Editorials
Why You Should Spend This Weekend at Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights!
On Friday, September 15th, I was fortunate enough to attend Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights on behalf of Bloody Disgusting in Los Angeles, California. During my visit, I witnessed a Stephen King nightmare unspooling before my eyes, came face to face with Henrietta fresh out of the fruit cellar, and was chased by many, many pig- men. When it comes to Halloween time in the great city of angels, there are many places where you can choose to spook yourself and watch some of your favorite cinematic icons cut and slash their way across the screen, but the most exciting event of all is without a doubt Halloween Horror Nights.
First, I hit the red carpet, where I chatted with some of my favorite people in the horror industry, including Tobin Bell, a.k.a. “Jigsaw” from the SAW series, who told me that his favorite entries in the franchise are the ones where Jigsaw punished his victims out of karma for bad behavior, and Jason Blum, head honcho of Blumhouse Productions, who refused to tell me almost anything at all. With Blumhouse taking over the Halloween franchise, placing David Gordon Green in the director’s chair, and returning Laurie Strode herself, a.k.a. Jamie Lee Curtis to her famous role and John Carpenter himself behind the scenes strumming up new tunes and looking over the script, I was eager to learn as much as I could from Blum himself, but all he would tell me is that his favorite entry in the Samhain inspired franchise is the original entry, John Carpenter’s Halloween. Malek Akkad, however, was a bit more willing to open up. When placed under pressure about when exactly the new entry will fall in the timeline of the series, the renowned Halloween 4 and Halloween 5 producer told me that this will be the eleventh film – whatever that turns out to mean. It’s a confusing response, but when the question was asked so clearly, one can’t help but take the man at his word. I also had the privilege of speaking with a few other starlets, including Frank Grillo, star and writer of The Purge who beamed happily over the recent announcement of a Purge inspired television show, Happy Death Day director who told me about his Groundhog Day inspired slasher film, and John Murdy, creative director of the Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights, who excitedly spoke about all of the new additions to his park, citing The Shining inspired maze as his personal favorite.
Watch our video from the red carpet here!
Up next, I was told to meet Leigh Whannell at the Globe Theater, which was decked out with spooky candles, smokey trees, screens in every direction playing footage of the new mazes, and people like Slash and Vanessa Hudgens and the members of The Losers Club casually wandering around, making merry sport of the Halloween spirit. From there, a bus brought me over to the “Insidious: Beyond the Further” maze, which I walked through with Insidious stars Leigh Whannell and Lin Shaye leading the way, and composer/consistent Conjuring universe creature man Joe Bishara close behind. This haunted attraction, along with the Saw inspired maze, were both interesting not only because they paid attention to the little details of the franchise, with the Saw maze even going as far as to have actual (fake) saws flying out at you as you carefully dodged their swinging chains and made your way through the house, but also because they both gave insight to fans for what to expect from the upcoming installments in each series. Insidious 4 may not be out in theaters yet, but anyone who dares to venture into its darkly lit strikingly good interior will get a sneak peek into the upcoming film, and learn a little bit about what we horror fans can expect from the latest entry in one of the many James Wan inspired creations.
I loved all of the little details in the “Ash vs. Evil Dead” maze, which not only rewards fans of the show with intricate snippets from the series (you even enter the maze through Ash’s dirty old trailer), but also because it’s littered with homages to the original series, most notably Evil Dead 2, where you will actually be attacked by a crazed Henrietta stumbling deadite, and also get to see her in her fullest form, as the giraffe-like Henrietta with an elongated neck and buck teeth snapping at you as you stroll by.
However, my favorite maze of the evening, without a doubt, was definitely “The Shining” inspired haunted attraction. Although it may not be as frightening as the “Titans of Terror” killer maze which beckons back to the big dogs of the horror world, a.k.a. Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare On Elm Street, Leatherface from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th franchise, or as oddly intriguing as all of the pig-men running around in the “American Horror Story: Roanoke” inspired maze, the little nods to the impeccable Stanley Kubrick horror film we all know and love really make it the most memorable of the entire Halloween event. Anyone who knows and loves The Shining will find joy in this little-personified homage to the classic slow burner – at one point, you’re even in the infamous bathroom where Jack witnesses a beautiful woman morph into a hideous monster, and it’s hard not to get a kick out that. Even the carpet is accurate to the film. You can tell just by looking at it how much love John Murdy has poured into his little creation – not to mention how many gallons and gallons of blood.
No matter your overall preference when it comes to the park, horror fans will not be disappointed with the outcome of their trip to Halloween Horror Nights this year. Sure, you can go see a movie on the big screen at New Beverly (which is a great option as well), or you can head down to Dark Delicacies and purchase some of your favorite Stephen King novels (another solid choice, really, these are all great choices L.A. is the best), but why not spend an evening living out your fears in real life? Go wander through the Scare Zones, get lost in the Toxic Tunnel and become terrified as you watch what appears to be real tourists being yanked out of line and demolished by demons in fiery pits in the Urban Inferno. No matter what’s your poison, Halloween Horror Nights is guaranteed to have something special in store for you, which is why it should be at the top of your list to visit this weekend, and every weekend, until the holiest of holy days is finally bestowed upon us: October 31st, Halloween, the greatest day of the year.
