Episode 188: Friday the 13th (Myth Movie Night)
/Don’t have sex, camp counselors. Because Jason can sniff out horniness like a bloodhound. We discuss the history of the unlucky Friday the 13th, Jason’s journey through the franchise, and how Hollywood created its own urban legends.
Content Warning: This episode contains conversations about or mentions of death, murder, stalking, hanging, electricution/struck by lightning, unwanted sexual advances, drowning, sex/sex-shaming, transport/travel accidents, burning/fire, ableism, animal death, and dismemberment/beheading.
Housekeeping
- Donation: Please join us in donating to the National Bail Funds at http://secure.actblue.com/donate/bail_funds_george_floyd
- Recommendation: This week, Amanda recommends Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert. Check out our previous book recommendations, guests’ books, and more at spiritspodcast.com/books
- Merch: Our new pins, digital coloring book, and posters are all for sale at http://spiritspodcast.com/merch!
- Multitude: Get tickets to our July 30th LIVE SHOW at http://multitude.productions/digitallive
Sponsors
- Doordash is a fast, convenient food delivery app. Get $5 off your first order of $15 or more when you download the DoorDash app and enter CREEPY at checkout.
- Calm is the #1 app to help you reduce your anxiety and stress and help you sleep better. Get 40% off a Calm Premium subscription at calm.com/spirits.
- Tula House is a Brooklyn based indoor plant and design store founded to bring us closer to nature while exploring new ways to design and experience plant life. Get 15% off your entire order by using the discount code TulaHouse at tula.house.
Find Us Online
If you like Spirits, help us grow by spreading the word! Follow us @SpiritsPodcast on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Goodreads. You can support us on Patreon (http://patreon.com/spiritspodcast) to unlock bonus Your Urban Legends episodes, director’s commentaries, custom recipe cards, and so much more. We also have lists of our book recommendations and previous guests’ books at http://spiritspodcast.com/books.
Transcription
JS: Welcome to Spirits Podcast, a boozy dive into mythology, legends, and folklore. Every week, we pour a drink and learn about a new story from around the world. I'm Julia. Amanda is on vacation. And this is Episode 188: Friday the 13th (Myth Movie Night). I'm really excited to share this episode with you. I think we have a lot of really interesting insights onto just horror as a genre and how horror has kind of influenced the way that we see urban legends to this day. But, first, we wouldn't be able to make these episodes and make these shows, and try new things without the support of our patrons, especially our newest patrons: Meika, Kneazlekins, Edriconis Lupus, Kajsa, Jesse, Lukas, Mollie, Josh Bloom, Jessica Price, Sarah Cruz, Claire G, Bonnie Marberry, Sophie Buckland, and Betsy Lang. They join the ranks of our incredible supporting producer level patrons like Megan Moon, Keegan, Landon, Mr. Folk, Jen, Hannah, Alicia, Sarah, Niki, Megan Linger, Debra, Molly, Skyla, Neal, Jessica, and Phil Fresh as well as our legend level patrons, the Medici to our Renaissance – that's a renaissance joke for you all – Chelsea, Donald, Eden, Drew, Avonlea, Clara, Frances, Josie, Morgan, Bea Me Up Scotty, Audra, Chris, Mark, Sarah, & Jack Marie. Now, Amanda normally would ask me what we were drinking for this episode. And I want to remind you to stick around as always for the refill where I recommend the perfect cocktail to have around a bonfire and, hopefully, not get murdered by a mass killer. That'd be good, right? It is Amanda's recommendation this week. And she left me with a very, very good one. It is Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert. She actually recommended Get a Life, Chloe Brown a while back. And this is the sequel. And Amanda says she loves it even more than the first. So, if you like that recommendation, you gotta pick up Take a Hint, Dani Brown. It's apparently like a friends to lovers romance that involves fake dating. So, you know it is going to be a good one. In the world of Spirits, just a reminder that you can pick up our very, very cool new merch. We have those haunted National Park posters that I'm fully in love with. It’s not every day that you get art of a skeletal cowboy. We have the digital coloring book that is absolutely gorgeous and full of creatures that you know and love from this podcast. And we have beautiful copper cocktail pins that were made in partnership with Shaker and Spoon. You don't see a lot of enamel copper pins out there. And they are absolutely gorgeous. So, you can pick those up by going to spiritspodcast.com/merch. And, finally, we are excited to tell you that Multitude is doing a live online show. It's gonna be July 30th at 8:00 PM Eastern Standard. It's featuring all of your favorite Multitude hosts in new and exciting formats or some old ones that you can see together right in front of you. You can see it live from your computer. Twenty-five percent of all of our sales will be donated to Black Lives Matter. And you can buy a ticket at multitude.production/DigitalLive. When you do, a link will be emailed to you so you can watch it live as soon as we go live. If you can't make it, that's all right. Actually, you can buy a ticket anyway, and you can watch the replay. So, even if July 30th at 8:00 PM doesn't work for your schedule, you can still see the live stream. Once again, that is at multitude.productions/DigitalLive. And, without further ado, please enjoy Episode 188: Friday the 13th (Myth Movie Night).
Intro Music
AM: Julia, would you please regale me with the classic sounds that we learned in this movie?
JS: Tse, tse, tse, tse, ah, ah, ah, ah.
AM: Ah, beautiful. So creepy. I love it.
JS: I'm glad – I'm glad you liked it. I was – I was talking to Jake after we watch this film. I'm like, “This is one of the quintessential, like, horror movie character sounds.” You know, like, you – we were talking about this earlier. You did the, the psycho sound; the eh, eh, eh, eh.
AM: Yeah, it's like a different flavor of that.
JS: Yeah, absolutely. And it's interesting, because, whenever I think of Jason because, hi, we're talking about Friday the 13th.
AM: Oh, go on.
JS: Every time I think about Jason, I think about Nightmare on Elm Street and Freddy.
AM: Yeah.
JS: And Freddy doesn't have that kind of quintessential sound, because he talks. Jason doesn't talk.
AM: Yeah. And that's something that really surprised me and felt very modern in this movie, which, A, begins set in the 50s. So much like Grease. Even though it was released in the 80s, I was like, “We're in 1950. Why, why do they have such short shorts?”
JS: Only for one scene.
AM: Only for one scene. Yeah. But the use of the camera as the assailant was fascinating. We're going to talk about it. But, in, in lots of instances, you know, you don't know who the killer is until later. So, the characters will make eye contact with the camera, which keeps the killer masks and keeps them unknown to the viewer. But it does allow us to see their actions that isn't just like cutting around, you know, as if there's just like a spectre in the forest. So, that felt super modern to me. And it really kind of heightened my enjoyment of both the gory part, which I often kind of just like squint my eyes through, you know, and like don't really look at. But, instead – I don't know – there's just like there were choices in how it was filmed and made. That really kept me – kept me invested even when it was like, slightly gory.
