page two

 

      Eventually they arrive at the exotic sounding Higgins Haven- a picturesque house, with adjoining barn, sat next to a gently rippling Crystal lake. As the rest of the group wander down to the water Chris gets all dewy eyed and sentimental as she wanders around her childhood home, only to be surprised by Rick (Paul Kratka), her old flame from a few years Shelley's up to his pranking again ago. However, if you wondered if this addition of a love interest might mean Kimmell might succumb to a little of that ol' FRIDAY tradition- the t&a peepshow, then think again. Kimmell's final-girl performance can be summed up by the what is perhaps the cheesiest song title of all time- Samantha Fox's "Hurt me, Hurt me, but the pants stay on!"

      If you think things have been a little quiet on the Jason front then you'd be right. Voorhees junior has taken a back seat to the teen soap opera- content to bide his time skulking around by the barn. But to pep things up Shelley falls out of a wardrobe, an axe seemingly embedded in his head, surprising Kimmell who, when it turns out to be another of his pranks, throws a hissy fit and storms out.

     Shelley and Vera take Rick's Volkswagen beetle to the local store for some groceries (presumably a different local store to the one where the double murder took place). There they get bullied by a group of comedy snarling bikers in leathers, black lycra and bandannas. By mistake Shelley reverses over their bikes and one of the bikers smashes a couple of the windows of the car before they can get away.

     Back at Higgins Haven much gratuitous use is made of the nonexistent (in this version) 3-D trickery with yo-yos andGratuitous? ... Nah. all-sorts being flung at the audience. Shelley and Vera arrive back at the house and are soon followed by the disgruntled bikers who siphon all the petrol from the group's van and go exploring the barn. One of them, a black biker chick, proves just how bad she is by kicking over a hay bale (shocking I know), before meeting the wrong end of a pitchfork. Jason, relishing the opportunity to brush up on his slash and hack skills before the main teen pruning commences, also dispenses with another of the bikers in a similar fashion.

     But before Jason can properly get down to business Chris and Rick have a heart-to-heart in the woods where she (Kimmell hamming it up like there's no tomorrow), tells Rick about her run in with a certain backwoods loon when she was last at Crystal Lake, after she had stayed out all night in the woods to spite her parents. Complete with flashback footage of her wrestling with Jason superimposed over her gurning face, she wails "…he had a knife! …He attacked me with it! … I .. I was so hysterical I don't know how I was even able to think!" Her ample emoting ensured there wasn't a dry eye in the house (the tears of laughter just wouldn't stop!) … She goes on to say she the next thing she knew, she woke up in her own bed (perhaps Jason just gave her a Chinese burn and called it a day).

click to see some of the death scenes
    Meanwhile back over at Higgins Haven Jason warms up with that peculiar habit of his- rocking an outside toilet back and forth with some poor unfortunate inside it (what is it with that?) … Elsewhere couples split up and scare each other. Shelley spooks Vera by grabbing her foot as she dangles it over jetty. She reprimands him and he wanders away looking dejected. The major significance of this scene being the fact that Shelley is holding a hockey mask- yes, >>that<< hockey mask- the one Jason will soon adopt as a mask of choice, and the one that became one of the classic pop culture symbols of the 80's.

    Once Jason dons Shelley's mask then things click and the teen pruning starts with a vengeance. Necks are cut, torso's fried, various body parts are shish-kebabed and, in perhaps the most memorable demises in this entry- a Go Dana go! woman is at the eye-popping wrong end of a harpoon (bet that looked good in 3-D!); and a horny teen suffers the unkindest cut of all when he discovers that walking on his hands when a psycho is loose in your lodge isn't perhaps the best idea.

   Chris and Rick finally return to the lodge to find the place deserted with popcorn burning on the stove. Naturally they split up at the earliest convenience and Rick pops out into the night to have a look around- which, it turns out, is a big mistake as Jason (in another gore fx which must have looked great in 3-D but flat looks pretty fake) squashes his head between his hands and forces one of his eyeballs to come popping out towards the camera. … Chris, meanwhile, continues to peek-a-boo! poke around the lodge and finds the bath overflowing, full of bloody clothes (Jason thoughtfully doing a little presoaking?) Then, in time honoured fashion, bodies start popping up and come crashing through windows. Chris then comes face to face with Mr. Voorhees as he clambers through a downstairs window. The subsequent slasher action is nothing new but it's good solid fun nonetheless as Jason chases her around the house and they throw objects that'll look good in 3-D at each other. Actually, to give her her dues Kimmell is pretty good here as the final girl and the climactic scene in the barn is pretty tense. It's here where the film achieves a nice sense of American gothic, especially when Chris knocks Jason out and manages to hang him from the barn loft so his body swings in front of the door. Naturally when she opens it he pulls himself up, Jason gets a splitting headachecausing her to utter the immortal line, "Can't be alive!", and flips his mask up to reveal his ugly mug, which in turn causes her to splutter, "You!" (recognising him to be the monster that attacked her that night). Jason, for his part, seems more than happy to have struck up this re-acquaintance and grabs his trusty machete and advances on the slack-jawed maiden. Chris is saved last minute by the sudden reappearance of one of the bikers (who had presumably been having a nap) who at least diverts Jason long enough by providing machete fodder for Chris to grab a nearby axe. When Jason finishes dismembering the biker and turns back towards her she plants the axe in his forehead, only for him to continue to advance- arms outstretched, before finally collapsing at her feet...  

            home coming soon! find out the fate of Dana Kimmell on page 3!