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 production, would become one of the most respected and successful stunt coordinators in Hollywood. Bradley was introduced to performing at a young age, as his father was the director of a community theatre in San Fernando Valley and Bradley would be taught stage fighting with his five siblings. By the time that he had reached his teens, Bradley was already an experienced scuba diver and had developed a keen interest in street car racing on Van Nuys Boulevard. His passion for danger soon progressed to rock climbing and, perhaps inevitably, stunt work. Bradley’s movie career commenced in 1983 with Ulli Lommel’s science fiction thriller BrainWaves, which would lead to a slew of low budget productions; The Devonsville Terror (once again with Lommel), Girls Just Want to Have Fun and Trancers. Following an eighteen-day stint on Stuart Gordon’s cult splatter flick Re-Animator, in which he would invite several of his school friends to appear as corpses, Bradley landed his big break as the stunt coordinator on New Line Cinema’s highly anticipated sequel A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge.

Following the tradition that was first started with The Final Chapter in 1984, the producers of the latest Friday the 13th installment requested that a stuntman be cast in the role of Jason, particularly due to the various dangerous set pieces that the script would demand (including an RV flipping onto its side, skidding down the road and then setting on fire). Due to his already impressive résumé, Bradley was ultimately cast and transformed into the now-decaying Jason. The first day of filming would be a sequence in a forest during a paintball tournament between a group of company executives, with which writer-director Tom McLoughlin would demonstrate his love of slapstick and comedy. By the end of the second day, all of the daylight sequences with Jason had been filmed but Frank Mancuso Jr., who had championed the franchise after taking over as producer for Part 3, was disappointed with the diallies and demanded that McLoughlin fire Bradley and recast the role. At the urging of Becker, Graham was given three days to view the previous movies and have his head cast in preparation for joining the production the following Monday.

Following his brief time on the set of Jason Lives, Bradley continued to work on low budget genre pictures with House, Trick or Treat and the Critters series, before gaining mainstream exposure with Forrest Gump, Casino and Independence Day. With Three Kings in 1999, Bradley began to write all of the action sequences in his films himself, collaborating with his directors on utilising their script’s set pieces to their full potential. With his company, GO Stunts (co-founded with fellow stuntmen Scott Rogers and Darrin Prescott), Bradley has become the most in-demand stunt coordinator and second unit director in the industry, as well as revolutionising many of the techniques used in Hollywood on their big budget action movies. Bradley’s most recent projects have included Spider-Man 2 and 3, The Bourne Supremacy (and The Bourne Ultimatum), Crank, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Quantum of Solace.

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 by Paramount Pictures to produce something more commercial after the explicit approach of the previous sequel, 1985′s A New Beginning. The cast had consisted of several young rising stars who would become staples of the genre throughout the 1980s, such as Thom Mathews (Return of the Living Dead) and Jennifer Cooke (V). Darcy DeMoss was born on August 19th 1963 in Los Angeles and spent her childhood living in the Hollywood Hills. Having grown up around the film industry, DeMoss landed her first role in a television commercial at the age of fifteen and, after leaving Ulysses S. Grant High School in Van Nuys, was hired for the titillating home video Aerobicise: The Beginning Workout in 1982.

Her first film role came two years later with an uncredited appearance in Brian De Palma’s acclaimed thriller Body Double, which would also star Melanie Griffith and Craig Wasson (A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors), although her break would come with Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives in 1986. Appearing during the infamous RV sequence alongside John Travolta’s nephew, Tom Fridley, DeMoss would be best remembered for the moment when Jason Voorhees slams her face through the wall of the van. During her sex scene with Fridley, writer-director Tom McLoughlin approached DeMoss and requested that she appeared topless. Despite having no reservations about nudity, the suggestion came as something of a surprise and so DeMoss refused. McLoughlin, however, had felt uncomfortable about suggesting such a thing but had tried to appease his producers, who felt that the core audience of the franchise had come to expect it. Incidentally, DeMoss had previously auditioned for A New Beginning but had allegedly backed out of the project when the director, Danny Steinmann, had requested that she show her breasts during her interview.

Her next role saw her appearing alongside A New Beginning‘s Tiffany Helm in the enjoyable women-in-prison flick Reform School Girls, which was directed by Tom (Hell Night) DeSimone and distributed by Roger Corman’s New World Pictures. Intended as a satire on the genre, Reform School Girls starred B-movie favourite Sybil Danning as the tough warden of a women’s prison. The following year, DeMoss returned to the horror genre with the slasher comedy Return to Horror High (no relation to Larry N. Stouffer’s 1974 movie Horror High), which would also feature a pre-fame George Clooney who, at the time, was best friends with Jason Lives‘ Mathews. Perhaps her most successful project during the late 1980s was Can’t Buy Me Love, a romantic comedy in which Patrick Dempsey starred as a high school nerd who obsesses over cheerleader Amanda Peterson. With hair metal dominating the music scene, DeMoss appeared in the promo video Girlschool for glam band Britny Fox, which saw a class of young girls being lectured by their strict teacher, only for the walls of the room to come tumbling down to reveal the group performing on stage. The video was noted for all of the young actresses (which also included model Kim Anderson) wearing blouses and short skirts and dancing wildly in their class in front of the band.

