Crystal Lake Continuity - Making Sense Out Of Friday The 13th

October of 2017 is an interesting month for classic horror fans! Not only is Halloween in October but October of 2017 also has -- a Friday The 13th!

 Now, the Friday The 13th movies hold together pretty good really at maintaining a somewhat tight continuity between films in the series. After all, the movies were filmed by different crews. They had different writers, directors, producers and actors, all trying to film their particular entry in the series. Therefore, they concentrated more on getting the film finished and allowed continuity gaffs to make their way into the finished product. This was inevitable, of course. It is the nature of film making and most, if not ALL movie series’ has their continuity glitches. Fans of the movies enjoy and have great fun in finding and pointing out these film flubs. It is fun to try to speculate on these and try to explain them all away (Marvel Comics fans used to do this back in the day. Readers would be urged to write in, comment on a mistake in one of the books and then come up with a solid reason why the mistake was not really a mistake. For this, the Marvel Comics editors would award these eagle eyed readers with the coveted "No-Prize").

 I thought that it would be fun to do this with the Friday The 13th movie's more obvious flubs. Now, I want to make clear that this is all just speculation on my part. They are not canon or anything. So, to begin --  “if Crazy Ralph TRULY believes that Camp Crystal Lake is jinxed and that the area is under a "Death Curse" then why does he keep hanging around the camp of which he is terrified?" (Although it IS a little strange that two murders and a child drowning DECADES ago would constitute a "Death Curse") My theory: One of the teenagers who are attacked and murdered in the beginning (Barry and Claudette, played by Willie Adams and Debra S. Hayes, respectively) was Crazy Ralph's child! After the horrible and grisly murder of his son (or daughter) the shock itself unhinged him. That is why he still warns people about going to the campground area. The locals tolerate him because they know and sympathize with his pains. He goes all of the way out to the campsite trying (on his "mission from God") to warn the people of their impending doom  Crazy Ralph probably got stirred up by the fact that Steve Christy was opening up the camp again.

 Another question is why didn't Pamela Voorhees simply kill Steve Christy during the year plus that he was fixing up the place BEFORE he hired all of the kids that ended up dying in such gruesome ways? My theory is that Pamela Voorhees, at first, resented Christy's attempt to re-open the campsite but struggled with her inner demons. She had poisoned the water and started fires in order to keep the camp from opening back up before this. Murder was not her first instinct. Perhaps Pamela struggled with her psychosis and managed to keep the murderous impulses at bay. At least, until she saw that Steve Christy had hired a bunch of helpers. By this point, Pamela KNEW that Christy was going to reopen the camp regardless of what anyone said (when Pamela is talking to Alice at the climax of the movie, just before she slips into her madness, Pamela replies: " Oh, I couldn't let them reopen this place again -- could I ?" In a way, it was Steve Christy's stubbornness that unleashed the murderous fury in Pamela Voorhees.

 And my third question/theory -- "Why did Pamela show herself to Alice at the end of the film?" Pamela had murdered all of the others silently. They were all taken by surprise. So why go to all of the trouble of introducing herself to Alice and telling of her son Jason's drowning, and finally sinking into her dementia and trying to kill Alice? My theory: Pamela did so because unlike all of the others, Alice KNEW that there was a brutal killer lurking around the camp grounds! Remember, Alice found the murdered and mutilated body of Bill and realized the danger that she was in by this point! She even went so far as to try to barricade the door in order to protect herself. So, since Alice was obviously on her guard, Pamela knew that a different tact was needed. Hence, she becomes the cheerful, wouldn't hurt a fly, Mrs. Voorhees -- "An old friend of the Christy's"! It is only after talking with an increasingly agitated Pamela for a few minutes that it slowly begins to dawn on Alice that PAMELA is the killer!! And that begins the showdown that closes out the movie.

 So, what do my readers think? Do you all agree with my explanations? Disagree? Either way, I hope that you enjoyed the column and I hope you all had a good Friday The 13th!