There was a time that I told myself that I would never review really well know, classic horror because what else can be said? Does anyone really need me to tell them how awesome 'The Evil Dead' is? Probably not, but of course last week I did what every other self respecting horror fan would on a friday the 13th and sat down with my boyfriend to watch the original Friday the 13th. Ah what the hell. Movies like Friday the 13th are always worth discussing.
For someone like me who was born in the late 80's and never really got to live in the time when films like this were new and shocking, it can be very difficult to sit down and really watch this film without thinking of how similar it is to every other slasher. But Friday the 13th is THE slasher. This is a film that is so important to the history of this genre, that you really need to sit down and appreciate how this little old super low budget gem changed the entire horror scene as we know it today. Think of all the countless slasher flicks and cliche teens, sex, and murder plots that you've seen over and over. Now go and thank Sean Cunningham for his vision. Yes, I know that Carpenter's Halloween came first. However, Halloween has always been a bit of a "high class" slasher, a film with good acting and genuine scare tactics and quality film making. Friday the 13th took the same basic concept of Carpenter's Halloween: a mysterious killer stalking and killing teens, but stripped away those elements of class present in Carpenter's film and replaced them with sleaze, boobs, and low-budget gratuitous gore. Yes, in my opinion, it was Friday the 13th that deserves the credit for really popularizing the sleazy, exploitative slasher flicks that have become so well known today.
We start our journey into Camp Crystal Lake with scenes of happy campers singing and being merry. Two of the counselors sneak away to have a little fun in a barn when they are attacked and killed by an unknown assailant. Thus sets the precedence for one of the most well known cliches in this genre's history, a cliche we will see dragged out throughout the majority of knock-off slasher flicks that would follow over the years. The camp is subsequently shut down after this incident, and we are fast forwarded to 1980, where Camp Crystal Lake is re-opening for business. We meet a young hitch hiker named Annie who has apparently trekked through the middle of nowhere from who knows where by hitchhiking with random men on her way to her new job as a cook at the freshly opened Camp Crystal Lake. We are introduced to crazy Ralph, who gives Annie the spiel about how the camp is cursed and they are all doomed to die. Needless to say, things don't end up well for poor Annie as she hikes through the woods. Maybe she should have taken the hint after her second-to-last hitchhiker refused to take her to 'Camp Blood'.
Back at the camp, several other counselors are there getting the place ready for its grand re opening in a few weeks. Crazy Ralph stops by to give them the warning too, but do you think any of these guys ever listen? Of course not. It's just a coincidence that that new cook girl didn't show up, right? As the night rolls in and the rain starts pouring, Jack (played by Kevin Bacon) and Marcie run off to an empty cabin to have sex. No one notices the dead body in the bunk above them. That's alright, these two don't last long anyway. Jack gets a post-coital arrow through the neck and Marcie gets an awesome axe to the face courtesy of gore wizard Tom Savini. It was kinda nice of our killer to let these two lovebirds finish the deed before offing them, since she was apparently hiding under the bed the whole time. Or perhaps it was just a nice window for our film makers to give us some good old sex scenes rather than a chance to show us that the killer really isn't all THAT bad. Yea, that sounds more plausible. The three remaining counselors, Bill, Brenda, and Alice, are in the midst of a heated game of strip monopoly when Brenda decides to ruin everyones fun and go close her cabin window next door. After hearing a mysterious child calling for help, Brenda is killed in the woods. Alice and Bill , start to realize that something is wrong. After finding bloody axes and losing electricity, Alice decides it's best to take a nap at this moment and let Bill go find the generator by himself. When she awakens, she finds Bill dead and runs outside in a panic. Here we meet Pamela Voorhees, a concerned older woman who promises to help Alice. We all know that this isn't the case. Crazy Pamela tells us the story of her son Jason, who drowned while two counselors were fucking in the barn somewhere instead of watching him. It happens to be his birthday today, too. It is now Pamela's destiny to kill people in her sons name and thus, the epic showdown between Alice and Pamela begins. This was one frustrating fight. Alice must have knocked this grandma down at least a billion times, yet she keeps letting her get back up again to come after her. Hog tie her if you don't want to kill her, at least. Sweet Jesus, what an idiot that Alice was. In the end, young does triumph over old and Alice is found floating on a boat by local police. But she is not rescued until a young Jason pops out of the water and drags her down with him. We are left to wonder whether this was a dream, or was it real?
We all know the story of Friday the 13th at this point, and we all know that the little boy at the end of this movie was in fact Jason, who does live to kill as our favorite mask-wielding psychos for a bunch of sequels. But if you think about just this one movie and what it must have been like to watch it at the time, imagine how disappointed you would be. Here you sit, knowing nothing about the hockey masked killer that we all love today, wondering who the killer could be. Then at the very end of the movie, a random old lady gets introduced with some bizarre story about her drowned son that was never once mentioned prior. This old hag and her crazy stories were the killer all along. I know I would have been pissed. However, this is certainly one of the best installments in the Friday the 13th series and it holds a very big title of importance in the horror world. For that alone, I have to give this slasher a lot of credit. There isn't a question in my mind that you shouldn't see this movie, in fact it should be required viewing. This movie was full of cliched characters and terrible acting, but without this movie we wouldn't have much of that today.
