"friday the 13th," parts 1-9

[juparc chacar]

i am a HUGE admirer of the "friday the 13th" series. jason is my favorite movie character ever. here is my list of the best ones in order. the first two are must-see.
1. friday the 13th, part vii (jason fights a telepathic woman...AWESOME!)
2. friday the 13th, part ii (jason haunts a group of teens, before getting his trademark hockey mask)
3. friday the 13th, part viii (jason takes manhattan!...'nuff said)
4. friday the 13th, part ix (jason "dies" after his family comes to kill him)
5. friday the 13th, part iii (jason avenges the survivors of part ii and takes out some campers...in 3d!)
6. friday the 13th, part vi (jason kills horshack!...weird flick)
7. friday the 13th, part iv (even weirder)
8. friday the 13th, part v (jason is "dead," but people are still dying...is there a copycat psycho?)
9. friday the 13th (jason's mom is the killer! even this cheesefest has its moments)

[Fritz]

Check out The Burning, it's one of the best slasher movies made.

[Slasherfan]

Screw renting it, order it off Amazo.com, it's COMPLEATLY UNCUT.

[Chris K.]

Since you are a fan of FRIDAY THE 13th, then you should see Mario Bava's TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE (1971). In fact, FRIDAY THE 13th did rip-off TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE right up to the gory murder sequences. Watch both back to back and you will be astonished.

As for me, FRIDAY THE 13th is not my kind of movie. I'll stick with TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE instead.

[Steve.]

Chris - do you like Bava's other stuff? My favourite's are Mask Of Satan (featuring "Miss Cheekbones" - Barbara Steele) Planet Of The Vampires, Twitch, Baron Blood, and the underrated Lisa And The Devil. Bava made very stylish horror movies which featured superb lighting effects and camera-work. His son, Lamberto made a particularly badmovie, released in UK as Demons 3 (probably a different title in US), and I've never seen another movie by him anywhere. It looks like he hasn't inherited his father's talent, but then he can't be blamed for that.

[Skaboi18]

Wasn't this film also titled "Bay of Blood"????
I think I've seen it...

[Chris K.]

Yes, TWITCH OF THE DEATH nerve was later re-titled BAY OF BLOOD by it's American distributor Hallmark Releasing. Hallmark later re-issued TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE in the early 1980's as LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT PART 2. But TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE has no connection to LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT!

And yes Steve, I am a fan of Mario Bava's work. I liked THE MASK OF SATAN (1960) and it's American cut version titled BLACK SUNDAY. I also liked his HATCHET FOT THE HONEYMOON (1969) and his other features. He was a good director and it is sad we don't have anymore of these guys around to create REAL horror unlike Wes Craven and the other so-called "directors". I have also seen Lamberto Bava's DEMONS and DEMONS 2 and felt that they were also good films. Lamberto has admitted that he never inherited the directorial tallent that his father had and it is a shame because Lamberto did have the power to be like his father, but I guess he had a different route to travel (i.e.- Mario directed atmospheric chillers, Lamberto ended up directing slasher picks).

But, TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE has been copied by the people behind FRIDAY THE 13th. Even the death scenes of FRIDAY THE 13th are remarkably similar to the deaths in TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE! Hell, HALLOWEEN was also influnced by TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE, but it did not copy off of Bava's film.

[Steve.]

It's true - Bava was a real one-off. I didn't know his son had done the first two Demon movies - they weren't bad at all, but I thought Demons 3 was poor - maybe because of the terrible dubbing. Does your version of Mask Of Satan have the original music score, or is it the awful overdubbed music? How the hell did Hallmark get away with calling Twitch "Last House On The Left Part 2"? Wasn't  the original LHOTL a particularly gruesome early movie of Wes Craven's?

[Chris K.]

I have the Image Entertainment release of THE MASK OF SATAN with the original English dub and music. I have seen the American International Pictures version of THE MASK OF SATAN titled BLACK SUNDAY which had a new English dub (which is a little bit better than the Italian Engish dubbing) and new music score by Les Baxter. Though the original music score is better, Baxter's music score is more memorable and is almost the same as the original score so the harm is minimal.

As for Hallmark's release of TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE as LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT PART 2, it can be explained. The original LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (which was directed by Wes Craven) was released by both American International Pictures (AIP) and Hallmark Releasing. AIP got involved with the distribution of LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT by it's subsidiary company Filmways. But not only was Filmways a branch of AIP, Hallmark was a branch corporation with Filmways! So after the success of LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and the fact that Hallmark did own the rights to the original film then the idea of re-releasing TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE as a sequel did not stop them one bit.