A series of comics based on the plots of the ‘Friday the 13^th’, ’Nightmare on Elm Street’, and ’Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ film series.

Recently, new Line Cinema has been marketing the hell out of theses three franchises under their shiny new “House of Horrors” license. Yes, it is a cheap grab for currency, but on another level, it’s also something of a grand romantic gesture to their fan base. New Line may be lazily raking in a bundle by selling pre-packaged bits of nostalgia, but they’re just giving the die-hard slasher audience what they want. That’s the basic philosophy behind this series of comics. They are slick, pretty, and filled with gore and sex. The stories they tell, well that’s another matter entirely…

Friday The 13^th

This installment features some nice artwork by Mike Wolfer & Andrew Dalhouse. Wolfer’s ink and pencil work is semi-realistic and mood setting, if a bit stiff in some places, and Dalhouse has a magnificent eye for color. The story itself is true to the series, which is either a huge complement or a dire insult, depending on your point of view. It has elements of the “Jason goes to Hell” chapter of the series (although thankfully, not many) with a regenerating Jason Voorhees fighting off corporate commandos. Of course, there are the requisite doomed horny teens present to serve as machete fodder. (If you enjoy cartoon bosoms, you’re in luck!) All in all, the book perfectly captures the spirit of its respective series, as shallow and exploitative as that spirit is.

7.5

A Nightmare on Elm St.

This portion of the series is by far the most disappointing. Of the three villains, Freddy has always been my favorite. This book just doesn’t do him justice. The artwork itself is substandard. Juan Jose Ryp is not a bad artist per se, just completely wrong for this particular series. His style is overly cartoony, and lacks the proper nuance. He fails to accurately portray Freddy himself; the intricacies of his scarred appearance, his odd gait, are lost in Ryp’s simplistic presentation. The character just comes off as rubbery and odd-looking. Of course it doesn’t help matters that Freddy’s given the same type of shticky dialog he’s been stuck with since NOES 4. The writing itself is pretty awful. Setting itself before ‘Freddy vs. Jason‘, this chapter shows us how the whole Freddy erasure got started in the first place. The execution however, is not very interesting. Modeled after one of the series’ later installments, the book has Freddy chasing one-dimensional teenage stereotypes through gimmicky nightmare sequences tied to each dullard’s pet phobia/flaw. Not very imaginative fellas.

5.0

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

The TCM installment is based on the recent remake, not the original. While this may disappoint some fans, I myself thought that the recent re-imagining of ‘Texas’ was almost as good as its predecessor. Dark, gruesome and nihilistic, it pushed the envelope for an ‘R’ classification further than I thought possible. The best (and perhaps worst) thing that I can say about this book is that it does the film justice. This book is sick, sick, sick. Sadistic, perverted, disgusting, if you think you have the stomach for it, it does what it does well. The art is ok, but it doesn’t build much mood.

7.0

The trouble with this series is that in terms of storyline, it feels free to just keep shoveling the same type of 80’s slasher treacle at us . The mantra here seems to be “It’s always safer to give the audience what they’re expecting“. C’mon guys! You’re not directing a multi-million dollar studio-harangued cookie cutter sequel here. Explore the universe and its possibilities a little more! Give us something fresh! Avatar Press, which published this series promises further installments come September of 2005. And to be fair, they have hinted that they’re going to start giving us “twists” on the old storylines (this series served as more of an introduction to the characters). Now that may be something to look forward to.