Editorials
Not Another ‘Scary Movie’: Revisiting Forgotten Parody ‘Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th’
After Scream (1996) made a killing at the box office, as well as won over critics and audiences, a lot of folks in the movie biz thought they could do the same thing (and yield similar results). That thing, of course, being a slasher. Most of these opportunists wound up being pretty straightforward; they were low on humor or commentary. Yet others, like Scary Movie (2000), saw the potential for spoofing Scream, and acted on that impulse with both haste and excitement.
A few months after the Wayans’ comedy first hit theaters, Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th landed on the USA Network, as part of the channel’s “Shriek Week” programming. That straight-to-cable (then home video) destination is possibly why many people still don’t know about this one. Or they simply chose to forget. Whatever the reason, only one of these two horror parodies came out on top—and it’s certainly not the movie where Coolio channeled Prince, and Tom Arnold saved the day.
Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th previously went by the name of I Know What You Screamed Last Semester. That Trimark acquisition then settled on a wordier title, just so it could avoid the litigious wrath of Miramax Films. Folks may or may not remember that Columbia Pictures was sued over the “implied connection” between I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and Scream. So, yeah, there was no way that this competing Scream parody wasn’t going to be kept on a tight rein.
A Heavy Reliance on Late ’90s TV References
Simon Rex, Julie Benz, Majandra Delfino, Harley Cross, Danny Strong, Tom Arnold and Tiffani-Amber Thiesen in Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th.
Naturally, there would be similarities between Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th and Scary Movie—their scripts are built on the backs of the same two movies. It goes without saying that the other big slasher of the 1990s, I Know What You Did Last Summer, was as much of a target as Scream. However,the film pads itself with more TV references than Scary Movie did.
Half the cast coming off of (and in some cases, returning to) a WB show could be a reason why. Dawson’s Creek is particularly zeroed in on, based on how there’s a central character named “Dawson Deery“, and how the teen drama’s teacher-student affair plotline is satirized to the nth degree. As if there weren’t enough nods to television, Baywatch, VH1’s Pop Up Video, and even those cheesy Mentos commercials all serve as joke prompts.
Shriek director John Blanchard and writers Sue Bailey and Joe Nelms all hailed from television, so it’s understandable that they would stick close to home. The movie’s humor in general makes more sense, in light of learning that Blanchard worked on SCTV, Kids in the Hall, and MADtv. The writers, on the other hand, were each fairly green, with Bailey being the most experienced of the two; she wrote and produced the game show BattleBots. Nevertheless, they, plus Blanchard, churned out a passable, joke-a-minute movie. The whole thing is staggeringly of its time, but no one here was aiming for longevity.
Having seen enough of these kinds of movies, we know to expect jokes of the low-hanging fruit variety. That’s the parody’s whole prime directive. From the characters having names like “Screw Frombehind” and “Doughy Primesuspect”, to stereotyping that feels taboo nowadays, this is a movie from a different era of comedy. Its coarse, corny, and unapologetic sense of humor won’t sit well with everyone in these more enlightened times. In which case, Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th can be treated as a time capsule.
Does Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th Humor Still Hold Up Today?
“You may already be a victim”—Someone receives a most peculiar threatening piece of mail in Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th.
Although Shriek doesn’t live up to its own claims of being so funny that you’ll die of laughter, its bawdier parts could still lead to some nervous laughter. For instance, after this movie’s parallel to Drew Barrymore’s Scream character is done in—not by the killer but by a bug zapper—the movie throws a newspaper next to the victim’s fresh corpse. The headline? “Popular slut killed! Football team mourns”.
We then move on to the wacky and inappropriate goings-on at Bulimia Falls High School, home of the Hurlers. At this nexus of constant absurdity, indecency, and surrealism, students are seen fornicating on the lawn, cheerleading squad applicants are advised to be comfortable with partial nudity, and terrorists openly prepare for an anthrax attack. It can be a tad jarring to watch, especially if you didn’t grow up witnessing this style of comedy firsthand. Hell, even if you did, you may still have a “what the hell were they thinking?” reaction.
It’s not just the aggressively edgy humor here that can make you chuckle—the slapstick, the sight gags, and the ribaldry all have a decent chance of landing. The movie’s own villain, whose hockey mask was instantly transformed into a crudely Ghostface-esque one after coming in contact with an open flame, commits more cheap laughs than kills. His and his victims’ chase sequences, most of which are cartoonish in nature, left this writer grinning. The Scooby-Doo fan in me also totally ate up that clever unmasking joke.
Final Thoughts on This Forgotten Horror Parody
Shriek If You Know What Did Last Friday the 13th
Now, the jury is still out on whether these comedies are to blame for the death of the first slasher revival. There is more to consider than some parodies. At the very least, the likes of Scary Movie didn’t exactly encourage big studios to put their money on a trend that was being derided to death (and not as profitable as the spoofs). These sorts of movies also felt unnecessary at the time, given how their principal inspiration is already a deconstruction of the genre. But like anything else that quickly becomes popular, mockery is unavoidable.
Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th is indeed a movie nobody asked for, much less needed. As a sample of pre-millennium humor and cultural attitudes, it’s not always precise. But as I’ve laid out, your mileage may vary. Horror parodies typically don’t have the best track record, so managing one’s own expectations here is recommended.
Upon rewatching, I for one laughed a bit more than I did back then. Only this time, I responded to the jokes that my younger self didn’t notice or find all that amusing. So it just goes to show that the movies don’t change—we do.
Harley Cross and Majandra Delfino must unmask the killer a number of times in Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th before learning their true identity.
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