Friday the 13th (1980)
2/4
Starring: Adrienne King, Jeannine Taylor, Robbi Morgan, Kevin Bacon, Harry Crosby, Laurie Bertram, Mark Nelson, Peter Brouwer
Rated R for Violence/Gore, Sexuality/Nudity, and Drug Use (I guess)
The "Friday the 13th" franchise is one of the "Big Three" slasher franchises (the other two being the "Halloween" saga and the "Nightmare on Elm Street" movies). After having seen all three of the movies, I'd have to say that "Halloween" reigns supreme. That's the scary one, while Freddy Krueger's debut was creepy and inventive, but not on the same level. "Friday the 13th" certainly has its moments, including one very effective shock, but for the most part it's just a poser.
Camp Crystal Lake has a bad history. The year after a child drowned, two counselors looking for a hot encounter were butchered, and the camp has been plagued by misfortune ever since. This year, the son of the Christys, who own the camp, plans to reopen the camp. He's brought in a bunch of horny teenagers to help him run it. Needless to say, most of them don't survive to welcome the kids.
If this sounds like a rip-off of "Halloween," you're right. It was meant to be from the ground up. Producer/director Sean S. Cunningham wanted to make a movie that would scare his audience, but unlike his inspiration, he wanted the audience to laugh as well. Indeed, the film is kinda funny. The characters are uniformly dumb, the acting is, at best, adequate (including Kevin Bacon, who was an unknown at the time.), and it seems at times to be aware of its silliness (although not in the same way that the "Scream" franchise is).
Even knowing what the film was meant to be, it's still not very good. The characters are undeveloped that it's hard to know who is who. While characterization is not a prerequisite for even the best horror movies (like "The Descent" or even "Wrong Turn"), it is essential that we are at least able to tell them apart. Otherwise, who cares if they live or die?
The film is really a series of set pieces that revolve around one of the teens getting murdered. You know how they go...someone gets confused by a sound or goes looking for someone, the creepy music starts, the false kills, then the character gets stabbed, carved up or filleted. It's a formula that "Halloween" made classic, but that was because it was put together with skill (Cunningham's direction is sloppy and the editing is jumpy) and passion. Here, it's just a geek show, and not a very good one.
Starring: Adrienne King, Jeannine Taylor, Robbi Morgan, Kevin Bacon, Harry Crosby, Laurie Bertram, Mark Nelson, Peter Brouwer
Rated R for Violence/Gore, Sexuality/Nudity, and Drug Use (I guess)
The "Friday the 13th" franchise is one of the "Big Three" slasher franchises (the other two being the "Halloween" saga and the "Nightmare on Elm Street" movies). After having seen all three of the movies, I'd have to say that "Halloween" reigns supreme. That's the scary one, while Freddy Krueger's debut was creepy and inventive, but not on the same level. "Friday the 13th" certainly has its moments, including one very effective shock, but for the most part it's just a poser.
Camp Crystal Lake has a bad history. The year after a child drowned, two counselors looking for a hot encounter were butchered, and the camp has been plagued by misfortune ever since. This year, the son of the Christys, who own the camp, plans to reopen the camp. He's brought in a bunch of horny teenagers to help him run it. Needless to say, most of them don't survive to welcome the kids.
If this sounds like a rip-off of "Halloween," you're right. It was meant to be from the ground up. Producer/director Sean S. Cunningham wanted to make a movie that would scare his audience, but unlike his inspiration, he wanted the audience to laugh as well. Indeed, the film is kinda funny. The characters are uniformly dumb, the acting is, at best, adequate (including Kevin Bacon, who was an unknown at the time.), and it seems at times to be aware of its silliness (although not in the same way that the "Scream" franchise is).
Even knowing what the film was meant to be, it's still not very good. The characters are undeveloped that it's hard to know who is who. While characterization is not a prerequisite for even the best horror movies (like "The Descent" or even "Wrong Turn"), it is essential that we are at least able to tell them apart. Otherwise, who cares if they live or die?
The film is really a series of set pieces that revolve around one of the teens getting murdered. You know how they go...someone gets confused by a sound or goes looking for someone, the creepy music starts, the false kills, then the character gets stabbed, carved up or filleted. It's a formula that "Halloween" made classic, but that was because it was put together with skill (Cunningham's direction is sloppy and the editing is jumpy) and passion. Here, it's just a geek show, and not a very good one.
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