JS: Yeah. So, we did watch the 1980 Friday the 13th that was directed and produced by Sean S. Cunningham. And it was written by Victor Miller. Amanda, I believe it is your turn to do the summary.
AM: It sure is. I wrote it. I'm ready. I wanted to make sure I didn't miss a beat.
JS: I'm going to set the timer.
AM: Okay.
JS: And, remember, you have two minutes. So, if anyone doesn't want to get spoiled for basically any of the Friday the 13th but, specifically, this one, skip ahead two minutes. Ready?
AM: Skip ahead, yeah, two minutes and 30 seconds or so so, Julia, can give me her reaction at the end as well.
JS: Okay. Great. Hit it.
AM: Alright. So, Julia, 1958, we're at Camp Crystal Lake. It is creepy and cheerful and a lot of Christians singing. Two counselors sneak off to have sex in a hayloft. And I immediately yell, “You're going to get murdered!” And, obviously, they get murdered. Like I mentioned with the camera, it's the murderer as the sort of first-person POV. It's really neat. Back in the present, there's a sweet hitchhiker who gets a ride to this camp. And I don't know why the fuck she's going to this camp. And, B, I screamed that she shouldn't ride with the stranger. There's a creepy man that's like there's a death curse --
JS: There’s always those.
AM: -- which is not very inventive or specific. And the trucker definitely, like, touches her butt as he helps her in his truck.
JS: Yeah, he does.
AM: So, I'm very scared about that. But, against all odds, the trucker doesn't harm her. And, instead, warns her that a young boy drowned in the lake back in ‘57. So, she then takes another ride from a first-person dude. Obvs, it’s the killer. Obvs, he murders her in the 70s, where we are now where the person got murdered in the woods at a camp, which he was trying to go to. Six idealistic teens are refurbing the camp. They are doing all their construction work. They are wearing cut-offs and swimming in jeans. It's very weird. Two of them go off to have sex. They're obviously not just murdered, but they also boned under a body. So, many other people also get killed, including this guy, Steve. And, ultimately, there are two remaining, Alice and Bill. They find an axe. The phone lines get cut. The cars are all broken. The power goes out. All the things that you want to see in a horror movie. Bill is immediately killed as soon as they separate. And then a car pulls up, and Alice runs out to meet the middle-aged woman, Mrs. Voorhees, who claims to be an old friend of Steve, one of the killed teens and his family. She says that her son, Jason, was the one who drowned. And he drowned because the counselors were supposed to be watching him, but instead they boned. And, so, she has been killing all these people. She tried to kill Alice, but Alice kills her. And then Alice wakes up in a canoe in the middle of the lake, because she was just, like, passed out and was, was tired. She wakes. Sees cops on the shore. Thinks she is saved, but then Jason's big like burned and rotting corpse attacks her from the water. She wakes up in the hospital and is like, “Oh, is everybody dead?” They're like, “Yeah, I'm sorry.” She's like, “How about the boy?” And they're like, “What?” And then she's like, “He's still there.” And then the movie ends with the placid shot of a lake.
JS: Excellent. Oh, good summary. And I will say Steve is the guy who is like trying to reopen the camp. He's the like --
AM: Oh, he’s the main one.
JS: -- shirtless blonde guy.
AM: Yeah. Yeah. He definitely looks like an old photo of someone's dad. And, as – at our kind of first shot of that camp, he is like digging a trench and is like, “Help me out, guys.” And then they all, like, pull a stump out of the ground, which I was just like, “Oh, man, these idealistic kids.” This is like the commune era, you know? And everyone's just, like, trying to live in nature, man.
JS: Also, one of the teens is a young Kevin Bacon.
AM: Yes, young Kevin Bacon. I actually didn't recognize him until about halfway through the movie. I feel kind of dumb.
JS: He's, like, the second or third person to die. So, it's like you're like, “Oh, Kevin Bacon.”
AM: Oh, poor babe.
JS: Poor babe. But, yeah, that was – that was a great summary, Amanda. I, I think you, you nailed it on the head there. I, I like that you called the killer, he, for most of your summary. Then you're like, “But it was a woman the whole time.” Excellent.
AM: Yeah, because we're definitely meant to fall into that sort of ax murderer stereotype. Just it's all men who kind of perpetuate the lore. So, I think that's the assumption that we're meant to go with.
JS: Yeah, absolutely. And you, you brought up a good point too about the movie that they do a lot of the killings via the perspective of the killer. And it kind of created, during that time period, a new genre of horror slasher films, which they called the stalker film --
AM: Oooh.
JS: -- where you have the, the killings be told or just like the stalking angle of the first person of the – of the killer, which I think is really, really cool.
AM: It definitely heightens the suspense, you know, to be in the perspective of the hunter and when your heart is rooting for the prey, you know.
JS: Yeah, absolutely. So, Amanda, I chose Friday the 13th for two reasons. Basically, one, I-I think that this movie, as a whole, really encapsulates the idea of how modern urban legends are formed and can grow into things bigger than themselves. And then, two, I just kind of really want to talk about the superstition of Friday the 13th as the unlucky kind of day. So, let's actually start with that latter one. We'll start with the actual day itself before we dive into the lore of Jason and Friday the 13th of the film franchise.
AM: Yeah, because the, the date of the 13th was Jason's birthday, whatever month that was.
JS: Yeah.
AM: But we don't – we don't get anything on the Friday the 13th as a construct apart from our – everyone's association that it's unlucky.
JS: Exactly. So, first fun fact, every year has a Friday the 13th. And then some years have up to three Friday the 13ths, which is just like, “Oooh.”
AM: This calendar is terrible! This calendar is terrible! Why do we do it?
JS: That's also why you can tell the 2020 Is a bad year, because we have two Friday the 13ths this year.
AM: I mean it's bad for so many reasons.
JS: Yes.
AM: I – again, as I've said on several Multitude shows, I’m reading a book about Cleopatra. And, in Alexandria, they really figured it out. They had 10 months of 30 days, maybe 11. And then they had just like two weeks at the end of the year, where everyone just, like, fuck off and have a vacation, and that sounds perfect.
JS: Honestly, the dream.
AM: Yeah.
JS: So, Another fun fact, Amanda, you can always tell when a Friday the 13th is going to happen, because they occur in months that begin on a Sunday.
AM: That makes sense.
JS: So, if a month begins on a Sunday, there's going to be a Friday the 13th.
AM: That's also bad for me, because I get like dozens of automated emails on the first of every month with just like various bills and payments and things. And, when it happens over a weekend, I wake up and I'm just like, “Hah, I have, like, 40 unread emails.”
JS: Wow. So, first, I want to establish that this is a Western superstition as a whole. So, one historian, Donald Dossey, ties the beginning of the unlucky number of 13 to Norse Mythology. I think we've talked about this story before. But there's 12 gods feasting at Valhalla, but they don't invite Loki. Loki shows up as the 13th guest. And, while the gods are enjoying the revelry of throwing things at the god, Baldr, whose mother had gone and made every creature in the world promise to do him no harm except mistletoe, which is basically considered too unimportant to get an oath from. So, because of these oaths, Baldr is invulnerable. So, the gods spent a lot of time just throwing things at him for fun, you know, because he couldn’t get hurt.
AM: Very relatable.
JS: Loki tricks the blind god, Hodor, into throwing a mistletoe spear at Baldr, which, of course, is the only thing that can kill him. And, of course, it does.
AM: Classic Loki.
JS: So, for the Norse, Loki being the 13th Guest causes the number to be considered unlucky. But it's not just that, Amanda. So, in a lot of different cultures, the number 12 is considered a very complete or powerful number. So, you think about it. We have the 12 months of the year. Most Pantheon in western mythology have 12 gods. There's the 12 tribes of Israel. There's even, like, at the Last Supper, there's the 12 apostles. And then the 13th arrival is Judas, who is the one who betrays Jesus. Like, it's a whole thing.
AM: Twelve is divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6.
JS: Yes.
AM: Pretty amazing
JS: It's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. So, this numerology, so to speak, is something that is like very pervasive in Western culture that 12 is very strong and important, but 13 is bad.
AM: I do just want to say that the Norse story and the Last Supper are both, like, the opposite of Passover, where the last guest who takes that last place to the table is, instead of Elijah, the, the wonderful penis sheriff who's just there to ask if everybody is circumcised, have some wine and then leave. Instead, they're there to fuck up your feast. So, I just want to shout out to the penis sheriff.
JS: I forgot about the penis sheriff. Okay. Excellent. Thank you.
AM: Listen to our Passover episode, it's outstanding.
JS: So, in general Amanda, Friday is not the best day in a lot of Western traditions. So, early accounts say that the Crucifixion took place on a Friday. In the late 19th century, most executions in the United States were held on Fridays. Actually, the first written reference to Friday the 13th as an unlucky day seems to date back to a 1869 biography --
AM: Nice.
JS: -- of the Italian composer Gioachino Rossini, whose biographer Henry Sutherland Edwards wrote, “He was surrounded to the last by admiring friends. And, if it be true that, like so many Italians, he regarded Friday as an unlucky day and 13 as an unlucky number, it is remarkable that on Friday the 13th of November, he passed away.
AM: Dang!
JS: All those – all those Italians who hate Fridays and also 13, it’s all our fault.
AM: Julia, with your first-person Italian-American experience, can you tell me why Friday is so bad?
JS: Friday bad, because most of us are Catholics. And, therefore Jesus died then. Bad. Judas, 13th, bad.
AM: Can’t eat meat.
JS: Can’t eat meat. Yeah, it's all out of respect for Jesus. Our, our total dislove of Friday's.
AM: Two thousand years ago, we think maybe this – it was – it was Good Friday, which means the one where he died.
JS: There were records. We know when Jesus died. Anyway.
AM: I’m just saying. The fact that it's called Good Friday has always thrown me off.
JS: Yes, it's – yeah. Anyway, so, obviously, since we're talking about it, the superstition of Friday the 13th is still very, very real for a lot of people. Yes?
AM: I'm sorry. I have a dumb joke. Can I make it?
JS: Of course.
AM: Well, Jesus died on a Friday. And then he was like, “I'm taking back Sunday,” and then he came back.
JS: Oh, my god.
AM: Wooh! Still got it.
JS: Embarrassing. Nope. Nope.
AM: Two hundred episodes, still got it. Bang! Bang! Bang!
JS: Oh, god. Okay. So, obviously, since we're talking about it, the superstition of Friday the 13th is still very, very real for a lot of people. According to the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North Carolina, somewhere between 17 and 21 million people in the United States have a fear of The Friday the 13th. And it is estimated that each Friday the 13th sees an $800 to $900 million loss in business every year.
AM: Really?
JS: Yeah, people don't want to go out, and they don't want to spend money on Friday the 13th. They’re like, “Don't want to risk it.” Interestingly as well, a study done in the British Medical Journal in 1993 came to the conclusion that “The risk of hospital admission as a result of a transport accident may be increased by as much as 52 percent on Friday the 13th.”
AM: Really? Did they have any kind of guesses why?
JS: I don't know. I think people just are possibly, like, a little bit more on edge.
AM: Yeah.
JS: So, therefore, they might not be driving as carefully. But, at the same time, I'm going to take that with a grain of salt, because the – because the study was criticized for having too small of a sample pool. So, kawaii.
AM: Yeah. The podcast, Sawbones has taught me a lot about studies, and it is absolutely absurd the way that people just quote them as if they are true.
JS: Yeah, no, I'm telling you in advance, sample size is probably too small.
AM: Do you remember when you learned about Friday the 13th as a thing that was supposed to be unlucky? I feel like, for me, it was just like, in the classroom or at, you know, a Girl Scout meeting or something.
JS: Yeah, I think it was just like in passing. Like, I don't remember a particular moment in which someone was like, “Well, it's Friday the 13th and that's unlucky.” I think – I think I got it via context clues where it's like, “Oh, you gotta be careful, Friday the 13th.” And you're like, “What? Okay. I'll just be afraid.”
AM: I have a memory of like the number 13, a black cat, a ladder.
JS: Yeah.
AM: You know, like, various things that we think of as unlucky. Maybe someone, for some fucked up reason, taught it to us. But it, it really kind of primes my mind for the discussion, I'm sure, we're going to have about how fears are culturally created and transmitted in a lot of cases.
JS: Yeah, I think – I think it's – I always think that we have like a classroom superstition lesson or something like that. Now, that you’ve lifted up --
AM: Like, on Halloween?
JS: Maybe.
AM: Something like that.
JS: Weird. Okay. So, Amanda, it's this fear of the specific day that the filmmakers for Friday the 13th we're just trying to cash in on.
AM: Fair.
JS: So, in fact, the original title of the film was going to be A Long Night at Camp Blood, which would have been a whole day movie, I feel like.
AM: Yes, it would have been.
JS: I feel like we just wouldn't have gotten all the spin-offs. I don't – I don't see A Long Night at Camp Blood Part II happening, you know what I mean?
AM: Yeah, it's less franchisable
JS: The Longest Night at Camp Blood.
AM: Too Camp Too Blood.
JS: The Dawn of Camp Blood. Alright. Good. So, let's get into the movies. But I think, first, we'll get a palate cleanse with a refill.
AM: Let's do it.
Midroll Music
JS: We're sponsored this week by DoorDash. Now, delivery doesn't have to just be pizza delivered to your door. DoorDash is letting you select from your favorite flavors from around the globe. And you can order a world of cuisine to the comfort of your living room with DoorDash. DoorDash makes ordering super simple. All you have to do is open the DoorDash app. You choose what you want to eat. And your food will be delivered to you wherever you are. They have over 310,000 restaurant partners in over 4,000 cities. So, you might just find something new, which I love kind of browsing through the DoorDash app and picking out like, “Oh, I haven't tried that sushi place yet. Or Oh, oh, I'm really, really feeling some takeout, but there's no Thai places, like, within walking distance of me.” So, I absolutely love browsing the DoorDash app to check out what new restaurants are around me, especially since I moved. With door-to-door delivery in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, and Australia, you can order from your local go-tos or you can choose from national chains like – I don't know – Chipotle, or Chick-fil-A, or Amanda's favorite, The Cheesecake Factory. With DoorDash, you never have to worry about your next meal. It's going to be delivered right to your door. And, right now, our listeners can get $5 off their first order or $15 or more when you download the DoorDash app and enter the code, Creepy. Again, that's $5 off your first order when you download the DoorDash app in the app store and enter the code, Creepy. Don't forget. That's the code, Creepy, for $5 off your first order with DoorDash. If you're like me, you've probably been suffering from insomnia or just the inability to fall asleep. If you're like me, the minute you set your head down, your brain just goes a mile a minute. And it just wants to think about all the things you did today and all the things you have to do tomorrow. And it's just really hard to calm yourself down. That's why we're excited to partner with, of all people, Calm. It is a mental fitness app designed to help you relieve anxiety and improve your sleep because improving your sleep can literally change your life. Calm helps you ease stress and get the best sleep of your life. It has a whole library of programs designed for healthy sleep like soundscapes, guided meditations, which I absolutely love, and over 100 sleep stories that are narrated by soothing voices like LeVar Burton, and Nick Offerman, and Lucy Lou. And, if you go to calm.com/spirits, you'll get a limited offer of 40 percent off a Calm Premium subscription, which includes hundreds of hours of programming. Over 70 million people around the world use Calm to help take care of their minds and get better sleep. So, get the Calm app and experience a transformation in the way that you sleep. Again, Calm is offering a special limited-time promotion of 40 percent off Calm premium subscriptions at calm.com/spirits. Again, that's C-A-L-M.com/spirits. And that is 40 percent off unlimited access to Calm’s entire library. A new content is added every week. Get started today at calm.com/spirits. If you follow the Multitude Instagram or if you're one of our MultiCrew who has access to our Finsta, you know that we have these absolutely beautiful plants in the Multitude studio or the Multitudio. And those plants were provided by Tula House. Tula Plants and Designs is a Brooklyn-based indoor plant and design store founded to bring us closer to nature while exploring new ways to design and experience plant life. They are dedicated to sourcing the most healthy, hard to find, and extraordinary plant species while educating you, the public, on how to best care for them. Since they launched in 2016, they've cultivated relationships with growers from around the world who welcomed them into their greenhouses and share with them their robust plant knowledge. So, you're getting plant knowledge from all around the world with Tula House. You can check out their exclusive uncommon finds that drop every Tuesday, which include rare plants and one of a kind pottery. Their store includes hard-to-find tropical and arid plants, beautiful pottery, growing tools, and even plant-inspired apparel and accessories. They have some really, really cute stuff. They want to inspire you to explore new species, to take risks, and consider plants as more than just a decorative feature, but a living art piece that has a story to tell. And we really try to embrace that with our plants in the studio. Amanda does a great job taking care of them. And they're absolutely – not just talking points when people come in, but I learn a little bit about plants every time I see them. And Amanda teaches me about how you have to, like, wipe down the plant leaf in order to allow it to get more sun and photosynthesize better. I didn't know anything about that, but I learned it from Tula House. You can visit their website at tula.house and their fantastic Instagram is @TulaHouse. And you can use the promo code, Tula House, for 15 percent off your entire order when you go to tula.house. Again, that is 15 percent off your entire order using the discount, Tula House at tula.house. Design for All living things, Tula house. So, Amanda, since we put ourselves in the place of some camp counselors for, at least, the first two movies of Friday the 13th, I decided to go with a smoky cocktail called A Smoky Robinson. It is smoky Tennessee whiskey, mezcal, and a maple-spiced syrup, which is not really a summery cocktail when you think about it. But I think it's one that you might enjoy kind of wrapped up with a blanket around a bonfire. You know, snuggling with a guy who keeps playing Wonderwall in his acoustic guitar, that kind of thing.
AM: It’s evoking so many memories. Pine needles just, like, stuck to your thighs forever. Yeah. I, I really like this drink. I've been getting very into mezcal this summer. And I appreciate pairing it with my other favorite spirit, which is whiskey, and my favorite sweetener, which is maple.
JS: Yes, it's very, very good. Now, Amanda, let's move on to the movie itself. So, Friday the 13th is an interesting one as we kind of talked about before, because the imagery of the killer, Jason, who is this tall, menacing dude in a hockey mask with a machete, isn't even in the first movie like we talked about. The only part that we see him in is that one brief moment, where he is trying to pull Alice underneath the water. And he is burned for some reason.
AM: Yeah.
JS: I think they were just trying to show his body was decomposing, but it came out looking like he was a burn victim, which makes zero sense. Just bad, bad makeup.
AM: It happens. We can’t all be Creature from the Black Lagoon.
JS: But, Amanda, this is the reason why I really love the original Friday the 13th. It builds its whole foundation around a character that is supposed to be dead. And I feel like this is a great comparison to modern urban legends. Taking a small bit of probably true information and then spreading it, adding your own details, and then, constantly, iterating new versions of the tale. So, I would love it if we could take a look at the story of Jason as we saw it in the first movie. And then I can kind of lead you through the tale of Jason through the rest of the franchise and how they kind of created their own urban legend and kept iterating off of it.
AM: That would be fantastic.
