Friday the 13th
Tags: suspenseful, grindhouse film, cruelty, gothic, murder, boring, cult, horror, violence, insanity, revenge, sadist, prank

Plot synopsis:
In a brief prologue set in 1958, two summer camp counselors at Camp Crystal Lake, named Barry (Willie Adams) and Claudette (Debra S. Hayes), sneak away from a camp fire sing-along to have sex. Before they can completely undress, an unseen assailant sneaks into the room and murders them both.The film moves forward to (the present) Friday June 13th; a young woman named Annie (Robbi Morgan) enters a small diner and asks for directions to Camp Crystal Lake, much to the shock of the restaurant's patrons and staff. A strange old man named Ralph (Walt Gorney) reacts to the news of the camp's reopening by warning Annie that they are "all doomed". Enos (Rex Everhart), a friendly truck driver from the diner, agrees to give Annie a lift halfway to the camp. During the drive, he warns her about the camp, informing her that a young boy drowned in Crystal Lake in 1957, one year before the double murders occurred. After Enos lets her out, Annie walks on. A little later, Annie hitches a ride and gets picked up by an unseen driver in a Jeep. As the driver speeds past the entrance to the camp, Annie becomes concerned and leaps from the moving vehicle when the driver fails to stop, fleeing into the woods. The unseen driver chases her into the woods and slits her throat with a bowie knife.At the camp, the other counselors, Ned (Mark Nelson), Jack (Kevin Bacon), Bill (Harry Crosby), Marcie (Jeannine Taylor), Alice (Adrienne King), and Brenda (Laurie Bartram) are refurbishing the cabins and facilities along with the camp's demanding owner, Steve Christy (Peter Brouwer). They have a few strange incidents, including a prank where one of them pretends to drown, and an unwelcome visit from the local police. They find a large snake in one of the cabins, chopping it in half with a machete. They also receive a visit from Ralph, who again warns them that they are "doomed". As a violent storm closes in on the horizon, Steve leaves the campgrounds to get more supplies.Meanwhile, the unidentified killer (still unseen except for a pair of black slacks, a brown plad shirt and a class ring on his/her left ring finger) begins to isolate and murder the counselors one by one. Ned spots the killer (now wearing a hooded black rainslicker) walking into a cabin. Nick follows the person into the cabin.As the violent rainstorm hits the camp, Marcie and Jack later enter the cabin and have sex in one of the bunks, unaware that Ned's dead body is in the upper berth. Afterwards, Marcie leaves to visit the ladies bathroom, and Jack is attacked by the killer, who is lying in wait underneath the cot. The murderer drives an arrow up through the bed and it pierces Jack's throat, killing him. While using the bathroom, Marcie hears a noise by the showers. Thinking its Jack playing a joke on her, she goes and pulls back a shower curtain. Finding nothing, she turns around and finds the unseen killer wielding an felling axe and gets it slammed in her face.Bill, Alice, and Brenda play "strip Monopoly" in Alice's cabin, until the rain makes Brenda remember she left her cabin windows open. As Brenda settles down to bed, she hears a faint, child-like voice calling "Help me!" from the woods. Brenda walks outside with a flashlight in the pouring rain trying to locate where the child's voice is coming from. She ventures to the archery range where the hooded rainslicker killer turns on the blinding lights at the range, distracting Brenda who is then killed off-screen. Hearing her scream, Bill and Alice go to investigate but only find the bloody axe (the same axe used to kill Marcie) in Brenda's bed. After looking around the camp, they find nobody and begin to suspect that something is up. Attempting to call the police, they discover the phone lines have been cut and that the cars won't start when they try to leave.Meanwhile, Steve is in town having dinner at a local diner when he goes back to his jeep for the drive back to Camp Crystal Lake. But during the drive, his jeep, towing a trailer, gets stuck in the mud off a secondary road. Yet a passing policeman gives him a ride part of the way back to the camp. Steve is let out as the officer gets a call about a car accident in town. With the rain letting up, Steve begins to walk back to the camp alone. When Steve arrives at the entrance to the camp, he is also murdered, apparently familiar with his attacker.When the lights go out all over the camp, Bill goes to check on the power generator, but doesn't know how to operate it or figure out what is wrong. When