RATING:
**** out of *****
For someone like me who was born in the late 80's and never really got to live in the time when films like this were new and shocking, it can be very difficult to sit down and really watch this film without thinking of how similar it is to every other slasher. But Friday the 13th is THE slasher. This is a film that is so important to the history of this genre, that you really need to sit down and appreciate how this little old super low budget gem changed the entire horror scene as we know it today. Think of all the countless slasher flicks and cliche teens, sex, and murder plots that you've seen over and over. Now go and thank Sean Cunningham for his vision. Yes, I know that Carpenter's Halloween came first. However, Halloween has always been a bit of a "high class" slasher, a film with good acting and genuine scare tactics and quality film making. Friday the 13th took the same basic concept of Carpenter's Halloween: a mysterious killer stalking and killing teens, but stripped away those elements of class present in Carpenter's film and replaced them with sleaze, boobs, and low-budget gratuitous gore. Yes, in my opinion, it was Friday the 13th that deserves the credit for really popularizing the sleazy, exploitative slasher flicks that have become so well known today.
We start our journey into Camp Crystal Lake with scenes of happy campers singing and being merry. Two of the counselors sneak away to have a little fun in a barn when they are attacked and killed by an unknown assailant. Thus sets the precedence for one of the most well known cliches in this genre's history, a cliche we will see dragged out throughout the majority of knock-off slasher flicks that would follow over the years. The camp is subsequently shut down after this incident, and we are fast forwarded to 1980, where Camp Crystal Lake is re-opening for business. We meet a young hitch hiker named Annie who has apparently trekked through the middle of nowhere from who knows where by hitchhiking with random men on her way to her new job as a cook at the freshly opened Camp Crystal Lake. We are introduced to crazy Ralph, who gives Annie the spiel about how the camp is cursed and they are all doomed to die. Needless to say, things don't end up well for poor Annie as she hikes through the woods. Maybe she should have taken the hint after her second-to-last hitchhiker refused to take her to 'Camp Blood'.
Back at the camp, several other counselors are there getting the place ready for its grand re opening in a few weeks. Crazy Ralph stops by to give them the warning too, but do you think any of these guys ever listen? Of course not. It's just a coincidence that that new cook girl didn't show up, right? As the night rolls in and the rain starts pouring, Jack (played by Kevin Bacon) and Marcie run off to an empty cabin to have sex. No one notices the dead body in the bunk above them. That's alright, these two don't last long anyway. Jack gets a post-coital arrow through the neck and Marcie gets an awesome axe to the face courtesy of gore wizard Tom Savini. It was kinda nice of our killer to let these two lovebirds finish the deed before offing them, since she was apparently hiding under the bed the whole time. Or perhaps it was just a nice window for our film makers to give us some good old sex scenes rather than a chance to show us that the killer really isn't all THAT bad. Yea, that sounds more plausible. The three remaining counselors, Bill, Brenda, and Alice, are in the midst of a heated game of strip monopoly when Brenda decides to ruin everyones fun and go close her cabin window next door. After hearing a mysterious child calling for help, Brenda is killed in the woods. Alice and Bill , start to realize that something is wrong. After finding bloody axes and losing electricity, Alice decides it's best to take a nap at this moment and let Bill go find the generator by himself. When she awakens, she finds Bill dead and runs outside in a panic. Here we meet Pamela Voorhees, a concerned older woman who promises to help Alice. We all know that this isn't the case. Crazy Pamela tells us the story of her son Jason, who drowned while two counselors were fucking in the barn somewhere instead of watching him. It happens to be his birthday today, too. It is now Pamela's destiny to kill people in her sons name and thus, the epic showdown between Alice and Pamela begins. This was one frustrating fight. Alice must have knocked this grandma down at least a billion times, yet she keeps letting her get back up again to come after her. Hog tie her if you don't want to kill her, at least. Sweet Jesus, what an idiot that Alice was. In the end, young does triumph over old and Alice is found floating on a boat by local police. But she is not rescued until a young Jason pops out of the water and drags her down with him. We are left to wonder whether this was a dream, or was it real?
We all know the story of Friday the 13th at this point, and we all know that the little boy at the end of this movie was in fact Jason, who does live to kill as our favorite mask-wielding psychos for a bunch of sequels. But if you think about just this one movie and what it must have been like to watch it at the time, imagine how disappointed you would be. Here you sit, knowing nothing about the hockey masked killer that we all love today, wondering who the killer could be. Then at the very end of the movie, a random old lady gets introduced with some bizarre story about her drowned son that was never once mentioned prior. This old hag and her crazy stories were the killer all along. I know I would have been pissed. However, this is certainly one of the best installments in the Friday the 13th series and it holds a very big title of importance in the horror world. For that alone, I have to give this slasher a lot of credit. There isn't a question in my mind that you shouldn't see this movie, in fact it should be required viewing. This movie was full of cliched characters and terrible acting, but without this movie we wouldn't have much of that today.
RATING:
**** out of *****