Luke Owen takes in a Friday the 13th marathon at the Prince Charles Cinema…
A little over 2 years ago, I wrote a retrospective on slasher staple Friday the 13th and its many sequels. I have always had a fondness for the series and have lost count the amount of times I’ve watched them. Those of you who look at their calendars on a regular basis will know that last Friday as indeed a Friday the 13th and the Prince Charles Cinema in London was holding an all-night marathon to celebrate the series. However, they were only showing Parts 1 – 8 (the Paramount years), which meant we’d miss out on the New Line sequels, spin-off and remake. Now, as a diehard Friday the 13th fan (see tattoo on my arm), I couldn’t do a marathon of just the first 8 movies, so along with fellow fan Jon Lipscombe and first-time watcher David “Bish” Bishop, we took part in a 12 movie marathon that took just shy of 24 hours. Oh, and we all wore the same t-shirts too.
This is how it all went down:
Friday the 13th, 2012
06:15 – Having only slept for 3 hours (trying to condition my body), I am alarmed to see how early it is. However my mother felt the need to stir me (apologetically) to make sure I do some things around the house before I leave. I fall back asleep.
11:30 – I wake up for the second time at a better hour. I check the days wrestling headlines and reports, check Flickering Myth for movie news and get out of bed for a shower.
12:30 – Have some lunch. Beans and poached egg on toast. Fuel for the day.
14:46 – Catch a bus that takes me into town. Listen to the latest Regular Features podcast.
15:13 – Meet Jon and Bish. Hugs and insults all round.
15:30 – We catch a train to London and discuss the latest movie news as well as my thoughts on Ted, The Amazing Spider-Man and Brave which I had seen in the week.
16:04 – We arrive in London, get our tube tickets and catch the Bakerloo line to Piccadilly Circus, changing to get to Leicester Square.
17:00 – After getting some supplies (energy drinks and Skittles), we go to a pub and have a drink, more chat and some food (Nachos).
18:10 – We queue up outside the cinema. There is a bloke dressed like Jason. We feel underdressed.
18:20 – We are seated (5 rows from the back, right in the centre) and ready for some teenage killings!
18:30 – Friday the 13th. I only watched this film a few months ago but it never fails to entertain me. The film has dated very badly, the acting is horrendous and Kevin Bacon in those tight blue Speedos is not a sight I like to see (I refer to them as Bacon Bits). Big cheers and laughs for Crazy Ralph and his warnings of death curses. I drink a bottle of 7-Up.
20:04 – End of Part 1. 11 more to go. Body Count: 10
20:27 – Friday the 13th Part 2 (35mm print). I think this is a much better film than its predecessor and hasn’t aged quite as badly. However the ending is bloody awful and doesn’t make much sense. Big cheers again for Crazy Ralph again and massive boos for his death. Jon and I drink a beer.
21:53 – Part 2 comes to a close. 10 more to go. Body count: 19
22:09 – Friday the 13th Part III (not in 3D, 35mm print). I don’t really like Part III but it certainly has its moments. Big laughs from the audience at the terrible hokeyness of the staged 3D shots with lots of pretend “whoas” and “ooooohs”. I think we’ll look back on current day 3D movies the same as we do for this movie. Slight downside of this screening (not the cinema’s fault) was a lad in the row behind us clearly couldn’t handle his drink and started shouting random things at the screen and acting like a drunk buffoon. He thought he was funny, he wasn’t. I open my first energy drink.
23:40 – End of Part III. 9 more to go. Body count: 31
23:45 – Outside catching some air, we see the drunk lad walk away from the cinema. Hopefully he won’t come back.
Saturday the 14th, 2012
00:00 – Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (35 mm print). I love this film so much despite its highly ironic name. Big cheers for Corey Feldman and Crispin Glover’s names appearing on the credits and huge laughs for Crispin’s dance. This was a great screening of a superb movie. Drunk buffoon did return but didn’t make a sound. I think someone had words with him. He slept for the rest of the marathon. I finish my first energy drink about halfway through the film.
01:24 – Part IV sadly comes to an end. 8 more to go. Body count: 44
01:44 – Friday the 13th: A New Beginning. I have never enjoyed watching this movie so much in my life. I don’t like this entry, but the crowd made it all worthwhile. Big laughs at the corniness of the movie and a great atmosphere really made me reconsider my thoughts on it. It’s much better than I remember it being, but it’s still a weak entry with an anti-climatic ending. Jon, Bish and I were all very impressed with Veronica’s robot dancing to what sounded like the soundtrack to Toejam and Earl.
03:10 – Part V is over. 7 more to go. Body count: 65
3:17 – Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI (35 mm print). Jon and I told Bish beforehand that this movie is meant to be played for laughs but the film didn’t get as many laughs as the previous movie did (probably because the humour in this movie doesn’t always work). New Tommy Jarvis is awful and isn’t a patch on Corey Feldman or John Shepherd. There was a problem with the projection during the movie and people’s heads were getting cut off (and not just by Jason). They also skipped a small section of the movie trying to fix it. I dozed off around 04:00 for about 10 minutes. I opened my 2nd energy drink at the start of the movie but it fizzed up and spilled all over my hands and shorts. I had to wait until the end of the movie to wash it off. Pretty gross.
