The Last Theater

Where do horror franchises go when they run out of good ideas? Apparently they go to outer space. Although, a slasher movie on a spaceship isn’t the worst idea. The potential for claustrophobic tension built in endlessly twisting corridors with no escape is pretty great. It’s been done previously, and it’s been done well. Does Jason X deserve to be in the same sentence as some of the great sci-fi horror movies like Alien? You probably already know the answer to that, but it could still be campy fun, right?

Listen to night ten of The Last Theater on the Left’s marathon of 13 daily podcasts covering the entirety of the Friday the 13th franchise to find out what chris and Joey have to say about that question and so many more!

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Total Run Time: 46:34

Theme music: “Rising Game” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Thanks for listening! If you like what you hear, please leave a review on iTunes. And if you have something you want to tell us about the show or anything else, leave a comment here or send us a message on Facebook!

With its move to New Line Cinema, the Friday the 13th franchise has dropped the “Friday the 13th” from the title. That seems entirely appropriate given that Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday barely feels like a Friday the 13th movie at all. Instead, this is a movie about magic and body swapping that invents all sorts of new things about the character they call Jason Voorhees despite the fact that Jason is barely in the movie at all.

Does this new spin on the character work either as a continuation of the series (which was already getting increasingly bizarre) or as a standalone movie with few connections to previous films? Listen as chris and Joey discuss this and more in night nine of The Last Theater on the Left’s marathon of 13 daily podcasts dedicated to the entirety of the Friday the 13th franchise!

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Total Run Time: 38:20

Theme music: “Rising Game” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Thanks for listening! If you like what you hear, please leave a review on iTunes. And if you have something you want to tell us about the show or anything else, leave a comment here or send us a message on Facebook!

In this, night eight of The Last Theater on the Left’s marathon of 13 daily podcasts covering the entirety of the Friday the 13th franchise, chris and Joey discuss the slightly misnamed Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan. Sure, Jason Voorhees winds up in New York City for a portion of the movie, but the majority of the film (and murder) takes place on a cruise ship. A cruise ship that started its journey in Crystal Lake. Sound implausible? Well, try not to think about it too hard. You might enjoy the journey more that way.

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Total Run Time: 48:09

Theme music: “Rising Game” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Thanks for listening! If you like what you hear, please leave a review on iTunes. And if you have something you want to tell us about the show or anything else, leave a comment here or send us a message on Facebook!

Tommy’s time with Jason is over, but Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood introduces a main character, Tina, who, much like Tommy, is haunted by her traumatic past. The similarity to Tommy is clear, but listen to this, night seven of The Last Theater on the Left’s series of 13 daily podcasts, to find out how Tina is also written to somewhat mirror Jason Voorhees. In this episode, chris and Joey attempt to make sense of the movie and draw out the plot points that actually have a lot of meaning, despite what the story-squashing presence of Jason (and some of the questionable decisions from the filmmakers). It all ends with a completely implausible battle of mind versus matter, but is the movie actually better than chris and Joey remember it being?

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Total Run Time: 38:55

Theme music: “Rising Game” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Thanks for listening! If you like what you hear, please leave a review on iTunes. And if you have something you want to tell us about the show or anything else, leave a comment here or send us a message on Facebook!

Tommy Jarvis returns once again, and this time he’s looking for closure. Unfortunately for the people of Camp Forest Green (formerly Camp Crystal Lake), Tommy screws up in a major way and brings the man behind the mask, Jason Voorhees, back from his grave. Friday the 13th Part VI is the debut of zombie-Jason, and he brings some very obvious comedy to the series in a way the movies haven’t really attempted before. Does it work, or is it too big of a departure from what has comes before? Check out the sixth installment of The Last Theater on the Left’s series of 13 daily podcast episodes to find out what chris and Joey think!

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Total Run Time: 47:46

Theme music: “Rising Game” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Thanks for listening! If you like what you hear, please leave a review on iTunes. And if you have something you want to tell us about the show or anything else, leave a comment here or send us a message on Facebook!

Jason Voorhees is finally dead! Or is he? Will he ever truly be dead if he lives on in the minds of the people he terrorized? People like Tommy Jarvis?

That’s the setup for the fifth movie in the Friday the 13th franchise, but how well does it play out on screen? Listen to tonight’s entry in The Last Theater on the Left’s marathon of 13 daily podcast episodes covering the entirety of the Friday the 13th movie series to find out what chris and Joey think! Here’s a little teaser: at least one of them isn’t too happy about having to watch A New Beginning again. But their pain is your enjoyment as they break down the good, the bad, and the painfully obvious about Tommy’s adventures in a halfway house!