JS: Right. So, the first movie really sets Jason up as the center of this morality tale. He is a disabled child who drowns because the careless counselors are too busy having sex to take care of their charges. Oh, we'll get this out of the way now. But, obviously, having a disabled child eventually turned into a deranged killer is problematic as fuck. And, unfortunately, it's a trope that a lot of horror movies still utilize. I’m looking at you, Ari Aster in particular. Stop that. Don't do it. I like your movies.
AM: Don’t do it, bud.
JS: But stop using disabled people for shock value. It's not cool. We know that Jason's birthday is the 13th because Pamela Voorhees has that very creepy line where it's like, “You see, he was my son. His name was Jason, and today it's his birthday.”
AM: Yeah.
JS: Like, “Oh, you're so creepy. And your teeth are so weird.”
AM: They aren't really weird. I appreciate how she’s shot there, because she never looks particularly menacing. Like, she definitely is meant to look like a mom the whole time. And that sort of – I don't know – plays with our expectations and, and makes it even creepier.
JS: And she's got a great sweater on. That sweater is so good.
AM: It is very good. It’s very good.
JS: It’s like, white. And it’s not cable knit, but it's like big wool. I love it.
AM: Yeah, but it's also in the middle of summer. In terms of the light, because I feel like it's dark for so many hours. I feel like it would have been very exciting for Alice to be like, “Actually, it's Saturday the 14th,” and then decapitate her.
JS: Like the pedantic child at a – at a sleepover?
AM: Yep.
JS: That was a fun movie last night. You mean yesterday?
AM: I'll see you tomorrow. It is tomorrow. I'll see you next year, Julia.
JS: So, we know Pamela's out here in the first film taking revenge on the horny teen counselors believing that this is what Jason would want, because we know she uses that kind of creepy child voice as she, like, eggs herself on to kill the counselors, which is extremely creepy. I hate it.
AM: Very bad.
JS: Throughout the movie, she kills people with Bowie knives and arrows, which are, like, such camping weapons, which I appreciate as well.
AM: Yeah.
JS: It's like she legit just, like, has a Bowie knife under her sweater in like a satchel. And I'm like, “Oh, excellent.” I love it.
AM: Yeah.
JS: And it isn't even until the final fight on the beach that she and Alice use the familiar machete that Jason ends up using in the later films. Also, did you notice, like, the parallels between the ways that the teens killed the snake earlier on in the film and then the way that Alice decapitates Pamela? It’s like this beautiful grizzly foreshadowing, and I love it so much.
AM: Very good. I didn't notice it the first time around, but I appreciate it now.
JS: Yes. So, the only real moment, like I said before, is when we see Jason, who – he's like decomposing and gross looking. And he tries to drag Alice into the lake, which originally wasn't even going to happen in the film, Amanda.
AM: Really?
JS: Originally, it was just going to end with Alice floating on the lake waiting to be rescued, but the filmmakers had just seen Carrie. And they're like, “No, no, no. We need one more scare, where like the thing comes back one last time to scare the audience.”
AM: I mean it was very effective. It was very scary.
JS: Yeah. And, if they hadn't made that decision, we probably wouldn't have had the setup for the rest of the legacy of Jason. So, like that choice to include the one last scare and have Jason pop out of the lake is the reason we have a franchise.
AM: I thought you were going to say that they, you know, we're getting interested in doing more movies and realized they needed some kind of breadcrumb, but that definitely, like, made that reality happen.
JS: Yeah, absolutely. So, this is a great time for us to get into Part II, which actually came out just like a year later. And the whole premise is that surprising everyone, Jason actually survived his drowning and has been living in the woods near the camp the whole time.
AM: Sure. Sure. Sure.
JS: The inciting incident here is that he has discovered his mother's body. And he goes on a murder rampage. At the beginning of the film, he has tracked down Alice from the first movie. And then he kills her with an ice pick. And, now, Jason finally has his first onscreen kill, which is very exciting for him. Congratulations, Jason.
AM: I, I more want to know why he didn't ever say hi to his mom, who was killing people in that area for 20 years.
JS: Yeah. Yeah, that's fair. So, Jason basically decides that he is going to continue his mother's legacy after he finds her disembodied head on the beach and is going to go ahead and kill anyone, especially horny teens, though, that show up at Crystal Lake, which, of course, is the perfect time for counselors to be training across the lake at Camp Packanack – Packanack. There's a great scene where the counselors are being told the legend of Jason, how he survived that drowning, how he lived in the woods, how he's killing intruders to avenge his mother, all the stuff that I said before, which is great because it's all portrayed as this local legend even though this is only five years later. So, this is a quick-moving urban legend in the, the span of the story. They're like, “Oh, yes. You remember all those teens. Fun times. Fun times. It definitely wasn't only five years ago.”
AM: I know. I was gonna say I really appreciate a local legend, which is like – and then, you know, the witch was buried under that tree, but this is not that long ago. And their – it actually happened. Like, people were actually killing teens in these woods; the mom was, for 20 years. It's, it's not – it's not a thing someone made up and can't prove.
JS: Yeah. And, at least – at least, when Jason was killed versus when the first movie actually happened, it's like the span of 15 years. A lot of shit can go down in 15 years.
AM: Sure.
JS: That's, at least, like three generations of high school students, you know.
AM: Yeah.
JS: Which I – which I firmly believe that high school and college students are like the oracles of urban legends. They're the reason they perpetuate.
AM: Me too.
JS: Yeah.
AM: Yeah.
JS: So, we find out, later on in Part II, that Jason has this whole shrine to his mom that is, like, in the woods there. And one of the counselors actually finds it, which includes her severed head and that great sweater from the first movie.
AM: Oh, no.
JS: And the sweater actually saves the counselor Ginny's life, because she puts the sweater on and manages to convince Jason that she's his mom long enough for her to attack him and getaway.
AM: That is bold and terrifying.
JS: Yes, the movie kind of ends leaving Jason's fate ambiguous as every good horror movie should do in this period of time. You got to leave room for the sequels, Amanda. You got to have – you know, Michael Myers, get thrown out the window. And then you look, and he's on the ground. And then you look away. And you look again, and he's gone, you know.
AM: Very effective.
JS: It’s very important. It’s very important. Which leads us into Part III. Amanda. I really like just telling you these stories, because they are – they're just – they're buckwild. Anyway.
AM: Yeah.
JS: Part III leads off with Jason making his way to a general Store. The first movie establishes that the lake is like 20 miles from town. So, he walked all the way there. A while.
AM: It’s a long walk.
JS: Yeah, it's a long walk. And, so, he manages to get himself some nice, new, less bloody clothes when, when he murders the two owners of the store. Once again, there are some teens nearby. And Jason is able to like sniff them out like a bloodhound. He just knows where the teens are. He senses the horniness, and he follows it.
