Friday the 13th (1980)
They were warned...They are doomed...And on Friday the 13th, nothing will save them.
I’ve seen the entire franchise. I’ve seen multiple entries numerous times. I’ve had numerous occasions in which to do this review and on this day I ask myself one question - again? How are there so many of these that I could swear I’ve done but I haven’t actually done? Will there ever be an end to it? Tonight we’ll look into why you probably should have listened to old Ralph when venturing out to Crystal Lake - tonight we go to the original Friday the 13th.
I seriously can’t believe I haven’t done this already. I must have though it felt goofy since I always do these on Thursdays or something. At this point, I don’t feel like anyone doesn’t know the “big twist” or the basic premise of this movie - it’s pretty much pop culture base grounds even for people that think the genre is nothing but dirt. Still, let’s just do a quick little pop in for the folks that need it shall we? After some brutal mishaps and accidents in the past, a camp is reopening under new management. The head cheese calls in a bunch of counselors to help get the place set up and ready for the kids. Amidst all setup a danger lurks - as foretold by the local old harbinger crazy Ralph. You go down there, and you are all doomed. The prophecy isn’t far off, and the body count starts to rise as a mysterious assailant starts picking the counselors off one by one. Will anyone survive a day and night of sweat, tears, and blood?
The actors here do a pretty good job all considering. The original movie wasn’t as overly campy and schlock as those to come after it - probably in part of being a legit attempt at being a horror movie instead of hitting that “garbage” tier of murder-centric filmography that most have grown to love or hate. We still have a group of people working within archetypes here - the dumb jokey one, the final girl, etc. Some of the scenes are a bit goofy - perhaps overblown - but at the same time the actors don’t feel like they are phoning it in despite the level of performances. What I mean to say is that no - they won’t be winning any golden awards for most of their performances, but it gets it done for the movie they are in and the situations where it’s required. With that said, there’s some pretty fresh-faced big names in here that you’ll no doubt recognize from other places.
As noted, the characters themselves don’t really offer much to write home about. There’s this romance tension between the head of the camp and the lead lady, and we might play around with some aspects of not being sure if someone is joking like they have been - but for the most part a character comes in as one thing and leaves as the same thing (although regularly in a brutal way). The killer spends the better part - as in all but the very end of the finale - shrouded in mystery and red hearings that don’t really go too far, but can effectively play on “who is this person and why are they doing this” until it gets spilled out at the end. What helps with this is the reliance of first person shots to “embody” the killer, which can add to the tensions for the characters we see - as the camera can be come this sort of danger as it might be the killers eyes - as opposed to the looming danger that you get from a killer who is constantly seen as a figure in the background. Both sort of have their strengths and weakness, but for this one it pretty heavily leans on just those first person voyeur-like shots.
You’d be crazy to not listen to his warnings!
The setting is a good one for this kind of movie - a camp ground is remote enough that help isn’t going to be within shouting distance. The time period it was made also sees lack of instant-support cell phone or having to hand waive it away with cell reception. That being said, it is still a campground, so we have plenty of cabins, the main lodge, the lake, the woods, the barn - plenty of different little things to change it up from just feeling like the exact same thing the entire time. Pacing is also pretty good - with that continual escalation towards the end. Yes, the bodies pile up, but it takes a bit to let people settle in after setting up the danger with the first murder. I won’t go as far as to say that people will necessarily be attached to the characters when their time is finally up, but considering they all act like a bunch of young adults preoccupied with the other sex, it’s at least believable enough that you could attach to someone at some point - if for no other reason then you like how they look, like that sassy young Bacon.
Of course, the outfits here are as setting appropriate as you could guess - which also means there isn’t much to talk about in the line of costumes. At least, there wouldn’t be if it wasn’t for us being more than thirty years removed from the movies release, and seeing shirtless dudes in tiny little short shorts with their mustaches and curly locks all in sway really makes for quite the character look. In all honesty though - every one here doesn’t really look outside the normal, and that’s what was intended so the wardrobe did a pretty good job. Heck, even the killer looks like any old person. Yes, that might confuse the very few of you to have not seen or heard about the first Friday movie, but Jason as most know him didn’t really come into being a thing until the third movie onward, and even then there was always minor little changes here and there.
The deaths are all a bit toned back compared to some of the later “one-up” sort of stuff from the franchise as well. I mean, it’s pretty brutal still, but as far as things you’ll witness it’s mostly just blood and the camera doesn’t generally linger for as long as a person might be accustomed to in today’s age of horror films like Saw and Hostel. That being said, the kills are still pretty gnarly from a special effects standpoint - most anyone whose seen it would remember the Bacon scene, perhaps with a little wince. Some people like to question how anyone could stomach these sorts of movies - and for me, it’s largely this right here - the magic that makes it happen. It’s just as impressive seeing some good CG, but to know that someone had to think up a way to make something work in the real world without anybody actually getting hurt (except that snake that I’m sure they actually just killed a snake for - different world back then) is always so cool to me. It’s most likely the same reason why I enjoy Godzilla more than the average person - I’m just hard wired to love that someone can not only come up with these crazy ideas like “I’m going to shove an arrow through a persons throat,” and then figure out the magician-like magic trick mechanics to make an actor stick their head through a hole on a believable fake neck and body and push it through the fake neck with the little liquid squirter all in a manner that when some random person watches it in a dark theater on a big screen doesn’t immediatly go “i can see the trick!” That being said - it’s still violent, I mean like seven or eight people are just a body count by the end of this thing, and on top of that there be some naked people floating about too (which I find funny that some folks would find more offensive then all the blood). Most probably not appropriate for the kids - but hey, that’s your decision man.
Let’s all pour one out to the past of men’s fashion.
It led to a whole franchise that just slowly lost more and more brain cells in the reach for mindless money-making budget entertainment, but the first movie actually has a solid hook to it’s motivations, and character’s that aren’t outright horrible and there for the sole purpose of getting slaughtered for your every whim. Yes, it’ll draw you in with them hot-bodied adults-as-younger-than-they-are characters and the promise of most of their demises - but it’s rather different than what the franchise became. The blue ray release I have holds up pretty good as well, and you can find a 8-movie set for not super expensive, even though that does leave out the comical Jason in Space! as well as the newer one that was sort of a reboot and sort of not that had the dude from Supernatural in it - what I’m trying to say is you can rent it for cheap if you ever wanted to check it out, and at the price of 2 or 3 dollars you could certainly do worse if you like horror movies.