Editorials
[Review] “Friday the 13th: The Game” is a Killer Use of a Licensed Property
Fox is cornered in the barn. She’s the last one left. Everyone else is dead. Lightning flashes, followed by the crash of thunder. Harry Manfredini’s score rises as Jason runs in, ax in hand. Fox climbs out a window and sprints for the nearest cabin. She enters the structure and bars the door behind her. Jason appears outside a window and shatters it. He moves to another window and breaks that one, too. Then he disappears as the VHS tape skips, showing signs of wear. Fox picks up a machete and paces back and forth.
Where is he?
Without warning, Jason walks through the barred door, smashing it into pieces. Fox dives out a window, injuring herself in the process. She limps through the rain, keenly aware that she is about to die. Jason approaches, the music rising again. Fox makes one last stand and swings the machete into Jason, stunning him. It only buys her a few seconds and when he approaches again, this time she’s defenseless. Jason picks up Fox and crushes her in a bear hug.
Jason stomps back to his shed, where his mother’s voice calls him to the candlelit shrine he built for her severed head.
Beat for beat, this sounds like a Friday the 13th movie; like maybe some lost version of Part 3. But it’s not. It’s the tail-end of a round of Friday the 13th: The Game, and a shining example of why it’s the greatest use of a licensed property in the history of gaming.
Video games based on licensed properties generally have a bad reputation because there’s a lot of bad stuff out there. The most famous early example of this is E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial for the Atari 2600 although, if you want to talk about horror specifically, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre for the Atari 2600 was also a very real thing. (To be fair, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was never buried in a New Mexico landfill, though it probably should have been)
The point is, licensed video games are too often hastily designed shovelware with our favorite intellectual properties slapped on them in order to make a quick buck. That’s why when a truly inspired licensed game comes along, conversations surrounding it are typically cushioned in assurances of “No really. It’s actually pretty great.”
Anybody who has played Friday the 13th: The Game and then tried to sell somebody else on it knows what I’m talking about.
And ‘pretty great’ doesn’t even really do it justice; that’s a tempered description I would use in order to avoid hyperbole. The exact terminology I inevitably settle on in any extended discussion about Gun Media’s first game is ‘the greatest use of a licensed property in the history of gaming.’
I’m very particular about this specific language. I’m not saying ‘the greatest licensed game in the history of gaming’ because that’s a bold claim up for a heated debate. If people wanted to draw lines in the sand, many would probably argue for Batman: Arkham Asylum or Spider-Man 2 if for no other reason than these were robust triple-A titles, each fully playable on Day 1. Friday the 13th: The Game, on the other hand, is an indie title with some notorious growing pains coming out of the gate. I’m saying ‘the greatest use of a licensed property’ because growing pains aside, no IP has ever been treated with this sort of slavish devotion and reverence.
The immediate presentation alone is impressive. From the opening Gun Media tag, which is manipulated to give the appearance of having been recorded on a VHS tape of questionable quality, to the Harry Manfredini score playing gently over the main menu, you immediately feel drawn into the series’ 80’s-era prime. But that’s just nostalgia-feeding sleight-of-hand, right? The true measure of whether a licensed property does justice to its source material is in what happens after the game starts.
Most people probably know the premise behind the game at this point, but if you don’t, one player is Jason Voorhees, seven players are camp counselors, and they’re thrown together into various locations from the Friday the 13th movies. Jason’s mission is brutally eviscerate the counselors, and the counselors’ mission is to avoid that fate via escape, killing Jason, or simply running out the clock.
A major criticism of this game is that if you want to play specifically as Jason, the odds are stacked against you. In a full game, you’ve got a one-in-eight chance of spawning as Voorhees. And it makes sense people would want to play as him; he’s a lot of fun to play. His robust power set includes teleporting around the map, sneaking up on counselors, and smashing through walls, making him a virtual death god, and raining terror down upon your nearly defenseless opponents is a joy. Of course, if you’re playing as Chad and your sole special ability is to rock a cardigan, it might seem like Jason is a bit overpowered. But that’s kind of Jason’s whole thing, so what might feel like a broken balance issue in any other game feels entirely appropriate within the context of the franchise. Throw in Kane Hodder in a mocap suit and a plethora of recognizable skins representing Jason’s various incarnations and the murderous man-child has never been better depicted outside of film.
