Friday the 13th

Rating:
Summary: Friday The 13th (1980)
Review: In 1974, director Tobe Hooper had brought us the frightening, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre". In 1978, just four years after "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", John Carpenter, brought us the terrifying, "Halloween". Both films may have chilled us all to the bone, but those films did not define the term, "Slasher Flick".

In 1980, director Sean S. Cunningham brought us the infamous, "Friday The 13th", the film that had definite potential in defining, "Slasher Flick". It was the one horror movie that really made you re-think your camping trip.

In the summer of 1957, 11-year-old Jason Voorhees (played by Ari Lehman) drowned in the lake, while at Camp Crystal Lake. In the summer of 1958, two counselors, Barry (played by Willie Adams) and Claudette (played by Debra S. Hayes), were brutally slaughtered. Since then, Camp Crystal Lake was shut down, due to the unsolved murders. But on Friday, June 13th, 1980, exactly 22 years after the two murders, Steve Christy (played by Peter Brouwer) has re-opened Camp Crystal Lake, where has hired seven new counselors: Jack Burrell (played by Kevin Bacon), Ned Rubinstein (played by Mark Nelson), Marcie Cunningham (played by Jeannine Taylor), Brenda (played by Laurie Bartram), Bill (played by Harry Crosby), Annie (played by Robbi Morgan), & Alice Hardy (played by Adrienne King).

Only six of the counselors have arrived at Camp Crystal Lake. Annie is still on her way, but she has come across the anonymous killer, who had killed the two others 22 years ago. Poor Annie didn't have a chance to live the rest of her life.

Steve Christy goes off on an errands, while the other six continue to get the place in shape for the little kids. But Ned, Jack, Marcie, Brenda, and Bill meet the same fate as Annie, where they are killed by the same anonymous killer, until Alice is the only one left alive. She finds Bill's dead body and runs back to the main cabin, barricading the door. But as she locks all the doors in the cabin, Brenda's dead body is thrown through the kitchen window. Alice runs into the living and sees a jeep pull up. She runs out to meet the driver in the jeep. The driver in the jeep is a woman named Pamela Voorhees. She reveals her true identity as the brutal killer of this whole ordeal. Her motive: the death of her son, Jason Voorhees. She claims the two counselors she murdered in 1958 were the ones that allowed Jason to drown, while they were sleeping together. After a long battle with Mrs. Voorhees, Alice grabs a machete and decapitates Mrs. Voorhees.
Alice, relieved that she has finally stopped the madness, climbs into a canoe and drifts off into the lake. She awakes the next morning to the sound of a police calling out to her. But as she looks up, Jason's rotting corpse jumps up out of the water and pulls Alice underneath the water, but Alice finds herself in the hospital. The sheriff of Crystal Lake asks if Alice remembers anything. She remembers everything, including her dream of Jason pulling her into the water. The sheriff brings to Alice's attention that there was no boy.

Advice from me to you: Camping does not seem like a good idea right now. But cheer up. Grab your copy of Friday The 13th and enjoy it, until everything dies down at Camp Crystal Lake.

Rating:
Summary: This is where it all started
Review: "Friday the 13th" is the first in a long (long) line of sequals. A group of kids have gotten to Camp Crystal Lake to reopen the camp grounds. But lurking in the in the shadows and the bushes is someone, and this someone soon starts killing all the kids as savagly as possable. First of all, the mystery (and that's what the first one is) dosn't play fair, the killer comes out of no where. I liked it because this is the goriest of all of them. This movie is the perfect example of 80s slasher movies; gratuitous sex and violence, with just a slight wink to let you know the film makers aren't taking things too seriosly. The only notable item in this movie for main stream audiences is Kevin Bacon has a small part in it, and is butchered in the movie's silliest death scene. The killer is under the bed with a spear, and he shoved it through the bed, through his throat. There is no way they could have had that long a weapon put it through the bed. But all the silliness is what makes it so great.

Rating:
Summary: Unfairly overrated bloody picture - no imagination
Review: "Friday the 13th", it's John Carpenter's classic "Halloween" in the country, or more precisely in a vacation camp for teenagers. It's easier to shoot a little horror film in a desert place than in Los Angeles (yes, actually, "Halloween" was shot in Los Angeles). You take a group of young, horny characters searching for some chilling and strong emotions, coming (on purpose?) in a desert, isolated, frightening, cursed place with a past and reputation, closed by the authorities because of some tragic events which occured in this very place, many years before. This is stupid and very, too predictible. You're at once able to guess that in the end all the characters will die... except one woman, like in some classic American horror movies released a little time before ("Halloween", "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" or "Alien"...).

