Friday the 13th Part XXIII - Jason vs. Barnabas

[Gerard]

As it is the Halloween season, networks are overflowing with cinematics of the spooky kind, so on AMC there was a broadcast today of 1989's Friday the 13th Part VIII - Jason Takes Manhattan, and in it was none-other than DS04's Dr. Julia Hoffman, Kelly Hu, playing - but, what else? - a teenage trollope who gets offed by Jason (having left his machete behind in Part VII, he had to strangle her).  If only she had been cast as the good "final girl," Kelly would've survived to the end.

Gerard

[Bob_the_Bartender]

Gerard,

You know, I’m such a fan of the Jason films, that I wish that they’d do even more of those intriguing films. But, then, again, I also wish that the producers of the wonderful 50 Shades of Grey film trilogy would reward us all with additional films following the further adventures and “exploits” of Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey.

Bob

PS No doubt, both the Reverend Gregory Trask and Abigail Collins, those two giants of moral rectitude in Collinsport, Maine, would wholeheartedly approve of Anastasia and Christian’s unique lifestyle. 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

No doubt, both the Reverend Gregory Trask and Abigail Collins, those two giants of moral rectitude in Collinsport, Maine, would wholeheartedly approve of Anastasia and Christian’s unique lifestyle. 

Yeah, right!!    Though who knows, maybe Abigail and Trask were secretly indulging in a similar relationship.

Now, if we were talking about Gregory Trask, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if he shared some of Christian Grey's predilections! Not at all!! Who knows what he and that woman in Fall River got up to?! 

[Bob_the_Bartender]

Now, the original Reverend Trask impressed me as being extremely straight-laced and even repressed sexually (even though the “good” reverend did sire future mortician and all-around “fun guy,” Lamar Trask).

In fact, I remember when the loathsome bigamist, Nathan Forbes, was trying to get the Reverend Trask to help him get back together with Millicent “The Space Cadet” Collins, the righteous reverend declined, saying something like, “Physical love is beyond my comprehension.” 

Now, with 1897’s Reverend Gregory Trask, there we had a real horn-dog and hypocrite, a man who was evidently dealing with a severe case of satyriasis. But, then again, we’ve even seen such great and revered men as past presidents of the United States, attempt to control and cope with their raging concupiscent desires. So, maybe we should even cut a little slack to an insatiable satyr like Gregory Trask, a man who ranks “up there” with the likes of Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer and P Diddy?

By the way, did we ever find out who Gregory Trask’s father was? I don’t think 1840’s Lamar Trask was Gregory Trask’s father, right? Then again, maybe old Lamar was a dark horse, with hidden “talents” and “interests,” we never saw on DS? 

One final comment on the original Reverend Trask and his enthusiastic witch-hunting sidekick, Abigail Collins. While the rev and Abigail were laser-focused on rooting out all of the witches in Collinsport, they both apparently had blinders on when it came to addressing and acting to stop all of the wanton debauchery going on 24/7 on and around the docks of Collinsport and especially at The Eagle Tavern, Collinsport’s favorite watering hole and pick-up joint.

I mean, we saw so many “working girls,” plying their “trade” at The Eagle, including such unforgettable characters as Ruby Tate and Maudie Browning, who both had the great misfortune of having made Barnabas Collins’s “acquaintance.” Shouldn’t the Reverend Trask and Ms. Collins, those two paragons of moral rectitude, have also acted to eliminate prostitution in Collinsport with as much fervor and determination as they devoted to eliminating the practice of witchcraft in Collinsport? I can’t figure it out. The Reverend Jimmy Swaggart would be so disappointed with them. 

[Gerard]

Bob, I remember seeing the first Friday the 13th in the theater with a friend of mine.  As the movie progressed, we became confused about who got killed when and with what.  My friend pulled a notebook and pen out of her purse and we began to take notes trying to keep the growing pile of corpses straight.  While others around us were screaming and shrieking, she and I were engaged in conversation, pointing to the notes, saying things like:  "...no, no, no.  That was Sue.  She got it in the head with an ax...I thought Sue got it with the machete...That was Tom...Then who got it with the meat cleaver in the throat?...Wasn't that Cindy?  Or was that Alex?...I think that was Tammy...I thought Tammy..."

