I went into Friday the 13th thinking that I hadn't seen it before. Well, I was wrong. I had seen it recently, because most of the plot and many of the deaths were still familiar. What does that say about a film that I can watch it twice in the same year and not remember doing so?
Hell, I'm already forgetting last night's viewing. Is that a good thing? Is this some sort of weird, cursed film that everyone is destined to forget, thus forcing them to watch it again and again, over and over, because nobody can remember what the hell happened? Or is it just not that good?
On to the review!
As you are most likely aware of, Friday the 13th is one of the many horror franchises that has suffered through a recent reboot attempt. 2009 marked the failed attempt of this poor little guy, though it arguably should have happened well before Jason X. Though not a pure reboot since they changed the plot, it was still an attempt to resuscitate a beleaguered franchise. Fortunately for us, I do believe it failed.
But enough of my ramblings. You want to know what I think of the original 1980 version! For starters, I think very highly of what they were trying to do. Most of the big horror films of its time were still showing us the killer and making all the scares scenes of gore and violence. There was little attempt to frighten us with an unknown killer. At least, that's the case in the 'big' films of the time. Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Last House of the Left, and, later, A Nightmare on Elm Street all show us the villain, then spend the rest of their time trying to frighten us with depraved acts.
Come to think of it, this is one of the few horror franchise starters that relies on the Scooby-Doo 'who-done-it' feeling of mystery to add to the fear. I honestly can't think of another one.
Though I'm relatively immune to the scares throughout a horror film done thirty-two years ago with relatively silly special effects, it doesn't mean I can't appreciate what it must have done to audiences in its day. While the gore is relatively unimpressive, seeing the way our unknowing teenagers are picked off one-by-one is still effective.
Additionally, the pacing is pretty good. This is important, as pacing can absolutely destroy a horror movie. Kill too many victims too quickly, and you now have to drag out the ending. Kill too few people, and you're forced to throw in a spate of killings. Sometimes that works out, but oftentimes there ends up being so much violence on the screen that nobody can really process it, much less appreciate your 'sweet death scene.' To fix that, here's my patented mathematical solution that every filmmaker should use: Take the number of your film's victims and divide it by the length of the movie (in minutes), minus ten. (You have to take ten minutes off the movie to account for the final survivor's epic chase/fight/death scene.)
For example, if you have 8 teenagers and the movie is 90 minutes long, it would be (90-10)/8, or 80/8. This means that, roughly every ten minutes, someone should die. Of course you want to swap that up at least once to keep audiences on their toes, but this way you'll never fully lose their interest.
Anyways, back to Friday the 13th. The actors are perfectly passable considering that they're mostly there just to die. Kevin Bacon is in it, but I'm pretty sure he's been starring in films since 1932 and is, in fact, immortal. The ladies to a fine job as well, considering two of them seem to have been cast purely for their screeching abilities.
The biggest, most impressive (for its time) part of the film is its twist. Even though Friday the 13th is known as 'that franchise that features Jason,' there is no Jason to be found, unless you count a fever dream (or was it?...dun-dun-duuun) at the end of the movie. No, this has the sort of twist that Sleepaway Camp would later (sort of) imitate. While I do like movies that give you a huge twist in the end, it's also mildly disingenuous to give us a nearly unpredictable twist, what with the whole complete lack of any foreshadowing at all.
That being said, while Friday the 13th is certainly dated and can almost completely be ignored as a franchise starter, thanks to the absence of the franchise's biggest star, it still holds up as a clever, imaginative movie in the stalker-killer sub-genre. I'd say it's still better than Black Christmas (1974) but not by much.
Next week: A Nightmare on Elm Street, while I try to get my hands on some sweet, sweet Critters DVD's.
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