Vendredi 13

Friday the 13th is a classic masterpiece, it uses a clever sort of storytelling to hide the identity of the killer as well as who the main character is to the end. For a slasher movie, it's not as bloody as a modern slasher, but it still delivers brutal kills. The music and sound effects are all great. The suspense-building is great as you can kinda figure out when someone's is going to get murdered. And without spoiling anything, the acting of the killer is truly terrifying! Some acting is kind of cheesy but that doesn't change mutch. It has a great atmosphere and after rewatching it, Friday the 13th from 1980 is now one of my favourite horror movies of all time! Overall it's a must see movie with a score of 9/10 from me!

Just my opinion, but this would end up being a typical slasher film if not for the absolutely unforgettable performance of Betsey Palmer. She is incredible, unhinged, cannot take my eyes off her when she is on screen, No spoilers! See it just to see a real acting legend nail it.

I'll concede right off that it's very hard to be objective in reviewing this movie. The truth is I've never seen it until today, but it's spawned so many sequels and become such a part of popular culture (for better or worse) that it's stamped into your mind whether you've seen it or not. Trying to be objective I'd say - it's not bad. It's not as good as what I would consider to be the classic of the slasher movies (1978's Halloween) but it has some moments of pretty good suspense and somewhat surprisingly to me I found that it wasn't a "gore-fest." There's violence and blood but the murders, while they're portrayed, tend to be shown quickly and the movie moves on fairly quickly. The setting is used pretty well to create atmosphere - the movie is set in a remote camp about to be re-opened after being closed for over 20 years following the murders of two counsellors in 1958. Those murders kick off the movie. There's some decent camera-work, as the camera serves as the eyes of the killer, and at times that effect is used when the camera isn't being used as the eyes of the killer, so there's a bit of uncertainty for the viewer. It is a bit of a chuckle that this movie uses as its setting the classically bad opening of terrible novels ("it was a dark and stormy night.")

The performances were OK, if a little bit forced and artificial at times. Adrienne King did a good job near the end of the movie as the terrified Alice. Kevin Bacon had a role in this as Jack, but it wasn't the lead role, and aside from him no one from the movie rose to any significant stature in Hollywood and there was certainly no Jamie Lee Curtis (see Halloween) among the female leads, although there were many shots of young and cute women in various stages of undress!

Strange to say, but in some ways knowing the basic outline of how the series progresses adds to the suspense at the end of the movie as to the identity of the killer, and does get you wondering how the heck this is going to lead to sequels - or at least to the sequels it led to, although Alice's last line ("then he's still out there") clearly establishes that those responsible for the movie were already looking ahead to the sequels. Not having been really interested in the series before this, I will confess that, having seen the first instalment, I now have a certain curiosity to see how the second instalment is constructed. 7/10

I'll always have a soft-spot in my heart for the "Friday the 13th" franchise. Especially as an 80's baby/90's kid who grew up in a pop- culture environment where the psychotic hockey-masked killer Jason was known and loved by pretty much everyone... even kids like me who didn't see the films until we were older and only vaguely knew what they were about thanks to the whisperings and hints of our older siblings who were actually allowed to see the movies. (Usually renting them 2 or 3 at a time on trusty old VHS from the local Video King to watch after we younger brothers and sisters went to bed.)

At the time this review is being posted, the franchise has been running strong for well over 35 years. Boasting 10 films in its original continuity, the fabulously entertaining (and dopey as heck) cross- over spin-off "Freddy VS Jason", a somewhat underrated reboot in 2009 and a planned new film due out sometime within the next year or two.

But even a franchise so huge has to start with a small, humble beginning. Before the fame. Before the recognition. Before the birth of the pop-culture idol that the series spawned.

Yes, it all started with a teeny-tiny production back in 1980- the original "Friday the 13th."

It's almost impossible to really discuss this film critically without delving into spoiler territory (which I try to avoid in my reviews), though I will try my hardest to do so.

The film revolves around a group of young Camp Counselors who are prepping the infamous Camp Crystal Lake for a reopening about 20 years after a mysterious double-murder and a tragic drowning involving a young child. However, it appears someone isn't exactly a happy camper and doesn't want Crystal Lake back in business, and this mysterious figure begins to pick off our protagonists one-by- one until a tense climax reveals the dreaded truth...

It's no surprise at all that the film is essentially a glorified rip-off of the iconic slasher-horror that is John Carpenter's "Halloween." Director/Producer Sean S. Cunningham has been pretty candid about essentially wanting to create his own "roller-coaster" version of the Carpenter Classic with this film. Heck, they had ads and posters in the paper before the script was even written.

But the problem I really have with the film is that it all feels so routine. Even often boring and sometimes toothless. While it may not be fair to judge it by modern standards, even for its time, it just doesn't have that much going for it. (Especially as the very same year of release, such classics as "The Shining" and the underrated "The Changeling" were chilling audiences to the bone.) It's a very aimless, meandering film, with sloppy plotting and far too much focus placed on seemingly-pointless sequences for it to attain the "roller-coast" feeling the director was going for. The first half of the film is just too much a chore to slog through. And once the horror finally kicks in, it's just the same rinse-and-repeat formula scene-after-scene, with really only a few gruesome deaths here and there to pique audience interest. All those old clichés and tropes that even at the time had become slightly predictable.

Now, I know what you're saying- those are the things people love about these flicks. The clichés and the gore-galore. But it's so slowly paced and messy in this movie, it's hard to really get into it. It really isn't until the plethora of sequels that the formula is established and the pacing is tightened enough for those clichés and tropes to finally become fun and entertaining.

As it stands, "Friday the 13th" does have its place in horror royalty. But I firmly believe it's more for spawning the long- running franchise that followed and less for the quality of the film itself.

Oh, and I guess it's also kinda famous for introducing some guy named Kevin Bacon as a supporting character... but I'm not sure if he actually went anywhere after this.

(Please appreciate the obvious sarcasm there. I loves the Bacon!)

"Friday the 13th" gets a middle-of-the-road 5 out of 10 from me. It's worth seeing because of its important part in the history of the overall franchise. But it's one of the weaker entries and lacks the style and entertainment seen in later films.

In 1980, two years after "Halloween" scared the hell out of everybody, "Friday the 13th" was released to theaters. This was a clever knockoff of the John Carpenter horror classic, only this one was more violent and gruesome. That aspect turned critics off big time. But moviegoers couldn't resist. They flocked to see this movie and made it a big hit. I never saw this film on the big screen because I was only 9 years old when it came out. After I saw it on cable a few years later, it scared the hell out of me! It doesn't scare me that much today, but it's a far more effective horror/thriller than the last five movies in the series (parts 5 through 9). They should have stopped making these "Friday the 13th" movies after the fourth film, which was subtitled "The Final Chapter". And you know what's even scarier, they're making part 10. "Friday the 13th" was the beginning of the sick slasher genre that played out during the early 1980s. The first films in both the "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th" series' were easily the best. "Halloween" was a great horror film. "Friday the 13th" isn't up there with "Halloween", but it's a well-crafted gorefest.

*** (out of four)