Friday the 13th - Part 1

Friday the 13th: Paramount Pictures/ Warner Bros. Home Video
Rating: USA: R/ UK: 18/ Australia: R

It?s doubtful that even director Sean S. Cunningham (A Stranger is Watching, DeepStar Six) could have imagined the impact and influence his psuedo-exploitation flick Friday the 13th would have upon the horror genre after its release in 1980. No one expected much from this low budget schlocker?other than a weekend of fair business and a quick fade from the theaters. Instead, the film became a hit, appealing to an audience who loved John Carpenter?s Halloween and kids who hungered for more mass-murdering mayhem. While falling well short of the quality level of Carpenter?s classic, Friday the 13th would go on to become one of the most successful genre films of all time?spawning eight sequels (with a reported ninth and tenth on the way) and reshaping the genre in its own image.

Friday the 13th is a film surrounded in misconception?from the identity of the killer in the first film through to its slasher film status. Long championed as one of the first slasher films and a Halloween clone, Friday the 13th is something more. It?s a film that certainly serves as the blueprint for countless other slasher affairs?yet the original film owes far more to the Italian gialli than Halloween, Black Christmas, or Psycho (which seem to be the most obvious choices for the grandfathers of the slasher movement). At its core, Friday the 13th is a fairly elaborate mystery with some impressive and violent murder setpieces?just like the gialli of Argento, Bava, and countless others (in fact, Steve Miner, director of F13 2 and 3 has admitted to borrowing murder sequences from Bava?s Bay of Blood AKA Twitch of the Death Nerve). The gialli always have an air of mystery concerning the identity of the killer, whereas most of the films in the slasher canon make it readily apparent who?s doing the killing from the start (in fact, they almost revel in it as the number of sequels increase?making the monsters into anti-heroes in the process). And while the academicization of horror is a fairly boring task (especially when one considers that there?s little in the way of concrete definition concerning what constitutes a slasher), I feel it?s still a distinction worth making.

What little plot the film has revolves around Camp Crystal Lake?a long abandoned summer camp that was the site of a tragedy. It seems young Jason Voorhees drowned in the lake while two camp counselors slinked off for an afternoon quickie. Anyway, after years of non-use, an enterprising young guy decides to re-open it. He and a staff of teen-aged counselors prepare the camp for the arrival of the first busload of kids?and start getting knocked off in the process.

Admittedly, this is pretty much the standard formula for later slasher fare. However, back in 1980, audiences hadn?t seen hundreds of formulaic slasher flicks, and the effect was new and interesting. And while things eventually degenerate into a gory stalk and slash fest, Cunningham does try to build some atmosphere in the film?s early scenes. Unfortunately, Cunningham isn?t much of a director?witnessed by the fact that he films most of the scenes in the most conventional, uninteresting ways possible, and in the way he lets many of the scenes run longer than necessary?giving the film a padded feel (something you don?t want in a film that?s only 90 minutes in length).

The film?s performances are all fairly unremarkable?not unwatchable, but not Oscar material either. Perhaps the most well known fact about the cast is that a very young Kevin Bacon (Stir of Echoes, Tremors) has a role as Jack, the devil-may-care stud counselor who dies particularly hard after having sex and smoking a joint. To his credit, Bacon?s never been ashamed to talk about the production of the film (which was an awful experience by all accounts) or its impact on his career. Also worth noting is Betsy Palmer who turns in a fun performance as Mrs. Voorhees?camping it up quite nicely, in fact.

The film?s realistic FX work was done by gore legend Tom Savini (Dawn of the Dead, Maniac, Day of the Dead). While they look a bit dated by today?s standards, they were fairly cutting edge at the time. There?s a good bit of gore in Friday the 13th, including an arrow through the throat, an arrow in the eye, some knifings, and a decapitation. Mainstream audiences should still find it all suitably "icky", but most hardcore gore fans will be pretty non-plussed.

In the end, Friday the 13th is almost a minimalist film. Cunningham and company have taken all the major elements that made Halloween and many of the gialli so successful and pared them down to their lowest common denominators. Gore ultimately replaces atmosphere and the characters are little more than caricatures (especially when compared to the well-drawn females in Halloween). Yet, it still works, for the most part. It?s a lazy film, of that there can be little doubt, yet it does just enough things right to make it an entertaining watch?especially when one views it in the proper historical context?as the first film with the title and not as the film that spawned a gazillion lame sequels and nearly destroyed the genre in the process. Friday the 13th is well worth a rental.