Feb 16 2009
“Friday The 13th” (1980) ****
Preview
Starring: Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Harry Crosby, Laurie Bartram, Mark Nelson, Jeannine Taylor, Robbi Morgan, and Kevin Bacon.
Directed by: Sean S. Cunningham.
Story:
In 1958, two counselors at a Camp Crystal Lake summer camp are murdered while having sex by an unseen assailant. Jumping forward to present day on Friday, June 13th - A group of teenage counselors (Ned, Jack, Bill, Marcie, Brenda, Alice) re-open the campsite along with its owner, Steve Christy, to refurbish the cabins and facilities (and to have sex inside of them as well, duh). When a strong thunderstorm hits, the killing spree begins and when one young lady appears to be the last one standing, the murderous mother of Jason, Mrs. Vorhees, finally makes her appearance.
Characters:
*Mrs Vorhess (Betsy Palmer): The crazed psychotic mother of the drowned Jason Vorhees, the killing is left up to her in this first entry.
*Ned (Mark Nelson): Another one to bite the dust.
*Jack (Kevin Bacon): The young Kevin Bacon in one of his earliest on-screen roles, he plays a victim here for a change.
*Bill (Harry Crosby): Stupid enough to go out in a dark thunderstorm by himself. Arrows come in handy for people like that.
*Marcie (Jeannine Taylor): More cannon fodder.
*Brenda (Laurie Bartram): She’s so hot she gets axed.
*Alice (Adrienne King): The heroine of the flick. She has a very nasty a habit of assuming she’s killed the person chasing her when the killer simply gets up again several times. Bad girl.
*Steve Christy (Peter Brouwer): The owner of Camp Crystal Lake.
Overall:
“Friday The 13th” was the next best thing to happen to the slasher horror genre since 1978’s “Halloween” which it drew much inspiration from. Panned by many critics upon its release, it grossed nearly $40 million domestically, becoming one of the most profitable slasher films in the history of cinema. One of horror’s most popular and influential icons was given birth to from this franchise, that is Jason Vorhees, the tall and looming hockey-mask wearing murderer. Although he’s not very much involved in this first film, he plays a very important role to the story while his mother does the killing.
The cast performs well for what their characters are given (hey, what do you expect? it’s a teenage slasher flick, one of the first of its kind), be on the look out for one of Kevin Bacon’s earliest roles in this, he plays one of the teenage counselors in this flick. As a slasher film, it continues many trends found in “Prom Night” (1980) and “Halloween” (1978), one of most notably being the heroine defeating the killer several times and assuming she’s dead without even bothering to double check, fast forward a moment later and the killer is up and running again.
I wouldn’t say it is the best film in the series as the franchise’s iconic Jason character doesn’t make his mark until the next film, but it sets the stage well for the franchise and plants the seeds for the story of Jason Vorhees which we have all become familiar with. “Friday The 13th” has long since become one of the longest-running franchises to date alongside ‘James Bond’, ‘Star Trek’, ‘Harry Potter’, and ‘A Nightmare On Elm Street’, spawning nine sequels and a 2009 reboot.
Rating: ****
