My parents deny this, but I have a vivid memory of watching Friday The 13th with them while I was just a wee lad, on our garish red couch on HBO. Don’t worry, they hid my eyes during the violent parts. I didn’t see the part with the head until many many years later.
And I remember watching the Carrie. movie while I was a bit older and kind of not being too impressed. Well, not until the final final scene in the cemetery. I jumped and gasped.
I can still see that scene in my mind’s eye. No idea how accurate it is, but it burned itself into me.
The same with the Jason movies.
There are usually two emotions that make horror work. There is the adrenaline soaked dread. But then there is also the adrenaline fueled excitement. They twist and turn with each other. You can’t have one without the other. I mean you can, but the movie won’t be as good.
A good horror movie delivers those hand in bloody hand.
Those two movies are hardwired into my neurology. Have probably influenced every horror story I’ve written. Those emotions swirl inside of me. I want to create those same emotions, bottle them up and spill them out onto the page.
If I’m successful, I guess that’s up to you friend reader.
All this to say, both of those iconic horror tales are getting new lives this OctoberWorld season. They are reborn as series.
Carrie premieres on Prime October 7th. They’ve updated it, and brought it into the modern world.
Here’s the trailer:
For Friday The 13th, they’re returning to Crystal Lake and basically doing a secret origin story showing us how it all started. It premieres on October 15th on Peacock.
Here’s the trailer:
We’ll be watching both and I’ll be back with some thoughts.
Without a doubt, both of these classic tales have bled some of their DNA into my writing, thinking and unconscious brain waves, and have come out in my novel Don’t Get Dead, a different kind of slasher in the woods story, heavily influenced by my love of late 70’s and 80’s horror movies.
There are a lot of differences too. And a few turns that you won’t find in a typical slasher movie. They don’t make slasher movies or books like they used to. And I think since my parent’s hid my eyes, what I like about those movies isn’t the kills and gore, but the chase.
With all that in mind, I hope I’ve come up with something a little different. Don’t Get Dead will be released later this October.