In 1979, at the behest of friend/associate/fellow Connecticut resident Sean Cunningham, Yale graduate Victor Miller would write the screenplay for a movie called Friday the 13th. Having never written a horror script before, Miller had no way of knowing that the film would literally alter the course of horror history, introducing the iconic Jason Voorhees along the way (although not as he originally intended).
I invite you to take a listen below to the half-hour discussion I had with Mr. Miller. In it, he touches on subjects that would be of interest to many fans of the genre, such as:
- Why he won't watch any of the sequels
- His falling out with Sean Cunningham
- The "mother issues" that led to the creation of Mrs. Voorhees
- Ripping off Halloween
- His debt to Hitchcock
- His thoughts on the remake (the script of which he's already read)
- How to interpret Friday's infamous "stinger" ending
- And much more...
If you prefer, you can also visit the official Vaultcast page, where you can download the file in its entirety to listen to at your leisure. Special thanks to Tracy MacMath for making this interview possible.
**UPDATE** Thanks to the incredible efforts of diligent Vault-Dweller Gord, you can now download a transcript of the entire interview in Microsoft Word, if you so choose. My humblest gratitude to you Gord, for painstakingly transcribing the entire bloody thing!!
Dude you have no idea how much it sucks not to have broadband right now (Ireland)! Any way you can, like, transcribe it? No wait its a half hour long.... Dang. Need to get broadband
ReplyDeleteI seriously considered transcribing it, but it is indeed very long. And as nice as you seem, kind sir, I'm not transcribing it just for you. HOWEVER, readers should let me know if this is a common problem--can't see how it would be in the year 2008 (sorry, Irish people), but you never know.
ReplyDeleteDrat! Soemthing is up with my speakers. . . Grrrrrrrrr
ReplyDeleteLet me see if I can fix it - I definitely want to hear this ~ very cool!
On the whole sequel thing, I actually really enjoyed Friday the 13th VI: Jason Lives.
ReplyDeleteI think that that film, as well as Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, managed to capture a lot of what the original films were going for.
And although they were both more tongue in cheek than their birth films, I thought they still had great originality and energy that made up for the turn in tone.
I'll agree that Part VI is probably the best of the Jason sequels. Mainly because it was the first one that seemed to acknowledge the ridiculousness of the series itself!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Gord 100% re: Jason VI and Nightmare 3. Both were fantastic sequels and some of the best films in the series.
ReplyDeleteI also really liked Freddy's Dead, New Nightmare, and Jason X (I know, I know...but it was HILARIOUS!) Will definitely get around to reading this transcript! So cool.