Bill doesn't return, Alice heads out to the generator cabin looking for him, and she finds his body pinned to a door by several arrows. Now alone, Alice flees back to the main cabin and hides. After a few moments of silence, Brenda's corpse is hurled through a window. Alice hears a vehicle outside the cabin and, thinking it to be Steve, runs out to warn him. Instead she finds a middle-aged woman who introduces herself as Mrs. Voorhees (Betsy Palmer), an "old friend of the Christys". Alice hysterically tries to tell her about the murders. Mrs. Voorhees expresses horror at the sight of Brenda's body, but she soon reveals herself to be the mother of the boy who drowned in the lake in 1957.Talking mostly to herself, she blames her son Jason's drowning on the fact that two counselors were having sex and were unaware of Jason's struggling in the lake. She tells Alice that today happens to be Jason's birthday, which Alice beings to worry on where Steve is. Mrs. Voorhees suddenly turns violent and pulls out her bowie knife (thus revealing the bowie knife as well as her class ring on her left ring finger confirming that Mrs. Voorhees is the killer), rushing at Alice, but Alice uses a fireplace poker and temporally knocks Mrs. Voorhees unconscious. A lengthy chase ensues, during which Alice flees her attacker and finds Steve's and Annie's bodies in the process.Mrs. Voorhees turns back on the generator to the camp and then chases Alice all over the camp in a climatic chase, in which speaks to herself in Jason's voice. She corners Alice in a storage shed, where Alice has found a rifle. Before Alice can load it, Mrs. Voorhees attacks her and slaps her around. Alice escapes and runs back to the main cabin, hiding behind a locked door in the pantry. Mrs. Voorhees, now brandishing a machete breaks the door open and rushes in at Alice. Alice hits her on the side of the head with a frying pan, rendering her unconscious and believing to be dead.Heading out to the side of the lake, Alice sits down next to the water, but Mrs. Voorhees comes rushing out at her again with the machete. Narrowly avoiding her machete, The two of them then wrestle next to the lake. Besting her attacker, Alice gains the upper hand and finally kills Mrs. Voorhees by decapitating her. Now in shock, Alice gets in a canoe and rows out to the middle of the lake, where she falls asleep.Morning comes, and Alice is still asleep in the canoe. Police arrive and call out to her, and she awakens. As she sits up and contemplates her own rescue, the decomposing body of Jason (Ari Lehman), attacks Alice and pulls her out of the canoe. Just as she is dragged underwater, she wakes in a hospital, where a police officer tells her that they pulled her out of the lake, and that everyone at the camp are dead. When she asks about Jason, the officer informs her they never found any boy. Alice replies, "Then he's still there." and shows the lake at peace.

Review: It is my second favorite "Friday the 13th" movie and my all time favorite film in the horror genre.
Then fast forward to 1980 and a bunch of teenagers are hired to open up the camp, despite the warnings and then one by one they are killed off.We have a beautiful cast in the film that I like such a: Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Robbi Morgan, Kevin Bacon, Walt Gorney, Peter Brouwer, Laurie Bartram, Jeannine Taylor and of course Ari Lehman as young Jason.
Cunningham who 5 years later directed and produced my favorite horror film The New Kids I liked that film and watched since I was a teen.Adrienne King was fantastic and excellent as the final girl and heroine who survived and defeated Mrs. Voorhees on the end.Tom Savini (From Dusk Till Dawn, Dawn of the Dead (1978) does special makeup effects for the film that I enjoy.Friday the 13th the original film is my favorite horror film it is a great movie to watch it does kind a get slow the first hour but when Betsy Plamer appears it get's faster around.The DVD and Blu-ray has uncut version of the film which I am glad with it, I love this film to death, I enjoy it I love everything they done with the film.
These weren't bad people getting killed, these were just your typical average American kids, having a good time, getting picked off.That is what makes this film so defining, that is why, for all its crude and harsh imagery, this is a classic.
The acting is average (some of it even poor) but let's face it, the characters, aside from their individual death scenes, don't have a lot of dramatic things to do, except for Betsy Palmer and Adrienne King, who is good but is not the best "last surviving female" actress ever to appear in a slasher.
