Friday The 13Th (2013)

I was working in a cinema in 1980 when this film was first released, No one expected it to take a light and it opened in one of the complex's smallest screens. Big mistake. From day one queues formed for this film and many wannabe punters were somewhat peeved for being turned away. Those who got in though experienced a genuinely scary horror film and it remains one of the best audience participation films that I have ever seen. Throughout the film, the suspense runs along and builds up to a crescendo prior to each slaying or to a false moment of fear.

The ending, however is something else. Sure it ain't exactly original but boy is it effective. I have never seen an audience scream so loudly and in total unison, and have some people visibly shaken and in tears sometimes afterwards.... Night after night, the result was the same and Friday The 13th became one of the 'sleepers' of 1980. Watch out too for a young Kevin Bacon as one of the teens in peril.

The passage of time has seen it take its place in the pantheon of really scary horror films and deservedly so. If you have not yet seen this film, then give it a go. Enjoy and be prepared to be scared.

What can I really say that hasn't already been said about this first venture into the life of Jason Voorhees? Before the Blair Witch was haunting the woods, before the werewolves of Dog Soldiers were stomping around in the dark, before countless other copy-cat wannabes, there was the menacing killer of Friday the 13th.

To be sure, John Carpenter hit the nail on the head a few years prior with the classic Halloween, but Friday the 13th also opened audience's eyes to a new breed of horror movie the gory serial killing scream-fest.

For those in the know, Jason doesn't make an appearance until Part 2, but his legacy is revealed in fine family fashion here. The simple plot entails a small boy who drowns at a summer camp while the counselors are busy getting busy. Needless to say, his mom is rather pissed and unforgiving, and Jason just might not be dead...

The killings, for early 80's, are quite inventive an ax through the head, an arrow through the neck, and lots of fun at the archery range are just a few of the treats in store. Effects were good because the master Tom Savini was just getting his shoes muddy and honing his skills. Love it.

Kevin Bacon, for those of you who were born under a rock, makes his screen debut here, rivaling Johnny Depp's nasty demise in A Nightmare on Elm Street.

The ending is one of those great surprises in film. If you didn't gasp or scream the first time you saw it, you're lying.

No horror fan should miss this. The sequels however, particularly after the 3rd one, can be thrown in the trash and burned. Ugh.

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There is so much more to this movie that anyone gives it credit for. When you mention Friday the 13th, many people either dismiss it for being "just a slasher flick" or a "Halloween rip-off." Most people do not see the artistic value in Friday the 13th because they simply do not expect it to be in this kind of movie or do not want to acknowledge it, as a result of already having their closed (typical critic know it all) minds made up.

First off, Friday the 13th is not a Halloween rip-off. When Carpenter's equally classic Halloween generated top box office revenue in 1978 and 1979, many eyebrows raised within the film industry. Among those were the brows of a few people in particular. Sean (director) Cunningham, Victor (credited writer) Miller, Ron (unaccredited writer) Kurz, Steve (producer) Miner, and Georgetown (independent film production company) Productions all wanted in on the profit made by the Halloween. The only sensible thing they could think of doing was to produce a similar product, which became Friday the 13th.

Sean wanted to make the same kind of money that John made, but he knew he would have to make his film a little different. Instead of just having a walking masked madman on the loose, he and Victor came up with a story that is quite brilliant. Sure, certain scenes in Friday the 13th may have been taken from Halloween, but you can say the same thing about Halloween taking some scenes from Psycho. Friday the 13th, whether it was on purpose or not, utilized a couple of really good themes in their story telling, beyond the typical moral theme that everyone associates with these movies like sex leads to death.

The first theme that Friday the 13th throws in your face is the idea of isolated mass hysteria. Camp Crystal Lake and the town of Crystal Lake are haunted. They are not haunted by ghosts and goblins, but by unsuppressed dark memories of a little boy drowning and a string of unsolved murders among other things, in which all have to do with Camp Crystal Lake. Every person in town believes that there is a "Death Curse" upon the camp, and they refer to the place as "Camp Blood." When Annie walks into the restaurant and asks some people how she can get to Camp Crystal Lake, they all look at her and two people try to warn her to stay away from the place. They say the place is jinxed and has a death curse.

Psychology is only a little more then 100 years old, but we know that parents have a strong "connection" to their child even after the umbilical chord is severed. For a parent to have to burry their own child is probably the most devastating thing that can happen in their life. Mrs. Voorhees looses her son to a tragedy and little by little she snaps. She tries to give him life by giving him a voice at one point (just like Norman Bates did for his mother in Psycho), and that voice tells her to murder those responsible for her son's death.

Of course for the horror fan there is enough blood and murder to please. All in all Friday the 13th is a powerful tragic but frightening story of love, loss, superstition, and murder with an ending that is sure to make one jump (no pun intended) right out of one's seat. Also, not revealing the murderer until the end makes the film more suspenseful then showing the murderer in the opening sequence like Halloween did.

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I've already recorded my thoughts on the original Friday the 13th. I think it's among the top two or three greatest slasher films ever made. It has a kind of 'Blair Witch Project' feel about it, as you never see who or what you are dealing with until very close to the end. This creates an aura of dread, as well as a nearly tangible feeling that these characters are pretty much doomed.

I don't waste too much time mincing words about such matters-to me, this is a great movie. Not just a great slasher film, but a great film, by ANY standards. And it continues to grow on me. By now, I've seen it around 100 times, but I continue to like it better over time.

One word of caution, though. They refer to it as 'uncut',as if this is a big deal. I expected there to be major differences, such as reinserted deleted scenes or something of that nature. There isn't. So don't expect to get anything radically different than what you've had in the past. In fact, the major difference-the death scene of Kevin Bacon-looked better BEFORE. Some things get cut for a reason.

But the picture and sound quality are outstanding. The other special features are okay. But if you are satisfied with the version you have at present, there is no overwhelming reason to replace your old dvd with this one.

A lot has been said about this being a graphically violent film. That may be the case, up to a point. But I believe that it's often what you DON'T see that most powerfully affects your imagination. And that's where this movie really sets itself apart. The killer is hardly ever shown, up until the final twenty minutes,but their presense hovers ominously and continually over the entire movie.

For example, you could consider the scene where the girl is brushing her teeth at the sink. Off to her far left, we see a shower curtain shift a couple of inches. We, as the audience, realize the implications: if she goes back there, she will be killed. She,of course, is oblivious to the danger. The killer is back there, silently waiting. The movement of the shower curtain is so subtle, so understated.........yet you know full well what it means.

Most of the horror movies I have sat through, even taken in their entirety, simply do not compare with that brief, seemingly trivial scene. Mystery, dread, suspense,horror, tension-all found, in abundance, in a scene that only lasts a minute or two.

I regard this as a masterpiece.

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The first Friday the 13th will go down as the turning point in the slasher genre. John Carpenter scored big with Halloween but the slasher genre was still somewhat of an untouched subject until this movie rolled around.

It has everything that makes it a slasher flick, teenagers, sex, blood, and horror, alongside all the killing. A thoroughly enjoyable movie in the Friday the 13th series.

Recommended.

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