad like Tootie did.

That’s right folks, we must gauge the threat level of all these ridiculous remakes, prequels, and reboots. My lack of enthusiasm level was at SEVERE when I first heard the news of the Friday the 13th reboot, but after seeing the film, the level dropped to a breezy blue which is merely referred to as GUARDED. What was one of the reasons for the decrease? Why of course it was the fact that the filmmakers didn’t ignore the original film’s New Jersey roots!

Originally, I read on several websites that the new F13 would not be filmed in New Jersey, but in Texas. My mind conjured up the idea that this new version would reference Texas as the new home of Camp Crystal Lake, which worried me to the point where I didn’t even want to see the film. It wasn’t much of a stretch since the filmmakers may have wanted to pay tribute to Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I was appreciative when I saw the scene where the gang drives to a convenience store for some gas and munchies. Their black Escalade was all duked out in a couple of New Jersey license plates! I felt like 3PO after an oil bath.

I can’t speak for the legions of fans of Freddy and Jason, but personally I cringe at the fact that movies from my youth have been primped and given cute little bows like when the Cowardly Lion was turned into a sweet little girl after a makeover in the Wizard of Oz. What little bit of ferocity he exuded was depleted right at that moment. At one time, ’80s horror franchises had more in common with the Scarecrow. After a while he kept losing his hay and stuffing, and if he didn’t get re-stuffed he wouldn’t survive. I suppose if Freddy didn’t start wearing cool sunglasses on the beach, playing video games, and uttering cringeworthy puns that made Robin the Boy Wonder seem like he was doing amateur night at the Stress Factory in New Brunswick, NJ, then maybe the Nightmare on Elm Street series would’ve died after Dream Warriors. Jason Voorhees was the wiser of the two since he packed up his shit and went into space! He knew that only something that outlandish would spell certain doom for his series. While not completely horrible, 2009’s Friday the 13th could have been more memorable, but it was a satisfying film, and it gave NJ the props it deserved.

Read Volume 16: The Legend of Jason Voorhees Begins!

New Jersey’s Great Pop Culture Moments Vol.16: The Legend of Jason Voorhees Begins!

Posted on January 23, 2009 by sexyarmpit

Why should I beat a dead Kevin Bacon and sound completely redundant when I know damn well that more in depth information about the relationship between Friday the 13th and New Jersey exists all over the place? (You can visit Weird NJ for the best in New Jersey lore, myths, and legends.) What inspires me to touch on the subject here at the Armpit is that I find myself baffled. I often speak to people locally that have no idea that the first Friday the 13th film was filmed right here in our very own state of New Jersey! I can’t expect everyone to be obsessed with horror movies, but how about some awareness of pop culture history folks? To assume that everyone knows that Camp Crystal Lake was actually Camp NoBeBoSco is definitely pushing it.

In anticipation of the new version of Friday the 13th hitting theaters in a few weeks (2/13/09), I figured I’d brag a little bit about New Jersey being the place where the legend of Jason Voorhees began.

The unbelievable website Friday the 13 th films.com, offers a thorough tour through the New Jersey sites that appear in the film. The site offers a “then and now” look at Blairstown, Hope, and Hardwick Township, New Jersey. It’s fascinating to see how the screen shots match up to photos taken close to 6 years ago. The rest of the films in the series completely ignored New Jersey as a filming location, possibly because of the exorbitant fees associated with filming here. The Friday the 13th franchise further snubbed N.J by choosing to have Jason “take” a certain place that eternally shadows New Jersey in part 8.

Jason (Ari Lehman) and Alice (Adrienne King) share a poignant moment in between takes.

The township of Blairstown seems to be embracing it’s starring role in the iconic 1980 horror film. Check out the Blairstown Theater Festival website which also details the township’s connection with Friday the 13th.

From Wikipedia’s Friday the 13th (1980 Film) entry:

“On July 13, 2007, Friday the 13th was screened for the first time on Blairstown’s Main Street in the very theater which appears shortly after the opening credits. Overflowing crowds forced the Blairstown Theater Festival, the sponsoring organization, to add an extra screening at 11:00 PM. The event was covered by local media and New York City’s Channel 11.”