Gerard

[Uncle Roger]

The lovely Betsy Palmer, who played the villainous Mrs. Voorhees played opposite Jonathan Frid on Broadway in something called Roar Like A Dove on Broadway back in 1964. Twelve years later, Betsy would play opposite David Selby in Eccentricities Of A Nightingale.

[Gerard]

Yes, Uncle Roger, many people often forget that Jason was not the protagonist serial killer in the first movie - it was his mommie maddest:  Pamela Vorhees played by the wonderful Betsy Palmer.  She begrudgingly took the part because her Mercedes went plllp, and her daughter suggested a brand, new Volkswagen which cost 10 grand which she could not afford (her career wasn't doing well at that time).  As fate would have it, she was offered the part as the maniacal mother with shooting lasting 10 weeks and for each week she would be paid $1,000.  Voila!  (She did appear in the second film in the franchise.)

There was another Friday the 13th in which Jason was not the machete swinger:  Part V.  The killer turned out to be a worker in a looney bin.

Betsy's career did reblossom and in the years following she appeared in many movies and TV shows, the latter having her as a reoccuring character.  She came to embrace her Pamela Vorhees portrayal.

Gerard

[Bob_the_Bartender]

Bob, I remember seeing the first Friday the 13th in the theater with a friend of mine.  As the movie progressed, we became confused about who got killed when and with what.  My friend pulled a notebook and pen out of her purse and we began to take notes trying to keep the growing pile of corpses straight.  While others around us were screaming and shrieking, she and I were engaged in conversation, pointing to the notes, saying things like:  "...no, no, no.  That was Sue.  She got it in the head with an ax...I thought Sue got it with the machete...That was Tom...Then who got it with the meat cleaver in the throat?...Wasn't that Cindy?  Or was that Alex?...I think that was Tammy...I thought Tammy..."

Gerard

Gerard,

Oh, yeah, you really did need a scorecard to keep track of all the brutal killings in those “Friday the 13th” films. I could have also used a scorecard to keep track of all the homicides in both “Ozark” and “Game of Thrones.”

Come to think of it, Barnabas Collins racked up quite a total of “offings” in the Tim Burton DS film with about half a dozen construction workers and another half dozen young hippies being drained of all of their blood, along with the dipsomaniacal Dr. Julia Hoffman. By the way, I could never figure out how Julia Hoffman returned as a vampire after Barnabas and Willie dumped her body into Collinsport Bay and, yet, all of those hard hats and hippies did not become creatures of the night after Mr. B. gave them all hickeys? 

Oh, well, the possible vespertilian fates of all of those other Barnabas Collins victims, like the puzzling lineage of the Trask family, will apparently not be discussed here on the Dark Shadows Forums. 

[Gerard]

Bob, I always figured in DS12 that Barnabas offed all those other delicious victims before he drained them to the point of passing (such as a good strangulation before taking the good-to-the-last drop).  That way, they didn't die from a vampire attack and wouldn't come back as one.  He drained Julia too quickly.

Gerard

[Bob_the_Bartender]

Gerard,

Your point about how Barnabas Collins killed many of his victims is well taken. Of course, we never did exactly see how Mr. B. disposed of that group of young hippies after he told of them how much he was impressed and moved by the writings of author Erich Segal (a personal favorite of Buzz Hackett as well, I understand).

Yet, it looked to me as if Barnabas completely “drained” a couple of those construction workers, who accidentally dug Barnabas up. 

By the way, I wonder if Johnny Depp’s Barnabas Collins knocked off more people in that so-so DS film, than Jonathan Frid’s Barnabas Collins did in over three years of DS episodes on the original series?