As well as her genre appearances, DeMoss began to build her résumé on the small screen with the sitcom Full House and the harrowing made-for-TV movie I Know My First Name is Steven, which told the true story of Steven Stayner, who was abducted at the age of seven and held captive and sexually abused until eventually escaping at the age of fourteen. Tragically, Stayner would die in a motorcycle accident ten years later, shortly after the film based on his life was screened on television. Other minor roles during this era would include For Keeps? (which also featured Renée Estevez from Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers), the thriller Living to Die (alongside director Wings Hauser) and the sex comedy Vice Academy 3. Throughout the 1990s, DeMoss would appear in several softcore projects, ranging from Eden, produced for Playboy, Erotic Confessions and Deadly Illusions, whilst her work in the horror genre would continue with a TV remake of Corman’s 1959 classic A Bucket of Blood. More recently, DeMoss has become known for her work with screen legend Tippi Hedren (mother of Melanie Griffith) on The Roar Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in 1983 which has offered support to exotic animals housed at the Shambala Preserve in Acton, California.

Director: Jeffrey Abelson
Performer: Alice Cooper
Writers: Alice Cooper, Kane Roberts, Tom Kelly
Musicians: Kane Roberts, David Rosenberg, Donnie Kisselbach, Kip Winger, Paul Delph
Producer: Michael Wagener

With 1985’s Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning not only disappointing critics but alienating the fans, Paramount soon realised that they had to bring Jason Voorhees back in a new and exciting way. New Line Cinema had given the studio a major rival with their inventive and stylish A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise and so the producers decided that the only way to survive was to embrace other mediums such as merchandise and music videos. In an effort to convince fans that their favourite serial killer would be making a triumphant return, series producer Frank Mancuso Jr. enlisted the assistance of another star whose glory days seemed far behind him. Alice Cooper had been one of the most controversial entertainers of the 1970s with his brand of outrageous stage theatrics (including Grand Guignol-style executions) but due to an excessive lifestyle of alcoholism his career had come to a standstill, resulting in a slew of obscure albums that failed to achieve the acclaim of his earlier work. Despite a consistant output of interesting and varied material (including the highly underrated 1980 album Flush the Fashion), fans had begun to look elsewhere for their thrills, with a new generation of heavy metal bands embracing similar theatrics (such W.A.S.P. and Twisted Sister).

By 1986, Cooper had sobered up and was determined to save his flagging career. After forming a creative partnership with imposing guitarist Kane Roberts and producers Beau Hill and Michael Wagener, he began work on what he hoped would be his comeback record. Once again returning to the outrageous image he had utilised throughout the ’70s (including his trademark eyeliner), Cooper would co-write ten tracks for what would become Constrictor, eventually making its debut on September 22nd 1986. Six weeks earlier, Paramount would release their sixth entry in the Friday the 13th franchise, Jason Lives, which they had also intended to use as a comeback following the financial disappointment of A New Beginning. Sensing the commercial prospect of being involved in a high profile slasher film, Cooper would contribute three songs for the movie; two from his latest LP and one exclusive track, Hard Rock Summer. With tie-in merchandise becoming big business in the wake of Star Wars, many studios had capitalised on their products with ranges of toys, clothes and even lunchboxes. And with MTV now such a major force in America, it was perhaps inevitable that the slasher would eventually break out into music videos as well. Despite Jason Lives‘ Tom McLoughlin expressing enthusiasm at directing the promo, the studio instead opted to hire Jeffrey Abelson, who later shoot another video for a hit movie, the Guns N’ Roses track You Could Be Mine, which was released to coincide with James Cameron’s 1991 blockbuster Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

The video opened with a teenage boy, Jason, pleading with his father (whose face remains unseen) to lend him his car, claiming that he had achieved the grades they had previously agreed on. But the father, noticing that his report card also featured D’s and F’s, refuses the request and suggests that he and his girlfriend walk to the cinema. The doors of the theatre open and the audience begins to pile in, an assortment of goths and punk rockers, many copying the image of Alice Cooper (and one of them carrying the infamous hockey mask). The movie being screened is the latest Friday the 13th flick and Jason finally arrives as the film begins, making his way with his date across the row to an empty seat. Many of the clips shown from Jason Lives play out in chronological order, with the opening sequence showing Tommy Jarvis and fellow institute resident Allen Hawes making their way into a cemetary to find a headstone that reads ‘Jason Voorhees.’ Tommy decides to dig up the grave but suddenly Jason swings towards the camera on a rope, ripping through the cinema screen and tearing off his mask to reveal Alice Cooper.

Jason and his date cower in fear as Alice looms over them whilst singing about ‘The man behind the mask.’ Sitting down on his throne, Alice then begins to warn the viewer about the dangers of skinny dipping late at night, whilst his audience watch petrified. Meanwhile, a montage of clips from the feature film continue, which include shots of the paintball massacre (which featured stuntman Dan Bradley in the role of Jason, who was eventually replaced by C.J. Graham) and the double impalement of lovers Steven and Annette. After attempting to resist Alice’s seduction, Jason and his girlfriend charge the stage and try to escape but as they make their way to the exit a bulking figure in a hockey mask appears and captures them. Alice pulls a lever, forcing a cage down and trapping them, but after taunting them suddenly breaks the lock, allowing them to escape. But, as the crowd leaves the cinema after the show, Alice is pulled back through the movie screen by Jason Voorhees. Back in his father’s office, young Jason admits that he didn’t understand what he had seen whilst watching the movie. Suddenly, his father spins around on his chair to reveal Alice Cooper.

