Friday the 13th (1980)

Friday the 13th Reviews

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It's debatable, but I might go so far as to say that the 'Friday the 13th' series is something that could be referred to as the pinnacle of American slasher horror. All of the fun stereotypes are covered, including teenagers making stupid and/or poor decisions, the setting being the secluded wilderness (think 'Cabin in the Woods'), characters we know are completely expendable upon first meeting them, and last but certainly not least, the big, quiet lug in a mask who's out to get you... Although, not quite yet.

What's perhaps most interesting about the series altogether is that it all began as a straight-up rip-off of the idea behind 'Halloween'. They took a spooky day of the year, threw in the teenage victims, but then sort of perfected things by keeping it out in the middle of nowhere, where there's less chance of escaping, AND, to be perfectly fair to the first film in the series, the killer is NOT Jason Voorhees, but the intriguing twist of it being someone who was once a loving, caring mother, which harkens back to 'Psycho' a little more and... honestly, that's one of those spoilers that shouldn't be considered a spoiler anymore - especially after 'Scream' mentions it in its opening act.

In 1957, one day while at camp, Jason Voorhees supposedly drowns in Crystal Lake while the counsellors aren't paying any attention. This leads Jason's mother to vengeance, and she begins her killing spree with no less than two victims the following year. After that, we jump to Friday, June 13th, present day, and this has lead to all sorts of debate on things to do with proper dates, etc. so this is a good time to mention that if there's any confusion about where I stand with such things, further details will be found on my 'Friday the 13th' Timeline as things unfold. ANYWAY, in "present day" 1980, we meet the happy-go-lucky Annie (Robbi Morgan) who's trying to get to Camp Crystal Lake.

Another famous America horror stereotype pops up here, perhaps best known as the "harbinger of doom". Annie is warned by some random guy known in town as "Crazy" Ralph (Walt Gorney) that she and her friends are indeed "doomed" if they go to Camp Crystal Lake; aka "Camp Blood" to the locals. In the meantime, her friends all arrive at camp to await her arrival; The responsible adult of the group, Steve Christy (Peter Brouwer); our lead, Alice (Adrienne King); Jack (Kevin Bacon) and his girlfriend, Marcie (Jeannine Taylor); the quiet but fun Brenda (Laurie Bartram); the eccentric Ned (Mark Nelson); and the outdoorsy Bill (Harry Crosby).

As one would predict, the killing starts, and one by one a body count is built up. Bearing in mind that we're supposed to have no idea who's committing these murders, this puts a bit of a 'Jaws' twist on things by never showing the killer. I have to give the film credit for its time for keeping things a pretty solid mystery. Nowadays, we just know how things go. But if you study the film as though you were seeing it upon its initial release, when Jason was still an unknown entity, the idea of the killer being who she was here probably threw a lot of people for a loop - especially being Besty Palmer whom I understand tended to roll with a little more class... which of course makes it a way better twist!

This is one of those films that one has to give respect to because without it, we wouldn't have all the Jason movies that followed, and indeed, slasher horror probably wouldn't have taken off quite as well as it did. This had a lot of similarities in tone and atmosphere to 'Halloween', sure, but unlike 'Halloween', this was able to deliver some blood for gore hounds, compliments of the great Tom Savini. And while I very much appreciate how 'Halloween' executed it all by allowing our imaginations to go wild, the physical blood and gore here gives you something interesting to look at... No really, there's nothing quite like looking at these tacky special effects and pondering how it was all done.

Being from 1980, it might be a bit outdated for some who may yet be curious. To be fair, it does take a while for anything to happen, and there's a lot of fairly ineffective suspense building. There are some decent kills, but it's when we meet Mrs. Voorhees that the film really takes off, giving us a very creepy, well-shot chase through the night. So sift through that first hour or so 'cause it's totally worth it to see just why this movie has its place in the horror hall of fame. It's not a Jason flick, but completely worth the watch if you wanna get a nice slice of horror history, or even just have fun with it.

​3/5

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