Sean S. Cunningham Movies

In this look back at one of the most resilient slashers in horror film history, host Tom Savini reflects on thirty years of bloody carnage and gory mayhem as waged by Jason Vorhees, the hockey-masked mama's boy who always gets his victim, no matter how fast they run. Filled with classic clips from every Friday the 13th film, featuring rare behind-the-scenes footage, and offering interviews with over eighty filmmakers, fans, stuntmen, special effects artists, actors, and journalists, this documentary offers the definitive look at the legacy of a killer who never needs to utter a word, because his trusty machete does all the talking. Featured interviewees include, Kane Hodder, Harry Manfredini, Sean Cunningham, Betsy Palmer, Felissa Rose, Lar Park-Lincoln, Greg Nicotero, Adrienne King, Seth Green, and Fangoria editor-in-chief Tony Timpone. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Rumored and anticipated for years, the two biggest icons of the slasher genre finally meet in Freddy Vs. Jason, the eighth entry in the Nightmare on Elm Street saga and the 11th film in the Friday the 13th series, though with Jason X taking place in the future, it should be noted that the events of this film take place after the ninth film Jason Goes to Hell. And it is hell where Freddy Kreuger (Robert Englund) and Jason Voorhees (Ken Kirzinger, donning the hockey mask for the first time in a controversial snub against series veteran Kane Hodder) finally become acquainted. Banished there for eternity, Freddy devises a plan to manipulate Jason into continuing his work, hacking up the teenagers of Elm Street. All goes well at first until Jason realizes he's been duped by "the dream master" and is none too pleased. Coaxed by surviving teenagers Will (Jason Ritter), Lori (Monica Keena), and Kia (Destiny's Child's Kelly Rowland), Jason and Freddy descend upon Crystal Lake for a mano a mano battle royal. Helmed by Hong Kong director Ronny Yu (Bride of Chucky, The Bride With the White Hair), Freddy Vs. Jason features the director of the first Friday film, Sean S. Cunningham serving as producer. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Popular bogeymen Jason Voorhees terrorizes a group of nubile astronauts five centuries into the future in this sci-fi update of the Friday the 13th franchise. Early in the 21st century, Jason (actor/stunt man Kane Hoddar, filling the role for a fourth time) is experimented upon by army technocrats who hope to turn his supernatural invulnerability into a military application. Most of them meet a swift and bloody end -- except Rowan (Lexa Doig), a beautiful functionary, who traps the killer in a cryogenic stasis chamber. Unfortunately, she takes a machete blow in the process, gets frozen herself, and wakes up on a spaceship in the year 2455. The earth has long since been rendered uninhabitable, but the survivors include a group of archaeological students headed by Professor Lowe (Jonathan Potts), who hopes to make a quick buck by selling the corpse of the historical serial killer. The kids re-animate Rowan with the help of nanotechnology. Little do they know that a mere thaw job is enough to resuscitate Jason and reawaken his bloodthirst. Soon, the comely students and their space-marine protectors are being dispatched one by one. Help arrives in the form of a holographic chamber and an android named Kay-Em 14 (Lisa Ryder). Soon, though, Jason himself gets an upgrade -- just as the spaceship is getting ready to self-destruct. The tenth installment in the long-running horror series, Jason X was the first new entry to appear in almost a decade. In fact, the previous film, 1993's Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, was one of two installments whose titles erroneously contained the word "final." ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

Chapter nine in the Friday the 13th series finds supernatural psycho Jason Voorhees returning from the dead to possess the body of a medical coroner. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Friday the 13th director Sean S. Cunningham helmed this sea-monster opus about a team of engineers on an undersea missile platform who disturb the slumber of a huge, killer crustacean, which soon develops a taste for human-flavored snacks. The rubbery-looking beastie is quite a laugh, but there are some genuine freak-outs as it chomps away at the crew -- that is, while they're not reducing their own numbers through sheer incompetence. In the end, it's B.J. & the Bear's Greg Evigan (alas, minus chimp) who saves the day. One of a dozen-or-so subaqueous Alien clones (half of which were produced by Roger Corman) designed to trade on the building hype of James Cameron's long-awaited The Abyss, this soggy little picture managed to reach theaters first. Not that it's the least impressive of the lot -- actually, it succeeds on its own terms as a thoroughly intense and fast-paced "B"-monster flick, aided by good performances (Evigan is a likable, sensitive hero, and Miguel Ferrer quaffs the scenery as a high-strung jerk). At least it's better than Leviathan, which tells essentially the same story but wastes considerably more money. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