The marketing department certainly felt inspired whilst planning Jason’s big comeback for Friday the 13th Part VI, as the collaboration of both Jason Voorhees and Alice Cooper was ingenious. Both had shocked and disgusted audiences, angered critics and made an impact on popular culture, before suddenly losing their magic and being reduced to mere has-beens. He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask) captured the true spirit of the franchise with both its tongue-in-cheek lyrics and horror-style music. The video itself shared many similarities with the cult Italian flick Dèmoni (aka Demons), released the previous year, which depicted an audience at a late night screening of a horror movie being terrorised by the events on screen. The promo clip received heavy airplay throughout the late ’80s on such rock shows as Headbangers Ball and The Power Hour and resulted in Cooper landing a small but memorable role in John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness in 1987, before once again reaching the top of the charts with his album Trash two years later (which would boast, among others, the smash hit single Poison). The song and video for He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask would not only play a small part in resurrecting the Friday the 13th franchise but would also once again help the slasher film penetrate the mainstream.

Further reading -
- CRYSTAL LAKE’S BLOODY LEGACY pt.1 – Friday the 13th (1980)
- CRYSTAL LAKE’S BLOODY LEGACY pt.2 – Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
- CRYSTAL LAKE’S BLOODY LEGACY pt.3 – Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982)
- CRYSTAL LAKE’S BLOODY LEGACY pt.4 – Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
- CRYSTAL LAKE’S BLOODY LEGACY pt.5 – Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning (1985)
- CRYSTAL LAKE’S BLOODY LEGACY pt.6 – Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)

Director: Tom McLoughlin
Writers: Tom McLoughlin
Starring: Thom Mathews, Jennifer Cooke, David Kagen, Renee Jones, Kerry Noonan, Darcy DeMoss, Tom Fridley
Producer: Don Behrns
Music: Harry Manfredini
Special Makeup Effects: Martin Becker

The sleazy direction that the Friday the 13th franchise had taken with A New Beginning had been of great concern to the executives at Paramount. Having brought the series to a satisfactory conclusion with The Final Chapter the previous year, the box office takings had been enough to convince the studio that Jason Voorhees was still a viable commodity, and so producers immediately began searching for ways in which to bring him back from the dead. The task of directing Jason’s big comeback fell to Danny Steinmann, a former adult filmmaker whose commercial breakthrough, the Linda Blair exploitation flick Savage Streets, had made an impression on the producers. His initial cut of A New Beginning had featured graphic violence and nudity, prompting the MPAA to decline the movie a total of nine times until its obscene material had been trimmed to a level they deemed satisfactory. Not wishing to suffer a similar fate with their sixth Friday venture, following criticism by their otherwise loyal fan base, the decision was made that the latest sequel would move into less darker territories.

Having recently formed his own production company, Hometown Films, Mancuso Jr. had become less hands-on with the franchise than he had once been, but Friday the 13th was still profitable for the studio. In fact, the 1980′s would prove to be an extremely successful era for Paramount, having also scored with the Star Trek movies, Indiana Jones and their contract with comedian Eddie Murphy, which would result in such blockbusters as Trading Places, Beverly Hills Cop and Coming to America. Mancuso Jr., meanwhile, would enjoy modest success himself through his new company, producing the cult slasher April Fool’s Day and the hit sci-fi- show War of the Worlds. But despite wanting to distance himself with the franchise that had first made his name, Mancuso Jr. had a responsibility to the studio and so approached their latest venture very carefully.

The initial concept for Part VI would have continued on from the events of A New Beginning, with the surviving characters once again returning. Both Melanie Kinnaman and child actor Shavar Ross had been approached to reprise their roles, but when Ross read the script and discovered that he would be killed off within the first few minutes he politely declined. John Shepherd, who had taken over the role of Tommy Jarvis from The Final Chapter‘s Corey Feldman, would also pass up on the chance to return, partially due to money issues and also the negative criticism he had received from the parents at the Bel Air Presbyterian Church where he had been working with children. An image of him brandishing a machete had been published in The Los Angeles Times and, whilst the kids found this very exciting, their mothers and fathers were less than impressed. With neither Shepherd nor Ross wishing to return, the producers decided not to recast Kinnaman and instead take the story in a new direction.

When searching for a suitable director in which to provide the series with some much needed commercial credibility, Mancuso Jr. eventually settled on Tom McLoughlin. Having been raised in Culver City, McLoughlin’s father had attended USC film school, which had allowed his son free access to the MGM backlots as a young boy. There, with his school friends, he would spend the weekends shooting amateur movies based on his favourite horror characters or action stars like James Bond. At nineteen, McLoughlin relocated to Paris where he studied modern and classic dance amongst others and would often attend film screenings at the cinema across the road. Upon returning to America, he had developed a healthy appetite for the likes of Frank Capra and Jacques Tati, but soon found himself as a stage performer, before eventually forming the LA Mime Company, which led to a television series, Van Skye & Company, with screen legend Dick Van Dyke. Having earned an Emmy nomination, McLoughlin was invited into the Writer’s Guild of America and soon found himself with an agent at the respected William Morris Agency.

