Review: Friday the 13th (1980)
Rating: *****
Starring: Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King and Jeannine Taylor
Well, here I go, my first review…in a blog…to be shown…in public. God help me.
For every successful franchise is always a beginning; Indiana Jones have “Raiders of The Lost Arc”, Godzilla have, well, Godzilla (1960), but what makes The whole plethora of Friday the 13th movies so different from these is that the first movie didn’t even bother to have the same killer as the rest of the franchise did.
Okay, all self-respecting F13th fans would know what I’m talking about, but for those who doesn't, let ole Pappy bring you all the way back to the 80s. (And slap your head repeatedly while we’re at it. Shame on you! SHAME FOR NOT KNOWING WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!)
Cue "Sea of Love" |
In 1979, young Annie hitches a ride from a local diner to the camp, now re(-re-re-re-)opened by Steve Christy; despite Crazy Ralph, a local doom-sayer, rambling that the camp had a death curse, and friendly truck driver, Enos, who gave her a ride telling her that the camp is jinxed, Annie drop off half way from the camp, but only to be picked up by a driver. Good luck turns bad when the driver refuses to talk and let her go, Annie jumps out and the killer gave chase. Not for long, the maniac catches up on her and slices her neck open.
Sorry, hun, I don't think peppermints can fix that... |
The two lovers in the bunkhouse decides to grab opportunity by the gnarls and do each other, unaware that one of their friends lay bleeding from his neck cut above the top bunk. After finishing their bedroom business, ole Kevin Bacon decides to smoke a fag, only to get an early demise by an arrow to the throat. His girl goes next when the killer buries an axe into her face. All this went unnoticed by the three in the cabin, who are busy playing "strip-monopoly".
Oh dear God! KILL HIM! |
Dude, You've been throated! |
After a struggle against the crone, Alice knocks her own with a frying pan before lumbering her way away from the camp, but Mrs. Voorhees is far from dead, and attacks her once more at the lake shore. There, Annie managed to knock off the killer's machete and uses it to decapitate her. As death rattle flails her arms, Alice climbs in a canoe and floats away.
That morning, the cops arrived to help her, but a zombified corpse of Jason, as a boy, leaps out of the water and pulls her in.Whether this really happened or not is never fully explained, as she later finds herself in a hospital, being interrogated by police. When she mentioned about the boy, Jason, the cops were baffled and tells her that they didn't find any boy.
Thus, "... he's still there..."
"le gasp!" |
True grit isn't found on the dirt, it's on the teeth. |
What makes this movie so enjoyable is the fact that it’s perfect…well, perfect in a sense that it is the primary example of a backwoods slasher done right. From isolated locations almost devoid of any help and authorities, red herrings, stereotyped characters and, of course, a high and gory body count. Yes, for a franchise that reaches 300 deaths or so, this one takes the easy (and partially tame) step to stardom.
"Oh You killed me! You killed me!" "oh my God! What have I done?" "I just told you, you killed me!" |
Director Sean S. Cunningham and Writer Victor Miller may had not been sure on how big their little movie would have become, but judging from the fans this movie still have from then til today, it definitely earned its gory glory (Though, Sean did managed to produce a couple of good horror comedy flicks, such as House (1986), and "My Boyfriend's Back"(1993), though, I've yet to see the latter...); but would it's sequel do better? Well...
Bodycount:
1 male knifed to the gut
1 female killed (offscreen)
1 female neck slashed with hunting knife
1 male found with neck slit
1 male gets an arrow driven through his neck from under the bed
1 female had face split with hatchet
1 male stabbed on the gut and neck with knife
1 male found pinned to the door via shot arrows
1 female thrown through a window, seen dying
1 female decapitated with machete.
Total: 10
Huzzah! Your first review post and one of my favorite movies too! Your affection for it really comes out in your writing - well done! During this year's Halloween Horrorfest over at my blog - I did a three day spotlight on the Friday the 13th movie series - if you're interested - here is a link (probably will need to cut and paste)
ReplyDeletehttp://craiglgooh.blogspot.com/2011/10/voorhees-jolly-good-fellow.html
Sweet! Thanks, mate! That really meant a lot to me.
ReplyDeleteAnd nice three-parter post!