Friday the 13th or Halloween

[raider5gt]

Halloween for me,Michael Myers was one creepy dude,i agree with del,the mask had something to do with it.

[Bruce Banner]

Donald Pleasance's character Sam Loomis saying how evil Myers is really helped give the character an almost mythic malevolence.

I met this six-year-old child, with this blank, pale, emotionless face and, the blackest eyes... the devil's eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up because I realized what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply... evil.

Love the fact that both Michael and Jason are pretty much immortal and indestructible, taking any amount of punishment and always coming back for more.

[DocDrako]

I like the first 2 "Friday" movies, especially in the second one with Jason and that burlap sack mask. It's creepier than the hockey mask any day.

But I'd have to go with Halloween 1 & 2. The way Michael shows up in the shadows mere feet away from oblivious characters, is creepy. It's like he's thinking, "I could kill them at any moment, but this is Halloween so let's see if they notice me and get freaked out first."

[bleit1701]

If I was to be stuck on a desert Island and could only have one movie from either franchise it would have to be Halloween.
I like the Friday movies but Halloween sicks out for me.

[Earth 2 Chris]

When I was a teen it was Friday the 13th, just because of the gore and Jason's more obviously supernatural elements. But as an adult, Halloween is far more chilling and disturbing. The first two movies are nail-biters, and so well made. I think Michael getting a break and not appearing in Halloween III actually helped his status. They made tons of bad sequels and remakes later, but those first two are kind of set apart. Poor Jason had to deal with worse and worse sequels every year...

Chris

[Bizarro Amy]

The other thing about Michael Myers(the original version, at least) is that there's no explanation. One Halloween night, he kills his sister, and from that day forth stalks any living relatives. That's it. That was the problem I had with the remake. The way that kid grew up, I can kind of see him going off the deep end and killing people. But the original Michael, he just seems to have done it out of nowhere.
It's possible to have some sympathy for Jason Voorhees, and even his mother. Jason was a deformed kid, and ended up drowning at the camp. It's hard not to feel just a tiny bit bad for him, and that makes him less scary for me.

[Sandman9580]

Jason was a deformed kid, and ended up drowning at the camp. It's hard not to feel just a tiny bit bad for him, and that makes him less scary for me.

But... he didn't drown, right? He survived and lived in the wilderness.

I much prefer the Friday the 13th movies. I like the whole "isolated summer camp in the woods" thing. That setting is very much a character. The anxieties of suburbia are more internalized, I think -- and for my money the first Nightmare on Elm Street movie captured them much better than Halloween did.

As far as craft is concerned, yeah, Halloween is better than Friday the 13th -- but that's kind of damning with faint praise, isn't it? I've always thought John Carpenter and his music "composition" skills were pretty overrated.

[Bizarro Amy]

I always thought he came back from the dead, for some reason. But regardless, I'm still able to feel bad for Jason on some level. Also keep in mind that I'm mostly concerned with the movies at the beginning of either series. Some of the stuff they did with both characters in later movies was just garbage, although I have an easier time sitting through something like "H20" than "Jason X".

[Bizarro Amy]

And while Michael Myers is still my favorite bad guy out of that batch, mostly because he's silent, the original Nightmare on Elm Street amazes me at how effective it still is. I didn't see it until I was 20 or so, and here's this grown woman, jumping in her seat and afraid to take the trash out. I don't like the rest of the series that much, but it is one scary-a** movie.

[palitoy]

Original Halloween hands down, i don't like the slasher genre but that one is undeniably well made.

Never cared for when he became a super human afterwards though.

No love for Friday the 13th or the countless other imitators.

[Sandman9580]

I always thought he came back from the dead, for some reason.

Well, yeah, there's a lot of "debate" about how Jason got out of the lake.

Not that anyone's too interested in this, but... if he drowned, by what mechanism did he come back from the dead? It's not explained. Okay, but if he didn't drown, why didn't he go back to his mother? It's not explained. And anyway, how could a mentally disabled child survive alone in the woods? It's not explained. And if "legend has it" that Jason witnessed his mother get beheaded (per Part 2), why didn't he take revenge on the girl who decapitated her, right then and there? Not explained. (And why didn't he lend assistance to his mother earlier, anyway? AARGH!)

But my favorite example of the wonderful, whimsical world of Friday the 13th continuity comes in Part 4. In that movie we're introduced to Rob, a capable, strapping sportsman who's been in the woods hunting for Jason. He shows Trish (the virginal "final girl" in that movie) the results of his investigations -- newspaper clippings and what not -- and explains he wants to find Jason so that he can avenge his poor sister's death (a girl named Sandra, who was dispatched back in Part 2). The implication is that he's been hunting Jason for years. Except... Part 4 takes place immediately after Part 3, and Part 3 takes place immediately after Part 2... which means his sister's been dead for 3, maybe 4 days. There's barely been enough time to arrange for her funeral.

Yeah, they're goofy movies.

[Mikey]

I always thought Jason was literally a monster.

Didn't lightning bring him back to life in one of the later ones ?

[twilitezoner]

I always thought Jason was literally a monster.

Didn't lightning bring him back to life in one of the later ones ?

That was in part 6 which mind you is two movies past the "final chapter".

[Den82]

Both have a great presence of evil throughout them. As for effectiveness though, I'd say Halloween is far more frightening. The soundtrack is great and the subtle little details given (like when they stumble upon a dead dog and Dr. Loomis says "he must of gotten hungry"). Friday the 13th has more of a teenage, fun time horror movie feel.

I also think Halloween III is the BEST of all the sequels.

[Bizarro Amy]

I also think Halloween III is the BEST of all the sequels.

That's the only one I haven't seen. I'm intrigued, because Michael Myers doesn't appear in it at all.