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Do You Like Hitchcock?

With my 30th birthday coming up on another Friday the 13th, and a modern remake of Friday the 13th coming out that day, I think about the one film franchise that I have stayed mostly away from: Friday the 13th.

Yes, me: a regular contributor to DoomedMoviethon.com, fan of Halloween and Student Bodies, fan of all of the Saw movies, and an overall fan of scary/horror/thriller/slasher flicks have really zero to no interest in checking out all of the ones in the franchise. After re-reading Noel's excellent film-by-film review from two years ago, I don't believe I'm missing much by making this decision.

I've only seen bits and pieces of the first three Friday the 13th movies on TV. I saw most of the first one dubbed in Spanish, and various scenes from the others on Spike in English. Even in Spanish, I was shocked to see how shamelessly Halloween and Psycho were cribbed from. From the point-of-view shot from the killer's perspective to the similar music cues, I had a better understanding of where all the 80s splatter flicks came from. Blame goes to them, not the original Halloween.

Now, here's an interesting tidbit of my evolution as a film fan. The first film I ever saw full-on onscreen sex was Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. As a freshman in high school, I got a quick education not only in what the act looked like on film, but also how gory slasher films can be. People who have seen this film know what I mean with a certain scene in a tent.

But even back then, I rolled my eyes at a number of parts in The Final Friday. The film remains the only Friday the 13th I've ever seen start to finish, and it's not one I long to see again by choice. My attitude is, there's plenty of other, very good horror films to see.

Lately, I've been getting into a number of European horror flicks released from this decade. In a couple of years from now, I hope to share with a lot of people what I've seen and will see in the next few months. Stay tuned on this front. But for right now, I'm becoming acquainted with films like Severance, Do You Like Hitchcock?, and the Nightwatch/Daywatch films. For me and for now, those are much worth my time to check out for the first time.

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