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Total Run Time: 57:14

Theme music: “Rising Game” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Thanks for listening! If you like what you hear, please leave a review on iTunes. And if you have something you want to tell us about the show or anything else, leave a comment here or send us a message on Facebook!

It’s been a long yet productive few days for Jason Voorhees. He’s covered a lot of ground, he’s killed a lot of people, and he even had time for a makeover during his reign of terror. Sure, he’s almost been killed a couple of times, but that’s no big deal for Jason! Now he’s back for one “final” night of stalking and slaying, but he’s starting to make some enemies ever since he’s made his presence known.

The fourth Friday the 13th features the debut of one of the few recurring characters in the series, Tommy Jarvis. Is Tommy interesting enough to carry the franchise into the future? Did the filmmakers learn their lesson from the overly gimmicky and simplistic previous movie? Find out what chris and Joey think in night four of The Last Theater on the Left’s 13 day marathon of podcasts devoted to the entirety of the Friday franchise!

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Total Run Time: 46:53

Theme music: “Rising Game” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Thanks for listening! If you like what you hear, please leave a review on iTunes. And if you have something you want to tell us about the show or anything else, leave a comment here or send us a message on Facebook!

We’re just getting started delving into the world of Jason Voorhees, and 1982’s Friday the 13th Part 3 continues along with the idea and format established in the first two films of the series, but it definitely has some elements that sets it apart as truly memorable. For one thing, this movie features the debut of the iconic hockey mask. Ironically, even though this film establishes the look of one of the most famous movie serial killers of all time, the characters in the film itself apparently don’t know anything about the legend of Jason Voorhees. Does that work in favor of the movie, or does it make things that much harder to believe?

And speaking of characters, there are certainly some memorable ones here. But are they memorable for the wrong reasons?

And what about the 3D aspect of the film? Does it hold up over time? Is it (and was it always) too gimmicky for its own good? Listen to night three of The Last Theater on the Left’s Friday the 13th marathon of podcasts to find out which one of us had some serious issues with, well… a lot of things in this movie!

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Total Run Time: 49:03

Theme music: “Rising Game” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Thanks for listening! If you like what you hear, please leave a review on iTunes. And if you have something you want to tell us about the show or anything else, leave a comment here or send us a message on Facebook!

Welcome back for night two of the Friday the 13th franchise review marathon! Sequels to great movies can be difficult to get right. SHould you go with more of the same or should you try to branch out and do something very different? There are merits to both approaches, and Friday the 13th Part 2 feels like it took some cues from both sides of the creative debate. Did it work? Is part 2 a worthy sequel, or is it one that should be forgotten? Listen as we discuss Friday the 13th Part 2, a sequel that, for better or worse, definitely changed the course of the franchise.

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Total Run Time: 35:02

Theme music: “Rising Game” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Thanks for listening! If you like what you hear, please leave a review on iTunes. And if you have something you want to tell us about the show or anything else, leave a comment here or send us a message on Facebook!

Welcome back to The Last Theater on the Left podcast! The audio portion of this site has been dormant for a long time, but this is the beginning of a brand new ongoing series of shows. Since this is a special occasion, I thought I’d start off with something of a big deal: a review of the entire Friday the 13th film franchise!

The timing couldn’t be better, either. Starting today, October 1st one new episode of The Last Theater on the Left podcast will be released every day leading up to a grand finale on Friday, October 13th! That’s one episode devoted to each of the 12 movies in the series (yes, we’re including Freddy vs Jason and the 2009 Friday remake) and a final episode where we rank the entire series and discuss various aspects about the phenomenon that this series of films has become.

Tonight, listen as we (Joey and myself, chris) discuss the original Friday the 13th from 1980. We’ve both seen it many, many times, but why do we keep going back to it? Is it really worthy of being deemed a classic in the horror genre and one of the most recognizable titles in all of film? Where does it work, and where does it fall flat?

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Total Run Time: 44:47

Theme music: “Rising Game” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Thanks for listening to this fresh start for the podcast (it’s not quite A New Beginning, but we’ll get to that in a few episodes). If you like what you hear, please leave a review on iTunes. And if you have something you want to tell us about the show or anything else, leave a comment here or send us a message on Facebook!

Be sure to check back tomorrow when we dive deep into Friday the 13th Part 2!