Before the birth of the pop-culture idol that the series spawned.Yes, it all started with a teeny-tiny production back in 1980- the original "Friday the 13th."It's almost impossible to really discuss this film critically without delving into spoiler territory (which I try to avoid in my reviews), though I will try my hardest to do so.The film revolves around a group of young Camp Counselors who are prepping the infamous Camp Crystal Lake for a reopening about 20 years after a mysterious double-murder and a tragic drowning involving a young child.
However, it appears someone isn't exactly a happy camper and doesn't want Crystal Lake back in business, and this mysterious figure begins to pick off our protagonists one-by- one until a tense climax reveals the dreaded truth...It's no surprise at all that the film is essentially a glorified rip-off of the iconic slasher-horror that is John Carpenter's "Halloween." Director/Producer Sean S.
Don't get me wrong...I'm not at all saying that Friday the 13th is a terrible film or not even worth a watch but - let's face it - the plot idea is pretty dumb, the acting and directing are far below average and they haven't fully used the options of setting and location they had.
Friday the 13th (1980) kicked started the early 80's slasher film phenomenon that was ignited by Halloween (1978) but fueled intensely by this reworking of the Mario Bava classic "Twitch of the Death Nerve".
The music in the final scene also works like a charm.I forgot to mention that this film has one of the most popular and remembered horror endings of all time.
Kevin Bacon had a role in this as Jack, but it wasn't the lead role, and aside from him no one from the movie rose to any significant stature in Hollywood and there was certainly no Jamie Lee Curtis (see Halloween) among the female leads, although there were many shots of young and cute women in various stages of undress!Strange to say, but in some ways knowing the basic outline of how the series progresses adds to the suspense at the end of the movie as to the identity of the killer, and does get you wondering how the heck this is going to lead to sequels - or at least to the sequels it led to, although Alice's last line ("then he's still out there") clearly establishes that those responsible for the movie were already looking ahead to the sequels.
More than 25 years since its release, more than 10 sequels and an infinite number of imitations, most people seem to remember "Friday the 13th" as just another slasher with good-looking teens being killed by a seemingly unstoppable psycho while roaming in an isolated location.
Ignoring the warnings of the locals, Steve and his young assistants begin the restoration of the long abandoned Camp, but on the night of Friday the 13th, the group of teens will discover that there may be some true behind the local legends, as the death curse of "Camp Blood" returns and a mysterious killer starts to claim fresh, young victims.Writer Victor Miller claims to have taken a crash course in horror writing when he wrote "Friday the 13th", as both he and director Sean Cunningham were in desperate need of a success and saw that the horror genre had potential, but knew very little about it.
So, by taking John Carpenter's "Halloween" as a model, Miller crafted his story about the nightmarish night where a group of teens end up isolated and at the mercy of an unknown serial killer, with the sole purpose of making a successful horror film.
And he succeeded, as he took the many different elements that would create the "slasher rules" and turned the simple and derivative plot into a roller-coaster of horror, with the perfect mix of fun, horror and mystery that just keeps getting better and better until it reaches the climatic finale.Just like Miller took ideas from other horror stories, Cunningham too employs elements from "Psycho", "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and specially "Reazione a Catena", mixing them and taking them one step further, in a simple but very effective approach that slowly develops Miller's plot while at the same time offers a quite graphic vision of violence (thanks to Tom Savini's excellent effects) that completes what we know as the "slasher set of rules".
Cunningham may not be an original filmmaker, but his "Friday the 13th" remains as one of the most effective suspense tales that despite the bad reputation earned by its sequels, still packs up some good chills thanks to its remarkably well done set pieces and the good use of visuals and music to create tension.The acting of the film is one the level of the horror films of its time; sure, those may not be the best performances in horror but are miles ahead most of what was delivered by the film's sequels.
Palmer truly created an iconic character that sadly has been overshadowed by the image of the killer with the Hockey Mask.While it's true that Cunningham and Miller made a film heavily based on previous horror classics, "Friday the 13th" doesn't feel as derivative as it should, as the many "borrowed" elements here work together with frightening perfection.