This mundane sequel to New World Pictures' surprise horror hit bears little connection with its predecessor apart from the participation of writer Ethan Wiley, who also assumed directorial duties. This time around, the title abode is an old mansion inherited by the great-great-grandson of its original owner, a legendary frontier outlaw. The new owner, Jesse (Arye Gross), whose parents were murdered in the mansion 20 years ago, unwisely searches the premises for a cache of gems believed to be hidden there. With the aid of girlfriend Kate (Lar Park Lincoln) and buddy Charlie (Jonathan Stark), Jesse stumbles upon the original owner himself (Royal Dano), who is remarkably still alive (albeit in particularly decrepit condition) and cantankerous as all get-out. Great-great-grandpa has been preserved by the supernatural powers of an Aztec crystal skull, which is also capable of reanimating the dead and opening portals into other dimensions. Its true powers are tested readily when the skull falls into the wrong hands, leading our heroes on a wacky supernatural chase. The horror-comedy formula that kept the original film's shaky premise afloat is far less functional here, filling the story with silly contrivances that include a collection of pet monsters and a time-travel romantic subplot. Still, the film has some clever moments, mainly from Dano, who makes the most of his difficult character by adding a cartoonish flair, and from Cheers alum John Ratzenberger's amusing cameo turn as a plumber strangely accustomed to cross-dimensional travel. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Abby (Lori Loughlin) and her brother, Loren (Shannon Presby), seem to have it all: good looks, lots of friends, and a great relationship with their loving mom and their heroic, discipline-minded military dad. When their folks are killed in a car crash, however, the siblings must move to small-town Florida to live with their sweet but cash-impaired Uncle Charlie (Ed Jones) and Aunt Fay (Lucy Martin), who own a gas station and a struggling, bargain-bin amusement park. For Abby and Loren, life in the Sunshine State proves to be a mixture of hard work, new faces, and harassment at the hands of drug-dealing, skirt-chasing local scion Dutra (James Spader) and his gang of trailer-park psychopaths. Dutra places a bet with the wiry, reptilian Gideon (John Philbin) about which of the young villains will be able to bed Abby first, leading to a series of increasingly vile sexual come-ons. Abby, however, has other romantic ideas involving a kindly boy named Mark (Eric Stoltz). Between bouts of defending his sister's honor, Loren finds a similarly wholesome romance with pretty, blond Karen (Paige Lyn Price). With the help of these new friends, Loren and Abby make some headway in the local social hierarchy, but their skirmishes with Dutra and his minions escalate, climaxing with attempted rape, kidnapping, and bumper-car violence on the night of a high-school dance. Director Sean S. Cunningham also directed the original Friday the 13th. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

In this suspenseful made-for-television thriller a homicidal maniac kidnaps a young girl and a female television reporter and holds them hostage in the bowels of Grand Central Station. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this horror movie, a sudden nuclear war interrupts a wild orgy in a ramshackle house. The participants are spared the fate of those outside who are all blinded. Afterwards the newly blind begin attacking the house causing the man inside to fight them off with a high-powered rifle to protect the luscious young women inside. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Wes Craven's first film was a crude but shocking horror opus that, like George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968), became a grind house hit largely because it went much further than terror films before it had been willing to go. Often compared to Ingmar Bergman's stark medieval rape drama The Virgin Spring (1960) (though one wonders whether this was influence or just coincidence), Last House on the Left follows a group of teenage girls heading into the city when they hook up with a gang of drug-addled ne'er-do-wells and are brutally murdered. The killers find their way to the home of one of their victim's parents, where both father and mother exact a horrible revenge. Like Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre two years later, Last House on the Left was an unrelievedly dark vision of contemporary horror that inspired many future films which copied its effects without achieving its visceral impact. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide