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Voorhees and Beyond: Horror’s Long-Running History with Releasing Films on Friday the 13th

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Evil Dead

Triskaidekaphobia is an irrational fear of the number 13, and a big reason why Friday the 13th is considered bad news.

Even without the phobia, there’s been a long-running superstition about the day that dates back to at least the Middle Ages. Though just where exactly it originated isn’t quite as clear. Either way, Friday the 13th is synonymous with bad luck. For a horror fan, it’s also synonymous with one of the biggest horror franchises of all time.

Inspired by Halloween, Sean S. Cunningham wanted to separate himself from previous film The Last House on the Left (which he produced) and create something more akin to a thrilling roller coaster ride. Before the screenplay was even ready, he felt Friday the 13th was a can’t miss title and put out an ad for it in the July 1979 issue of Variety. He wanted to generate interest, but also test the waters in case anyone else had beat him to the punch. It worked. On May 9, 1980, Friday the 13th released in theaters and fans were hooked.

The film spawned 9 sequels, a “vs.” mashup with Freddy, a remake, endless merchandise, and permanently etched out space in the pop culture collective. Only five of those films would take advantage of its namesake day; Friday the 13th Part III, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday and the Friday the 13th reboot all were released on a Friday the 13th. But as the franchise hit its peak and then waned with Jason Goes to Hell, the door was left wide open for other horror releases to claim the day.

The Friday the 13th franchise, in its conception, capitalized on a spooky day, but the truth is that that superstition bears little relevance at all to the plot- this series is all about masked killer Jason Voorhees and summertime massacres (for the most part). Friday the 13th is actually a horror haven, a perfect release date with a built-in audience. There’s been no shortage of horror titles that dropped on a Friday the 13th over the decades. The busier the release schedule gets, the hotter Friday the 13th becomes.

After the original film’s 1980 release, Tobe Hooper’s The Funhouse was brave enough to attempt to utilize the superstitious day for release. Released in theaters on March 13, 1981, this creepy yet gorgeous slasher is bolstered by a fantastic production design and great villain, though it didn’t make much of a dent at the box office. With the Friday the 13th series starting to really heat up, it wasn’t until years later that other horror franchises would start to encroach.

March 13, 1987, brought the highly beloved and well-received Evil Dead II. The larger budget meant bigger and better special makeup effects, and Sam Raimi effectively reframed the events of the first film with a splatstick lens. Cunningham tested Friday the 13th waters again with his own aquatic terror DeepStar Six, released on January 13th, 1989, but it was a move mostly to beat the other aquatic horror competition to the box office. Later that year, Michael Myers took aim at Halloween and Friday the 13th in one fell swoop with the October 13 release of Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers. Even Freddy Krueger got in on the triskaidekaphobe action with schlocky Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, which arrived in theaters on September 13, 1991.

FREDDY's DEAD via New Line

Just ahead of the holiday season, Bram Stoker’s Dracula dropped on November 13, 1992 and took a major bite out of the box office. That holiday horror trend continued the following year, with The Nightmare Before Christmas straddling that Halloween and Christmas line with its October 13, 1993 limited theatrical release (it expanded wide on October 29).

1993 marked a major turning point for Friday the 13th. After Jason Goes to Hell, the series went dormant for almost a decade. In that void, Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight dropped on January 13, 1995, without much fanfare. Underwater sci-fi horror Sphere flopped on February 13, 1998, and sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer retained its core audience with a successful November 13, 1998 release.

Jason Voorhees reclaimed the horror holiday in 2002 and 2003 with Jason X and Freddy vs. Jason, respectively, but beginning in 2004, horror started to really dominate. Especially in the familiar franchise department. AVP: Alien vs. Predator made massive waves on August 13, 2004. The Grudge 2 spooked up healthy box office numbers on October 13, 2006. The Rear Window-inspired Disturbia found its audience on April 13, 2007. And The Last House on the Left proved not all remakes are terrible on March 13, 2009.

More recently, Friday the 13th belongs to Blumhouse. They clearly understand the significance of the day to horror fans and have set many releases around it. Insidious: Chapter 2, The Darkness, Happy Death Day, Truth or Dare, and Happy Death Day 2U all took advantage of Friday the 13th releases.

Insidious Chapter 2

September’s Friday the 13th brings the release of Freaks, Haunt, Depraved, and Candy Corn as well as the first season of creepy-looking Netflix series Marianne. That’s a jam-packed lineup; who needs sleep anyway?

The Friday the 13th franchise may have once dominated the superstitious calendar day, but that monopoly is long gone. Friday the 13th is now a horror holiday in earnest, and there’s no shortage of options when it comes to celebratory horror viewings.

Editorials

‘Leprechaun Returns’ – The Charm of the Franchise’s Legacy Sequel

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leprechaun returns

The erratic Leprechaun franchise is not known for sticking with a single concept for too long. The namesake (originally played by Warwick Davis) has gone to L.A., Las Vegas, space, and the ‘hood (not once but twice). And after an eleven-year holiday since the Davis era ended, the character received a drastic makeover in a now-unmentionable reboot. The critical failure of said film would have implied it was time to pack away the green top hat and shillelagh, and say goodbye to the nefarious imp. Instead, the Leprechaun series tried its luck again.

