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Friday the 13th (1980) - Directed by Sean S. Cunningham
"It's got a death curse!"
Alright, let me start of by mentioning a very unrelated film: Alien Vs. Predator. I'm huge on Alien and I've seen everything the franchise had to offer. I can't say the same thing about Predator, though. So why do I bring this up in the middle of a Friday the 13th review? Simple. A Nightmare on Elm Street is my favorite slasher movie and I want to get through the whole series. So I plan on watching Freddy Vs. Jason, but I'm aware of some crazy dumbassed plot twists concerning Jason throughout his own series, so I'm getting through the Friday the 13th series as well. I needed to see how good this was for my horror list, anyway (assuming the movie would be good enough).
Friday the 13th is the first in a long running series of grisly murder films. At Crystal Lake in the 50's, two camp counselors were murdered. Now ounselors plan on reopening Crystal Lake and bringing children there again, despite the warning of the people who say that the lake is cursed. But when they get there, it's not long before the counselors are murdered.
Friday the 13th might have "invented the tropes," but that just makes it a tropy movie. The killings can be pretty damn scary and the end result does have a slight lingering effect. But there's not really any story going on throughout most of the movie. The setting is dived into from the get-go at the start of the movie, and the motive for the murders is established near the end. But what does this offer that other slasher movies don't? This is the kind of slasher movie that would have happened anyway even if it were a sequel to TCM or Nightmare or Child's Play. In the end, all we got out of this film is a sequel's horror icon with too many sequels and a hockey mask.
If you just wanna see a bunch of killings for a scary distraction, I guess you could watch this. But I'd rather recommend higher-caliber slashers for that purpose. Hell, I'd rather recommend Leprechaun for the cheese.
"It's got a death curse!"
Alright, let me start of by mentioning a very unrelated film: Alien Vs. Predator. I'm huge on Alien and I've seen everything the franchise had to offer. I can't say the same thing about Predator, though. So why do I bring this up in the middle of a Friday the 13th review? Simple. A Nightmare on Elm Street is my favorite slasher movie and I want to get through the whole series. So I plan on watching Freddy Vs. Jason, but I'm aware of some crazy dumbassed plot twists concerning Jason throughout his own series, so I'm getting through the Friday the 13th series as well. I needed to see how good this was for my horror list, anyway (assuming the movie would be good enough).
Friday the 13th is the first in a long running series of grisly murder films. At Crystal Lake in the 50's, two camp counselors were murdered. Now ounselors plan on reopening Crystal Lake and bringing children there again, despite the warning of the people who say that the lake is cursed. But when they get there, it's not long before the counselors are murdered.
Friday the 13th might have "invented the tropes," but that just makes it a tropy movie. The killings can be pretty damn scary and the end result does have a slight lingering effect. But there's not really any story going on throughout most of the movie. The setting is dived into from the get-go at the start of the movie, and the motive for the murders is established near the end. But what does this offer that other slasher movies don't? This is the kind of slasher movie that would have happened anyway even if it were a sequel to TCM or Nightmare or Child's Play. In the end, all we got out of this film is a sequel's horror icon with too many sequels and a hockey mask.
If you just wanna see a bunch of killings for a scary distraction, I guess you could watch this. But I'd rather recommend higher-caliber slashers for that purpose. Hell, I'd rather recommend Leprechaun for the cheese.