But it would be his first movie, a low budget horror entitled One Dark Night, that would bring him to the attention of Mancuso Jr. and Paramount. Initially, he had been brought in by the studio to work on a suspense thriller, but soon concerns turned to the Friday the 13th franchise, which was in dire need of a facelift. McLoughlin was a fan of the series and the horror genre in genre, so the chance to be the first filmmaker to not only direct but write a Friday the 13th film proved too tempting to pass. Given free reign over the story and permission to ignore the downbeat ending of A New Beginning, McLoughlin commenced work on his screenplay, which would see Tommy Jarvis having escaped the institution where he had been treated and making his way back to Crystal Lake (now renamed Forest Green in an attempt to forget its bloody past), determined to make sure Jason was dead once and for all. Unfortunately, his meddling would cause Jason’s corpse to be reanimated once again and Tommy, who becomes the prime suspect for the subsequent spree of brutal murders, is forced to fight his nemesis to the death.

McLoughlin would be allocated a budget of $3m, which would make Part VI the most expensive Friday the 13th movie at that time (with The Final Chapter coming second with $2.6m), and shooting was set to take place in Georgia in Covington and Hard Labor Creek State Park, Rutledge. With Mancosu J. preoccupied with his own projects, the task of producing the movie was given to Don Behrns, who had previously worked as a production supervisor for John Carpenter on Halloween and The Fog. The casting would once again be handled by Fern Champion and Pamela Basker, who had assisted on The Final Chapter and A New Beginning, and would later work on the TV series. With Shepherd having declined to play the lead, the role of Tommy (now transformed from a catatonic to a hero) would go to Thom Mathews, who had become a minor cult star after his turn in the zombie flick The Return of the Living Dead (which had also co-starred A New Beginning‘s Miguel Nunez and Mark Venturini).

At Mancuso Jr.’s suggestion, Tommy would be aided by an attractive blonde, and the role of resourceful Megan would go to Jennifer Cooke, who had enjoyed a recurring role alongside Robert ‘Freddy Krueger’ Englund in the sci-fi series V. For the role of one of her best friends, Cort, the producers would cast Tom Fridley, whose claim to fame was being the nephew of Saturday Night Fever‘s John Travolta, whose own career had suddenly come to a standstill. The director would cast his own wife, Nancy McLoughlin, in the role of Lizabeth who, along with future star Tony Goldwyn (Ghost, The Last House on the Left), would appear as one of the earlier victims, having attempted to plead with Jason by offering her credit cards. Darcy DeMoss, who would land the role of Nikki, had originally auditioned for A New Beginning, but had protested when Steinmann had allegedly asked her to show him her breasts during her audition. She would eventually lose out on the role when, during a wardrobe fitting, she claimed he tried to seduce her.

The role of Jason had initially been offered to Dan Bradley, who had performed stunts on the likes of Re-Animator, A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge, House and Trick or Treat. Having shot a scene in which Jason attacks a group of office executives out on a paintball team-building weekend (which had been added to the script after the director was informed that the movie needed a higher body count), the producers at Paramount felt that Bradley had the wrong shape and ordered a prompt recast. C.J. Graham, who stood at six-foot three, would instead be given the responsibility of portraying the now undead Jason, which would require such stunts as pyrotechnics. With Paramount contacting him about the part on Friday, three days later Graham found himself in Georgia covered in latex and a hockey mask.

Principal photography commenced on March 8th for approximately six weeks under the pseudonym Aladdin Sane (named after a David Bowie song). Although McLoughlin wanted a fast pace and likeable characters, he was also aware that he was making a Friday the 13th movie and so required a team of talented special effects artist. Martin Becker was already a veteran of the series and would be assisted by Brian Wade (The Thing, Jaws 3-D), Bill Forsche (Critters, From Beyond) and the director’s own brother, Jim McLoughlin (who would later work on The People Under the Stairs with Wes Craven), making Part VI a family affair. Problems would arise, however, when the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), who had grown increasingly hostile towards the franchise, would force the director to censor out most of the gore. Thus, Tom McLoughlin would shoot several versions of each death scene: an X-rated, R-rated and PG cut, so at least the graphic footage would exist for possible future releases.

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives was released in the US on August 1st 1986 and would back an impressive $6.7m on its opening weekend, although business would soon die down, resulting in it becoming the first of the series to not pass the $20m mark. The movie would be aided by the track He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask), which was performed by shock rocker Alice Cooper who, much like Jason, was working towards making a comeback. Although Jason Lives would receive a more positive response from critics this was still a Friday the 13th feature, with The New York Times stating that ‘the film is still a gory waste of time that plays its murders for all the blood and guts they’re worth. There are plenty of clichéd reaction shots of faces in terror, more than enough frames filled with bloody knives and severed heads. There is not, however, any suspense about Jason or his victims. He stalks, they scream, he kills.’

Further reading -
- CRYSTAL LAKE’S BLOODY LEGACY pt.1 – Friday the 13th (1980)
- CRYSTAL LAKE’S BLOODY LEGACY pt.2 – Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
- CRYSTAL LAKE’S BLOODY LEGACY pt.3 – Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982)
- CRYSTAL LAKE’S BLOODY LEGACY pt.4 – Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
- CRYSTAL LAKE’S BLOODY LEGACY pt.5 – Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning (1985)

If the Friday the 13th franchise is to be remembered for anything, other than the iconic hockey mask, then it will be the elaborate and graphic special effects, which were created by various different artists and workshops, from the legendary Tom Savini and Stan Winston to the likes of Martin Becker and Greg Nicotero. Twelve movies, hundreds of victims – it would be impossible to narrow their gory highlights down to just a few but here’s thirteen of Jason’s most memorable kills.

