The FREDDY'S NIGHTMARES show was recently mentioned and I finally got around to finding a show that I watched religiously for thrills in the '90s. I'm talking about FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE SERIES. No, Jason Voorhees wasn't in it, but it was a darn good show about cursed antiquities. It was low budget and a bit…um…'80s at times, but very dramatic and the special effects seemed really good for the time and money.
The show is about two cousins who inherit an antique shop whose stock was cursed by the devil. It was their job to recover all the items and store them away for good in order to keep people from harm. Usually a piece was already raising hell, causing the owner destruction, possession and sometimes death. I remember specifically one about a cursed compact mirror and a fashion model. I look forward to revisiting these stories.
The pilot episode featured a possessed doll who could talk and was stolen by a cute little girl. Mayhem ensues of course. Little girl: "You can talk"?!, Evil doll: "I can do a lot of things"…in a chill inducing whisper… I had an antique doll collection thanks to Dad that became a collection of fear. I had him move them to the glass cabinets in the living room.
This show was very scary to me as a kid, my Dad was and still is, an antique dealer. Our house was FULL of old curiosities. After watching this show I was terrified of some of the objects in the house. My dresser was from the early 1800's and became highly suspect. I had become scared of ghosts and curses attached to old things. We had some strange things happen and to this day I don't know if I was just imagining it. Light would turn off and on, TV would switch on full blast and once to my dismay the toilet flushed by itself. THE HORROR! Didn't stop me from watching the show everyday though. I think if anything it fed my lifelong passion for all things spooky.
I have been thinking about this show for awhile now (it was also recently Friday the 13th). I looked it up on Netflix and was happy to see the DVDs available to rent. Someone had suggested to me a newer show called WAREHOUSE 13 that sounded very similar to this one. I will re-watch this first.
FRIDAY THE 13TH (if memory serves) was on after school on the Sci-Fi channel in re-run or perhaps the USA channel? BEYOND REALITY came on before or after and was liked but not as much.. I watched every episode without fail, I was glued to the TV set.I'm of the opinion that both series seemed like early versions of the X-FILES. I think a few ideas were lifted from these shows. Can't wait to see this again. Might try to find BEYOND REALITY too. They are both available on DVD. Only FRIDAY THE 13TH is available on Netflix. Come to think of it, kinda reminds me of SUPERNATURAL too!
— dasklyter
For some reason, it was called "Friday's Curse" in Canada…I don't know why they called it "Friday the 13th" here when it had NOTHING to do with Jason Vorhees…
Anyways, that little girl in the clip is Sarah "Ramona" Polley from the "Dawn of the Dead" remake and "Splice". 🙂
Yay! Oh how I love Friday the 13th: The Series! Glad to see some appreciation for the show. How funny you mentioned Warehouse 13 because a friend of mine told me about that show over the weekend and I said it sounded like Friday the 13th: The Series.
Warehouse 13 is on Netflix streaming. I have to check that out soon.
Here is some more on F13th; The series….
Unk and Mickster's top 13 reasons to love F13th; The series…
https://www.kindertrauma.com/?p=7453
A traumafession about the episode "The playhouse"
https://www.kindertrauma.com/?p=18589
and a review of the episode "Scarecrow"
https://www.kindertrauma.com/?p=315
I was lucky enough to meet John D. Lemay at Monster Mania last June. He was so nice and spent time talking to me about the show. Yes, I blushed and smiled a lot!
I watched the first episode of Warehouse 13 over the weekend and I think you might like it, Unk.
@Joanna – Supposedly the last artifact was planned to be Jason's mask, but the show got cancelled.
Love to see this show mentioned here! I have been a fan since it first aired in the Fall of '87! It is my all-time favorite show, just love it. And I think it holds up really well after all these years.
Caffeinated Joe, you have fantastic taste! I certainly share your love of the show!
Warehouse 13 is rather different from Friday The 13th. In that show artifacts gain power from the first people who owned them and those powers can give positive or negative results. Some heal people for instance.
But there's things like a jar that once held the money of people who were in the Donnor Party that when used as a tip jar made anyone who tipped into a cannibalistic zombie that's suffering from hypothermia. Marilyn Monroe's hairbrush can make anyone's hair the same shade of blonde as her's. There's a set of juggling balls that makes anyone who touches them feel drunk. A pair of fez's that allows the wearer to read the mind of any dog that's wearing the other. A football that when thrown will go around the world and always come back to whomever threw it.
Whereas FT13:TS was about stuff cursed by Satan in order to give the seller power. And each carried it's own special curse depending on where it was from. Like the cradle that belonged to a baby that died on the Titanic. It would heal any baby so long as the parents killed others in the baby's place by drowning. I think they had to kill so many people in water in order for their child to be fully healed because I remember the parents being the last two and the babysitter going off with the baby sans-cradle.
W13 is more comedy and exists in the same universe, plus has a few cross overs with, Eureka. That one is a series about a super secret town where everyone is a genius except for the sheriff.
After "The Playhouse," this episode was my other kindertrauma moment. Especially the moment when the girl's mom (?) comes up to her and the doll, and the doll HISSES at her! Yikes!!