Vendredi 13

Friday the 13th must be one of the biggest mysteries in cinema. Although it's a long way from being a good movie, its success and influence is unnameable ( and even unbelievable ). Don't get me wrong...I'm not at all saying that Friday the 13th is a terrible film or not even worth a watch but - let's face it - the plot idea is pretty dumb, the acting and directing are far below average and they haven't fully used the options of setting and location they had. The make-up effects ( by the master Tom Savini himself ) are excellent, but that alone isn't really enough to create a legendary horror movie in my opinion. Some of the later sequels ( Episode 6 : Jason Lives is the perfect example ) and even a few of the numberless rip-offs are superior to the production.

I suppose the story is pretty much known by everyone know and I even think the identity of the "mysterious killer" of this episode isn't that much of a mystery anymore. Anyway, in case you don't know it, I won't spoil the fun so see for yourself. Although my thoughts on it aren't that high, I do think it's must-see stuff for horror fans. Without any shame, I even admit that Friday the 13th and ALL its sequels are a guilty pleasure of mine. I'll never reckon them as good - or even decent - efforts in the genre, but I'm always up for a little bit of brainless gore slashing. And that's what these series are made for...pure entertainment !! So, in a way, they succeeded after all. They never try to give a thoughtful message to the viewer or something. There are just dumb-looking teenagers being slaughtered...the more the merrier.

Favorite "rewind"-scene : A young and horny Kevin Bacon being brutally killed in one of his first memorable roles.

Without a doubt, the work of Cunningham and Carpenter during 1978 & 1980 rocked the world of the horror genre. Friday the 13th is one of the films that to this day still has repercussions. It demonstrated the importance of setting the tone in horror movies, making the audience themselves feel as if they too were being stalked. Cunningham also was one of the few directors to introduce the idea of a possible female serial killer.

Without this film, Scream's Randy would have never uttered those famous words, 'There are certain rules to surviving a horror movie..' This film combined with Carpenter's Halloween, firmly etched the rules in stone. The creepy music, the infamous "ch-ch-ch-ha-ha-ha", the crude photography and the graphic depiction of the murders of the counsellors all blend together to give a classic piece of film history. It scared the hell out of multitudes of teenagers who, in many instances could see themselves in the victims of the stalker. These weren't bad people getting killed, these were just your typical average American kids, having a good time, getting picked off.

That is what makes this film so defining, that is why, for all its crude and harsh imagery, this is a classic. This is why alot of recent attempts at horror don't measure up. It's not the effects or the blood necessarily, it's the atmosphere and the familiarity that bring it home.It is more frightening to think, "That could be me"

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)

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.

'Friday the 13th' may have been panned by critics when first released but since then it is one of the most famous and influential horror films, the franchise containing one of horror's most iconic villains. The film is popular enough to become a franchise and spawn several sequels of varying quality and generally inferior to the one that started it all of.

Is 'Friday the 13th' an original film in terms of overall story? No, having been, and still is, compared to 'Halloween' (released two years earlier). One can see why somewhat, it is derivative in a way but to me it didn't come over as a direct rip off. 'Friday the 13th' is far from the best when it comes to acting, excepting Betsy Palmer (very good) and Adrienne King (charming). The others are average at best, though it was interesting to see Kevin Bacon in an early role pre-stardom.

Nor is it the best when it comes to dialogue. Much of it is very crude and cheesy. Or character development, while the characters are actually still easy to sympathise with to some extent they are stereotypes that we don't know an awful lot about generally.

However, while it may not be a "great" film, 'Friday the 13th' is great guilty pleasure fun and it is very easy to understand its popularity and influence. It's very gory and gruesome, though not pointlessly so, but it is also very frightening and suspenseful.

This is apparent in the deaths, which couldn't have been more creative or shocking, and the hauntingly eerie music score. 'Friday the 13th' is assuredly directed and moves along at a lively pace. The late reveal is for the better and works very well. The climax is a long way from a petering out one, instead the film goes out on a very strong bang, right up to the unexpected and freaky final jolt clearly inspired by 'Carrie'.

Overall, good fun and very scary even if not exactly classified as great. 7/10 Bethany Cox