I couldn’t decide which one should claim the top spot so instead these are listed in chronological order. No doubt you’ll have your own favourites so tell us which you would have included.

Enjoy!

FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980) – Jack (Kevin Bacon)
Long before the awards and critical acclaim, Kevin Bacon’s claim to fame was his iconic death in the original Friday the 13th. Storyboarded by associate producer Steve Miner (who would later direct the first two sequels) and executed by special make-up effects artist Tom Savini, the sequence saw an arrow being driven through Bacon’s throat from underneath the bed. This relatively complex gag would be created by designing a cast of the actor’s torso, whilst his real body was hidden underneath the bed. With a neck cast attached to Bacon, a hand belonging to stills photographer Richard Feury (who would later be credited as second assistant director on Part 2) reached up from under the bed to pull Bacon’s head down whilst the arrow was pushed through the neck cast. But when the tube that ran the blood from a bag to the neck cast came loose Taso N. Stavrakis, Savini’s assistant, improvised and blew hard down the tube, causing the blood to spray out from the open wound. Although not a Jason kill, this is still a favourite amongst fans.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2 (1981) – Mark (Tom McBride)
To prove that Jason Voorhees was an equal rights serial killer, Part 2 saw him dispatch of the franchise’s sole wheelchair-bound victim. Having seemingly scored with pretty-yet-naïve Vickie (Lauren-Marie Taylor), Mark (Tom McBride) waits patiently before heading outside the house, where he is suddenly struck in the face by a machete and sent hurtling backwards down a set of steps. For this highly effective sequence, special make-up effects artist Carl Fullerton designed a mask for McBride to wear, which the balsa wood machete was then attached to. Pulling the blade away from the actor’s face, the footage was then played back in reverse to create the illusion that Mark had been hit in the face by the machete. McBride was then replaced by stuntman Tony Farentino (who would later work on the underrated slasher Alone in the Dark the following year), who was sent backwards down the stairs using a rig to avoid the wheelchair losing control.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 3 (1982) – Vera (Catherine Parks)
Having rebuffed the advances of shy practical joker Shelly (Larry Zerner), Vera (Catherine Parks) finds his wallet in the water and looks through the contents, before realising that a masked figure has appeared from behind the house. Believing it to be Shelly, who had previously scared her whilst wearing his hockey mask, Jason (Richard Brooker) raises a speargun towards her and fires a shot directly into her eye. Yet another gag played back in reverse, the sequence began with Parks reacting to the arrow being pressed against her eye, before the arrow was retracted via a wire and rod. Cutting away, the next shot saw Parks with an arrow attached to her eye as she fell backwards into the water, although this could only be shot once as the prosthetics that the make-up crew had created would fall to pieces when wet. This scene has an important place in the history of the franchise as it would be the first on-screen kill committed by Jason after obtaining his infamous mask.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 3 (1982) – Rick (Paul Kratka)
Accommodating for the 3-D effects that would be the selling point for Friday the 13th Part 3, director Steve Miner took every opportunity he could to have objects jumping or reaching out at the camera; from yo-yos and joints to spears and even eyeballs. The latter would be used for the death scene of Rick (Paul Kratka), the lumberjack boyfriend of heroine Chris (Dana Kimmell). Having returned to find the house deserted, Chris searches for her friends whilst Rick heads outside, only to be accosted by Jason. Grabbing his head from behind and crushing his skull, Rick’s eyeballs burst literally from their sockets under the pressure and leap out at the audience. Weeks before principal photography had begun, Kratka was brought to the FX workshop to have his upper torso and head cast in plaster to create a life-size dummy that would be used for the majority of the sequence. With a mark having been set between the two lenses that were used to capture the images in 3-D, the eyeballs were sent out of the fake skull using wires after several attempts using compressed air had failed to achieve the desired result.

FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER (1984) – Axel (Bruce Mahler)
Despite having launched his career on the back of his work on the first Friday the 13th movie, Savini had declined the chance to return for the subsequent two sequels, instead choosing to work on other splatter flicks like The Burning and Creepshow. Yet when the possibility to end what he had helped create by killing off Jason once and for all for 1984′s The Final Chapter arose he found the offer too tempting. After two relatively tame sequels, Savini was determined to outdo his own work on the original by creating some of his most brutal set pieces since The Prowler in 1981 (which, coincidentally, was also directed by Joseph Zito). Aside from Jason’s own demise, the stand out death scene was awarded to Axel (Police Academy‘s Bruce Mahler), an obnoxious orderly whose failed seduction attempts with a nurse (Lisa Freeman) results in him watching aerobics on television. Jason (Ted White), having awoken from the slab after believing to have died from his wounds endured at the end of Part 3, sneaks up behind Axel and grabs him by his head, before taking a surgical hacksaw used for cutting through bone and slices deep into his throat. A dummy was created using a cast of Mahler and a saw, whose blade was filled with blood, was placed against the throat, which also allowed for the head to be violently turned as Jason sunk deep into his neck.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 5: A NEW BEGINNING (1985) – Joey (Dominick Brascia)
Sweet-yet-simple loner Joey (Dominick Brascia) is often dismissed by his fellow patients at the relatively laxed Pinehurst mental institution and, after an attempt at helping two of the girls with the laundry results in the clean clothes being covered in chocolate, tries to make friends with resident psychotic Victor (Mark Venturini, also known to splatter fans for his turn in Return of the Living Dead, released the same year). Angered by his persistence, Victor swings his axe down on Joey’s back and begins to hack him to pieces as the other patients watch in horror. Some time later, an ambulance arrives on the scene and one of the paramedics (Caskey Swaim) pulls back the sheet that is covering his corpse to reveal hacked-up body parts. Whilst the murder itself is shown off screen (with only a brief reaction shot from Brascia at the point of impact), it is the following scene when the state of the body is revealed that showed the gruesome handiwork of the special effects team. Not technically a Jason kill, but the murder would become the catalyst for the Jason copycat murders that followed.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 6: JASON LIVES (1986) – Sheriff Garris (David Kagan)
Sheriff Garris (David Kagan) would prove to be the archetypal authority figure of the slasher film. Much like A Nightmare on Elm Street‘s Lt. Donald Thompson (John Saxon), who would also refuse to believe the fact that a seemingly dead killer was responsible for a recent series of grizzly murders, Garris’ ignorance and refusal to accept the warning from former mental patient Tommy Jarvis (Thom Mathews, Venturini’s Return of the Living Dead co-star) would eventually cost him his life. Having made his way with his deputies to Camp Forest Green – formerly Camp Crystal Lake, the scene of countless murders at the hands of Jason (C.J. Graham) – Garris soon finds himself alone and takes shelter in the bushes as he watches Jason from afar. But when his daughter, Megan (Jennifer Cooke), arrives at the camp with Tommy, Jason heads back out of the woods to kill them both, forcing the sheriff to finally face the truth and fight back, resulting in him being literally broken in two. Although heavily censored by the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) prior to release, the sequence was achieved by fake legs being bent back over Kagan’s shoulders as Jason breaks his back. In an effort to avoid the same kind of problems with the censors that the previous movies had encountered, director Tom McLoughlin would shoot several versions of the scene, including one which would be relatively gruesome, although sadly this would not be used in the finished print.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 7: THE NEW BLOOD (1988) – Judy (Debora Kessler)
Unlike his contemporaries, namely A Nightmare on Elm Street‘s Freddy Krueger and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre‘s Leatherface, Jason Voorhees has never taken much pleasure in torturing his victims, instead opting for the fastest way to dispatch them. Kane Hodder, who would be cast in the role at the insistence of director John Carl Buechler, would take the character of Jason to new heights by creating a unique body language that he would use through the subsequent three sequels. With Buechler also being a renowned special effects artist, many of the set pieces in Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood would be extremely elaborate and graphic, this was until the MPAA ordered drastic cuts to many of the film’s highlights. One sequence would see one of the young vacationers, Judy (Debora Kessler), dragged across the ground by Jason in her sleeping bag and swung against a tree, killing her instantly. Originally, Jason was to have thrown her against the trunk several times but the MPAA ordered the filmmakers to reduce the number of hits, resulting in Jason simply swinging her against the tree once and then tossing her body aside. Ironically, this would make the sequence all the more effective.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 8: JASON TAKES MANHATTAN (1989) – Jules (V.C. Dupree)
Although ultimately defeated at the end of each movie, Jason rarely faced a character who was able to match him physically, with his victims often resorting to weapons, water or even telekinesis. In 1989′s Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, the latest graduating class embark on a cruise from Crystal Lake to New York City, which soon turns into a fight for survival as Jason (Kane Hodder) makes his way onboard and begins to dispatch each of the teens one-by-one. Although the majority of the deaths would be relatively blood-free (again, due to strict regulations from the MPAA), one that would stand out would be that of Julius (V.C. Dupree), undefeated high school boxing champion who, tired of running, faces off against Jason on top of a building in a rough neighbourhood of New York. With bloody knuckles and gasping for breath, Julius in unable to fight Jason any longer and challenges him to punch him back. In one swing, Jason sends Julius’ head from his shoulders, down the side of the building and into a dumpster in the street below. Showcasing his sick sense of humour, Jason later left Julius’ head on the dashboard of a police car as the other students attempt to escape.

JASON GOES TO HELL: THE FINAL FRIDAY (1993) – Deborah (Michelle Clunie)
With Paramount having eventually sold the rights to the Friday the 13th franchise to rival studio New Line Cinema (the home of A Nightmare on Elm Street), the series received a makeover in 1993 with Adam Marcus’ Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. Ostensibly a rip-off of Jack Sholder’s 1987 science fiction thriller The Hidden (also distributed by New Line), the movie boasted impressive special effects by the always reliable KNB EFX, although predictably these would be heavily censored for the theatrical print. Thankfully, Marcus’ original cut was later released on video and featured in all its glory the murders of horny young campers Deborah (Michelle Clunie) and Luke (Michael B. Silver). With their friend Alexis (Kathryn Atwood) having allowed them to keep the tent for the night whilst she sleeps outside, the couple had begun to make out before moving onto sex, whilst a coroner (Richard Gant) from a hospital who has been possessed by the spirit of Jason appears at the tent, thrusting his weapon through the material and into Deborah’s stomach, before violently thrusting it upwards, tearing her torso in two.

JASON X (2001) – Adrienne (Kristi Angus)
With the regular setting of Camp Crystal Lake having grown stale over several installments, filmmakers had been forced to try new locations in which Jason could continue his bloodbath. New York had failed to impress the fans and so the makers of Jason X, in a last attempt to rejuvenate the formula, sent their antagonist into twenty-fifth century deep space. This new science fiction location would allow for an array of possibilities; some of which would be exploited, whilst others were sadly neglected. The film’s best death would go to scientist Adrienne (Kristi Angus), who is given the responsibility of performing an autopsy on the recently thawed out Jason (Kane Hodder), whose body was found in an abandoned space station. Whilst distracted, Adrienne is unaware that Jason has awoken behind her and grabs her by her hair, forcing her face-first into a sink filled with liquid nitrogen, causing her head to immediately freeze. Removing her and looking at his handiwork, Jason would smash her head against the work surface, shattering her face, before tossing her corpse aside.

FREDDY VS. JASON (2003) – Trey (Jesse Hutch)
Freddy vs. Jason had been fifteen years in the making, pitching the villains from the A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th franchises against each other in a fight to the death. Having gone through numerous writers and directors, the task of bringing the concept to the big screen fell to Ronny Yu, who had previously given the Child’s Play series a postmodern makeover with 1998′s Bride of Chucky. The story that was eventually selected saw both antagonists trapped in the bowels of Hell, with Freddy desperate to escape so he can continue his killing spree at his old stomping ground, Elm Street. Allowing Jason (Ken Kirzinger) to escape Hell, he lures him to Elm Street in an effort to evoke enough fear in the town’s teenagers so that he will be able to break free from his restraints and control the dream world once again. Jason makes his way to the former home of Lt. Donald Thompson and his daughter, Nancy (Heather Langenkamp), a house which Freddy is strangely drawn to time and time again. Finding a group of teens partying without the supervision of parents, Jason appears over the bed of obnoxious jock Trey (Jesse Hutch) and begins to butcher him with his machete to the point that the bed breaks in half, crushing Trey’s lifeless body.

FRIDAY THE 13TH (2009) – Nolan (Ryan Hansen)
Having made a suitable impression on the executives at New Line with their script for Freddy vs. Jason, writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift were given the task of resurrecting the Friday the 13th franchise for Michael Bay’s production company Platinum Dunes (previously responsible for the all-style-no-substance remakes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hitcher). Taking elements from the first four movies, arguably favourites among fans, the reboot saw Jason (Derek Mears) reinvented as a hunter, who kidnaps a young woman (Amanda Righetti) who resembles his dead mother, prompting the girl’s brother (Jared Padalecki) to head out to Crystal Lake in search of her. Whilst the characterisation would be lacking, even for a slasher film, and the acting would be subpar (with the exception of Mears and Danielle Panabaker, the film’s only truly sympathetic character), some of the murders would be gruesome enough to delight fans of the series. The most memorable of which was the death of Nolan (Ryan Hansen) who, whilst out on the lake with his girlfriend (Willa Ford), is suddenly shot in the head by an arrow.

Throughout its thirty year legacy, the Friday the 13th franchise has boasted some truly memorable moments. But there were several scenes that were cut, either from the script or the finished film, for a variety of reasons. Here’s a few that, in a perfect world, would have made their way into the series…

JASON X:
One scene to have made its way into Todd Farmer’s script but not the movie was a sequence in which an explosion on board the Grendel resulted in a temporary loss of gravity. With both cargo and crew floating aimlessly, ship android Kay-Em manages to grab hold of the wall using her magnetics and attempts to rescue her friends, who desperately try to escape from Jason. This scene would involve several characters who were eventually omitted from the movie (Thorgan, Rizzo, Boeman, DeLongpre) forming a ‘human chain’ as Kay-Em tries to stop them from drifting towards Jason. Sadly, despite a few promising moments, the scene would not result in any zero gravity bloodshed but could still have made an interesting sequence.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI: JASON LIVES:
Having been rescued from the depths of Crystal Lake by Megan, Tommy Jarvis looks out at the water and declares ‘It’s over, it’s finally over. Jason is home.’ The next scene to have originally been included in writer/director Tom McLoughlin’s tongue-in-cheek script would have been the introduction of Jason’s as-then-unmentioned father, Elias Voorhees. Martin, the cemetery caretaker (who had not been killed in the original script), is knelt down pulling weeds from off of a tombstone when a large shadow is cast over him. Quickly turning around, he nervously says ‘Nice to see you again, Mr. Voorhees…Haven’t seen you in Crystal…er, Forest Green, in quite some time.’ Martin insists to the imposing figure that he has been taking care of both his wife and son’s graves as he is passed his regular payment. Left alone to inspect the resting place of his family, McLoughlin describes that ‘These eyes are truly evil. Cold. Dark. Demonic.’ Elias Voorhees was once again set to appear in Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday but was eventually cut from the story.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 3:
Instead of the generic retread of the first film’s infamous climax, in which this time the rotten corpse of Pamela Voorhees would jump out of the lake and pull heroine Chris under the water, only for the event to be revealed as just a dream, a planned alternative ending for Steve Miner’s 3D spectacle Friday the 13th Part 3 would have been far more shocking. Having seemingly defeated Jason and survived until dawn, Chris opens the door to discover that Jason is still very much alive and, with a swift blow of his machete, slices her head clean off. Again, this was to have been a dream and the character would have been shown to still be alive at the end, but the sequence would have packed more of a punch. Another effect which the filmmakers attempted saw Jason having his stomach hacked open, causing his guts to spill out at the camera in 3D. Sadly, nervous executives at Paramount chose to ignore both endings and eventually went with the one used in the theatrical cut.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VIII: JASON TAKEN MANHATTAN:
Avoiding the usual criticism of very little of the film actually being set in New York (due to budgetary issues), one minor incident to have been removed from the script was on the characters’ first arrival in the Big Apple. Having made their way to shore after the massacre that took place on board the S.S Lazarus, the kids head off into the city whilst Jason climbs out of the water. His first evil deed would have been to brutally kick a dog, presumably just for the sake of it (Hodder’s performance in the movie was at Jason’s most angry). But, surprisingly, the actor refused to do the scene, stating that the one thing Jason would never do is hurt a dog. A somewhat redundant argument as he succeeded in doing just that in the second film, but perhaps the way that writer/director Rob Hedden had scripted it was a little too savage.

