Today is Friday the 13th, a day that's been considered cursed long before the first "Friday the 13th" movie unspooled on screens 45 years ago. But the franchise’s boogeyman killer Jason, with his trademark hockey mask and machete, will adorn most of the memes popping up in your feed today. There’s no denying that the horror icon has become synonymous with this day.
The horror genre doesn’t get a whole lot of respect, and slasher films are among the most maligned. Since Norman Bates slashed his way through Alfred Hitchcock’s "Psycho" in 1960, people have criticized the subgenre for everything from misogyny to gratuitous violence to formulaic plotting.
But honestly, when life gets too frustrating or the real world too scary, I tend to seek refuge in the safe harbor of a cinema to watch horror movies. There’s comfort in the formula, and the violence can be a release for anxiety and fears. And yes, to horror fans, slasher films can also be fun.
Gaby Moreno, a.k.a. 7octobertz, hosts a hip-hop and horror podcast. She was weaned on genre films at the local Blockbuster her family frequented.
"We gravitated towards slasher films because, of course, they were big at that time in the '80s and early '90s," Moreno recalled. "And so 'Friday the 13th' was my first introduction. I fell in love with Jason."
But rather than seeing Jason’s slaying of women as misogynistic, Moreno reveled in the triumphs of the surviving final girls in the franchise.
"The girls being badass, getting their revenge and killing the bad guy at the end of the movie — that was really dope," Moreno said.
The box office success of "Friday the 13th, as well as the earlier "Halloween," inspired not just U.S. filmmakers but also creators around the globe, including south of the border.
Armando Hernández hosts the podcast Trash-Mex, which is dedicated to Mexican genre cinema. He has a favorite Mexican film inspired by Friday the 13th.
"'Grave Robbers,' or 'Ladrones de Tumbas,' from 1989 — this is what a Mexican slasher should be like. Rubén Galindo Jr., the director, he's known for directing several of the Mexican horror films from the '80s, which include 'Don't Panic,' 'Cemetery of Terror,' which I also really love," Hernández said.
"Grave Robbers" has many of the tropes of the American slasher film, starting with a group of kids out in the woods. But director Rubén Galindo Jr. also throws in some Mexican flavor. As a heavily Catholic country, this slasher serves up a backstory from Spanish colonial times involving a leader of a satanic cult condemned to eternal damnation. Then the young grave robbers of the title accidentally free him from his curse. Hernández points out another variation on the slasher formula: the characters are not teenagers.
"They're 20-year-olds!" Hernández said. "They're just stealing stuff. They're not even there to party or anything. They're just there to steal from the grave sites. They're like, 'We're going to steal these expensive jewels from these graves. We're going to make a lot of money. We'll party later.' So that was another thing that I thought was different."
"Grave Robbers" is one of the best films to be restored from Mexico’s horror boom, which is why I am thrilled to be part of the Film Geeks programming team bringing it to San Diego on Sunday.
Hernández is a strong advocate for seeing films in a cinema, which is why he will be providing the virtual introduction. He’s also curating a film series showcasing newly restored El Santo wrestling films at the Frida Cinema in Orange County.
"So it's cool to see either a Mexican slasher or a lucha film," Hernández said. "It's always cool to show these movies to people. And if they're not familiar with the culture, it's nice to see them interact with it and be like, 'Oh, wow, this is cool.' The theater experience is always very important. You have to go see a movie in the theater if you get the chance to. You're going to enjoy 'Grave Robbers.' You're going to come out there and be like, 'Wow, this was really good. I need to see more.'"
So if you want to extend the Friday the 13th horror vibe to Sunday the 15th, there’s no better film than "Grave Robbers."
