pumpktoberfest #21 - lakeview.

film: friday the 13th
beer: lakefront pumpkin lager

since it's officially wednesday the 13th, today we're going to take a look at a film named for the day's evil cousin--1980's friday the 13th. it's the first in a horror film franchise that has since spawned twelve films & gone on to become one of the best known names in the horror genre. despite its prominence, i've somehow never seen any of the films. sean s. cunningham directed the original & basically created the friday the 13th franchise, coming up with the idea after being inspired by halloween, which was released two years earlier. while all the actors in the film are virtually unknown, it is one of the first films that kevin bacon appeared in, so if you're playing "six degrees of kevin bacon," you can link, um...robbi morgan to jack nicholson in only one step.

the film takes place at camp crystal lake & the premise behind it is that back in 1958 a young boy named jason vorhees, the masked killer who's synonymous with the friday the 13th films, drowned in crystal lake because the camp counselors who were supposed to be watching him were off having sex. twenty-two years later, people have decided to re-open the camp despite the warnings of some crazy old dude who shows up every once in a while to say to the new camp counselors who are gathered there for the re-opening "you're doomed! you're all doomed!" they ignore his crazy ramblings though & as a result, are killed off one by one. the moral: if a crazy old dude goes out of his way to repeatedly warn you about your impending death, you should probably listen to him.

although the film is three decades old, it's still pretty scary. there's not much to it in terms of plot, but it keeps you on the edge of your seat as each counselor is murdered & the tension builds, making you wonder "who's next and in what totally awesome way will they go?" it's got a number of elements that have since become slasher movie staples, most notably unsuspecting, horny teens who pay for their horniness with their lives. throughout the film, we get to see these teens killed with a wide variety of sharp & pointy objects (axes, arrows, machetes & the like). the method by which kevin bacon's character meets his maker is definitely my favorite of all the murders.

SPOILER ALERT! here's the part about the film that absolutely SHOCKED me: the killer is NOT jason vorhees. nope. it's his grief-stricken mother! she doesn't even show up until the final few scenes of the film & when she finally does, it makes the killing that's happened up to that point seem all the creepier. after thinking for years that a friday the 13th film meant jason vorhees going bucknutty on teens, i was quite surprised to find that, other than a dream sequence, jason doesn't even appear in the film. in fact, he doesn't even show up until the sequel. now that i've seen the film that started it all for him, i guess i'll have to check out the other eleven films so i can get my fill of him slashing up horny teens.

for my trip to camp crystal lake, i tried out a bottle of lakefront pumpkin lager, a seasonal brew made by milwaukee, wisconsin's lakefront brewery. in a city that has been home to beers like pabst, schlitz & miller and is often referred to as the "beer capital of the world," lakefront's been brewing better beer since back in 1987. according to their website, the pumpkin beer came into being back in 1989 after russ klisch (lakefront's owner) came across a recipe for a pumpkin beer once made by our country's third president, thomas jefferson. behind the strength of this recipe, the lakefront pumpkin lager won the silver medal at 2007's world beer championship.

i'm not sure how it won the silver medal though, since as far as pumpkin beers go, it's rather meh. it's a light orange beer made with a bunch of pumpkin pie spices, stuff like cinnamon, nutmeg & cloves, and while you can definitely taste those spices, it doesn't have much of a pumpkin taste at all. there's somewhat of a sweet taste to it, a taste that i assume comes from the caramel malts used in making it. regardless, this subtle sweetness, along with the spices, isn't enough to make me happy. that said, it's not a bad beer. it's light-tasting, refreshing & very drinkable, so if you're not searching for a pumpkin beer that knocks your socks off with flavor, you'll probably enjoy it. don't expect to be wowed though.