MovieChat Forums > Friday the 13th (1980) Discussion > Why is this treated better then Hallowee...

Why is this treated better then Halloween?


Okay I enjoy every film from both franchises but it strangely saddens me to see the Friday the 13th franchise gets all the love and attention from horror fans while the Halloween franchise a vastly superior franchise in every way gets so much hate.

Like for an instant fans of the horror genre give Jason X a bigger ratting then Halloween:Resurrection a vastly superior film.

I don't really see much love for the Halloween franchise of which it deserves it more because without it Friday the 13th wouldn't have existed and also those films are treated with a lot more love and passion instead of the bland thrown together corporate fun of the Friday the 13th films.


Don't get me wrong I still enjoy every Friday the 13th film to some degree but I just love the Halloween franchise more it's more unique and different it rely's on new plots to carrie it's franchise along instead of cheap gimmicks.

The Halloween franchise has half of it's franchise generally disregarded as terrible (3,5,6,8 & RZH2) and the other half either is positive or mixed(1,2,4,H20 & RZH1) but with Friday the 13th fans love 8 of them(the first 4,6,7,8 & FvJ) and only hate 5 of them(5,9,10 & the remake).

reply

I don't agree that Halloween is a vastly superior franchise. While F13 is more episodic, Halloween has more dull moments to me and the continuous story just becomes more and more ridiculous.



Horror Reviews at: http://www.oh-the-horror.com/
Over 1200!

reply

I'd say it's virtually universally accepted that, as far as the originals go, Halloween is the better film, but I don't think one series as a whole is better than the other. While I enjoy Halloween II and III (III especially) - the only sequels that matter, IMO - I wouldn't call either the Citizen Kane of the genre. And as much as I love, and prefer, the F13 series - parts 1-4 anyway - each and every installment is understandably, if entertainingly, a 1-star effort.

reply

To me, the Halloween franchise is for s***. The biggest issue in my opinion is that the Halloween series is trying to be serious even when nearly every movie in that series is f v c k ing horrible. With the exception of part III, which, unfortunately is the least popular entry even though it's the best one. It gets slammed unfairly by people who are obsessed with Michael Myers which are the same people who know nothing about the original concept for the Halloween series. If they knew it or understood it then things might be different. That's really Carpenter's fault though for ever making part II with MM, which he shouldn't have at all because it resulted in people being confused by part III and also resulted in other idiot filmmakers moving on and making more MM movies after part III when MM was never intended to be a recurring character or story. But I digress. :P

Friday the 13th movies are made by people who know and embrace what they are and as a result they are just more fun to watch.

This is all my opinion, of course. Other opinions from other users are available. :)


"Why couldn't the monkey arrange this from INSIDE the garbage can?"

reply

Of the franchises, the worst behaved and most ignorant, unwilling to accept dissenting opinion, have been the die hard Halloween fans. Not all of them mind you, but when comparing to Elm or Friday, the Halloween fans have this weird moral superiority that is unfounded.

Horror Reviews at: http://www.oh-the-horror.com/
Over 1200!

reply

You are absolutely 100% correct on that.


"Why couldn't the monkey arrange this from INSIDE the garbage can?"

reply

Friday the 13th will always be my favorite franchise.

reply

I agree.

Out of the the Big Three slasher franchises, Halloween is by far the worst. It's the most boring and the most half-assed. Friday may be traditional to a fault and the most obviously exploitational, but it knew what it wanted to do and did it well almost every time. For me, I can watch every entry and have a good time. Even part 5 (which I like better than 4 to be honest) 8 and 9. The Friday franchise is to quintessential Beer and Chips film series for me.

Halloween went off the rails quickly, and tried to pass itself off as something better and smarter than it was.

The first Halloween film is a stone cold legend. And it's easily better than any Friday film, as much as I love them.

Halloween 1, 2, and H20 are the only Myers sequels I think are any good. I consider them a damn good slasher trilogy and they are the only films that make Michael worthy of being the slasher icon he is. And thinking about it for more than 5 seconds, Halloween 2 is damn near as stupid, maybe even more stupid than a good amount of the Friday films. At least the Friday films have the advantage of being set in the woods. Halloween 2 takes place in a hospital with all of but ONE doctor...ONE patient and like, 4 nurses. Halloween 2 is boneheaded as hell, but makes up for it with oodles of atmosphere and great kills.

Halloween 3 is a truly unique film and I'm very glad it's gotten more love these past years, but there is still a HUGE contingent of the fanbase that simply hates the film for not being about Michael. If they gave it a chance, they'd find a moody, sinister film that evokes the holiday better than any other film besides the first.

Halloween 4, a fan favorite, is directed like a TV movie with bland pacing, bland characters, and a bland Michael. The love for that film baffles me to no end.

Halloween 5 is actually better than 4 on a pure, slasher film basis. The script is a joke and there is nary a likable character to be found. But the film has more energy and style to it than 4 and Michael is much more menacing here. The last act of 5 is truly tense. H5 is dumb but I can at least get some mild enjoyment from it because it's well shot with a nice mean streak.

H6 is like H5. A mess. And it's like H4 in that it's f--king boring. Some good kills aside, there is nothing of note to be found.

