Friday the 13th YA Series, by Eric Morse

About five years ago, a company called Black Flame put out a series of Friday the 13^th-inspired novels, featuring Jason Voorhees in all his post-Jason X, but pre-remake, glory. Being a massive Friday the 13^th fan, I was curious to check these books out—but after reading their basic plot summaries, I lost interest. The stories sounded ridiculous and barely resembled the Friday the 13^th I’d grown up with, that was such an important part of my childhood (if you think it's ridiculous that Friday the 13th would be an important part of anyone's childhood, then welcome to the low-brow portion of our website). These stories seemed to have more in common with the later films in the series, the ones that strayed from the basic slasher formula in hopes of creating something different.

For the record, normally trying to do something different is admirable, preferable to just spitting out the same thing over and over. But not with slashers and not with Friday the 13^th. Innovation isn’t necessary with this franchise; and not only isn’t it necessary, it’s traditionally looked down upon by the most hardcore fans of the series.

So I didn’t order the Black Flame books. Maybe if they were 200 pages, I would have, but at 400-plus . . . I mean, it’s Friday the 13^th, OK, what the hell were they gonna do for 400 goddamn pages? A few months ago, I decided that I might like to check out the novels after all. I read a lot, and I’ll happily admit my tastes include classics, serious literature, and also some pretty silly stuff. Unfortunately, by the time I’d decided I’d be willing to part with a few bucks for these Black Flame novels, they’d gone out of print and were no longer available for a few bucks.

Looking for the Black Flame books inspired me to re-read the Young Adult horror series written by Eric Morse in 1994. After New Line acquired the rights to the Friday films and put out Jason Goes To Hell, they commissioned a line of books to cash in on the series' name and on the popular YA horror market. This was the time of R. L. Stine and Christopher Pike, before the arguably more talented J. K. Rowling and Stephenie Meyer. Now, I mention those two names while fully aware that neither of those authors write horror. There doesn't seem to currently be as much interest in straight up scary stories in today's YA market; it's more fantasy, dark as that fantasy might be. But in the early 90's, the money makers were horror titles.

Eric Morse (real name William Pattison) wrote four books, all under 200 pages, in the "Camp Crystal Lake Series." He had plans for more, but the series was canceled after the fourth, Road Trip, was released (and very recently, on his website, the author posted the final chapter, going a chapter at a time, for a period of months, of his "fifth Crystal Lake book"). It's hard to imagine why Berkley and New Line would come up with the idea of a book series cash-in on a popular film franchise, only to short that series on advertising, to the point that even today, many fans who've seen every Friday the 13th film aren't aware of the Camp Crystal Lake books.

It seems New Line's only stipulation on granting the rights for print was that the novels couldn't actually feature the Jason Voorhees character. Bummer, right? I mean, it didn't work in Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning [1985]. But recall, that movie was a piece of shit in general, and the reason for its failure wasn't simply the guy-disguised-as-Jason "surprise". The concept Morse came up with, having a different character stumble across the famous Jason Voorhees hockey mask in each story, becoming possessed by his spirit, and carrying out murderous acts on local townsfolk and traveling teenagers, works surprisingly better than you might think.

I got a kick out of these books when they came out. I was in junior high, and a fan of all kinds of horror fiction, including the YA stuff, and nearly jumped out of my pants when I came across these books. I read them with great joy, realizing they were what they were, not exactly Shirley Jackson or Stephen King, but exactly what I wanted--the printed equivalent of the gory, crazy, and often silly horror franchise that I loved so much.

Morse got the tone of the films down with his novels. Despite the YA target audience, the novels are full of ridiculous amounts of violence, high body counts, and inventive death scenes. And they respect the source material. Nothing in the books contradicts anything in the films (which contradicted each other constantly). Morse even takes the time to look a little deeper into the town of Crystal Lake, something else that was rarely done in the films.

In the first book, Mother's Day, a backwoods hunter puts on the hockey mask and terrorizes some kids staying at the long closed campgrounds. The second book, Jason's Curse, involves the sister of one of the kids killed in Mother's Day, as she and her friends set out for the cursed campgrounds, seeking revenge. There's a nice continuity with this series; each book is its own story but makes references to the previous entries.

The third, The Carnival, has a traveling carnival dumb enough to set up shop on, yes that's right, the old campgrounds. I don't know if these guys never watch the news or what, but no one seems to be aware of the camp's legendary murder sprees. It's the same non-logic the movies follow, and I love it (though, thankfully, it never gets quite as silly as some of the goings-on in New Line's Jason Goes To Hell, which was released a year before these books). The fourth book, Road Trip, has a skinny dork putting on the mask and taking revenge on the van-ful of jocks he's been stranded with in the woods outside the camp.

When I read over these books recently, they took me on kind of a nostalgic trip back to my junior high days. Sometimes you pick up something you loved as a kid, to check it out again, and you're disappointed. But with the Camp Crystal Lake books, I found myself pleasantly surprised. If you're a Friday the 13th fan and are unaware of these novels, they're worth checking out, if you can get hold of some used copies. Clearly written by a fan of the series.

Eric Morse / Friday the 13th YA websites:

http://f13bloodbath.homestead.com/preview.html

http://www.outpostvevetta.com/

http://www.myspace.com/f13_bloodbath