Friday the 13th (1980)

[slayrrr666]

"Friday the 13th" is the greatest slasher film of all time.

**SPOILERS**

In 1957, a group of counselors at Camp Crystal Lake let 13-year old Jason Voorhees drown in the lake. The next year, there are a couple of murders at the camp. Every time that the camp tries to open, there are unexplained accidents to keep them away. The camp remains closed until 1980, when it's reopened again by Steve Christy, (Peter Brouwer). Trouble starts when one of the counselors, Annie (Robbi Morgan) is murdered before she even gets to the camp. All the other counselors are already there fixing up the camp. When Steve goes into town for some supplies, the other counselors begin forgetting their chores and start concentrating on goofing around with each. As night falls and neither Steve nor Annie shows up, the counselors bunk up in the main hall. Two of them, Jack (Kevin Bacon) and Marcie (Jeannie Taylor) go off to sleep with each other, but are both killed by an unknown assailant. A raging thunderstorm strikes the camp, forcing Brenda (Laurie Barthram) to check her cabin, where she is murdered as well. Only two are left, Bill (Harry Crosby) and Alice (Adrienne King). When Bill goes off to find the others, Alice is left alone. Waiting for a long time, she decides to go off looking for everybody. She finds their slaughtered remains strewn around the camp. A woman, Pamela Voorhees, (Betsy Palmer) arrives and Alice soon discovers that she was the killer all along. The two women chase each other around the camp until having their final showdown.

The Good News: This movie triumphs over any other slasher ever made. This movie is all about the body count, which is the reason for this movie. It is an impressive one at that, with a wide variety of kills. We have multiple arrows shot into the body, including one in the eye, another person has an arrow shoved through the neck, one gets an ax in the head, two people have their throat slit, and one is impaled in the stomach with a knife. There are more, but those are important to the plot. What makes it so great is mostly the time period when it was made. At the time, this was the only other slasher film ever made, outside of "Halloween," and this film takes it to another level. "Halloween" may have seen the scarier of the two, but this one far exceeds it in terms of gore. Mrs. Voorhees is quite a capable killer, like her son Jason. He never appears in this one until the end, which in and of itself is maybe the main classic image in the series, but this is still radical to have the woman be the killer in the film. It is quite a shock when she reveals that she was the killer. In the few, brief glimpses that we have of the killer before the realization, it doesn't add up to her as the perpetrator. Another great innovation is that there is a lot more suspense than one would think for this movie. Since all the killings are done before the realization, all brief shots of the killer show only a small amount of clothing that is nearly indistinguishable from everything else they are wearing. The creepiest scene is in the outhouse, where one person is looking for another, and she begins looking inside the stalls. She can't find anyone, and on the wall behind her there is a shadow of someone holding an ax and then wielding it up. She turns around and is struck in the face with the ax. We see it coming, but it works because we are waiting for the ax to come down. What is also so great is that the film sets up so many other "body count" films by introducing the idea of attacking them individually and away from anyone else. Every other slasher film to follow uses this idea to varying degrees of success.

The Bad News: There are a couple of non-kill scenes where you can tell how they made it, but other than that, this movie has no faults.

The Final Verdict: This is the greatest slasher film of all time and deserves every ounce of respect that it has. Everything about it screams classic and should not be bashed for any reason. It has something for everyone and all horror fans will want to see this at some point in their lives.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Adult Language, Brief Nudity, a mild Sex Scene, and drug use

[Quorthon]

All I can say is Holy Fucking Shit, Man!!

You've got almost every Halloween and Friday the 13th film on here now!!

Cripes!

okay okay okay

hummuna hummuna hummuna

This one, however, is indeed a classic.

[slayrrr666]

I thought I had them all. Oh well, starting to turn it back to a horror-centered thread, right?

[Phoenix]

My two cents: this is the only Friday the 13th movie that really needs to be seen.

So if you're going to see a Friday the 13th movie, see the first one. I think this is one of the first franchises where sequels just get worse and worse and worse......

[slayrrr666]

You posted it twice, Phoenix. And I actually love the sequels more than this one. Just because it's famous doesn't make it required viewing for all.

[Heineken Skywalker]

phoenix said:

My two cents: this is the only Friday the 13th movie that really needs to be seen.

So if you're going to see a Friday the 13th movie, see the first one. I think this is one of the first franchises where sequels just get worse and worse and worse......

I agree. I tuned out after Part 3 and never saw another Jason movie again until FREDDY VS. JASON. The sequels are just rehashing the same thing over and over again.

[Heineken Skywalker]

slayrrr666 said:

The Final Verdict: This is the greatest slasher film of all time and deserves every ounce of respect that it has.

That's debatable. TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, HALLOWEEN and the original NIGHTMARE ON ELM ST. are all better, IMHO.

[slayrrr666]

Out of that list, only Halloween is a slasher film. I've never seen Freddy as a slasher until later, there he's more of a nussiance, and could be called just a serial killer. Leatherface is severly lacking in body count terms. That is the key ingrediant: the body count, which this one has over Halloween. That's why I place this one first, it's got more body count, as much suspense and personality, and just as many jumps as Halloween. Gore doesn't hurt it either.

[Quorthon]

heinekenskywalker said:

phoenix said:

My two cents: this is the only Friday the 13th movie that really needs to be seen.

So if you're going to see a Friday the 13th movie, see the first one. I think this is one of the first franchises where sequels just get worse and worse and worse......