Take the whole plot of "Halloween" (a group of young people, a lonesome, hiding serial killer with a mask - here the one of an ice-hockey player, which isn't difficult to find -, a forest to set a so-called 'atmosphere' - in "Halloween", Michael Myers uses the trees and other thick plants in order to stay out of sight -, and a stupid opened ending - 'So he's still over there!'), put much more blood and violence in it ('gore' scenes like decapitations, cut throats...) and you got a picture (a copy, but still a picture), not good at all but able to get the same financial success as "Halloween"'s. This is really the essential, the main thing, no matter the quality, the actors and the makers (if we know everything about Carpenter, we don't know nothing about Sean S. Cunningham and we don't care about the screenwriter); when you leave the theater or stop the tape recorder, you don't have the feeling that you just watched an unforgettable film. Because "Friday the 13th" is no good, it's ridiculous. I won't tell about the too many sequels (nine so far), the ones as silly as the others, made only for a commercial purpose.

In 1996, Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson made exactly the same thing with "Scream" (& sequels), taking the plot and putting it on a campus, with a cast of young actors looking like top-models and a result as bad as in this one.

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Summary: ONE OF THE STUPIDEST MOVIES I'VE EVER SEEN - I LOVE IT!
Review: "FRIDAY THE 13TH" IN MY OPINION, IS A CORNY LOW BUDGET FILM THAT OVER THE YEARS HAS BECOME A CULT CLASSIC. SURE WE DON'T GET JASON UNTIL THE SECOND FILM, BUT YOU HAVE TO RESPECT THE FUN OF THIS FILM. SOME PEOPLE SAY THAT THE MOVIE WAS WRITTEN BY HORRIBLE WRITERS. I THINK THEY PURPOSELY MADE IT THIS WAY. IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A SERIOUS PLOT SKIP THIS FILM. BUT IF YOU WANT TO HAVE YOURSELF A GOOD TIME, SEE THIS FILM.

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Summary: Classic Slasher
Review: "Friday the 13th". Anyone that hears those words either thinks of superstitions or the slasher series that graced the 1980's with sex, drugs and gore. The first was the best, and it had some originality to it (unlike the 8 sequels), a great heroine, a perfect chase scene and numerous deaths. Not one death is the same. If you don't know the plot by now you must be living under a rock. Camp Crystal Lake has been closed for over 20 years after two murders, a drowning, fires, bad water, etc. In 1980, the owner decides to reopen the camp, hiring 7 counselors to clean up the place before the season begins. Now these counselors are sex crazed, immature, pot smoking, loudmouthed goofballs, perfect beings for one psycho lunatic to knock off. As night falls, an unknown killer (but by now everyone knows who it is, although I won't say who for the sake of anyone who has not seen the film) murders several counselors in various ways: a throat slashing, spear through the neck, axe in the face (my personal favorite), an archery range death (need I say more?), an arrow in the eye and a nice decapitation! Ok, so this isn't Oscar material btu I think it is highly entertaining. I mean, if it wasn't entertaining do you think it would have given birth to countless imitations and 8 sequels! Little tidbit of information for anyone who doesn't know: Jason is NOT the killer in this. He makes a very small cameo in the end as a little boy. No hockey masked loon in this one. Anyway, there are a few scares in this, so rent it.

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Summary: the best of the series...
Review: "Friday the 13th". This is "the original slasher flick". It all starts off in the late '50's where two teen "make love" and are brutally murdered. It then picks up in the early eighties where teen consuelors are murdered one by one by a revenge driven women (the mother of the boy who drowned there in the late 50's Jason of course). MPAA Rating: R for strong violence and gore, sex, brief nudity, and some profanity.

Rating:
Summary: Scary, Funny - A definite Classic!
Review: "In 1957, a young boy drowns at Camp Crystal Lake, the next year, two counselors are murdered by an unseen person, and the story flashes forward to Friday June 13th, 'Present Day' which has Camp Crystal Lake opening again. The counselors are killed off one by one, again by an unseen person. The killer is revealed to the lone survivor, and the movie comes back with a surprise ending". This movie contains several shocks and surprises and is a definite must for any filmlover.. Sure, the acting can be a little funny at times, but the film is great! To discuss this movie with others, send a blank email to [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: A good slasher classic
Review: - The first movie in a serie is always the best. F13 part 1 is a awesome slasher classic, alltough not my personal favourite in the serie. A good buy if you enjoy horror/slashers.

Rating:
Summary: Here'sss MOMMY!
Review: . ...This film was pretty scarey the first time around. Simple story maniacal killer going around killing off teenage camp counselors.
Ok movie but all the stupid sequels are ridiculous


Rating:
Summary: For Tom Savini's magic only
Review: ... slasher fest about a group of niave councilors being slaughtered at an abandoned summer camp. Interesting premise ruined by B-grade performances, thin story and ham-fisted direction. Still, special make-up effects wizard Savinin does show some style and colour in the mutilations (especially Kevin Bacon's arrow-through-the-throat gag).
The Paramount DVD edition of this movie is a disappointment to fans as far as extras go (theatrical trailer - bore), but a nice and neat 16:9 enhanced widescreen presentation and a clear and loud Dolby Mono track does make it satisfactory to the average horror buff.