But as much fun as playing as Jason is, the satisfaction of seeing near-helpless victims bodied because they wandered onto the wrong campground is only a part of the cinematic Friday the 13th experience. The rest is the thrill of seeing near-helpless victims almost get bodied because they wandered onto the wrong campground, but live to tell about it. And that’s where the counselor side of the game comes in.
If you can set aside that momentary disappointment you might feel when you spawn as a counselor instead of Jason, and really let yourself become immersed in the world Gun Media has painstakingly created, this is the closest you will ever get to living (or dying) through one of these movies yourself. The urge to survive is strong, and being on the wrong end of a Friday the 13th chase sequence is a harrowing experience. Once Jason comes near you – and that incredible, iconic score lets you know it – you only have so many ways to prolong your life, and most of the time it’s going to boil down to putting distance between yourself and an unstoppable murder machine. Run. Jump through windows. Bar doors. Set traps. And this stuff only buys you seconds at a time. But if you can keep it up long enough, you might just be one of the few who makes it to the end. It’s a nerve-shattering experience worthy of the franchise. I’ve put a hundred hours into the game and when Jason is at my heels, my stamina is low, and the nearest cabin is still fifty yards away, my heart still pounds. It’s that good.
But that’s just the gameplay. It’s true, if you slapped different music and skins onto the game it’d still be solid. But the unmitigated fanservice is what makes it such an astounding use of the property. The little details, like the inclusion of Tommy Jarvis, or Pamela’s sweater, or the infamous Ki ki ki ma ma ma audio cue aren’t just random references. They – along with almost everything else – are not only used in ways that make logical sense within the series’ established lore, but also in ways that service the gameplay itself. One dead player can respawn as Tommy if he’s been called over a radio. Pamela’s sweater can be used to distract Jason long enough to set him up for a killing blow. Even the Ki ki ki ma ma ma signals to players Jason’s acquisition of another ability. For the real sticklers, there are calendars on the walls indicating the current date is actually the 13th, and it’s Friday. The game is soaked with that sort of detail and goes to great lengths to successfully recreate everything the series is known and loved for.
If you’re a fan of the Friday the 13th series, and you’ve been sketchy on the game because licensed games have a bad reputation, or because you’ve heard it’s got some issues, I hear you. I had the same doubts. And the game still isn’t without its issues. You’ll still encounter random bugs, though nothing like at launch. It’s best played with people you know because otherwise, you’re going to run into a Jason that screams homophobic slurs at you. But Gun Media is still updating and improving it all the time. They just added Fox, Part IV Jason, the Jarvis house, rain effects, and coming down the pipe is some kind of new ‘Who’s the killer’ Paranoia mode inspired by Roy in Part V. It’s a great game that just keeps getting better, and is the kind of faithful adaptation fandoms wait forever for and almost never see.
No, really. It’s actually pretty great.
In this day and age, the word “troll” is often used to describe various online nuisances. Yet as abundant and irksome as the modern troll can be, they aren’t usually as fearsome as their mythological counterparts. I’m not talking about the small and gentler versions that have become more common to see in media. No, there are much bigger and scarier trolls out there—and André Øvredal’s movie Troll Hunter is one of the best places to find them.
It doesn’t take long for Troll Hunter (or Trolljegeren) to dump the Blair Witch Project-esque setup and aim for something a lot fresher. The trajectory of the story is augmented by Otto Jespersen’s character Hans, the titular Troll Hunter. The second he comes barreling out of the deep, dark woods and shouts “troll” at the camera, this movie takes a turn into what feels like uncharted territory. Not only subject-wise, but also conceptually.
For fantastical and made-up subject matter in cinema, found footage is a fast way to add a guise of believability. After all, what we accept to be the most crucial aspect of documentaries—the truth—rubs off on pseudo-documentaries, despite our understanding of the pretense involved. That is what Øvredal delivered with Troll Hunter: a movie so convincing that some viewers wondered if trolls really do exist. So, had this been straightforwardly made, it likely wouldn’t have been as effective. Conventional narratives would be more inclined to treat something like trolls as flat out unreal, and never try to convince the audience to think otherwise.
