Skip to main content

Friday the 13th

A review by Brooks Rich

Happy Friday the 13th. This is probably the first slasher film covered on this blog. It seems appropriate that we cover Friday the 13th on Friday the 13th. I'll be honest. Slasher films aren't usually high cinematic art, unless we're talking about the Italian giallo films or Halloween from 1978. 
Slasher films usually have a formula and stick with them. A bunch of twenty somethings playing teenagers go somewhere and are picked off one at a time by some sort of killer. Before being killed, they smoke pot and have unprotected sex...... a death sentence in the world of the slashers. These films rarely go beyond that outline. Nothing wrong with that and even though Friday the 13th is a sort of ripoff of Halloween, it is still a fun and entertaining movie. 

The plot is simple. A group of teenagers, played by twenty somethings and Kevin Bacon, are renovating an old summer campground that was the site of a series of murders. They are picked off one by one until the final girl, it's always a final girl, must confront the real killer. Rinse, repeat, for the rest of the franchise. 

I assume everyone knows Friday the 13th's big bad is the hockey masked killer Jason Voorhees. Does everyone know Jason is not the killer in Friday the 13th? It's his mother, Pamela, played by Betsy Palmer, who gives a wonderfully sweet and deranged performance. I was thinking of covering one of Jason's films but decided to go with the original. The rest of the franchise came out in the midst of the slasher craze.... the early '80s were full of these films. There’s something kind of charming about the first Friday. The kills are a little more tame... subtlety is not a word in Jason's vocabulary. There are some genuinely creepy moments. It feels more in line with Halloween than the rest of the franchise would. Eventually, it just became about how many people can Jason kill and how many creative ways can he kill them. Sometimes.... that's all you need in a movie. 

I think if you're reading this and know you hate violent horror movies, you know not to watch Friday the 13th or any other slasher. But if for some reason you've never seen this, or it's been awhile, and you don't mind something mindless, give it a watch. It's a breezy watch and it is probably worth it for Betsy Palmer's performance alone.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Forgotten Film Friday: Absolute Power

Clint Eastwood stars as Luther Whitney, a jewel thief who works in the Washington DC area. One night while he is stealing from a mansion he is forced to hide in a secret compartment with a two way mirror. From there he observes a sexual rezendevous with the wife of a powerful man and the President of the United States Alan Richmond (Gene Hackman) Suddenly the president gets aggressive and while defending herself the woman is shot to death by two Secret Service agents. Luther manages to get away with a letter opener the woman stabbed the president with. At first Luther plans to flee the country. But when he is disgusted by a statement the president makes, Luther decides to expose the crime. I miss these kind of films. The nineties was a great time for thrillers exactly like this. They are not the flashiest films but they are also not obsessed with big action scenes. It's all plot and character with them. Sure this plot might be a little out there but Eastwood makes it work. He's...
1 comment
Read more

Oscar Bait month: The Shipping News

 A retrospective by Brooks Rich Lasse Hallstrom is one of those directors I think is incredibly talented but his films normally don't do a thing for me. There just always that comes up short for me, whether its the story or how its shot or the acting or something. Most people will know Hallstrom as the director of What's Eating Gilbert Grape, the breakout role of Leonardo Dicaprio. That is probably my favorite of his films. I know everyone loves Chocolat. Great, enjoy, I think it's lame. But today let's discuss his follow up to The Cider House Rules, his film from 1999 which did very well come awards season, and Chocolat. Both of these films did very well, especially The Cider House Rules. The big reward it got was Best Supporting Actor for Michael Caine. It also won Best Adapted Screenplay for John Irving. This isn't fair to Cider House Rules but I think it's overrated as far as nominations go. 1999 is one of the greatest years in cinema and really? We nominate...
Post a Comment
Read more

John Travolta month: Saturday Night Fever

 A retrospective by Brooks Rich So this was not the big start of John Travolta's career. That would be the classic sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter. But this did elevate Travolta to another level. For any of you going oh come on. This silly movie with a disco soundtrack? Come on, Brooks. Just wait. Have you ever actually seen this? This isn't about disco. Disco just happens to be the music of choice. This about the kind of people who are kings at the dance clubs and then losers the rest of the time. There is a lot of darkness and truth in this film. So if you've never seen it please. Do yourself a flavor and check it out. Just watch it and then come back to read this.  This is a movie about the different types of people we become between our real lives and our weekend lives. Tony Manero is a regular working class guy in a Brooklyn neighborhood, struggling to make ends meet and dealing with his loving but at times overbearing family. He lives in the shadow of his priest brother. ...
Post a Comment
Read more