The Bite #62

Jason Vorhees’ Birthday, Sigourney Weaver Confirms Return for GHOSTBUSTERS Sequel, and More!

June 11, 2019

In this Issue:

Horror History: Happy Birthday Jason Vorhees!
Image of the Week: Depp’s Nightmare Death
Tiny Bites – This Week’s Best Horror Headlines
Things We Love: Lost Boys Found
Hey, That’s Us! – Shudder in the News

HORROR HISTORY: HAPPY BIRTHDAY JASON VORHEES!

On June 13, 1946, Jason Voorhees was born, and so today we celebrate his birthday … and also his death day, since we learned in the first movie based on the arc of his infamous life (Friday the 13th, 1980) that he drowned in 1957 at Camp Crystal Lake. Even though it was actually Jason’s mother knocking off all those kids who tried to get the camp going again in 1980, it was Jason who haunted the dreams of survivors.

Soon however, Jason stepped out of mere dreams: a year later we learned he hadn’t actually drowned, but had survived and spent all those years practicing his killing skills alone out in the woods (Friday the 13th Part Two, 1981). Talk about a survivalist!

Jason started his killing wearing nothing but an unstylish gunny sack, but he soon stepped up to his classic look when he took a hockey mask off his latest victim (Friday the 13th Part 3, 1982). When one of those meddling kids chopped her axe into Jason’s head it looked like curtains for our anti-hero, but he revived in the morgue (Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, 1984) and found his way back to Camp Crystal Lake and a fresh offering of youthful victims. This time, though, the final girl (and boy) gave him a few extra machete chops for good measure.

For a while (Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, 1985), it looked as if Jason was really gone, with only his mask left behind to tempt others into acts of bloody mayhem. But when his exhumed body was struck by lightning (Friday the 13th, Part VI: Jason Lives, 1986), he was back to his old self, slicing and dicing those sex-crazed teens.

Over the next 30 years, Jason enjoyed a Manhattan murder spree (Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, 1989), possessed a string of new bodies (Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, 1993), hacked his way through outer space (Jason X, 2002), and took on his closest rival (Freddy Vs. Jason, 2003). In 2009, Jason proved you can come home again, as he returned to Camp Crystal Lake to rip his way through another crew of sex-and-drug-loving kids (Friday the 13th reboot).

Jason Voorhees is a survivor and an undisputed slasher king, and proves like no other that you can’t keep a good maniac down.

IMAGE OF THE WEEK

Depp’s Nightmare Death

Johnny Depp preps for his death scene — which required 80 gallons of blood (so much it shorted out the electrical equipment) — on the set of A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).

TINY BITES

JORDAN PEELE’S CANDYMAN, SIGOURNEY WEAVER’S RETURN & MORE

Turns out Jordan Peele’s upcoming Candyman movie is going to be about “the most problematic thing facing the genre” — toxic fandom.

Meanwhile, Peele praised Ari Aster’s Midsommer,saying it “usurps The Wicker Man as the most iconic pagan movie.”

Swamp Thing has been cancelled after only one season — and North Carolina says you shouldn’t blame them.

Sigourney Weaver confirms she’s returning for the upcoming Ghostbusters sequel.

George Romero’s archives — including everything from his annotated script for Night of the Living Deadto a foam latex zombie head — have been donated to the University of Pittsburgh Library.

Screenwriter Gary Dauberman claimed “I haven’t seen a scary vampire movie in a long, long time” and plans to change that with his script for the Salem’s Lotmovie.

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are teaming up for yet another film, and this time it’s Svalta, about a serial killer hunting stranded tourists.

Check out the bloody and bizarre trailer for Mutant Blast, Troma’s new movie mixing horror and sci-fi set after a radioactive zombie apocalyse.

Steven Spielberg is working on a “super scary show” for the new digital platform Quibi — which he apparently only wants us to be able to watch at midnight.

A new trailer for Guillermo del Toro’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark finally lets us see the monsters more clearly.

Archaeologists dug up cannonballs from Vlad Dracula’s battlefield victory. (We hope that’s all they dug up.)

A Bigfoot researcher got the FBI to cough up itssecret Sasquatch files.

Mark Hamill plays a creepy game of peekaboo in this sneak peek of a scene from the new Chucky movie.

Parents threw a Nun-themed birthday party for their three-year-old and we don’t know whether to be worried or give the kid a subscription to Shudder.

THINGS WE LOVE: LOST BOYS FOUND

John Alvin’s original poster for TheLost Boys has become iconic, but the artist also came up with dozens of other concepts for the film’s 1987 release. Now three different unused posters are finally being made available for your den … or wherever else you happen to sleep all day before partying all night.