Hans petrifies the three-headed Tusseladd troll.
The viewers, like the characters trailing Hans, are quickly thrown into the deeper end of that extraordinary story. They have to process all this new information while staying on the go. So, although there is no significant amount of meandering, narratively or physically, there is still a good amount of atmosphere, not to mention tension building. It’s never anything frightful, but then again, Troll Hunter isn’t your standard offering of horror; it’s more on the low end of the dark fantasy spectrum. We aren’t ever spirited away to a faraway world—we stay in rather familiar surroundings, as well as dip into those less so. The outcome is a movie where you’re constantly more in awe than in terror.
As fantasy fiction might do, Troll Hunter prefers not to deal with incredulity. There is no time to waste on doubt, as interviewer Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud), soundperson Johanna (Johanna Mørck), and cameraman Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen) all follow Hans around, recording whatever this character is willing to reveal about his bizarre job. Of course, the Troll Hunter himself is not an open book; in that respect, the diegetic documentary fails to fully capture and unpack the more interesting of its two subjects. Yes, all those giant, monstrous trolls are indeed incredible, but understandably, your mind wanders to their pursuer. What kind of person signs up for this gig and then chooses to stick with it for so long?
Reviews have called out Troll Hunter for its lack of character development. In regard to Thomas and his fellow documentarians, that criticism is valid, but bear in mind, they aren’t the focus of the story, either. Meanwhile, Hans is a well-crafted character. At least better than first realized. Before he was introduced, Hans had already grown tired of the troll grind. Fed up with that low compensation for his services, resentful of the bureaucracy, and wanting to expose his employer on a large scale, Hans’ discontent is glaring.
Then there are those finer details about the Troll Hunter, such as that indifference to both the natural splendor of his everyday surroundings and the affections of an obviously smitten colleague, that also suggest some level of despondency. So it is fair to say this movie doesn’t feature any sizable growth for its characters; however, the namesake isn’t underwritten. No doubt, putting a real-life character like Otto Jespersen in that role is partly why Hans is so fascinating—maybe even relatable.
Otto Jespersen as Hans the Troll Hunter.
There is always a small risk whenever using the term “mockumentary” to describe a found-footage movie, as the word could imply humor where there is none. In the case of Troll Hunter, the term’s usage is appropriate. Some folks have claimed the English-dubbed version has the more comedic tone, however, the Norwegian cut isn’t exactly humorless. Apart from the trolls’ absurd appearances, this is a movie where the characters nearly choke on the monsters’ farts, and Christians are like walking targets. Hans’ complete apathy towards everything is another cause of laughter. Overall, the comedy is intentionally dry and inconsistent. Unfunny, though? Absolutely not.
In a movie where endemic creatures are maltreated, as well as disavowed from living freely and peacefully, it’s hard not to notice the ecological message buried beneath the story. In addition to that is the unmistakable political satire. There is this whole business about intrusive and unsightly power lines—like trolls, they’re big blemishes on the land—that leads to what is perhaps the movie’s funniest moment. The scene in question is that one where certain electric lines, the ones secretly being used to keep the trolls at bay, go in a loop and don’t actually send power to any residents. Yet the monitors of said lines don’t find this at all weird. So it stands to reason that Øvredal was having a go at those who accept the government’s doings without question.
Looking past the fact that trolls aren’t actually real, this movie is an enlightening source of information. And not just for international audiences; Norwegians, too, get schooled about their homeland’s own mythology. It’s also evident from everything on screen that Øvredal and his crew were enthusiastic about the topic. The creature designs are the most indicative of that zeal; those imaginative yet myth-accurate manifestations are equally amusing and grotesque. One second you’re laughing at their phallic noses, the next you’re white-knuckling during a hairy sequence. Most surprisingly is how well the trolls’ visual effects hold up after fifteen years. It’s not all spotless, but on the whole, they remain impressive.
Vouching for a mockumentary about trolls isn’t easy, but those who do come around and give it a shot will more than likely be grateful for the recommendation. For Troll Hunter is a real find in that vast and varied genre we call “found footage“.
A bridge troll reaches up for food and finds Hans decked out in armor.
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