FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980)

 

FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980)

DIR: SEAN S. CUNNINGHAM

SYNOPSIS:

A group of camp counsellors are stalked and murdered by an unknown assailant while trying to reopen a summer camp.

REVIEW:

This is it, folks. This is where it all began. Well, with respect to where the FRANCHISE began, this is the one. Funnily enough, as time went on and more FRIDAY movies were produced, it felt a little like this one fell by the wayside to an extent. The spectre of JASON’s mother, PAMELA, always felt like it was kinda hovering around and informing the action to a greater or lesser extent during the early entries, but JASON’s M.O. quickly shifted from vengeance killings as a result of his mother’s death to “I fucking hate kids having fun”. But PAMELA VOORHEES, and her eventual beheading at the hands of FRIDAY’s very first “final girl”, ALICE, would certainly inform the narrative for this and the second entry in the franchise.

All in all, I’ve gotta come clean and admit that this is one of the FRIDAY movies I revisit the least. I find it pretty dull when stacked up against the others, but that’s not really the movie’s fault as such. If anything, it ironically became another of JASON’s victims as the series progressed and the character’s popularity soared. Seldom do you think to yourself “I wanna watch a FRIDAY movie…but I don’t want JASON to be the killer” without wanting to watch FRIDAY THE 13TH: PART 5 - ROY’S REVENGE (that’s the case for me, at least).

This being said, for what is, by its own admission, a cash-in on the popularity of HALLOWEEN, it stands up to this day as one of the quintessential entries into slasher-lore.

RATING: 🪓🪓🪓