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Friday the 13th<\/sup><\/strong> (1980)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount Pictures\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 94 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, graphic violence, nudity, sexual content, drug use)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Sean S. Cunningham\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Victor Miller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Harry Manfredini\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Barry Abrams\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 9, 1980 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Jeannine Taylor, Robbi Morgan, Kevin Bacon, Harry Crosby, Laurie Bartram, Mark Nelson, Peter Brouwer, Walt Gorney, Rex Everhart, Ronn Carroll, Willie Adams, Debra S. Hayes.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $39.7 million (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Body Count: 10\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0I\u2019m going to say right off that I love the Friday the 13th<\/sup> movies. I know that none of the movies (11 in all) stand as shining examples of quality cinema as defined by most film lovers. Well, I\u2019m not your normal film lover, but I suspect you already know that. I\u2019ve decided to tackle the massive undertaking of reviewing all of the F13 movies and what better place to start than where it all began.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Friday the 13th<\/sup><\/strong> opened in 1100 theaters on May 9, 1980 and changed the face of horror forever. It\u2019s regarded as one of the first true \u201cmad slasher\u201d flicks although it\u2019s also been called a \u201cdead teenager\u201d movie. Either way you look at it, the killer racks up a pretty decent body count by movie\u2019s end, all of them teenagers. The teens in the F13 movies are typically horny types with loose morals and limited intelligence. If any of them had an ounce of sense, they wouldn\u2019t get into the no-escape predicaments they usually find themselves in. What fun would that be? It also bears mentioning that Friday the 13th<\/sup><\/strong> is the first low budget horror flick to be distributed by a major studio. It was made for about $550,000 and Paramount picked it up for $1.5 million. It went on to be one of the top box office hits of the year. I didn\u2019t get to see it during its initial release due to that pesky R-rated movie parental block, but I heard all about it from friends at school and church. I knew that it was my kind of movie just by its description.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0The story begins in 1958 when two camp counselors sneak away from a sing-along to fool around and get killed by an unseen assailant. It then jumps forward to present day where Annie (Morgan) is making her way to Camp Crystal Lake, the same place where the murders occurred. The townspeople are horrified that Steve Christy (Brouwer) is reopening the place given all that\u2019s happened there over the years. As town drunk Crazy Ralph (Gorney) puts it, the camp has a death curse on it. The trouble started in \u201957 when a young boy drowned in the lake. Since then, it\u2019s been one incident after another. Annie never makes it to the camp. She hitches a ride with an unseen person who slashes the girl\u2019s throat in the woods.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0At the camp, Steve welcomes three new arrivals- Jack (Bacon), his girlfriend Marcie (Taylor) and best friend Neddy (Nelson). Also present are Brenda (Bartram), Bill (Crosby) and Alice (King). They spend the day fixing up the camp and goofing around while Steve runs into town for supplies. A storm hits just before nightfall. That\u2019s when the massacre begins. The killer stalks and dispatches the teens one by one until only one is left. You know how it goes, right?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0The identity of the killer is common knowledge, so I have absolutely no problem revealing it here. It\u2019s Pamela Voorhees (Palmer), the mother of the drowned boy. The sole survivor of the slaughter is Alice. She\u2019s a fighter, that one. It\u2019s also common knowledge that Alice beheads Mrs. Voorhees with a machete during the climactic fight. Again, I have no qualms about discussing this. Chances are if you\u2019re reading this review, you\u2019ve already seen Friday the 13th<\/sup><\/strong>, probably several times.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0The real attraction of the F13 movies are the murders. The writers are very creative when it comes to that. In this first movie, a girl gets her head split open with an axe and a guy gets an arrow through the back of his neck while lying in his bunk. Another fellow gets impaled to a door with several arrows. At least one victim is hung upside down after getting murdered. What I want to know is how a middle-aged woman managed that? She couldn\u2019t possibly be that strong. Or could she? You don\u2019t ask questions like that of an F13 movie. You just have to accept what\u2019s happening as truth and enjoy the bloody ride.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0You also don\u2019t critique the acting in an F13 flick. The teens are all character-types as opposed to actual characters. Basically, they\u2019re lambs lined up for the slaughter. Each one has a defining trait or two, but forget about finding any well-rounded characters in these movies. That would require more effort than is necessary. The actors deliver the exact kinds of performances the movie requires. That pretty much goes for all the F13 movies. However, it is interesting to see a young Kevin Bacon at the beginning of his career.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Once you realize that Friday the 13th<\/sup><\/strong> is a blood-drenched thrill ride, a cinematic funhouse, it\u2019s kind of brilliant in its own way. The camera work is quite good, especially in the scenes that utilize the killer\u2019s point-of-view. It makes what\u2019s happening scarier. The score by Harry Manfredini is classic. It ranks alongside classic horror movies scores like Halloween and Psycho. It adds a strong element of tension to the proceedings. When those strings kick in, neck hairs will stick up and hearts will race.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Director Sean S. Cunningham (producer of The Last House on the Left) and writer Victor Miller do an amazing job with Friday the 13th<\/sup><\/strong>. I like the picture\u2019s style; Cunningham gives it the feel of a grindhouse flick and keeps it taut with suspense. Up until this point, this kind of movie generally played in crummy urban grindhouse theaters, but Cunningham took it to the next level. Did he give the genre an air of respectability? On some level perhaps, but I\u2019m sure many would debate the issue. It\u2019s interesting to watch it today and see how much has changed since it first came out. Casual sex among teens isn\u2019t the norm in horror movies today. Also, the genre has become somewhat stale and watered-down with the advent of the PG-13 rated horror movie. It\u2019s comforting to know that you can always look to a movie like Friday the 13th<\/sup><\/strong> as a reminder that the genre was once cool. It\u2019s my go-to horror franchise.<\/p>\r\n Friday the 13th (1980)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount Pictures\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 94 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, graphic violence, nudity, sexual content, drug use)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Sean S. Cunningham\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Victor Miller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Harry Manfredini\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Barry Abrams\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 9, 1980 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Jeannine Taylor, Robbi Morgan, Kevin Bacon, Harry Crosby, Laurie Bartram, Mark Nelson, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Friday-the-13th-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":636,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions\/636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Friday-the-13th-POSTER.jpg?resize=620%2C926&ssl=1\")
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