Loja do Terror

F13th: The Series was fresh--with a fresh cast and guest stars every week. The storyline where John D. LeMay left the series has me shaking my head in disbelief to this very day. I think I speak for lots of faithful fans, we were made to feel total disbelief when Ryan regressed to a 10 year old boy. The ending to LeMays' storyline did everything but tie things in a neat package. If anything, it turned lots of fans away. Steve Monarque didn't have a chance. And we can thank the execs of Friday the 13th: The Series for that.

Having said all that, I'd still watch the series from beginning to end. When it was good--it was VERY good!! Need I say more?

A late 80s horror anthology that delivered what it's fans wanted, but was canceled too soon. Great characters, interesting stories, and good scares, this show is missed by fans, who still hold out hope for a DVD release or maybe even a reunion movie.

Friday the 13th: The Series was a TV show that seemed to come into existence at just the right time. Syndicated, airing late at night, on Fridays or Saturdays when teens could stay up; all the right elements for a horror anthology to succeed, and it did. For a time.

While never achieving critical or popular admiration, it did develop a cult following of loyal viewers. The show did attract ratings, and was second in syndicated ratings at one point only to Star Trek: The Next Generation. However, it wasn't able to survive when it's parent company buckled to religious groups and their threats of boycotts. It was canceled at the end of it's 3rd season.

The show never enjoyed a great budget, and this is most noticeable in sometimes sub-par effects. But the actors, writers, producers, and all involved did the best they could with the materials and money at their disposal.

The episodes mainly dealt with the stars attempting to retrieve one of the cursed antiques sold by Lewis Vendredi as part of his pact with the devil. The objects were varied and the curses on them sometimes quite ingenious. The gore was kept to a minimum; this was still television, after all.

While the heroes usually did retrieve the item they went after, the endings weren't always tied up "Brady Bunch-style". Many times, the characters were left feeling as though they had failed, having retrieved the cursed items or not.

Character development did happen, as well. Micki, played by the singer Robey, started out as the spoiled, rich, reluctant participant. By the end of the series, she had developed a caring relationship with the others, and had begun to embrace the path her life had taken, albeit unwillingly.

Ryan Dallion, as played by John D. LeMay, started out as the one eager to believe and be a part of this weird business. He soon learned there wasn't much to laugh about, and became a much more somber figure. The way his character was written out of the series at the beginning of season 3 may have been a let down for some fans, but it gave Ryan a chance to start over, carefree again.

Chris Wiggins played Jack Marshak as the strange, mystical father-figure, and stayed pretty much on course. This character being a "world traveler" in the pilot, he did settle down, staying the full three years at Curious Goods.

Johnny Ventura, played by Steven Monarque, didn't have much time to develop, but did go from being a brash, hot-head to a trusted member after Ryan's exit.

All-in-all, the show was a great, late-night horror drama and gave it's target audience just what it was looking for. Some good scares, which may seem tame now, were just right for late 80s fans, especially watching at midnight or later on the weekends.

Sci-Fi Channel certainly has it's share of near-Z grade movies, it would be nice if they could put some money towards a movie of Friday the 13th: The Series. Not only would it be a dream-come-true for the fans, who would like a proper end to the show and it's story, it would be a good way to promote a DVD release of the show's 3 seasons, something fans still hold out hope for. Win/win all around, no?

This was one of my favorite shows of the late '80s. It featured a group of pawn shop owners trying to track down antiques that had been sold from their store. The trick was, these antiques had been cursed, and they wound up in the hands of people who more often than not were less than willing to let them go.

Part of the cursed antiques was, for the most part, they gave something in return when death or something horrible had happened. For example, a bunch of tattoo needles could be used to draw a tattoo on someone, and the tattoo would come to life and kill the person it was drawn on, upon which the owner of the needles would be given great fortune/luck. They wound up in the hands of a compulsive gambler who was in tremendous debt. Or a scalpel(which had once belonged to Jack the Ripper) needed to be recharged by killing someone, upon which it could work wonders during medical operations.

I was hooked (and partly obsessed) with this show when it was on, but have been unable to locate it on reruns. If anyone can, please drop me an email!

I look back with fondness at the characters too, with Ryan, the gorgeous Micki, and wise Jack.

When I first heard the name of this series back in 1987 I refused to see it. I assumed it was just about Jason killing different people every week--but with no gore (since this WAS TV). What was the point? But I tuned in one night out of curiosity and was surprised how different it was from the movies--and how much I liked it! It was about some antique owners who have to track down antiques each week that had been sold from their store. It seems their uncle (the previous owner) had made a pact with the Devil and the antiques were cursed. Sounds silly but it really worked. There were some doses of pretty funny humor but this show concentrated on the horror. Also it was pretty gory for a TV show at that time--my station didn't show it till 11:30 at night! The acting was good...but it all started to fall apart after season 2. The main actor left and was replaced by someone who just wasn't as good--the third season was a major disappointment. I think that's what killed the show. Still it was a fun, sometimes scary and a little gory TV show. Recommended.

In 2021, there are literally several new horror based shows being made as if there was a sweatshop out there somewhere. Sometimes they find their audience and become a hit (The Walking Dead), but often they kind of fizzle out.

Well, back in the 1980's you either had to rent a horror movie, search tv listings for some older horror show that was long off the air (The Night Stalker or Dark Shadows, and they were very hard to find), or anthology shows (Freddie's Nightmares, Tales From the Darkside) that often shifted around, resulting in never finding much of an audience. There wasn't much in the way of a weekly horror based series that followed a story line from week to week. Enter Friday the 13th: The Series.

Friday the 13th the Series is well worth investing your time in. It was what horror fans were looking for at the time. I watched it on Friday nights during prime time. It was almost like a soap opera, following the adventures of a trio of antique store owners and their quest to obtain cursed objects.

However, you do need to be warned about something.

If you watch it right from the beginning, it's obvious the low budget works against it. Some of the acting is quite atrocious, for example. Stick with it and by mid season 1 it improves noticeably, although Chris Wiggins is solid throughout. John D. Lemay makes his mark right from the start, but he stumbles a few times in the first season. Louise Robey is laughable at first, but improves immensely as time goes on. Steven Monarque? Well, fans never warmed up to him. I thought he was all right considering the shoes he had to fill. He certainly stumbled, but he did the best he could with what he had to work with.

Most of the bad performances, come from the villains but you do get some standouts (Colin Fox and Denis Forest, for example, and they each played a different villain three times). But interestingly enough, the campy and overacting villains often add to the enjoyment of the series. Check out the episode Scarecrow in the first season for a terrific example of this. The performer playing the villain is so hammy it's actually a decent performance, if you can believe that.

The special effects are spotty, but enjoyable considering the low budget they had to work with. And for the time it came out, it was very controversial with the level of violence (and to a lesser extent, sexuality) it often presented.

In all, Friday the 13th the Series was a valiant attempt at bringing horror to the masses. Did it miss the mark? Yes and no. It never rose above cult status, but I think everyone involved have something to be proud of with this show.