And despite having average acting, and a fairly low-budget, what truly has become the movie's fatal flaw is the poor reputation that its sequels, its parodies and its imitators have given to "Friday the 13th"'s name, making the film the source of laughs instead of scares, and making the series to be synonymous with stupid horror tales.
Given its shoestring production budget & the time it was made, make-up definitely stands out and those practical effects are praiseworthy.On an overall scale, Friday the 13th is an exceptionally average horror film that takes a leaflet out of other slasher flicks to create its own story but lacks the very elements that made those movies endure the test of time.
Almost from the start, we are warned of the terrible events to come in the form of the town crazy, Ralph, who ominously warns one of the characters that Camp Crystal Lake has a "death curse." Thankfully for us, the kids don't let all of the scary talk affect them, and soon enough we begin to see the old killer get back in action--dispatching of the apple-faced youngsters in a variety of creative ways.This movie was widely renowned for its creative murder sequences back in 1980--something which every film after it tried to copy shamelessly.
And yes, the Hollywood powers that be are apparently gonna try to beat this dead horse at least one more time with the release of JASON X this year.But before all that, there was this one little film.I will freely admit that the original FRIDAY THE 13TH was inspired by John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN, and the latter film's success is exactly the reason why we got the subsequent ten films.
And inasmuch as the camera angles may have been controversially gross at the time, with their first-person views from the angle of the killer, the convention nonetheless marks the advent of a new move in cinema, one that certainly has often been imitated even if it's seldom done as effectively as it is in the opening scene of "Friday the 13th".Another reason that this film is great is that it's not overdone.
But one by one, they keep disappearing, but when Alice, one of the camp counselors is concerned with how everyone is not returning, she goes to find a nasty discovery and will have to survive the most terrifying night of her life.Friday the 13th is a memorable film in it's own right, I know that the performances are horrible, I mean, this is no Halloween, but it's a different concept and scared a lot of people.
After john carpenters success with Halloween,slasher movies were coming out of the woodwork,one of the better slasher movies was Friday the 13th.it started the franchise and also features a then unknown Kevin bacon as a camp counselor.ii all starts in 1958 when a mongoloid child named Jason voorhees drowns in the lake while the camp counselors that are supposed to be watching are screwing.well now its 1980 and camp counselors are being murdered along with others,brutal scenes of gore that caused the mpaa to almost give this an x rating.the sequel was toned down a bit,this was the time hen violence in horror movies was being scrutinized by the mpaa and fanatics.2 good examples were phantasm in 1979,and dawn of the dead(78)which was unrated due to the violence and gore.Friday the 13th is a classic and worth a look.although not great it will give you jolts of panic if watching for the first time.then there's the sound effects that became very popular;chi chi chi haa haa haa haa.the awesome special effects were done by the great tom savini who also did dawn of the dead and maniac with Joe spinell,7 out of 10..
This film is widely acclaimed for it's horrifying and creative murder sequences.This film starred Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King & Kevin Bacon.This was the start of the Friday The 13th movies which consists of 10 films + a remake and if you want to count it Freddy Vs Jason.
Cunningham's Friday the 13th was an unintentional genre-classic, that was intended as nothing more than a cash-in on the recent craze of John Carpenter's revolutionary Halloween and the Italian horror craze of the 1970's, started by Lucio Fulci.The story is simplicity in itself; we focus on a group of spry, young camp counselors spending their summer working at Camp Crystal Lake.
All I can tell you is that this part of the movie is badly played out.Like I said, Friday the 13th is not a masterpiece, but it is definitely good enough to make you want to try the next film.
In fact, I usually bust out laughing at the inevitable death scenes.I give "Friday the 13th" a high rating because it IS an effective film in the often-maligned slasher/horror genre, not to mention it kicked-off this amazingly successful franchise.
It's not exactly a great film (the plot is pretty dumb), but it's a hundred times better than its sequels and clones and, in a way, is a true classic of the horror genre.The acting isn't half bad--there's a pre-stardom Kevin Bacon and good performances by Adrienne King, Harry Crosby (who won't even discuss the film nowadays) and Betsy Palmer (who called the script "a piece of s***").