FRIDAY THE 13TH:
The original opening for Sean S. Cunningham’s movie would have been a more dramatic and action packed sequence than the one eventually used in the finished release. Having left the campfire to be alone, young lovers Barry and Claudette were to have taken a walk around the lake as the unseen killer slowly followed them out-of-sight. A chase would have then ensued around the boathouse, instead of them simply being stabbed in the barn. This drastic re-write was necessary as, on the first night when the sequence was due to be filmed, snow would caused various technical problems and a more simplistic scene was required.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VII: THE NEW BLOOD:
Whilst it would hardly have made a drastic change including the brief scene, The New Blood would have originally featured an epilogue after the action packed finale in which a fisherman is seen out on the lake enjoying a leisurely morning, when suddenly Jason jumps out from under the water and drags him down below. Perhaps, with similar sequences having already been used in both the first and third film, director John Carl Buechler decided against using the shot.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART V: A NEW BEGINNING:
Probably the most uninspired killing in Danny Steinmann’s otherwise ultra-sleazy Friday the 13th movie A New Beginning was the death of punk chick Violet. Whereas her friends had been dispatched in a variety of brutal and inventive ways, Violet’s demise came with a simple stab to the gut. But that was not how Steinmann had originally envisioned it. Whilst performing her bizarre-yet-awesome robot dance to the tune of Pseudo Echo’s ‘His Eyes’, Jason would slowly sneak into the room and make his way towards her. Sensing a presence, she turns around as a machete is thrust violently up between her legs, the blade digging deep into her crotch. Realising that the movie would fall foul of the censors (it would eventually take nine attempts to get the film past the MPAA), Steinmann panicked and re-shot the sequence.

Anyway, when the Deluxe Editions started trickling out last year (I’m not talking parts 1-3, I’m talking the real Deluxe Editions – 4-8 produced by Dan Farrands of His Name Is Jason) I noticed the early films getting re-releases on my end of the globe. Different cover art, but also different extras – Friday The 13th part 3 lacked 3D, however did have the missing chapter of Lost Tales From Camp Blood so I made the decision to follow the train of local releases. I waited and waited. Eventually we got shitty bare-bones editions of part 4 onward instead. Mind-boggling. So I slapped the USA Super Deluxo’s in my digital cart and… timejump to today.

Friday The 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter – $11.99 – bingo! Not so fast, bucko. A New Beginning, Jason Lives, The New Blood and Jason Takes Manhattan all ranging from – $24.50 to $26.99 or completely unavailable at all. Sure, Amazon Marketplace can help, but individual postage from each buyer is going to make a buy there a no-go. Alright, back-up plan: screw the certificate and take my moolah to DVD Empire – but the truth doesn’t get much better over there when they confirm those four sequels are Out Of Print.

Ouch, man. That hit me right here in my hellbaby heart.

I figure it’s an elaborate conspiracy to teach me a very large lesson to strike while the iron’s hot, haste wakes waste, he who hesitates is lost, etc. etc. etc. But listen, I’m seeking a solution. I’ve relied on Amazon for a decade (and Ebay for single purchases) so haven’t stepped foot outside their perimeter into the online DVD retailer market much. Perhaps someone out there can recommend a reputable place I can get all four for decent prices?

Today’s BTS (Behind The Scenes) Wednesday features makeup being applied to stuntman/actor Mike Nomad before filming his character Officer Thornton’s death scene.

Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part 6 offered many memorable and exciting kills to add to the growing list in the franchise’s history. One such kill that always garners many cheers from the audience is when Officer Thornton is searching the docks at Camp Forest Green. While he searches the docks, Jason appears from the forest and throws one of his darts, removed from the his “borrowed” utility belt, and hits the Officer square in the forhead.

The photos below show Mr. Nomad during his makeup application. He looks to be having a lot of fun with the whole process as he helped create a very memorable scene in the film series. Who wouldn’t want to get set up to die by the hands of Mr. Voorhees?!

Today we look at a screen used hockey mask from Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part 6. This particular mask, which is owned by Paul Wintner and displayed at www.yourprops.com , was worn by actor C.J. Graham after Jason was shot by Sheriff Garris. It’s a very cool mask and one of many used during the production of the film.

In the meantime, check out the ultra-rare Japanese black and white lobby cards from Jason Lives below! The photos depict some of the most memorable moments from the movie and are a great time capsule of the film. Thanks to daizab for the awesome pics!