by Michael Avallone
1982 Leisure Books
I've seen references to this novelization as being notoriously bad, possibly due to the fact that a different version was published years later as Simon Hawke made his way through the series from scratch. It was fine. The prose was better than most novelizations, though it threw in too many campy flourishes. It opens with a quote from the Satan Sleuth, which was cute. The main beef is that the famously mute Jason was laughing manically throughout the book.
The story was almost the same as the movie - teens go to house near Crystal Lake, Jason kills some bikers, then the teens, before seemingly being dispatched by the final girl. To fill out page count, instead of any additional back story or details, he just pumps up the descriptions. I listened to an audiobook, but even then...
Even then.
I could tell.
I could tell he ended each chapter.
Just.
Like.
This.
Each.
Chapter.
There were two main differences, due to the version of the script we was working off of. Abel, the Crazy Ralph of this installment, has another scene and is mentioned in the epilogue. The main difference is the end, when final girl Chris decapitates Jason, leading to an overlong segment of the bodies disappearing and everyone thinking she's crazy, but then that's a dream, or maybe she is crazy, and so on.
Even if it's not notoriously bad, the book is notoriously expensive. Do what I did and check it out from the 80s Slasher Librarian
Oh nice, a new channel for my youtube subscriptions.
ReplyDeleteI really wish this novel had some sort of pop-up knife inside the front cover.