AM: I just have so many questions about how he survived, why he still appeared to be like a gawky teen if he was killed when he was already adolescent.
JS: Okay. So, the gawky teen in the first movie, right, that we like kind of see for a brief second --
AM: Right.
JS: -- they, they totally revamped that. So, the, the second movie kind of establishes like, “Oh, he, he did drown, but he didn't drown. He survived the drowning. And that's why he's been living in the woods.” So, by the time we roll into Part II and Part III, Jason is like a full-blown big man. He just – he’s just a big tall dude.
AM: Yeah. I was gonna say I remembered him as kind of more of, like, a hockey player style body.
JS: Yes, because he has the hockey mask. We haven't gotten to that part yet.
AM: Sure.
JS: He has a hockey mask. Jason has sniffed out these teams like a bloodhound. Like you do.
AM: Very good.
JS: They're all staying in a vacation home on Crystal Lake. So, at least, they're not camp counselors this time. They're just horny teens.
AM: Yeah.
JS: Actually, I think they're, like --
AM: I mean --
JS: -- young college students, but still horny teens.
AM: But, at the same time, who leased the house or, or lent the house to a bunch of horny teens? Maybe not a good idea.
JS: Well, it is Chris. Lady Chris. It is her family's house that they're staying at. And she reveals to one of her friends through exposition that she's come back to Crystal Lake, because she wanted to “face her fears” because she had been stalked by a man in the woods two years earlier.
AM: Oh, no, Chris.
JS: And they used a very similar scene, where it's like you see someone watching her. And Jason kills one of the teens. He steals his hockey mask from him, which is, like, the signature look.
AM: Yeah.
JS: In the second movie, he was just wearing, like, a burlap sack over his head.
AM: Ugh.
JS: Yeah.
AM: Also, scary.
JS: Also, scary but the hockey mask is so iconic now.
AM: Is he trying to protect his identity or is he hiding some disfigurement?
JS: He's hiding disfigurement. He, he was – like we talked about, he was born disabled. He has kind of a facial disfigurement. It's done for shock value. It's not cool. We're not big fans of that. But, yeah, it's basically he spends a lot of time hiding behind that mask. So, like, the cool part about this is Jason doesn't have that signature look. And, like, you even kind of mentioned, you pictured him as like a burly hockey player. He doesn't get that until the third movie. That's wild.
AM: That’s really surprising.
JS: Yeah.
AM: Yeah.
JS: So, in the end of the third movie, Chris is able to kind of catch Jason in a trap and, like, attempts to hang him from a barn. And he manages to free himself by unmasking himself. And Chris realizes that Jason is the man that was stalking her in the woods. And she ends up killing him by hitting him in the head with an axe and escaping in a canoe. Very reminiscent to Alice's fate in the first movie.
AM: Sure.
JS: And this movie ends kind of just with Jason's body lying by the lake. But is he dead, Amanda? Is he dead?
AM: I mean I thought there were more movies.
JS: Side note, before we move on to the next movie, this movie was going to be very different. So, it was supposed to be about Ginny who was the camp counselor from the second movie who used the sweater technique to survive her encounter.
AM: Yeah.
JS: Ginny was supposed to learn self-defense and then head back to college. And then she tracks down and kills Jason herself. But the actress --
AM: Would have been cool.
JS: -- who played Ginny, Amy Steel, decided she didn't want to reprise the role. So, they had to go with this different plot with Chris who's like, you know, getting redemption for the man that terrified her, which also – I like this movie as well. Again, it establishes more about what Jason is doing when we don't see him murdering teens. It establishes his iconic look, which he doesn't stray from past this. And it really enforces the fear that you don't have to be a camp counselor in order to be a victim of Jason, which I love.
AM: Yeah. And I mean stalking, as a very real and scary issue, I feel adds another kind of layer of just seriousness.
JS: Yeah, absolutely. So, the next film is Friday the 13th, The Final Chapter. Spoilers, it is not the final chapter.
AM: Yay. It's like naming a file final final. I promise I mean it this time final. Fuck.
JS: Yes, exactly. So, Jason wakes up in the local morgue. He kills some people in the morgue. He goes back to Crystal Lake and, of course, finds more teens to kill.
AM: Oh, boy.
JS: Just like they're having a bonfire somewhere. He gets his hockey mask back. He kills more teens. I need to remind you, Amanda, that this movie probably only takes place three days after the events of the second movie. Three days.
AM: I was gonna say I really appreciate a continuity, which I have here to forethought of as pulling a John Wick, which can be many things. But having a movie that picks up immediately after the previous one ends is just a feat of filmmaking that I really appreciate.
JS: Amada, so many people have been murdered over the course of three days in these movies.
AM: One would think that some action would be taken.
JS: I'm not going to go into, like, the whole details, but all you need to know is there's this girl named Trish. She has a little brother named Tommy. Tommy manages to trick Jason into thinking that he is him by shaving his head to look like young Jason. And then they just managed to kill Jason and hack him up with his own machete.
AM: Is he really dead this time?
JS: Maybe. Maybe. So, it’s not what the --
AM: That one seems harder to survive than even an axe to the head.
JS: So, it's not the best of endings, but, this time, Jason, as you asked, is definitely dead, right? Right?
AM: Right? Maybe?
JS: Okay. So, we're gonna talk about the fifth movie now. And it's really interesting, because there's no Jason in this movie.
AM: Huh.
JS: So, it follows the story of the now, like, young adult Tommy, the guy – the small child who hacked up Jason and shaved his head to look like him.
AM: Okay. So, we, we have a five-year gap. No gap at all from three movies and then, suddenly, the kid grows up.
JS: Yes. He’s – I think it's another five-year gap. I think he goes from like 12 to 17. So, Tommy's now a young adult. He was the kid that killed Jason. Now, he has to deal with a whole other hockey mask killer who they assume is Jason, but, spoiler alert, it's not Jason. It's a paramedic who is inspired by Jason's killings after his own son was killed. So, Tommy kills this Jason wannabe, but the end of the movie kind of implies that, like, Tommy is now the killer, because he dons the hockey mask. And then he, like, attacks a woman with a kitchen knife, the whole thing.
AM: I see why you selected this franchise, because there are so many interesting elements of seeing a myth evolve as it goes on, myth influencing events that then influence the myth, et cetera.
JS: So, this movie is interesting too, because, originally, they were planning on basically, like, creating another trilogy with a different killer but using the same franchise name. But it was just so poorly received. They're like, “No, no, no. We're gonna go back to Jason. We figured it out.”
