Friday The 13th

Whenever someone thinks Friday the 13th and the film franchise that followed, Jason Voorhees in his hockey mask gripping his trademark machete while killing and maiming horny teenagers comes to mind. What does not manifest in their brain is the horrible, horrible movie that started the whole franchise which rips its entire story and soundtrack from the likes of Hitchcock's Psycho while following upon the success of low budget horror films such as Halloween. What it comes down to is a cheaply made clone that has no inspirations of its own, 

Friday the 13th starts off with an anonymous serial killer murdering two camp counselors after being caught trying to have sex in 1958. Twenty-one years later in 1979, the camp is being re-opened by a group of enthusiastic and (as per usual) horny teenagers and adult supervisors. After one girl hikes into a town and receives warning about Crystal Lake as it has a death curse, she continues on her way, is picked up by presumably the same serial killer as before, and is murdered. From there on out, the counselors at the camp are isolated one by one and murdered in a for-the-time gory fashion. 


The plot is fairly straightforward and basic; teenagers attempt to have sex, teenagers die; teenagers try to find out what happened, they die; teenagers go to investigate, they die. It's a formula that is near and dear to horror fanatics, but as such it is also a trope that was popularized by Halloween before this. Again, the word clone comes to mind and not in the good way. The film also graciously steals from Psycho; the soundtrack lends its hand to Bernard Herrmann, while the mother-son identity complex Mrs. Voorhees shows off in the end is taken right from Norman Bates himself. Again, while Friday the 13th attempts to pull from these movies, it fails to capture everything that made them great in the first place. 

While acting is always expected to be bad in 80s, B-movie styled horror films, the characters presented in Friday the 13th are especially terrible. I have no positive statements to say about any of the characters presented in the film at all; I think the most experienced actor at the time in the film was Betsy Palmer as Mrs. Voorhees. She did such a good job that she was nominated for Worst Supporting Actress at the 1st Golden Raspberry Awards. But, if you're the type of person who hates Kevin Bacon and would like to see him murdered, then I suggest you watch Friday the 13th. You will not be disappointed. 

If there is one thing I can praise the film for it would be its camera technique. While there aren't a whole lot of spectacular shots in the film, there are a couple of pretty sites that were filmed. The overall nature of the campground is brought out well by the camera. Certain moments in the film do bring out tension, as well, such as the ending chase sequence between Mrs. Voorhees and Alice. A particular moment I remember would be when Alice hides in a shed away from Mrs. Voorhees. The lighting from outside the shed and quiet atmosphere led to a decent scene. 


As a slasher film, Friday the 13th fails in almost every way possible. Yes, I did admit there were a few moments in the film that had good tension, but that only comes towards the end. The rest of the film follows characters who have no build up who no one cares about getting murdered. And when you look at how the murders really aren't extravagant or well thought out, the movie loses even more credit. While smart slashers were able to actually invoke a sense of dread and fear for the characters on screen, Friday the 13th pens characters that no one cares about and feel as lifeless as a cardboard box. The only shocking moment is found when, after Mrs. Voorhees is decapitated and Alice takes a rowboat out onto the lake, Jason Voorhees jumps out of the water in all his deformed might and pulls Alice into the lake. 

So, for all of its influences and low-budget horror grants, Friday the 13th is fairly weak and pathetic compared next to all of the other cheesy, gut turning films that were out at the same time. Every fan of the series I have talked to disregard both the first and second films and say that the franchise only matters from the third film and onward (that's where he puts on the hockey mask). But, if you've never seen this film I still think you should. It's where Voorhees got his start. Then again you could just read the plot summary and do yourself a favor and skip it. Your choice. 

However, this 1980 TV trailer does make the film look a good'ol American Grindhouse experience: