Really Awful Movies: Ep 196 – Friday the 13th (2009)

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Jason Voorhees. The butcher of Camp Crystal Lake needs no introduction. Or does he? Perhaps to a new generation of audiences, who were unaware of the source material that is the original Friday the 13th movies.

Of course, now Jason is seemingly everywhere, what with the video game developed by IllFonic, and published by Gun Media.

And he’s been everywhere before too. This is the 12th film in the Jason oeuvre, if you include Freddy VS Jason (which we do).

And this is as different as our mute machete mate has ever been. Director Marcus Nispel took artistic license with the source material, making Jason Voorhees a kidnapper who was fleet-of-foot. And who actually has an underground lair, and quite an elaborate Xanadu too.

At the end of the day though, this is not a well-made movie. There are two spectacular kills, and a lot of killer filler. And the stupidity ante of these campers is OFF THE CHARTS. So, how does Derek Mears acquit himself as the Masked Maniac? Pretty darn well. It’s the rest of the film that kinda blows.

A little backstory.

Friday the 13th (2009) was released in theaters on Friday, February 13, 2009, appropriately enough.

The franchise entry received mainly negative reviews, which is not unprecedented as this series isn’t exactly a critical darling. The movie earned approximately US$19 million on its opening night and $40 million during its opening weekend, when it broke two records; the highest-earning opening day for the film series and the highest-earning opening weekend for any horror film.

As of July 2014, it is the second-highest grossing film in the Friday the 13th film series ($65 million), and has earned about $92.7 million worldwide since. Critic Kim Newman opined that the film is “Unlucky for almost everyone. It’s a sad day when a Friday the 13th remake is shown up by a My Bloody Valentine remake.” (for those who are interested, your intrepid hosts tackled My Bloody Valentine 3D on Ep 86).

But on this week’s edition of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, it’s time to don the sunscreen and visit Camp Crystal Lake in this installment of Friday the 13th.

Really Awful Movies: Ep 195 – Don’t Torture a Duckling

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Don’t Torture a Duckling (in mellifluous Italian: Non si sevizia un paperino) is a 1972 Italian giallo film directed by Lucio Fulci, starring Tomas Milian, Florinda Bolkan, and Barbara Bouchet. It is notable within Fulci’s filmography as it is one of the first in which he began using violent icky gore effects, something Fulci would continue to do in his later films, most notably Zombi 2, The Beyond and City of the Living Dead. The soundtrack was composed by Riz Ortolani and features vocals by Italian pop stylist Ornella Vanoni.

Don’t Torture a Duckling focuses on a series of child murders that occur in a small, fictitious town in Southern Italy. Naturally, there are red herrings aplenty, and true to form, a journalist poking his nose around where it doesn’t belong. While there are some similarities with giallo films stylistically, this one tends to eschew some of the genre tropes, including urban center settings.

There is a boundless array of weirdness, and some really odd choices for set-pieces. It’s interesting to note just how varied Fulci’s work was before he set aside his other genre work and began to focus full-bore on horror.

Really Awful Movies: Ep 194 – Chopping Mall

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Scenes from a mall. A CHOPPING Mall. On this episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, a look at this Jim Wynorski feature, Chopping Mall.

Wynorski (The Return of Swamp Thing / Hard to Die / Big Bad Mama II) is known as a highly prolific genre director. He directed 7 features from the mid eighties to the decade’s end. And usually worked on a really low budget. This Corman production was no exception, filmed at the same mall as the one used for the excellent Arnold vehicle, Commando (which we podcasted on this very show).

And the plot could not be any more simple: a team of robotic security bots malfunction, causing them to run amok and destroy everything in their path. The “everything” in question includes a bunch of “teen” partiers, some of whom work in a furniture store, and therefore have access to lots of bedding. It also includes some mall staffers unlucky enough to be working overtime/after-hours.

Chopping Mall has a few things going for it, namely, the always gorgeous Barbara Crampton, a terrific score, and of course, cheesy killer robots. But there’s more to it than that. There are some winking cameos by Corman regulars (you’ll have to watch the film, and then listen to our show!), a dash of nudity (according to the DVD extras, Wynorski reported that ““Roger wanted some nudity in this picture.”) and of course, a couple of terrific kills.

With a shooting schedule of less than a month, the film, released as Killbots bombed (audiences thought it was a cutesy robot feature). However, it was given a new lease on life with its new slasher audience-friendly title, Chopping Mall.

Thanks for listening!