How Would You Do It?

[Jus-X]

This (http://www.f13community.com/board/showthread.php?t=5260) was a thread just to talk about how you would make a Friday the 13th sequel.

I thought it would be fun to do something simliar to this, but instead of generic sequels, I want to direct the conversation towards the movies that currently get a bad wrap.

The following movies that have been recently trash talked in other threads are:

Freddy's Revenge
Dream Child
Freddys Dead
New Nightmare
A New Beginning (http://www.f13community.com/board/showthread.php?t=5016&highlight=Beginning)
Jason Takes Manhattan (http://www.f13community.com/board/showthread.php?t=6699)
Jason Goes To Hell
Freddy vs Jason
Halloween 4
Halloween 5
Curse Of Michael Myers
Halloween Reserection

Now A New Beginning and Jason Taken Manhattan already have desiganted threads for the topic. You can click on those titles and be directed to the threads to post your ideas.

But I don't get too many people who really put their feet forward and share what they would change about the debatable horror installments in our favorite franchises, they just post a comment here or there.

This is a horror movie forum, and there's a multitude of people in here who share their lack of interest in the above titles. I want to know what you would want to change about the films, or even what direction you would have preferred these series to take in your film.

I already know of people who ONLY like Nightmare's 1-3, Fridays 1-4, and Halloween's 1 and 2 only... you know who you are... this community of fans knows why you don't like the films, why not share what you would do to make those installments likeable?

For people who complain about continuity of the series' or lackthereof, put your own continuity into this.

Think of it as a time machine. You know why you hate the film, if you could go back in time and pitch for the film before it was made, pitch it to us.

[The Gunslinger]

In Jason Takes Manhatten, I would've had the finale take place in the statue of Liberty.

[Jus-X]

As I live and breathe! Gunslinger! Where the hell have you been?

[DD77]

Or falls off the Empire State Building like King Kong and splats.

[Kat]

Honestly, in any film series horror or not, I find it hard to follow anything past 4 films. That is the one thing that really pisses me off about horror.

[Jus-X]

Honestly, in any film series horror or not, I find it hard to follow anything past 4 films. That is the one thing that really pisses me off about horror.

Okay, so instead of saying whatever's past 4 is hard to follow, how would you make part 4 or 5 and beyond easier to follow?

[The Gunslinger]

As I live and breathe! Gunslinger! Where the hell have you been?

Do you want the truth or a glass of lemonade?
Rehab.

[Kat]

Okay, so instead of saying whatever's past 4 is hard to follow, how would you make part 4 or 5 and beyond easier to follow?

I wouldn't make them. I'd go on to something different. I think that is what ruined them and what made people not interested.

[The Tall Man]

Justyn, I've got a couple here.

Nightmare 5, I would keep exactly the same except for the finale. I would create a finale worthy of "A Nightmare on Elm Street". We can keep the "tell his mom on him" aspect of the end, but it would feature a balls-to-the-wall showdown between Freddy and Amanda. I mean jumping around, bouncing off walls, wireworks, the whole nine yards. Demonic vengeance vs. Jesus' wife. And then, when Freddy's got Amanda on the ropes... then Jacob can vomit on him I guess. But as it is, the ending is weak sauce.

Nightmare 6 everyone knows I love. But the script is riddled with piss poor development. When it's revealed Maggie is Freddy's daughter, we have no reason to believe it until Freddy himself actually tells her and us so. I would keep the exact storyline the film has now, but what I would do is spend time developing Maggie's character much more. Show her doing things like dragging her fingers along things. Or telling jokes that only she laughs at. And when she walks, she has that pelvic thrust, weaselly almost hunched over walk that Freddy has so that when the bomb is dropped instead of going "I guess?" you would go "Oh! Thinking back, that makes perfect sense now!'

And also, I'd have to include a scene of Maggie practicing throwing knives at some point so that when she pins Freddy to the wall at the end, it doesn't come out of bum-fucking-nowhere.

I know these movies aren't really about character development, but dammit man, you gotta at least try.

T.M., Esq.

[Deathscythe]

I would keep Halloween 4 the film, it's always been my favourite sequel.

[Jus-X]

Besides Jason Takes Manhattan, I like the above list the way they are.

Only one thing I would change... Michael's mask in H4. That would be all.

[Darth Reaper]

I think one thing I'd do differently with FREDDY'S DEAD is that I would have more of a fight between Maggie and Freddy at the end. Based on what we saw in FREDDY VS. JASON, Freddy could really throw down if he wanted to, so make the final confrontation much more intense and exciting.

I'm still wondering what a proper confrontation between Freddy and Amanda should look like. A physical confrontation just doesn't feel right to me. It doesn't seem dignified enough for Amanda.

One idea that I had was to have Freddy attack Amanda and just have the two of them explode into a storm of positive and negative energy once they make contact. They're not just throwing everything they have at each other, they're throwing everything they are at each other. They're two potent polar opposite spiritual forces, and when they come together the results are explosive. I'm not sure who would win though.

[Josh1971]

Justyn, I've got a couple here.

Nightmare 5, I would keep exactly the same except for the finale. I would create a finale worthy of "A Nightmare on Elm Street". We can keep the "tell his mom on him" aspect of the end, but it would feature a balls-to-the-wall showdown between Freddy and Amanda. I mean jumping around, bouncing off walls, wireworks, the whole nine yards. Demonic vengeance vs. Jesus' wife. And then, when Freddy's got Amanda on the ropes... then Jacob can vomit on him I guess. But as it is, the ending is weak sauce.