Friday the 13th has often been cited has being a rip off to halloween, but that is so wrong because most importantly, this movie has come up with its own story, its own frightening and suspenseful atmosphere and its extremely unique and effective setting as Camp crystal lake and its surroundings.
There are a couple of other things worth noting like an early screen appearence by Kevin Bacon , the fact Jason is NOT the murderer in this movie and the false ending which is a classic movie moment but FRIDAY THE 13TH is populated by characters doing very very little and it seems somewhat laughable now that this was a very notorious horror film in its day something myself and my peer group wanted to get our hands on via video .
Hugely successful slasher flick that set the standard for the genre and opened the flood gates for numerous imitators.The sinister reputation of a New Jersey summer camp is about to continue as an elusive murderer begins to stalk the new counselors.Friday the 13th (along with Carpenter's superior Halloween) became the film that all other slasher movies would be compared to.
Prior to today I'd only seen the last two films and am now making up for that by binge watching the rest.Friday 13th is of course a genre defining cult classic that spawned one of the greatest horror icons ever, Jason Voorhees but I was surprised just how generic it is.For a movie of its day it looks great and has aged remarkably well but it's a very generic paint by numbers camp slasher flick with no originality at all by today's standards.I can understand it being ground breaking stuff in 1980, but watching it now it truly is a weak outing for such a franchise.Friday 13th isn't bad, it simply isn't good either with it's lack of character development, poor death scenes and essentially no story to speak of.Fingers crossed I'm more impressed with the sequels, I'm expecting once Jason comes out to play the quality will escalate.The Good: Looks great Classic soundtrack The Bad: Poorly paced Really not all that exciting or even remotely scary Things I Learnt From This Movie: Che-che-che-ah-ah-ah Pamela Voorhees should have been a playable character in the Friday 13th game.
Friday The 13th is one of greatest Horror films ever made,an excellent,scary and suspenseful Horror classic that is filled with great atmospheric direction,a wonderful cast,a creepy and iconic score and amazing special effects.
All of those combinations make Friday The 13th a a landmark Horror film and one of the best Slasher movies ever made.Friday The 13th tells the story of a camp called Camp Crystal Lake that was closed down in the 1950s after a boy drowned and two Camp Counselers were murdered by an unknown killer.
Unfortunately for the counselors they are being stalked and murdered by an unseen killer on Friday The 13th a day where nothing will save them and a day when the Camp will run red with blood.After the critical and box office success of John Carpenter's Horror classic Halloween in 1978,the film spawned many imitators in it's wake two years after which included films such as Prom Night and Terror Train(both in 1980)and many others.
Right from the start,Friday The 13th is an amazing Horror film and is a roller coaster ride that is filled with scares,shocks and terror and is a movie that holds a tight grip on the viewer until the very end and never let's go.
Great effects,Savini.In final word,if you love Horror film or Slasher movies,I highly suggest you see Friday The 13th,one of the greatest Horror films ever made and an excellent,scary and suspenseful Horror classic that deserves to be in every Horror fans movie collection.
True Friday The 13Th is by far an 80's slasher classic and very watchable to any horror film fan, but if your more hard core and want your scares mixed with suspense and emotions then the Nightmare On Elm Street and Halloween series are much better to keep in memory and keepsake..
This is the first film is the one that started a series of sequels, including a 2009 reboot and a 2003 crossover with the popular "A Nightmare on Elm Street"and along with HALLOWEEN, helped create the slasher genre.Friday THE 13th is interesting from the rest because there is a bit of a mystery as to who the killer is.Of course, if you've seen the other films or any other horror movie including Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street, you may know about the killer.Friday THE 13th is about a bunch of young camp counselors who are opening up Camp Crystal Lake after many serious incidents have taken place there over the years.
This is the first film is the one that started a series of sequels, including a 2009 reboot and a 2003 crossover with the popular "A Nightmare on Elm Street"and along with HALLOWEEN, helped create the slasher genre.Friday THE 13th is interesting from the rest because there is a bit of a mystery as to who the killer is.Of course, if you've seen the other films or any other horror movie including Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street, you may know about the killer.Friday THE 13th is about a bunch of young camp counselors who are opening up Camp Crystal Lake after many serious incidents have taken place there over the years.