PART 1
Good morning Dr. Terror, your honor, this blog will plainly
show the classic slasher franchise that now stands before you was caught
blood-red handed stealing ideas, theft of an almost plagiaristic nature. This will not do…
Call the Son of Celluloid!
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, it is an inarguable fact
that the Friday the 13th films are some of the most influential in
modern horror history. Well, you could
argue that fact, but you’d be an idiot.
Their success helped to usher in the 80’s slasher boom, which many
consider to be the second “Golden Age of Horror.” Without them we may never have seen the rise
of what notorious hater-of-fun Roger Ebert likes to call “dead teenager
movies”… or would we?
A little background is in order first. While most horror fans point to Black
Christmas (1974) and Halloween (1978) as the moments when the slasher flick
recipe really came together, the ingredients were already prepared. Elements of what would become the conventions
and clichés of the genre can be found in earlier flicks like 13 Women (1932),
And Then There Were None (1945), Psycho (1960), Peeping Tom (1960), Violent
Midnight (1963), The House that Screamed (1969), and others. The Italian giallo flick is also a forbearer,
if not the out and out progenitor, of the slasher flick. It was one man, however, that took the giallo
and added the body count, stalk and slash, teenagers in heat, mysterious
killer, gore, and other factors to create the slasher formula. That man was the Maestro of the Macabre
himself, Mario Bava, and the films that changed the course of horror history
forever were Blood and Black Lace (1964) and Twitch of the Death Nerve (1971). Whereas Blood and Black Lace can be seen as
the missing link between giallo and slasher, Twitch of the Death Nerve is, for
all intents and purposes, the moment when the slasher formula gelled for the
first time.
The flick has been released as Bay of Blood, Bloodbath, Reazione
a catena (Chain Reaction), Antefatto (Before the Fact), Carnage, Ecologia
del delitto (The Ecology of Murder), and, incredibly, Last House on the
Left 2, but Twitch of the Death Nerve is a ridiculously badass title, so I will
be referring to the film by that name from here on out. Anyway, TOTDN is basically two stories in
one, and the first part is the one we are mainly concerned with in this
case. After a particularly inspired
murder scene involving a woman in a wheelchair, we meet a group of
good-looking, horny young people headed out to the bay for a couple of days of
fornication by the water. As one
skinny-dips, one breaks into the booze, and two head off to get it on, a
mysterious killer watches silently before slaughtering them with various sharp
objects.
I’m going to assume we’ve all seen Friday the 13th
1 and 2, so I’m not going to do a detailed plot synopsis. Besides, we’ll get into specifics later. Basically, they involve a group of
good-looking, horny young people headed out to the lake for a couple of days of
fornication by the water. As some skinny
dip, some break into the booze, and some head off to get it on, a mysterious
killer watches silently before slaughtering them with various sharp
objects. Sound familiar?
Yes, Twitch of the Death Nerve is the first time we see
twenty-somethings being killed off in the woods by a body of water. While this would later become the basis for
countless imitators, the first 40 minutes of Bava’s film set the template. We have the shots of the kids goofing around
in the car on the way to their destination.
We have the amorous couple, slut, and awkward guy character
archetypes. Hell, the bay itself is a
dead ringer for Crystal Lake. Sean S
Cunningham, director and primary creative force behind Friday the 13th
1, has said that the “summer camp in the woods by the lake” setting was born
simply out of a desire to find an isolated setting inaccessible by the
authorities, but it echoes the setting of TOTDN so closely that it certainly
calls F13’s originality into question.
To be fair, Cunningham has said that he was heavily
influenced by John Carpenter’s Halloween, and John Carpenter has repeatedly
said that Bava was an influence on that movie, so some of the similarities
could be a product of second-hand borrowing.
For example…
-
Oversexed young people being killed
systematically. While this technically
wasn’t a new trope even at the time of TOTDN, Twitch was the first to use it so
purely and blatantly. Halloween used the
same motif and spawned a slew of imitators, including F13, therefore the source
of the influence is inconclusive.
