FRIDAY THE 13th - The Decline of Fear

Paraskavedekatriaphobia is the fear of Friday the 13th; triskaidekaphobia is fear of the number 13.

The second Friday the 13th of this year is upon us. Recently, Hollywood re-made or in their parlance, re-imagined Jason Voorhees and released a new FRIDAY THE 13TH. After totally exhausting possibilities with the other 11 versions, producer/director Sean Cunningham re-did the machete wielding, hockey mask wearing slasher, momma's boy with fresh young bodies, gallons of fake blood and hackneyed scare tactics.

The film grossed over $45 million in its opening weekend. It broke records. Of course, the film dropped 80% the next weekend. Even by Hollywood's dubious standards of performance, that is a staggering rejection.will be out of theaters in two more weeks, but by that time the gross will have gotten near $70 million and that's before the DVD sales kick in. Sadly, this will only encourage the Hollywood bean counters to keep making these vacuous horror films. There's money to be made in rehashing old bloody body whacking.

The problem is Jason says nothing about the state of horror or even our culture. The genre has been a good indicator of what we fear at a particular moment in time. In the 30's it was industrialization and man playing God. In the 50's it was loss of self and atomic annihilation. In the 80s, slasher films raw fear was a counterbalance to a desensitized society.

This version of FRIDAY THE 13TH is none of that. It is merely horror nostalgia. It is a pining for a simpler time. A time when fear was one easily understood whacko taking revenge on morally suspect teens. A time when the simple conventions of horror films was understood. How can that compare with modern fears? What is more terrifying, a deranged cinematic serial killer or a real world human strapping a bomb on and killing in the name of God? That fear is indiscriminate, hateful and rationalized. Jason Voorhees just needs proper meds. The other is beyond our comprehension, and thus, scarier.

FRIDAY THE 13TH fails to address our new fears. It is simply recycled trash in a new brightly beribboned SFX box. A new genre of horror will eventually emerge. It will deal with our fears present day. It will scare the bejeebees out of us. This will be something to watch for. In the meantime, Hollywood, searching for quick cash cows, will churn out remakes, re-imaginings and recycled blood baths. Jason isn't scary. The banality of Hollywood's imagination, now that is truly scary.

Garen has been in the dark for years. He has been a film exhibitor, booking consultant and reviewer. These days he can be seen on NE Cable News, heard on NH Public Radio's Word of Mouth and pops into interesting places now and then. His two loves are films and frugality. Find out his other side at FrugalYankee.com