H8 is one of the most insulting films I've ever seen. While not a fan of the franchise as a whole, I do love the unofficial trilogy of H1, H2 and H20 as much as I love the Friday and Nightmare series as a whole. H8 simply spits on the great ending of H20 without even pretending to be respectful. I've never felt a producers obvious greed leak through the very screen like I do with H8. I've tried to see it as a simple dumb slasher and I can't even do that. The entire cast is so insufferably annoying and the dialogue is so ungodly forced and cheesy I can't last more than 20 minutes before I have to shut it off. Hardcore fans, get pissed that Zombie gave Michael an abusive white trash background all you want. At least his Michael was a force to reckoned with. The Michael of the original series went down at the hands of a flavor of the week rapper doing karate.

And hold on to your asses here, but I'd take Rob Zombies Halloween films over Halloween 4, 5, 6, and 8 any day. The remake is a mixed an confused bag for sure, but the sequel, especially the directors cut, is a very bold take on the series that fans hate simply because it's different. Take a look at the Halloween fan boards around the web. Zombies H2 has gotten a lot more respect lately from fans and I say it's about damn time. I'd say like Halloween 3, RZH2 is one of the most misunderstood horror movies out there.

So with that said, John Carpenters Halloween is very much still respected over any of the Friday films by critics and most fans. The Friday films just know how to treat their audience better.

reply

To be fair, in Halloween 2 it's a small-town clinic rather than a big city hospital. Maybe a bit of a stretch to have so few people in the building, but certainly plausible (and it could be that there were a few other patients in other rooms that were either spared or killed but not shown).

reply

I'm not sure what gives you the idea that the Friday the 13th films get "treated better" than the Halloween films. I've never personally seen any evidence of that. In fact, during my years on forums talking about these franchises, the majority of fans I've conversed with tend to look down on the Friday films as exploitative trash, while sort of propping up the Halloween franchise (which I think is almost entirely due to the overwhelming love for the original '78 film).

To me, FT13 and Halloween are both iconic franchises, and they both have their standouts as well as their misfires. I'm a HUGE fan of the original Friday the 13th. It's one of my all-time favorites, and I think it has the most amazing atmosphere of any film in either franchise, hands down. I also like most of the sequels, especially Parts 3, 4, and 6. As for 2, 5, 7, and 8, they each have some memorable scenes, but they don't resonate with me as much as the other sequels do. I also like Jason Goes To Hell and Jason X. I don't care what haters think; I find both films unique and engaging. Flawed, yes, but at least they're different. And I like different. I hate Freddy vs. Jason, as well as the 2009 remake. Both horrendous to me.

On the Halloween side, I'm a HUGE fan of Halloween II. Again, one of my all-time faves. I also love Halloween III; I think it's the most underrated film in the entire franchise. And while I like the original '78 Halloween, I never fell in love with it the way so many others have. I don't know what it is; I like many scenes in it, but it's very hard for me to sit through the whole movie. It just doesn't have that re-watchability factor for me. I actually like parts 4, 5, and 6 to varying degrees. They each have moments and scenes I like quite a bit, so I definitely don't agree with all the hate they get. I despise Resurrection and, sadly, H20, which I think was a gargantuan misfire, wasting JLC's talents and subjecting us to the most poorly-depicted Michael Myers of the entire franchise. I found the Zombie remake deeply flawed, but enjoyed some scenes in the second half. I actually like Zombie's Halloween II. Again, it was something new and unique in the Halloween universe, as well as a badass slasher movie.

reply

[deleted]

I would say that Halloween vs. Friday the 13th as original movies is always a win for Halloween from a critic and filmmakers perspective. This is not a knock on Friday the 13th though.

As for the sequels and the series in general. Both franchises have their clunkers that got worse as time went on.

I think Halloween's films tended to age a bit better. Not to mention there is always the presence of Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasance in all of these films. But there are some bad ones for sure.

Halloween 1, 2 and 4 are excellent, and I would rank them in that order. Part 5 is where things fall apart a bit and Part 6 is more of the same. They are drop offs from the first ones, even a drop off from 4. H20 is alright, but it is the first film away from Haddonfield and it loses that Halloween-type feel. Jamie Lee Curtis is prominent in it, so that helps, but the idea that it ignores everything from 4-6 is bothersome. But Halloween Ressurection and both of Rob Zombie's remakes are horrendous, and most fans agree with this. Halloween 3 I don't even count.

Friday the 13th is actually treated a little worse than these. First off, the original is a slight notch below Halloween. However, Part 2 is every bit as good as the original. You can argue that the first two Friday films combined are as good as the first two Halloween films. Then Part 3 is still good and Part 4 as well. Honestly, if they ended it there you've got a franchise that is great and doesn't jump the shark at all. You can ignore the fact that Jason has been alive all of these years, but if you bypass it these are fun and creepy movies. Part 5 is where it falls apart. Then 6, 7, 8, 9, and then Jason X are all bad, although 6 is probably the best of all. When Jason comes to life, that just blows it up. The remakes are horrible as anything with Michael Bay's name would be. But Freddy vs. Jason, if you want to count that, isn't half-bad. They do alright with that one.

So in general I think the Friday films age a lot worse as the series progresses and the later sequels are worse than the Halloween later sequels.

But the early ones are great, and I don't know how you can't enjoy both franchises.

reply

[deleted]

[deleted]

i agree

reply

hey i was here

reply

they're both great but F13 1-5 is probably the best series of horror movies ever for me. the atmosphere and terror are hard to beat

reply