-
Bodies being arranged with the intent that they would
be found by other victims. While this
probably wasn’t new either, TOTDN is the earliest example I know of, and
certainly the first example in conjunction with the afore mentioned “dead
teenager” conceit. Mrs. Voorhees did
this by pinning Bill’s body to the cabin door with arrows, and it would become
one of Jason’s trademarks throughout the series. Since Michael Myers did it with Annie’s body
and his sister’s tombstone, however, once again, it’s unclear whether this was
a Bava or Carpenter influence.
-
Subjective camera shots of the victims from the
killer’s point of view. While the
earliest example of this I know of is The Spiral Staircase (1946), the fusing
of the camera’s gaze and that of the killer was taken to the point of following
the POV of the killer through selecting a weapon, stalking their prey, sneaking
up and startling them, and finally killing them for the first time in
1971. Interestingly, it was in a film
called Blood and Lace (not to be confused with Blood and Black Lace” and not
TOTDN. In fact, it’s so similar to the
opening scene of Halloween that, though it’s never been explicitly stated by
Carpenter, it’s almost unfathomable that he hadn’t seen it prior to
Halloween. TOTDN did receive American
distribution before Blood and Lace did despite coming out 5 months later in
Europe, however, and the shots of the killer watching the victims through the
trees in TOTDN are so similar to those in F13 that it’s likely that the
inspiration came from it rather than Blood and Lace or Halloween. Once again, however, a direct correlation is
hard to draw.
There are lots of other, smaller similarities that, while
not really proving anything, are very interesting to note…
-
The avenging killer.
There are multiple killers in TOTDN, but the one who dispatches the kids
is a son killing to avenge the wrongful death of his mother. In F13, the killer who dispatches the kids is
a mother killing to avenge the death of her son. Ironically, for the rest of the Friday series
the killer was Jason, a son killing to avenge the death of his mother. Talk about coming full circle.
-
The doomsayer character. Anna the fortune teller’s assertion that
“There will be tears shed over the bay…The sickle of death is about to strike”
isn’t far off from Crazy Ralph’s warning that Crystal Lake “has got a death curse.”
-
The boy gets the last laugh. Both films end with a shock ending where the
surviving character(s) are taken out at the last minute by a young boy.
-
The killer’s snazzy sweaters. Here are two of the killers in TOTDN…
As I said, aside from the simple fact the one movie that can
be identified that predates Friday the 13th yet has almost the exact
same setting was TOTDN, all of the other similarities between the two flicks
are either circumstantial or hearsay evidence.
They’re like that Abraham Lincoln/JFK email everyone’s seen with all of
the eerie yet unconvincing similarities.
The prosecution would like to call its first witness, Sean
S. Cunningham. On page 26 of the book Crystal Lake Memories, Mr. Cunningham
states “I had, in fact, no notion of the tradition of the European body count
movies or the gross out Grand Guignol type of thing. I wasn’t a fan and I only found out about a
lot of these things after the fact. I
never saw movies like Twitch of the Death Nerve or any of those other movies –
the first time I ever heard the name Mario Bava was when I went to a film
festival in 1986 or ’87.”
So, if we are to believe Cunningham, the similarities
between the two films are purely coincidental.
The only thing he could be convicted of is complete ignorance of the
masters of the art form he was working in, which is inexcusable in and of
itself. I think Cunningham is telling
the truth however. The prosecution will
show that the ripping off of Bava was the work of someone else, but I’m getting
ahead of myself. In short, reasonable doubt exists that Friday the 13th
directly apes Twitch of the Death nerve.
