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- Movie Review - Friday The 13th (1980)
Movie Review - Friday The 13th (1980)
- By Adrian Tallent
- Published 11/19/2009
- Movies
- Unrated
Adrian Tallent
A former student of Spartanburg Technical College and overall geek, I enjoy listening to music, reading books, playing video games, and watching movies. Sometimes I write about them.
View all articles by Adrian Tallent
There are few other horror series as iconic as Friday The 13th has been throughout its illustrious run. Intended as a low-budget attempt to cash in on the popularity of the then-recent “Halloween” film, Friday the 13th has plenty of original ideas. The original film was released in 1980, and sequels continue to be made well into the modern day. Jason’s hockey mask has since become one of the most recognizable horror icons, and the series has been spoofed or named in popular culture dozens of times.
Camp Crystal Lake was an idyllic retreat for impressionable youth, though the summer fun ended after the drowning death of a young boy in the lake itself. After this singular incident, Camp Crystal Lake turned to blood as the camp counselors began to be murdered. This all happened in 1957 and the murders began the following year. The film takes place in 1979, with the planned reopening of Camp Crystal Lake and in influx of counselors who are totally ignorant of the dark legacy of “Camp Blood”. The young counselors go about fixing up the camp even as a mysterious murderous figure lurks nearby.
Now, I must say that this was my first time viewing the original 1980 film, and that all previous exposure to the series I had gotten from only the latter sequels. That said, I was surprised by how the original played out, considering that Jason is the crucial focal point of latter films when he barely figured into this one at all. In fact, the film tore down just about every preconceived notion I had about how the series began.
Personally, I kind of liked my version of the events better than what was actually used.
The film is everything you would expect of a low-budget horror. It appears to have been made by novices, but that isn’t the case; the director previously worked with Wes Craven on “The Last House On The Left”. That aside, the film utilizes some ideas that were original at the time pretty well. The screenplay flows smoothly like water in a lake, until a “fright scene”, which switches the focus onto the horror in a manner that is jarring, making the scene more effective. This is further impressive when you figure that most of the murders actually happen off screen, though the ones that are seen are shocking and visceral. It’s the kind of film that tries to instill that “someone’s there” feeling in the audience, and achieves the scare by interjecting its threat suddenly and brutally. The acting is only moderate from a cast of unknowns (at the time), although Betsy Palmer is excellent in her role as the psychotic Mrs. Vorhees (which I hear she hated doing).
To be honest, the film is not that great. Production values are poor, acting is mediocre (Mrs. Palmer excepted), the score isn’t worthwhile. But in its heyday, it produced some mighty big shocks to an audience that didn’t know what to expect, and for all its faults, it showcases some ideas that were unique at the time in the horror genre. It’s an unlikely launch pad for the series it would one day become, but for the people of the 1980s, it seems to have left a lasting impression.
Camp Crystal Lake was an idyllic retreat for impressionable youth, though the summer fun ended after the drowning death of a young boy in the lake itself. After this singular incident, Camp Crystal Lake turned to blood as the camp counselors began to be murdered. This all happened in 1957 and the murders began the following year. The film takes place in 1979, with the planned reopening of Camp Crystal Lake and in influx of counselors who are totally ignorant of the dark legacy of “Camp Blood”. The young counselors go about fixing up the camp even as a mysterious murderous figure lurks nearby.
Now, I must say that this was my first time viewing the original 1980 film, and that all previous exposure to the series I had gotten from only the latter sequels. That said, I was surprised by how the original played out, considering that Jason is the crucial focal point of latter films when he barely figured into this one at all. In fact, the film tore down just about every preconceived notion I had about how the series began.
The film is everything you would expect of a low-budget horror. It appears to have been made by novices, but that isn’t the case; the director previously worked with Wes Craven on “The Last House On The Left”. That aside, the film utilizes some ideas that were original at the time pretty well. The screenplay flows smoothly like water in a lake, until a “fright scene”, which switches the focus onto the horror in a manner that is jarring, making the scene more effective. This is further impressive when you figure that most of the murders actually happen off screen, though the ones that are seen are shocking and visceral. It’s the kind of film that tries to instill that “someone’s there” feeling in the audience, and achieves the scare by interjecting its threat suddenly and brutally. The acting is only moderate from a cast of unknowns (at the time), although Betsy Palmer is excellent in her role as the psychotic Mrs. Vorhees (which I hear she hated doing).
To be honest, the film is not that great. Production values are poor, acting is mediocre (Mrs. Palmer excepted), the score isn’t worthwhile. But in its heyday, it produced some mighty big shocks to an audience that didn’t know what to expect, and for all its faults, it showcases some ideas that were unique at the time in the horror genre. It’s an unlikely launch pad for the series it would one day become, but for the people of the 1980s, it seems to have left a lasting impression.