I agree. I tuned out after Part 3 and never saw another Jason movie again until FREDDY VS. JASON. The sequels are just rehashing the same thing over and over again.

...wouldn't you have to see them to know they're just the same thing over and over?

Who was it that lectured me for not seeing Titanic...?
Was that ... you or Termination... (might have been The Smitty)?

[Termination]

I didn't give ya a lecture about Titanic. I did say I looked forward to the new dvd release as well as pointing out it is a good film.

Friday the 13th ..ahh.. memories of having cash... Buying all 8 of them at once from Amazon.

The first one is a good teen slasher film & in all respects to the franchise, I guess this one is manditory to see. This film was like a prequel to me as I saw most of the sequels first. Like Halloween, this movie goes the first person shooter route. (who is behind the knife?.. well its the camera man stupid ;D ) This direction used to be effective back in the day, but not anymore. Probably because its done to death throughout the entire franchise. People forgot about the whole "Oooo I'm scared" Horror picture theme & instead wanted to see Jason kill people in creative ways. I know I did.

[Heineken Skywalker]

quorthon said:

heinekenskywalker said:

I tuned out after Part 3 and never saw another Jason movie again until FREDDY VS. JASON. The sequels are just rehashing the same thing over and over again.

...wouldn't you have to see them to know they're just the same thing over and over?

Nah man, life's too short.
Let me see if I have the gist of it: Jason kills a bunch of teens in each movie and miraculously survives to kill again in the next sequel. One of them was in 3D, in one of them he's doing his shtick in Manhattan and in one of them he's in space. (Buaaahaahaaa!!!)
Am I way off as to the "plot" of each flick? The "creativity" involved in each death or the amount of gore, which apparently means a lot around here, doesn't interest me, so please tell me why I else I should waste my time?
I would hope that I'm not going to be taken to task for not having bothered watching every single fuckin' Jason movie that has been made and have that compared to the amount of classic films that haven't been watched by certain posters of this site.

[slayrrr666]

If you don't like it, don't post in the threads for it. You don't see me bashing every other film in there because it's not a horror film. I ignore them, and if you don't like them, do the same. Leave it for those that want to talk about them.

[Phoenix]

slayrrr666 said:

And I actually love the sequels more than this one. Just because it's famous doesn't make it required viewing for all.

Did I say I recommend the first one because it's 'famous?'

No.

I like it because it's the ORIGINAL! And it's Fun! It's the introduction to the character of Jason. Seriously, if someone came up to you and said: I want to watch ONE Friday the 13th movie, which ONE film would you recommend?

I would say see the first.

[Heineken Skywalker]

slayrrr666 said:

If you don't like it, don't post in the threads for it. You don't see me bashing every other film in there because it's not a horror film. I ignore them, and if you don't like them, do the same. Leave it for those that want to talk about them.

Woah, you didn't go there, did you?
Reread my posts and show me where I bashed the original FRIDAY THE 13TH, which is the topic of this thread. I merely agreed with Phoenix that watching all the sequels wasn't necessary. I did see a couple of them, even saw the first one twice, but that was enough for me. I got it after three movies. Jason kills lots of teens. Wow, that's grand filmmaking! What innovation! That's your cup of tea, fine, drink up.
As for you posting in non-horror movie reviews, why would you if you haven't seen them? Same reason I don't post in the majority of the horror reviews. I haven't seen them, so what am I going to add? "Uh, haven't seen it, no comment."
I could see you being pissed if I had never seen any of the Jason movies and I came on here just crapping on them, but that's not the case. And I have seen the one that's the topic of this thread so like it or not, I can post my opinion. Where does it say, that we can only give our opinion on a movie if we actually liked it?

Also this comment by you: "Oh well, starting to turn it back to a horror-centered thread, right?"

Who said Review Hell was a horror movie review section??
It really wasn't until you felt the need to post reviews of every fucking HALLOWEEN and FRIDAY THE 13TH movie. We have a whole Horror section already. Don't need two.
You crack me up, man. You've admitted that you haven't seen most classic films, even ones that aren't even that old, including, until recently, what are considered a bunch of classic horror movies, but you're going to get upset because I criticized the FRIDAY THE 13TH sequels?? Unbelievable.
Sorry, but film-wise, I have nothing to learn from someone who, by their own admission, hasn't seen many classic films or Oscar winners because a lot of them are more than two hours long and apparently you have a short attention span unless there's lots of gore involved. What kind of lame-ass shit is that?

[slayrrr666]

Well, fine. My mistake. It sounded as though you were bashing the films because they were all the same and it was unnecessary to see them once you saw this one. That's the way I took it and I was wrong. That's my fault, not yours.
Secondly, the "horror-dominated Review Hell" comment was one me and Q were talking about in another thread where there was more other kinds of films popping up in there. As a joke, I put up eight horror movie reviews (this film and it's seven Paramount sequels) only because people were saying that all the sequels melded into one, so know they can't say that as their all here.
Lastly, I have seen a few (our Forrest Gump conversation?) so it's not like I haven't seen none of them. I said most and gave a few examples. Attacking me for not seeing them is as retarded as attacking me not seeing any classic films. The ones I've seen haven't entertained me, which is what I watch movies for. Analyzing them doesn't sound fun to me, so I'm sorry I'm missing out on cinematic "masterpieces" just because a few people call it's acting "wonderful" or "breath-taking." It's the same principal here.