Friday The 13th Blog

Christian Sellers is a film critic for various horror magazines, he owns and runs horror site Dr. Gore's Funhouse.com and music site Love-It-Loud.com and is the author of The Complete History of the Return of the Living Dead. Email: christian.sellers@fridaythe13thfilms.com

Friday the 13th Part 3 would continue the tradition of the Grand Guignol-style theatrics that fans had grown accustomed to but and would feature some of the most graphic murders of the franchise, although as a combination of both the added 3-D effects and strict MPAA regulations, each set piece would ultimately be relatively blood-free.

Until Crystal Lake Memories and Making Friday the 13th were released a few years back, most fans believed that C.J. Graham had played Jason Voorhees throughout Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. But the first actor cast to play the newly resurrected ‘zombie’ Jason was newcomer Dan Bradley who, after being fired from the [...]

Whilst many actors have portrayed the character of Jason Voorhees over the years, only one actor has the distinction of being the first ever Jason to don the infamous hockey mask. Whilst he had obscured his features behind a sack in Friday the 13th Part 2, the makers of Part 3 knew that they needed [...]

When Paramount Pictures announced that they would be bringing their lucrative Friday the 13th franchise to an end with The Final Chapter, the filmmakers were under pressure to deliver a climax that would not disappoint the fans. Throughout the two previous films Jason had impaled two lovers during sex and, perhaps most bizarrely, had crushed [...]

Following the relatively blood-free restraint of Paramount’s Friday the 13th swan song, 1989’s Jason Takes Manhattan, the franchise would return to its gruesome roots for New Line’s first offering, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. The special effects were handled by KNB EFX, one of the most respected make-up and effects workshops in the [...]

Larry Zerner may not be a name familiar to those who do not follow the Friday the 13th franchise but his claim to fame was that it was his character that Jason Voorhees would obtain his now-iconic hockey mask from.

Principal photography on Friday the 13th Part 2 was barely underway when the producers were forced to recast the role of Jason Voorhees, the film’s demented killer. Warrington Gillette, the actor who had been set to portray the character, had proven to be a problem for the filmmakers, due to his inability to perform the [...]

The Friday the 13th franchise is noted for having its fair share of scantily-clad victims, many of whom are either dispatched during or shortly after sex. Whilst several installments in the series have also boasted nudity, others have proven to be relatively restrained. Tom McLoughlin’s Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives was an attempt [...]

When Ari Lehman made an appearance at the end of Friday the 13th, little did anyone know that his character would one day become an iconic figure of popular culture. Whilst the killer had been revealed as Mrs. Voorhees, a respectable, middle-aged woman, the focus of the subsequent sequels would shift to her son, Jason, [...]

With all the technical challenges of a slasher film it is surprising that more are not directed by special effects artists. John Carl Buechler had been the first to helm a Friday the 13th movie, with 1988’s The New Blood which, whilst suffering from an uneven script and bland characters, boasted perhaps the most action-packed [...]