AM: How did they pull this one off?
JS: Yeah, exactly. I think you're absolutely right, because it does show how influential Jason is on his community and how pervasive his story is now that we've gone a good five years since the last murder spree. Like, Tommy we can understand. He has a connection to the story itself. Like, he literally killed Jason. But --
AM: Yeah.
JS: -- when this man who has no personal association with Jason starts attacking people and mimicking him, like, that shows the impact of the story is so pervasive on this neighborhood – this, like, sleepy New Jersey town. And hell, like, maybe even the state of New Jersey or the whole country at this point. Like, people probably know about this serial killer, who is killing all the teens at this lake.
AM: And I feel like it would definitely be a headline that, you know, urban legend made manifest or urban legend proves real.
JS: Yeah, absolutely. Like, I can imagine all of the late 80s, like, spin off, like, TV shows and stuff like that. Like, America's Most Wanted --
AM: Oh, yeah.
JS: -- or something crazy.
AM: Cold Case Files.
JS: Exactly. So, adult Tommy does return for the next film. Though, they've abandoned this idea that Tommy is going to become the new Jason. So, he is like, “I'm gonna go face my fears.” And then he and his friend go and they exhume Jason's body.
AM: Oh no.
JS: Which is just --
AM: Don’t do that.
JS: -- a bad move. In this kind --
AM: Please don’t.
JS: In this kind of, like, hilarious scene, when he – when he like take it out of context, Tommy goes to, like – Tommy just, like, kind of like sees red and starts to stab the dead body with this piece of, like, iron fence that he finds. And then, as he's doing that, lightning strikes and it revives Jason.
AM: Nooo!
JS: The funny thing about this movie too is that they make a point of saying, like, Crystal Lake has been renamed to Forest Green, because there's been a lot of bad publicity. And that's just the funniest shit I've ever heard. It’s very good.
AM: Fair enough, y'all.
JS: It's like, yeah, like, that would happen probably if like – if y'all kept calling something like Blood Lake or, like, you know --
AM: Yeah.
JS: -- the Crystal Lake killings, you would change the name of the lake. I don't know.
AM: Yeah. And a lot of towns where tragedies have happened have had to reckon with that and, like, the real economic impact it has.
JS: Yeah. So, anyway, this, this movie ends with Tommy chaining Jason to a boulder and drowning Jason. But, like, Jason is supernaturally alive at this point. So, he just can't die.
AM: Yeah. And we've learned that Jason can, apparently, drown and not die even before all of this reviving.
JS: Yeah, apparently. And, honestly, Amanda, this is the point where the series kind of goes off the rails if it hasn't already to be honest.
AM: Oh, it – oh, it's now?
JS: Yes. So, here are the highlights from the rest of the films that I just want to give you.
AM: Thank you.
JS: There's telekinetic Tina, who accidentally freeze Jason from the bottom of the lake, the ghost of Tina's father who fights Jason.
AM: Oh, no.
JS: There is Jason Takes Manhattan. There is Jason Goes to Hell. There's the FBI tracking him down and blowing him up. There's Freddy vs. Jason, which is actually my personal favorite of the entire franchise. And then, of course --
AM: I’ve heard of that one. Yes.
JS: Amanda, there's cryogenically frozen Jason in the future, which, of course, leads to Jason X, Jason in space.
AM: Oh, my. Oh, boy. Oh, wow. Who is involved? Is this like a – a like George Washington's ax type situation where the teams keep changing and only the idea of Jason remains the same? Are – is there anyone --
JS: 100 percent.
AM: -- continuous?
JS: No.
AM: Never. Never.
JS: The, like – actually, hold on, it might just be like the same actor. I'm gonna just double check that. Okay.
AM: I mean I hope that the creator is getting mad royalties, but, apart from that, I'm just, like, I'm so curious about how this happens. And, sorry, to the actor who played young Tommy TM, who expected to have a trilogy around him and then didn't.
JS: RIP, bro. RIP. Or older Tommy. Older Tommy's the one that was gonna get [Inaudible 42:42].
AM: Yeah. Yeah, adult Tommy.
JS: Really, it's – it's been different people every movie basically, more or less.
AM: Huh.
JS: It’s like that no one – no one has, like, been around for the entire – almost 40 years of this franchise at this point. So --
AM: It’s the opposite of, like, Scooby-Doo and Daffy Duck, who's actors, you know, play them for decades at a time.
JS: And it's the opposite of Freddy Krueger, who is played by Rob England, except for, like, the remake that they made in the mid-2000s. Actually, it was made in 2010. But, yeah --
AM: Wow.
JS: -- it's like a bunch of different people played Jason, but really only one person has played Freddy.
AM: What an interesting complement.
JS: Yeah, absolutely.
AM: And do those franchises share, like, a setting at all? Or do they just end up crossing over and that's like, “Surprise, audiences, these are in the same universe.”
JS: So – oh, man. It's interesting, because, like, in Freddy vs. Jason, they – Freddy is, like, harassing these children, right? These – these young teens. And they decide to, like, summon Jason from hell in order to fight Freddy.
AM: Oh, boy.
JS: So, really, Jason is kind of acting as an antihero in this. He does – he does a bunch of murders, but I really don't think he, like, murders any teens until the very end of the movie. But it's, like, pitting, like, demons against each other. So, what were they expecting?
AM: Interesting. So, it is kind of like a – like, he sort of visits from another dimension.
JS: Yes. Yes, he does. He’s like, “Hey, what's up?” Though, they do go to Crystal Lake. Like, they drive from their, like, sleepy hometown where Elm Street is. And they drive to Crystal Lake with, like, a sedated Jason. It's very weird because they sedate Jason so that he can fight Freddy in his dreams. It's fucking wild. It is a bizarre movie, but it's extremely good. Anyway, so, going – going away from Freddy vs. Jason, which I could rant about --
AM: Yes. Yes.
JS: -- all the time. So, despite the totally off the rails stories towards the end, I think Jason stalking of camp counselors and teens is so quintessential to how we see horror now. And Jason, in many ways, is the modern-day Boogeyman. He is the textbook slasher movie character. And, while I described the first film as this morality tale early on in this episode, the director, Sean S. Cunningham, instead described it in an interview as a fairy tale. He said, “As children, we get fairy tales. And the purpose of fairy tales is to take a child's fear and put them in the safety of a story,” which I would argue is also the purpose of an urban legend. It warns you how to act. And, if you act outside of what is considered the safety or the norm, you face consequences. And that is what Jason and, by extension the rules of horror establishes well. They are morals very thinly veiled by story.
