Aside from Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th is the most notorious slasher franchise out.
However 1981’s Part II featured so much “accumulative violence” that it faced opposition from the Motion Picture Association of America.
A number of scenes were taken out of the original cut just so it could be given an R rating.
Despite box office success, the Jason sequel received mainly negative reviews.
Acclaimed film critics Roger Ebert wrote in Chicago Sun-Times: “[Friday the 13th Part 2 is] a cross between the Mad Slasher and Dead teenager genres; about two dozen movies a year feature a mad killer going berserk, and they’re all about as bad as this one. Some have a little more plot, some have a little less. It doesn’t matter.”
Now The Sentinel has claimed that “morally outraged” Ebert and fellow critic Gene Siskel hated it so much they tried to harm the franchise’s box office takings by spoiling the films’ endings in their reviews.
The publication alleges Ebert’s hypocrisy for writing a Russ Meyer movie where teenagers take drugs and cut the head off a rock star.
Ebert tried to dismiss the Friday the 13th movies in 1984, claiming their message was: “It doesn’t matter if you have a new boyfriend or a new girlfriend, or you’ve got plans for the future.
“You can forget those plans, because you’re gonna wind up dead.”
Nevertheless The Sentinel defends the franchise, claiming the films are a reminder of our mortality and that we won’t always be young.
The writer argues: “Jason is death.
“Jason is your reminder that you won’t always be young.
“Jason is letting you know that while you’re partying and having fun, he’s hiding just passed the tree line, waiting. Inevitable.”