The same cannot be said, however, for Friday the 13th Part 2…
We’ve seen that, while it seems fairly obvious that the
setting of the first Friday the 13th movie was inspired by Mario
Bava’s Twitch of the Death Nerve, most of the other similarities could
conceivably be coincidental. Cunningham
himself has denied knowledge of Bava’s work prior to making F13. In Friday the 13th Part 2, most of
the possibly coincidental similarities are there, however there are also some
new, far more damning ones that make Part 2 as undeniably guilty as OJ, Casey
Anthony, or Michael Jackson. Hmmm…nope,
I’m still going with that. On a side
note, I LOVE when sequels actually use the word “Part” as part of the title.
Anyway, let’s look at some of the things that make it damn near impossible to
deny that Friday the 13th Part 2 stole from Twitch of the Death
Nerve.
-
Skinny Dipping =
Death. Check out those POV voyeur
shots. See the similarities? Sure you do. While skinny-dipping had
appeared in movies before, TOTDN was the first time it became an executable
offense. The second time someone got
themselves deaded for swimming nekkid was, you guessed it, F13 Part 2. Coincidence?
I think not.
-
Wheelchair = Death.
After searching high and low I could only find 2 wheelchair bound
characters in horror history that had been murdered onscreen before F13 Part 2;
Franklin in Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Countess in TOTDN. Since TCM’s influence on F13 Part 2 is
negligible at best, and TOTDN’s influence is, well, pretty much irrefutable,
it’s safe to assume that this was stolen from Bava. In fact, just look at how he gets it…
-
Machete/Billhook
to the face kill. Look at those two
pictures. True, in TOTDN it’s a billhook
and in F13 Part 2 it’s a machete, but now we’re splitting hairs instead of
focusing on splitting faces. That is an
identical kill any way you look at it.
The blades are even at the same angles for the love of Hitchcock! While Marcie’s axe to the forehead in Part 1
was somewhat similar, Mark’s face hack is exactly the same. The only difference is that in TOTDN we get a
lot more gory shots of the aftermath and the blade being pried out of the
skull. That crap wouldn’t fly with the
MPAA, so F13 Part 2 got shafted. Have I
mentioned lately that I hate the MPAA?
Anyway, here’s the final straw…
-
The double mid-coital shish-ka-bob kill. This is the most blatant rip off in the film,
and one of the most blatant in horror history.
Just look at those stills folks.
It’s damn near a shot for shot copy, or at least it was before it was
cut to get an R rating (the impalement pic from F13 Part 2 up there is actually
a shot that was cut), but that’s a shameless carbon copy none the less. Is there really any way of denying that? That’s the smoking gun right there. That’s the bloody glove. The only difference is that we don’t get the
just-before-impact “Oh shit!” shot in TOTDN because the female is on top. I tell you, those Italian ladies are take
charge kinda gals. I think they did that to make up for the fact that we, once
again, don’t get to see as much of the blood and guts in the American
flick. Thanks a lot MPAA. You know what MPAA? You guys can suck it!
(Let the official court record reflect that, after
the last sentence, the prosecutor performed a “DX style crotch chop” in the
general direction of Hollywood, presumably directed at the MPAA.)
So, While the fact that the entire inspiration for the first
Friday the 13th movie was taken directly from Twitch of the Death
Nerve cannot be proven incontrovertibly (merely
strongly inferred) I do believe that I have proven beyond a reasonable
doubt that portions of Friday the 13th Part 2 were lifted whole
cloth from Bava’s masterpiece. Now, the
question is, who is the responsible party?
The most obvious culprit would seem to be the director and/or
screenwriter of Friday the 13th Part 2. However, I intend to present both evidence
and testimony that leads me to believe that the guilty party is none other
than…
PART 3
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, now that we’ve established
the fact that Friday the 13th Part 2 does indeed contain ideas,
themes, and entire sequences that were at best appropriated and at worst
straight up stolen from Mario Bava’s classic Twitch of the Death Nerve, who is
the culprit? Could it be Sean
Cunningham, the man who created the riday the 13th series? I say no.