Nightmare 6 everyone knows I love. But the script is riddled with piss poor development. When it's revealed Maggie is Freddy's daughter, we have no reason to believe it until Freddy himself actually tells her and us so. I would keep the exact storyline the film has now, but what I would do is spend time developing Maggie's character much more. Show her doing things like dragging her fingers along things. Or telling jokes that only she laughs at. And when she walks, she has that pelvic thrust, weaselly almost hunched over walk that Freddy has so that when the bomb is dropped instead of going "I guess?" you would go "Oh! Thinking back, that makes perfect sense now!'

And also, I'd have to include a scene of Maggie practicing throwing knives at some point so that when she pins Freddy to the wall at the end, it doesn't come out of bum-fucking-nowhere.

I know these movies aren't really about character development, but dammit man, you gotta at least try.

T.M., Esq.

Could not agree more with your last statement, Tall Man! Sure, at the point at which you get to a 5th, 6th, or so on in a series, it's really more about the central character (i.e. Freddy, Jason...), but you can at least *try* to make characters that we don't immediately want to see dead.

I need to go back and watch some of the later ANOES sequels, as the last time I saw 5, it was at a special sneak preview, and Freddy's Dead I watched on a crappy VHS tape many years after it came out. I remember thinking #5 was crap, but don't remember 6 at all.

jb

[The Tall Man]

I think one thing I'd do differently with FREDDY'S DEAD is that I would have more of a fight between Maggie and Freddy at the end. Based on what we saw in FREDDY VS. JASON, Freddy could really throw down if he wanted to, so make the final confrontation much more intense and exciting.
It was probably a toned-down fight because they were hampered by the 3-D thing.

One idea that I had was to have Freddy attack Amanda and just have the two of them explode into a storm of positive and negative energy once they make contact. They're not just throwing everything they have at each other, they're throwing everything they are at each other. They're two potent polar opposite spiritual forces, and when they come together the results are explosive. I'm not sure who would win though.
That doesn't really work from a cinematic standpoint. I mean, sure it makes SENSE, but they explode when they hit each other? That's just as much a case of weak sauce as the ending to 5 now. Your movie's climax should have some action of some sort. I mean sure, blowing up is an action, but it's not especially exciting to watch.

the last time I saw 5, it was at a special sneak preview, and Freddy's Dead I watched on a crappy VHS tape many years after it came out. I remember thinking #5 was crap, but don't remember 6 at all.
It's too bad you didn't see "Freddy's Dead" in theaters because like 10 minutes or more were removed when it came to VHS/DVD.

T.M., Esq.

[Darth Reaper]

That doesn't really work from a cinematic standpoint. I mean, sure it makes SENSE, but they explode when they hit each other? That's just as much a case of weak sauce as the ending to 5 now. Your movie's climax should have some action of some sort. I mean sure, blowing up is an action, but it's not especially exciting to watch.- The Tall Man

Well, as I said they would become a storm of energy, and this storm would last awhile. They wouldn't just explode and disapear in the blink of an eye. I wish I had a good example to illustrate what I have in mind.

[Josh1971]

It's too bad you didn't see "Freddy's Dead" in theaters because like 10 minutes or more were removed when it came to VHS/DVD.

T.M., Esq.

Well now that's crappy. Not unexpected, given the way some movies get chopped for home video release- but it's still crappy.

As far as a movie I would have done differently, from the ones listed at the top of the thread, as far as Halloween 4, I would leave it as is, but the main difference would be I would NEVER make another Halloween movie after that. I think the ending with the evil transferring to Jamie was a brilliant way to end it. Doing another movie just cheapened it, with all that cult biz.

But in the Friday series, I would have loved to have had a crack at Part 5.

I think what I would have done different, given the existing script, would have been to make the thing way more serious, for one thing. That one just never seems to take itself serious at all, and so it looks more like a parody of the series. There's an awful lot of characters that just plain go bye-bye in my edit of the script as well- the drifter who wanders up to Ethel's place, the two idiots at the side of the road, Billy and Lana, and maybe even Demon and Anita.

That would leave a LOT more room for the development of what I always felt was the most interesting depiction of Tommy, as well as the other kids at the home. At least some of them could be fleshed out more so that the audience might do something more than go "Oh, cool!" when one of them is offed.

I think Ethel's hate of the group home could have been something much more sinister, rather than comical. Roy needed some more back story- why did he choose the Jason thing? Rather than just a 30 second lame explanation at the end, give that part of the story some meat.

Maybe end the movie not with a lame attempt at a scare, but with Tommy actually telling Pam "I have to know he's dead," and heading off into the sunset, back to Crystal Lake.


Just some ideas of mine.

JB

[The Tall Man]

Josh, I guaran-damned-tee you that you just put an infinitely more amount of thought into Friday 5's story than anyone involved did. :D

T.M., Esq.

[Deathscythe]

I would make Freddy's makeup in Freddy's Dead look like his makeup in Part 2, the makeup is really distracting in Part 6.

[Josh1971]

Josh, I guaran-damned-tee you that you just put an infinitely more amount of thought into Friday 5's story than anyone involved did. :D

T.M., Esq.

Hee hee! I'll take that as a compliment. But I mean, could you imagine some of the characters like Pam, or Reggie, or Violet with more depth? And that version of Tommy was easily the best one- imagine him with more screen time and fleshing out.


I've been thinking about part VI...