04:39 – Jason Lives is done. 6 more to go. Halfway there. Body count: 83
04:54 – Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood. This film has one of my favourite Jason looks and the film is so batshit nuts that it’s awesome. Bish said this was his favourite one so far taking over from Part IV because it was so mental. Massive cheers for Kane Hodder’s name on screen in his time playing Jason. Giant cheers for the death of Melissa who was an annoying bitch. I once again fell asleep for 10 minutes at around 05:50. Tiredness is kicking my arse. I finish my 2nd energy drink.
06:16 – End of Part VII. 5 more to go and only one more in this cinema. Body Count: 99
06:30 – Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan. More like Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes a Long Boring Boat Ride. I hate this movie. It’s so boring, nothing happens, the plot is stupid and the ending makes no sense at all. The “budget cut” argument can only take you so far in defending this movie. I fell asleep for 15 minutes at some point of the movie out of sheer boredom and woke up just in time to see Julius get his head punched off which got massive cheers from the audience. I got out my 3rd can of energy drink but the thought of drinking it made me feel sick. I put it back in my bag.
08:04 – Thankfully, Part VIII comes to an end but sadly so does our time at the Prince Charles Cinema. 4 more to go. Body Count: 117
08:10 – We take some photos outside the cinema and catch the tube back to Paddington.
08:35 – We buy some McDonalds breakfast.
08:45 – We catch a train back home and eat our breakfast. It was lovely, but I did have to spit out some of it as I could feel my stomach acids not agreeing with the breakfast choice. All of the coffee and sugar was at the bottom of Bish’s cup so he had the jitters for around 30 minutes. It was pretty funny.
09:30 – We arrive in Reading, buy milk and get a taxi back to Jon’s house.
09:49 – After saying hello to Jon’s girlfriend who joins us for the remaining 4 movies. We watch the bits we missed from Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI which was mainly Burt getting his arm ripped off.
09:59 – Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday. Good lord I loathe this movie because it’s just so stupid. I don’t hate it as much as I hate Part VIII, but I it still annoys the hell out of me. It looks like a bad episode of The X-Files and the story is poor. When you jot down the main plot points, it’s basically the same film as Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare but much, much worse. In fairness, the film is just a trailer for a Freddy vs. Jason movie that wouldn’t happen for another 11 years. Big laughs at the the Vagina Entering Demon Thing (I’m sure it has a proper name) and Deborah’s excellent death scene (one of my all-time favourite deaths). Bish loved this movie because it was so stupid. Jon made me an epic cup of tea.
11:25 – Jason has gone to Hell and the movie is over. I’m so happy because I like the next 3 movies and we only have 3 more to go. Body Count: 139
11:30 – Jason X. Okay, this movie is really, really bad but I love it so much. Bish said it was like a bad episode of Babylon 5 which Jon and I made him take back because there is nothing worse than Babylon 5. I’m feeling incredibly awake. Everyone in this movie is a horrible actor or actress.
12:58 – Jason X ends the run of “the original series”. 2 more to go. Body Count: 162
13:00 – We discuss pizza for a bit and then order some. Jon makes me another epic cup of tea.
13:30 – Freddy vs. Jason. I haven’t watched this film in quite some time and, while its plot points are so stupid (Jason is not afraid of water), the final showdown between Freddy and Jason is awesome. We eat pizza and it was lovely. I was about to say that there isn’t a lot of gratuitous nudity in the movie and then Katherine Isabelle had a shower scene. Guess I don’t remember the film all that well.
14:53 – Jason defeats Freddy and we discuss the other endings that were talked about (the one with Pinhead being voted the favourite). Just one more film to go. Body Count: 182 (not including Freddy Krueger).
14:58 – Friday the 13th (2009 remake). I’ve only seen this a couple of times so I didn’t remember much about it other than it’s quite an average movie. It’s still a very average movie but I do like a lot of elements to it especially the new layers added to the Jason character. We spend a long time taking the piss out of Trent because he is an awful character and cheered loudly when he died. I opened my 3rd energy drink and drank it slowly.
16:34 – The credits roll on the remake as we cheered and high fived each other. It has been a hell of a ride and I’ve enjoyed every moment of it. Final body count: 196 +3 very tired film watchers.
16:40 – We take a final photo to commemorate the occasion. I pour the rest of my energy drink down the drain.
I had an awesome time both at the cinema and back at Jon’s house for the final stretch. The Prince Charles Cinema put on an excellent display of all the films (except for a small portion of Part VI) and the audience was fantastic (save the drunk idiot behind me). Everyone cheered and clapped for the start and end of each movie as well as for the particularly great deaths. We all had a love and a bond with Crazy Ralph and even cheered his replacement versions in Part III and Part VIII. Jon, Bish and I cheered silently every time someone got thrown through a window and it became a running joke for us when watching the films. During the final few movies, we even discussed which windows would be great for someone to get thrown through.
I recommend anyone try out the all night marathons at the Prince Charles as well as their quote-a-longs and sing-a-longs. They’re doing a Muppets Marathon next month which I am very tempted to look into. Take some energy drinks but you won’t need them too much. The energy of the cinema audience will keep you awake. We’re thinking of making this a regular occurrence for the three of us with our next stop being at Elm Street…
Luke Owen is a freelance copywriter working for Europe’s biggest golf holiday provider as their web content executive.
