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In 2020, I made the arduous and unfortunate trek through the Friday the 13th movies. While none of them were particularly good, some were charming in their own right. Once the overly serious aspects or riffs on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre were done, Sean S. Cunningham and Victor Miller’s slasher horror film series moved into this campy side that allowed for some zany and truly fun moments. The James Bond reference in Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, the greatest fart in all of cinema in Friday the 13th (2009), or even the concept of Jason going to New York City in Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan.
These movies thrive when they’re silly and foolish. However, with Mike P. Nelson’s (Wrong Turn, V/H/S/85) short film, Sweet Revenge, we are given a brief taste of what is to come with Friday the 13th, and honestly? It isn’t bad!
Watch the full short film here:
Discussion
Within a swift fifteen-and-a-half minutes, we are introduced to a small group of characters. All are about to vacation at a cabin on the lake. One girl just got engaged, her fiancé looks admiringly at her and her friend, and the other guy is just sort of there. References to Cunningham and Miller’s original film abound, and it doesn’t take long for the kills to come in.
Jason Voorhees is an interesting character in theory. However, he is never truly explored in the original films. His role is to hack and slash away. Because of that, the only real explorations are minimally found in both Friday the 13th Part 2 and Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. Here, there obviously isn’t enough time to explore. Yet, a major plus is that Voorhees (Schuyler White) is vicious the moment he is on screen until the end of the short.
The moment Jason is introduced, he goes straight to work. No quarters given for the main four, Jason’s physicality and brutalizing strength are good omens for what is in store for future installments of the Friday the 13th series. The first of two kills of his that we see on camera is deliciously bloody. However, the remaining kills are either off-camera or, to put it bluntly, unimpressive. Three off-camera kills are shown, and all look extremely cool and interesting in execution. Unfortunately, the great kills in this are shown off-camera. Of course, there is a factor of budgeting, and there was no reality where a short was going to get an exorbitant amount of money to run with. The few kills we do see didn’t quite cut it.
Final Thoughts on Sweet Revenge
How the rights-holders of the Friday the 13th series choose to proceed will be interesting. The fear factor of Jason Voorhees is definitely in tow if this is what we’re working with. Still, if we’re going to get creative, then let’s show rather than tell. It may be some form of Stockholm Syndrome, my pretty ‘meh’ outlook on this short (which is a win considering how dogwater most of the old movies are), or the hope of a really interesting film down the line, but I’ll be there when the first fully fledged Friday the 13th project comes to fruition.
RATING: 5/10
Mike P. Nelson’s Sweet Revenge is now streaming via YouTube!
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Recovering Texan. Full time consultant, part time writer.