AM: Definitely. And it's easier to see those as, like, rote – rules than it is to think of it as a moral imperative, where it's like, “Well, just don't have sex in the hayloft, and you'll be fine.” And then you don't kind of interrogate it further. Unless, the movie really invites you to, to think about the fact that it's just kind of punishing, like, teenage licentiousness.
JS: Yeah. And it's really interesting, like, to the point where Wes Craven, who wrote A Nightmare on Elm Street, later made Scream, where he literally establishes, through one of the characters, like, these are the rules of horror films. If you break these rules, you will die if you're in a horror film. Like, it's so obviously written out by, like, how heavy-handed some of these films can be about, like, “Oh, well, they had sex. So, obviously, they're gonna die,” you know.
AM: That’s so funny. I feel like I saw Scream before I saw many of these horror movies. And, so, I was sort of attuned to it. And our friend, Caroline's podcast, Sheddunit, has been teaching me these rules about detective fiction too. Where it's like, “Oh, no.” Like, if you meet somebody in the first 30 pages, and they're like in line for an inheritance, like, “Oh, no, no, no, no, you're about to be killed.”
JS: No, no, no. You can't have money. Unacceptable.
AM: Yeah.
JS: And we kind of talked about this early on, but I think it's really interesting that such a simple act of, like, you know, malpractice by camp counselors could create this whole urban legend. And then, like, because of the actual actions of people within these films, create like a franchise in which the character is supernaturally brought back to life and also, like, is brought to and from hell at certain points. It is – it's – it's such a, like, weird giant spin from such a simple thing to what it is now. You know what I mean? And that is such a, like, perfect analogy for what urban legends can become.
AM: And horror movies too, where it's like, if the character has just shut the blinds or if they had just, you know, not picked up the phone call, or whatever else it might be. And, like you were saying earlier, and with a, “It's much easier to think about individual action than it is to kind of confront the presence of evil in the world.” And, in this film too, like, who's to say that there was any truth to the story that Mrs. Voorhees was saying? Like, it's possible that her child died and, in grief and anger, you know, she decided to take revenge against some, you know, twisted or exaggerated version of the truth. And that is really all it takes at the end of the day for a legend to crop up. And, once one does, it takes on a life of its own. And that's, you know, what we love so much about urban legends and about folklore. It’s, you know, the story has meaning, but the, the meta texts around the story has the most meaning. Like, it's not just the events of history. It's the historicity. It’s, like, how we talk about the history and why.
JS: And I think this is a great example too, because of this franchise. You have so many different writers taking the story of Jason and then putting their own spin on it and making it new and different. So, like --
AM: Yeah.
JS: -- first movie says Jason died. He drowned in the lake. Second movie says, “No, no, he survived the drowning. And he's been living in the woods this whole time.” And then, by the time you get to, like – Freddy vs. Jason is a good example. They, they flashback to Jason drowning, because that's his worst nightmare. And Freddie is trying to, you know, use it against him. And it's, like, the other kids at the lake forced him to go swimming, knowing he couldn't swim. And that's the reason he drowned, you know.
AM: Right.
JS: It's so – it's, like, it's so fascinating to see what different writers can do with, like, the simple basic outline of the same story and just keep creating different versions of it. And I think that's what urban legends are. It is one person hears little facts of the same story and then blow it into something bigger and more interesting and something like more impactful. Like, it's a little more addition for each person who tells it like a game of telephone.
AM: Yeah. And it's a way to, you know, again, kind of get at sideways, the presence of tragedy, of evil, and to kind of brush up against it in a way that doesn't desensitize us, but makes it feel a little more controllable. Where if you, you know, kind of ponder, you know, a random death or a killing or some other kind of tragedy, it lets us kind of absorb the presence of that in the world without getting completely overwhelmed.
JS: Yeah, absolutely. I love that we were able to talk about this. Like, this is genuinely such a cool conversation to have about a movie that most people know or, at least, like, know the basics of and to be able to, like, really dig into it and kind of show that, you know, everyone can tell their own version of the Friday the 13th story. It’s like the best part about this.
AM: Totally. And it just inspires me to pick up more comic books, because you've taught me to love the fact about comics that, as people, you know, take overruns and issues and, you know, they square like a parallel dimension version with the previous dimension and just kind of all of the really inventive things that writers come up with to square multiple people's versions of the same story in the same universe. I think it’s just absolutely wonderful. And, if you are taught to appreciate it instead of be confused by it, it's just sort of like another facet of the story to really enjoy.
JS: So, you, listeners, you can write your own urban legends.
AM: 100 percent.
JS: Just saying, it can be fun.
AM: Yeah, do it responsibly and don't use them as a pretext for crimes.
JS: Yeah. Or racism or any sort of xenophobia. Thank you.
AM: Yeah. We – we’re all cool. We’re all cool.
JS: Yes.
AM: We all know that, that we use stories as a way to empathize with and connect with the world and to, you know, make the most of our limited time. And that's really all you got to do.
JS: That’s all you got to do.
AM: Oh, and just remember.
JS: Stay creepy.
AM: Stay cool.
Sponsors
JS: DoorDash is a fast, convenient food delivery app. Get $5 off your first order of $15 or more when you download the DoorDash app and enter creepy at checkout. Calm is the number one app to help you reduce your anxiety and stress and help you sleep better. Get 40 percent off a calm premium subscription at calm.com/Spirits. And Tula House is a Brooklyn-based indoor plant and design store founded to bring us closer to nature while exploring new ways to design and experience plant life. Get 15 percent off your entire order by using the discount code, Tula House, at Tula.house.
Outro Music
AM: Spirits was created by Amanda McLoughlin, Julia Schifini, and Eric Schneider with music by Kevin MacLeod and visual design by Allyson Wakeman.
JS: Keep up with all things creepy and cool by following us @SpiritsPodcast on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Tumblr. We also have all of our episode transcripts, guest appearances, and merch on our website as well as a forum to send us your urban legends at spiritspodcast.com.
AM: Join our member community on Patreon, patreon.com/SpiritsPodcast, for all kinds of behind-the-scenes stuff. Just $1 gets you access to audio extras with so much more available too; recipe cards, directors’ commentaries, exclusive merch, and real physical gifts.
JS: We are a founding member of Multitude, a collective of independent audio professionals. If you like Spirits, you will love the other shows that live on our website at Multitude.productions.
AM: And, above all else. if you liked what you heard today, please share us with your friends. That is the very best way to help us keep on growing.
JS: Thank you so much for listening. Till next time.
Transcriptionist: Rachelle Rose Bacharo
Editor: Krizia Casil