The general consensus for the Leprechaun films was never positive, and the darker yet blander Leprechaun: Origins certainly did not sway opinions. Just because the 2014 installment took itself seriously did not mean viewers would. After all, creator Mark Jones conceived a gruesome horror-comedy back in the early nineties, and that format is what was expected of any future ventures. So as horror legacy sequels (“legacyquels”) became more common in the 2010s, Leprechaun Returns followed suit while also going back to what made the ‘93 film work. This eighth entry echoed Halloween (2018) by ignoring all the previous sequels as well as being a direct continuation of the original. Even ardent fans can surely understand the decision to wipe the slate clean, so to speak.

Leprechaun Returns “continued the [franchise’s] trend of not being consistent by deciding to be consistent.” The retconning of Steven Kostanski and Suzanne Keilly’s film was met with little to no pushback from the fandom, who had already become accustomed to seeing something new and different with every chapter. Only now the “new and different” was familiar. With the severe route of Origins a mere speck in the rearview mirror, director Kotanski implemented a “back to basics” approach that garnered better reception than Zach Lipovsky’s own undertaking. The one-two punch of preposterous humor and grisly horror was in full force again.

LEPRECHAUN

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

With Warwick Davis sitting this film out — his own choice — there was the foremost challenge of finding his replacement. Returns found Davis’ successor in Linden Porco, who admirably filled those blood-stained, buckled shoes. And what would a legacy sequel be without a returning character? Jennifer Aniston obviously did not reprise her final girl role of Tory Redding. So, the film did the next best thing and fetched another of Lubdan’s past victims: Ozzie, the likable oaf played by Mark Holton. Returns also created an extension of Tory’s character by giving her a teenage daughter, Lila (Taylor Spreitler).

It has been twenty-five years since the events of the ‘93 film. The incident is unknown to all but its survivors. Interested in her late mother’s history there in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, Lila transferred to the local university and pledged a sorority — really the only one on campus — whose few members now reside in Tory Redding’s old home. The farmhouse-turned-sorority-house is still a work in progress; Lila’s fellow Alpha Epsilon sisters were in the midst of renovating the place when a ghost of the past found its way into the present.

The Psycho Goreman and The Void director’s penchant for visceral special effects is noted early on as the Leprechaun tears not only into the modern age, but also through poor Ozzie’s abdomen. The portal from 1993 to 2018 is soaked with blood and guts as the Leprechaun forces his way into the story. Davis’ iconic depiction of the wee antagonist is missed, however, Linden Porco is not simply keeping the seat warm in case his predecessor ever resumes the part. His enthusiastic performance is accentuated by a rotten-looking mug that adds to his innate menace.

LEPRECHAUN RETURNS sequel

Pictured: Taylor Spreitler, Pepi Sonuga, and Sai Bennett as Lila, Katie and Rose in Leprechaun Returns.

The obligatory fodder is mostly young this time around. Apart from one luckless postman and Ozzie — the premature passing of the latter character removed the chance of caring about anyone in the film — the Leprechaun’s potential prey are all college aged. Lila is this story’s token trauma kid with caregiver baggage; her mother thought “monsters were always trying to get her.” Lila’s habit of mentioning Tory’s mental health problem does not make a good first impression with the resident mean girl and apparent alcoholic of the sorority, Meredith (Emily Reid). Then there are the nicer but no less cursorily written of the Alpha Epsilon gals: eco-conscious and ex-obsessive Katie (Pepi Sonuga), and uptight overachiever Rose (Sai Bennett). Rounding out the main cast are a pair of destined-to-die bros (Oliver Llewellyn Jenkins, Ben McGregor). Lila and her peers range from disposable to plain irritating, so rooting for any one of them is next to impossible. Even so, their overstated personalities make their inevitable fates more satisfying.

Where Returns excels is its death sequences. Unlike Jones’ film, this one is not afraid of killing off members of the main cast. Lila, admittedly, wears too much plot armor, yet with her mother’s spirit looming over her and the whole story — comedian Heather McDonald put her bang-on Aniston impersonation to good use as well as provided a surprisingly emotional moment in the film — her immunity can be overlooked. Still, the other characters’ brutal demises make up for Lila’s imperviousness. The Leprechaun’s killer set-pieces also happen to demonstrate the time period, seeing as he uses solar panels and a drone in several supporting characters’ executions. A premortem selfie and the antagonist’s snarky mention of global warming additionally add to this film’s particular timestamp.

Critics were quick to say Leprechaun Returns did not break new ground. Sure, there is no one jetting off to space, or the wacky notion of Lubdan becoming a record producer. This reset, however, is still quite charming and entertaining despite its lack of risk-taking. And with yet another reboot in the works, who knows where the most wicked Leprechaun ever to exist will end up next.


Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.

The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.

Leprechaun Returns movie

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

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