While Friday the 13th contained a lot of strong similarities,
including a location and basic plotline that is awfully suspicious, the out and
out plagiarism didn’t start until Part 2, when Cunningham was out of the
picture. As the blatant theft began with
Part Two, it would stand to reason that either the director or writer of that
film was responsible. Steve Miner, the
associate producer of Part 1 and director of Part 2 was confronted with the
issue in a December 2007 Myspace interview, and the following exchange took
place…
“Interviewer: How do you respond to accusations that claim
that Friday the 13th Part 2 plagiarised Mario Bava's Twitch of the Death Nerve?
Some say that the scene where Jeff and Sandra are impaled whilst having sex is
identical to a scene from Bava's movie?
Miner: I never saw the movie."
Miner: I never saw the movie."
Ok, fair enough. In
the definitive tome on the Friday the 13th series, Crystal Lake
Memories, screenwriter Ron Kurz also denied having seen Twitch of the Death
Nerve prior to his hand in pillaging it.
These simple denials may not seem convincing, yet I believe them due to
the fact that I have reason to believe that neither man is the culprit. In fact, I believe that I have uncovered the
true possessor of the sticky fingers.
The evidence I will now lay before you will show that the guilty party
is none other than…
(Let the official court record reflect that at this point,
the prosecutor, in tribute to Andy Griffith, performed the trademark “turn
suddenly from the jury and dramatically point an accusatory finger at the true
villain” Matlock move)
Phil Scuderi!
I can hear everyone in the
courtroom asking the same question; who?
Honestly, I had never heard of this man before I began researching this
case either. Phil Scuderi is the man who
bankrolled the first five Friday the 13th movies, and many people
have stated that he wielded considerable creative control over the series, but
will you find his name in the credits?
No. Good luck finding an
interview with him. Good luck even
finding a picture of him. Phil Scuderi
is a truly elusive figure. He doesn’t
even have an IMDB page. Everyone has an
IMDB page. Hell, I have an IMDB
page. I did some good old fashioned
detective work, however, and I’ve uncovered three key pieces of evidence that
will prove that Phil Scuderi is the Bava Bandit. Yeah, I know.
Catchy isn’t it?
Just a note before I nail
Phil’s ass to the wall; he is now deceased.
While I’m not usually one to speak ill of the dead, this mystery has
remained unexplained for far too long.
Then again, Hitler, Ghengis Kahn, Al Capone, and Captain Kangaroo are
all dead, and their evil is still talked about.
I submit People’s Exhibit
A: Phil Scuderi is the only person involved in the production of Friday the 13th
Part 2 that has a provable connection to Twitch of the Death Nerve. Let me tell you a little bit about Scuderi’s
background. Remember that story Sean
Cunningham tells all the time about almost not taking the money to make the
first movie because the producers, a group called Georgetown Productions (owned
by Stephen Minasian, Philip Scuderi and Robert Barsamian) wanted creative control? Well, Scuderi was the man behind that. This was not the first time Cunningham had
encountered Scuderi either. Scuderi’s
previous company, Hallmark Releasing, had put up the money to make Cunningham’s
first film, Last House on the Left.
Remember that, it will be important in a minute. Anyway, Hallmark Releasing, a distribution
company run by Scuderi, was a subsidiary of Esquire Theaters of America, which
was also partially owned by Scuderi.
When Esquire decided to form Hallmark, one of the first movies they
acquired American distribution and exhibition rights to was, you guessed it,
Mario Bava’s Bay of Blood, which they re-titled Twitch of the Death Nerve. A few years later they even re-released it
under the title of, get ready for this one…Last House on the Left 2. No, I’m not joking. The films have no relation whatsoever. So in addition to proving his connection and
experience with both of the movies in question, that last juicy little tidbit
shows him to be a huckster who was not opposed to using unscrupulous means to
promote a film.
