Friday the 13th (1980)
Directed by Sean S. Cunningham
Written by Victor Miller
Starring Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Harry Crosby, Kevin Bacon, Laurie Bartram
Release Date May 9th, 1980
Published August 17th, 2003
It seems many horror fans have been operating under great delusion for a number of years. That delusion is that Jason Voorhees was the star of each of the Friday the 13th films. That is not the case. Nine sequels with Jason as the focal point have colored the minds of many fans of Jason's high body count. In fact the first Friday the 13th film could be considered a stand-alone picture. It operates as a revenge movie/psycho horror film. Jason is merely a plot point, a motivation.
What is far more interesting though is how much you miss the Jason of myth as you revisit the first Friday the 13th. Over time, that myth has become a charming little joke of over the top beheadings and implausible returns from the grave. The first Friday the 13th is quite tepid in comparison with it's quasi realistic violence and complete lack of the supernatural.
The story has been copied numerous times in numerous knock off's, and of course the film itself was in fact a knock off but I digress. A group of nubile camp counselors has assembled at Camp Crystal Lake at the behest of the new owner Steve Christy (Peter Brouwer). But not without having been warned by the nearby residents that the camp is cursed. It's seems that in 1957 a young boy drowned in the lake. The following year, two counselors were brutally murdered. Each time the camp was reopened a new tragedy befell the new counselors. Nevertheless, our intrepid counselors move ahead with renovations.
It's not long however before the bodies begin to pile up. First, it’s the camps new cook Annie (Robbie Morgan) who never actually makes it to the camp. Then a couple, Jack (Kevin Bacon) and Marcie (Jeanine Taylor), who make the classic horror film mistake of having sex. After a few more murders, including the offscreen slaying of the camp’s owner, it's down to young Alice (Adrienne King) to fight off our heretofore unseen assailant.
Director Sean S. Cunningham, a veteran horror producer, doesn't bring much style to the film, though his effects and makeup are quite good. Cunningham lacks mostly in his building of suspense. The decision to leave the killer offscreen seems similar to Steven Spielberg's trouble with the shark in Jaws. It's not that he wanted the shark off-screen, it just didn't work. The same could be said of Cunningham. That keeping the killer off-screen for most of the film was not a creative choice, but one of necessity, as if he wasn't sure until late in the game how he would play it. His choice of killers is a debate for the ages.
Some horror fans claim that the killer is a great shocker that plays off stereotypical archetypes in an ironic surprise twist. I say the producers couldn't think of anything better and what they came up with is lame and horribly contrived. I am of the school of horror fans who believe that the series didn't really begin until the second film when Jason arose from the grave, not wearing the hockey mask by the way. He began a legendary run that continues soon with the recently released Freddy Vs Jason.
