Friday the 13th (1980) Reviews

• Welcome to Camp Blood the classic original slasher that started it all my personal favorite

  ivo-cobra82017-09-24

  Friday the 13th is my all time favorite horror slasher film it is in my top 5 favorite Friday the 13th films. It is one of my personal favorite horror movies. It is my second favorite "Friday the 13th" movie and my all time favorite film in the horror genre. I love this movie to death and it is instant classic for me. I have the t-shirt about this movie the original film and I always wear it so much I love this film and this franchise. I watched this movie 7 years ago when I was a fan of Superntural and I have heard that actor Jared Padalecki was staring in the reboot Friday the 13th (2009) so I decide to checked 4 Friday the 13th movies: Friday the 13th the original, Friday the 13th Part 2, Jason X and of course the 2009 reboot because of Jared Padelcki and I have fun watching them. What can I say? I love this film to death I love it. I got all 11 films on Blu-ray (Freddy Vs. Jason I already had before) this Thursday and I have re watch them all. I watched this film in Friday yes Friday 22th it is a great horror suspense film. I am more a fan of the sequels just this film isn't my number one favorite film but it is in my top fives Friday the 13th films and it is in my second rank in the franchise. About the film this is a classic but the death scenes are too slow very slow it is very slow paced. We never see the assailant or who does those murders but when it comes one hour around the movie it self's becomes interesting, intense, fast paced and goes bloody around. Watch the last 30 min's with Betsy Palmer and Adrienne King there showdown, Betsy steals the show in my opinion. The last 30.mins of the movie is worth of watch. In 1958 A tragic accident at Camp Crystal Lake a young boy drowns in the lake, while the camp counselors are too busy making out, then a little later on two teenagers are brutally murdered and the Camp is closed down. Then fast forward to 1980 and a bunch of teenagers are hired to open up the camp, despite the warnings and then one by one they are killed off. We have a beautiful cast in the film that I like such a: Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Robbi Morgan, Kevin Bacon, Walt Gorney, Peter Brouwer, Laurie Bartram, Jeannine Taylor and of course Ari Lehman as young Jason. All those actors were beautiful and excellent to watch. I love the gory, death scenes which were nice kills, the special effects were real practical and real done. I love practical effects and not the CGI's that are done today. Why are not horror movies like are this one today? Hollywood doesn't make movies like are this one today. The kills in my opinion were gory real practical. There was a snake that was killed in this movie and no she was not a puppet she was a real snake in this movie that was killed off, so the death scene was for real. The effects are really good and shows even this early, Tom Savini knows his stuff, like the throat slit, axe in the head and the epic head chopped off. Directed and produced by Sean S. Cunningham who 5 years later directed and produced my favorite horror film The New Kids I liked that film and watched since I was a teen. Adrienne King was fantastic and excellent as the final girl and heroine who survived and defeated Mrs. Voorhees on the end. Tom Savini (From Dusk Till Dawn, Dawn of the Dead (1978) does special makeup effects for the film that I enjoy. Friday the 13th the original film is my favorite horror film it is a great movie to watch it does kind a get slow the first hour but when Betsy Plamer appears it get's faster around. The DVD and Blu-ray has uncut version of the film which I am glad with it, I love this film to death, I enjoy it I love everything they done with the film. It is my number 4 favorite "Friday the 13th" slasher horror movie. In my opinion it is Sean S. Cunningham best film he every did. I want see any new films like are this one today. In 26. May 2017 Friday the 13th: The Game (2017) was released which I might going to buy it next year for my PC if we get the game in our stores. I also bought Friday the 13th t-shirt with Jason's hockey mask on it. R.I.P. Betsy Palmer, Walt Gorney, Laurie Bartram, Rex Everhart and Sally Anne Golden you are missed and I have respect to all of you. The first and the original movie get's my Bad-Ass Seal Of Approval 10/10 by me this is the one that started all the slasher boom, it was "Friday The 13th" that started the 80's boom of Slashers, and became a franchise.

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• A Classic, genre defining

  Jane FlamE2001-01-24

  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"

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• A great horror classic

  TheBlueHairedLawyer2014-08-29

  Personally this one isn't my favorite slasher film, My Bloody Valentine from 1981 is. But Friday the 13th has its moments. Camp Crystal Lake has a killer out there... who could it be? No one knows, and there are some teens going there to reopen the campground for children joining up for the summer. The old coot at the local store warns otherwise but no one listens. When the truth is discovered, along with the tragic story of a drowned little boy, one girl is left fighting for her life. Friday the 13th has average scenery, mainly rural homes and trees. The acting is decent and I love the soundtrack. It isn't all that original and it had a number of other movies stealing the camp killer idea (the Burning and Sleepaway Camp), but still, Friday the 13th manages to be entertaining all the way through. I don't really understand the need for its many sequels, but it did very well as a cult film over the years and has remained a favorite within the slasher genre for years.

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• A Date to Remember

  Duzniak382006-08-02

  Friday the 13th. The movie which turned around the horror genre and gave us one of the most unforgettable villains and endings, is, and always will be a horror classic. Friday the 13th doesn't set out to be glossy and glamorous. Friday the 13th sets out to do what it wants to do; and that is, make you sit on the edge of your seat, feel uncomfortable and unnerved, to make you frightened when you go to bed after watching it. Friday the 13th delivers all of the fantastic horror goods. The plot revolves around American teenagers, who are the new counsellors at the apparently jinxed Camp Crystal Lake. These naive, horny youngsters have a one-track mind and break all of the innocent borders which has more depth than you would think. Basically, the message is "Don't have pre-marital sex, or you'll die" just like many of Friday the 13th's predecessors and clones send out as well. Friday the 13th has a variety of characters, all who you could possibly relate to. These characters are then slowly followed and hacked off one by one, in dark, gory, claustrophobic manners, which may leave you frightened in the same way Psycho made showers scary. As the camp counsellors are knocked off one by one, the tension rises higher and higher. Along the journey of carnage, the hugely effective soundtrack really creeps under your skin, highlighting how jumpy and scary the events happening on screen really are. For example when a chase scene occurs, the music may speed up, the tempo rising and jittering, almost moving like the characters on screen are. The acting in Friday the 13th is not bad at all; some of the actors/actresses may be a little amateur, but there is nothing terrible in this picture. The settings are also very effective. The stalkings and slaying in broad daylight and open spaces are a twist in a new direction, showing that not everything has to happen in the dark, in a small isolated house on the top of a hill, so the variation of location makes forests, cabins and even lakes more unappealing to the viewers afterwards, and may leave them creeped out by the aforementioned places. The camera-work is also very effective. The way the camera 'stalks' the victim behind trees and bushes, and the way the camera chases after it's victims as the point of view of the villain is unique and exciting, and adds a more tense and faster chill to the movie. Friday the 13th may play as a clichéd slasher, a story of sex equalling carnage, but it plays so effectively well it is a too important horror movie to simply be dismissed. It collects everything appealing about the 80's horror genre and wraps it up neatly into this fantastic horror package. A classic in it's genre.

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• Strangely boring and sometimes toothless in retrospect, the original "Friday the 13th" is really only notable for starting off a long-running and much beloved franchise.

  MaximumMadness2016-08-11

  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.

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