Would he steal from Mario
Bava, however? Well, according to
People’s Exhibit B, he already had a history of doing so. In the 70’s and early 80’s, the director of a
film did not cut the trailer, the distribution company was responsible for
that. Scuderi was the head of the
distribution company for Friday the 13th, so the trailer was in his hands. First, I’d like you all to watch the trailer
from Bava’s 1964 film Blood and Black Lace…
Now, watch the trailer for
Friday the 13th…
Do you see what I
see? Yep, a complete emulation of the
trailer for a Bava film. That doesn’t
necessarily mean he was responsible for the TOTDN/F13 Part 2 plagiarism
however. To incontestably link him to
that particular crime, we would need something more substantial. Something concrete. Something like eyewitness testimony. Hey, that’s a great idea. Meet People’s Exhibit C.
Your honor, the
prosecution would like to call to the stand a long time associate of Scuderi,
and the screenwriter of Friday the 13th Part 2, Ron Kurz. Mr. Kurz, I remind you that when you took the
stand, you swore on The Necronomicon to tell the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth, so help you Cthulu.
SOC - Could you please
tell the court your impressions of Mr. Scuderi and if you think he would steal
from a movie?
Kurz – “I had known
of Phil Scuderi and Esquire since my days in the early 1970s as a theater
manager in Baltimore. I became aware of
Phil because of some of his distribution tricks. He was like William Castle- taking out
insurance policies against dying of fright or having kids handing out logo
imprinted toilet paper on downtown street corners. Phil, who has since died, was quite a force
in the schlock movie business. Just picture
a cross between Roger Corman and Michael Corleone; a trained lawyer, crude and
suave at the same time, and full of street smarts. And when he got into a movie production, he
could rip off the latest box office hit and have something on screen in a matter
of months. I should know, I wrote a few
of them.”(Crystal Lake Memories page 14)
SOC – So he had a history
of idea theft huh? I am going to ask you
directly sir, whose idea was it to remake scenes from Twitch of the Death Nerve
and use them in Friday the 13th Part 2 without giving Mario Bava
credit?
Kurz - “Credit where credit is due- Part 2 was a true
collaboration between Phil Scuderi and myself.
We worked extremely close together on it, meeting at his office or at
lunch or dinner three or four times a week.
Phil was a creative force in his own right, often coming up with wild
scenes, usually acted out in fancy Boston restaurants to the mortification of
his secretary-cum-mistress, who would usually accompany us. All the dialog, the character development,
the pacing and shaping that any screenplay requires is mine, but Phil would
come up with the most outrageous sequences, and from where they came I haven’t
a clue. A film has been mentioned as an
inspiration to Part 2 called Twitch of the Death Nerve. I’d never seen it nor heard of it. Perhaps Phil Had. He was not above lifting anything from
anywhere. In Part 2, the scene of Ginny
urinating under the bed is his, as is the “sheshkebob” scene where Sandra and
Jeff get speared to the bed, as well as the Mark character being disabled and
in a wheelchair and meeting his end tumbling down the stairs.” (Crystal Lake
Memories page 60)
So there we have it
folks. I have shown Phil Scuderi to be a
“Silver Screen Swindler” who had no problem stealing from other movies. I have proven that there is a direct
connection between Scuderi and the two flicks in question. From the trailers for Blood and Black Lace
and the first Friday the 13th, we have seen that he has a history of
aping Bava’s style. We even have first
hand testimony from one of his colleagues establishing him as an idea thief and
stating clearly that the scenes he is accused of stealing were indeed his
idea. All of this evidence paints a
picture of Phil Scuderi as the mastermind behind one of the biggest cinematic
capers in horror history. Find this man
guilty of purloining gore sequences, which may I remind you is a crime
punishable by death…wait a minute…dammit.
Fine, just find him guilty anyway.
Do it to clear the names of the others involved in the Friday the 13th
franchise. Do it for Jason Voorhees, so
he finally knows why he does at least a couple of the things he does. Most importantly, do it to bring Mario Bava,
a true master of the art of filmmaking, justice after all of these years. The prosecution rests your honor, and the
defense can shut the hell up.
So, ladies and gentlemen
of the jury, have you reached a verdict?
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