Duration: 95 minutes
Film Quality: 3/5
Gore Content: 3/5
Entertainment Value:4/5
Originality: 2/5
Introduction
Riding hot on the coat tails of John Carpenter’s masterpiece ‘Halloween’, producer Sean S. Cunningham secured the rights to the title ‘Friday 13th’ before making the film, aiming to cash in on the date-themed title of Carpenter’s film and the dark connotations surrounding that particular time of the calendar year. Taking many elements of Carpenters’ film and borrowing heavily from other genre classics, most notably Mario Bava’s ‘Bay of Blood’, he perhaps unwittingly created an absolute juggernaut of a film that is still out of control, crashing into cinemas and blu ray releases to this date.
In a nutshell
A group of teenagers descend on an abandoned summer camp with the intention of reopening it 21 years after the death of two camp councelors following the tragic drowning of a young boy. Despite warnings of a death curse they proceed with their plans, only to be picked off by an unseen madman…could it be that Jason Vorhees has risen from the grave to exact his revenge on the camp counsellors responsible for his death?
So what’s good about it?
Despite a very low budget of just over half a million clams, the film does boast some pretty good slayings – some, unfortunately, falling victim themselves to the censors snips. Whereas ‘Halloween’ was restrained with its onscreen offal, Cunningham puts most of the kills right up there front and centre and we’re treated to a throat slitting, an arrow through the neck, a full on decapitation and, most impressively, an axe to the head (left). I remember watching this film one Halloween night in a cinema as part of a quadruple bill and the crowd erupted with cheers and applause at that, admittedly, excellent set piece.
The music is also highly effective and very well executed as part of the editing process, becoming ‘Jason’ in the same way John Williams’ score becomes Spielberg’s shark. Henry Manfredini used the musical cues as a substitute for the unseen killer and, rather than the piano and synth score used by Carpenter, went for the rather more shrill and harsh strings and violin. You’ll notice that the music only appears when the killer is close by, similar to ‘Jaws’, just pausing briefly before the big scare to maximise the jumps. It works a treat, lulling you into a false sense of security before the big pay off. It also gave us the iconic ‘Ki Ki Ki….Ma Ma Ma’ sound effect which was created by Manfredini voicing the words ‘Kill Mommy’ and then manipulating the result. Incredibly effective, a ‘Friday the 13th’ film just wouldn’t sound right without it.
The acting can be hit and miss but the chemistry between the group is pretty good. Some of the actors already knew each other prior to filming, having appeared in soaps together, in fact Cunningham reportedly said he wanted actors who would act naturally around each other and for the most part he succeeded. Yes, there’s not much requirement other than screaming, stripping off to go skinny dipping and creeping quietly around abandoned buildings, but you don’t leave the film necessarily with a bad actor taste.
And what about the bad?
If the comments in the above section haven’t expressed my view enough, it is a poor man’s ‘Halloween’. Whereas Carpenter directs the movie with a sure hand, achieving film noir levels of light and shade, Cunningham throws subtlety out of the window in favour of sledgehammer editing and direction. Looking back through 21st century eyes it really does look quite amateurish at times and pedestrian in terms of its pacing with none of the mythology and intrigue that its predecessor brings to the table. Perhaps some of that is down to the fact that it hasn’t had anywhere the attention and care of a good restoration that it deserves (despite my reservations over the films quality, there’s no denying its influence) as much as the generally below average talents of those involved.
Any themes?
As with most slasher films it’s a thinly disguised morality tale. Take a look at my review of ‘The Burning’, which is pretty much the same film, for my comments but characters who drink, have sex or do drugs are killed whilst the pure and lily white virgin can see exactly what’s going on and is aware of a sinister presence right from the start. It’s also a tale of revenge where the teenagers of today are made to pay for the sins of the teens of yesterday.
Release History
Not many people realise that this movie got caught up in the video nasties panic with the uncut 1982 Warner VHS seized by police. This panicked Warner who, as a big company rather than an independent happy for the attention, were not pleased with the controversy and gave no resistance to requests to remove the 10 seconds of cuts demanded by the MPAA, a relief to the BBFC who were happy to pass this version. Don’t forget that during this bizarre time period their collective chests were puffed out towards anything with a bit of girls and gore. Four scenes suffered the wrath of the censor’s scissors including the infamous axe to the head, the opening throat slashing, Kevin Bacon’s throat being on the receiving end of a rather large spear and the climactic decapitation. It all looks a bit crap actually with two of the cuts achieved with very clumsy looking white outs.
The axe to the head was, strangely, restored for Warner’s 1995 release and it was finally released uncut in the UK in 2003 meaning that the pre-cert Warner release was the only uncut VHS print released on these shores. The Friday the 13th series in general has suffered massively from MPAA cuts which means that completely uncut versions of most of the original eight movies don’t exist. That’s a real shame because some of these sequels, particularly the fourth and sixth, are actually very good films that surpass the original comfortably.
Cultural Impact
‘Halloween’ set the scene but ‘Friday the 13th’ got dibs on writing the blueprint for so many of the slasher movies that followed. We saw so many of them set in summer camps (‘The Burning’, ‘Sleepaway Camp’) or the woods (‘Body Count’, ‘Madman’) that all took their cues from Cunningham’s film rather than Carpenter’s. It also inspired, albeit from part three specifically, the hockey masked killer…much scarier than the sack Jason wore in the second part! It also picked up the baton for date-related horrors which brought us ‘Graduation Day’, ‘Mother’s Day’, ‘Happy Birthday to Me’ and countless others. And of course it led to the denouement of that wonderful opening scene in Wes Craven’s ‘Scream’.
All slasher movies effectively take their cues from the two films mentioned most frequently in this blog…it might not be a critic’s favourite but there’s no denying that it helped to usher in a golden period of horror films, for better or for worse!
Final Thoughts
Far more exploitative and raw than Carpenter’s ‘Halloween’ despite costing more to make it, it might not win many fans for its subtlety and professional appearance but it packs a punch. It made a horror icon out of Jason Vorhees despite him barely making an appearance and started one of the most enduring horror franchise not penned by George A. Romero. Let’s face it, he’s been decapitated, buried, drowned, on a cruise, in space, had a bit of a barney with Freddy Krueger and is slated to appear in ‘I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here’ later this year…probably! Influential and derivative in equal measure it’s a must-see piece of iconic horror history.
Memorable Quotes
Mrs Vorhees: “Jason was my son…and today is his birthday.”
Officer Dorf: “We ain’t gonna stand for no weirdness out here.”
Crazy Ralph: “It’s got a death curse.”
Ned: “He neglected to mention that downtown they call this place Camp Blood.”
You’ll like this if you enjoyed…
‘The Burning’, ‘Halloween’, ‘The Mutilator’, ‘Madman’
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