Friday the 13th - Film Review

Friday the 13th-a-thon Day 1

We're getting eight days dedicated to this holiday. I'm only reviewing the ones by Paramount because I watch those every time I throw one of these.

Friday the 13th is directed by Sean S. Cunningham and stars Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Harry Crosby, Kevin Bacon, and Peter Brouwer.

Plot
On June 13th, 1979, Camp Crystal Lake is about to be reopened, but all the counselors are killed off one by one by a mysterious killer.

Review
I want to get this out of the way, I do enjoy this movie, but I really only find the end interesting. There are a few more in this series I enjoy more than this. When you think about it, it's a generic slasher movie inspired by other popular slashers such as Halloween.

Fun fact: Victor Miller, who wrote this movie, said that he was riding off the success of Halloween.

Also, this ad was placed in Variety magazine before the script was even completed. The movie was originally called A Long Night at Camp Blood, but Sean S. Cunningham had faith in his title Friday the 13th  and rushed this ad out to see if anyone else had the rights to this name and wanted to avoid potential lawsuits.

Something weird is that in the movie it says "Friday, June 13, The Present" but in the official timeline, the movie is set in 1979. Pamela Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) says that June 13th is Jason's birthday and according to Friday the 13th canon, he was born on June 13th, 1946, which was a Thursday. Well, June 13th was on a Friday in 1980 when this movie came out, but that's all the connection I could think of.

Let's talk about some errors in the movie, there is a scene where Alice (Adrienne King) and two other counselors are playing Monopoly and one of them say they roll double sixes, but if you look at the dices, you can clearly see that they are not "double sixes", she rolled a total of three.

Steve Christy (Peter Brouwer) says to the counselors that he's going out to lunch and he'll be back after, but near the end of the movie, he's still at the diner and it's dark outside.

Also, when the power goes out at the cabins, Alice and some other guy are having a conversation, but it's very obviously dubbed in, as neither of their mouths are moving.

Some of the kills in this movie are pretty good, such as when Pamela kills Kevin Bacon with an arrow through his neck, that was pretty cool. And the beheading of Pamela wasn't that bad either.

I can't really think of too many memorable parts I can to into except for the end where Jason pops out of the water, because as I said, I find it to be a typical slasher movie.

The cast is ok in here too, I mean it's early Kevin Bacon so that's what everyone needs to know, but seriously, I can't find much to talk about these characters, but I'll try.

Betsy Palmer isn't bad as Pamela Voorhees, mother of iconic horror icon Jason Voorhees, and she is the killer in this one and she tries the old method of slapping Alice to death a few minutes before being beheaded.

Adrienne King isn't bad, she's the final girl of the movie, but she dies in the next one. At the end of the movie, she is dragged in the water by a young, decomposing Jason. She tries to tell the cops about this in the hospital, but they tell her there was no boy in the lake.

Overall, Friday the 13th is an ok slasher film, but there are better ones in this series. I'm going to give it a 6.5/10.

Come back tomorrow for a review of Friday the 13th Part 2.

Previous review - Donnie Darko 
Next review - Friday the 13th Part 2