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Originally released in 1980 and inspired by the success of the infinitely better 1978 movie Halloween by John Carpenter, which arguably launched the genre of the Slasher genre, and which in turn was inspired by the success of Bob Clark's 1974 film, Black Christmas.
ANYWAY, Friday 13th itself is an iconic and genre defining movie that spawned a 12 movie franchise and perhaps one of horror's most iconic masked killer, Jason Voorhees, which is odd cos as everyone knows he's not the killer in this horror classic.
The film sees a bunch of young people preparing for the re-opening of the Crystal Lake summer camp, following the drowning of a young child many years earlier. Over the course of a single weekend and one night the young people are systematically killed one-by-one by an unseen killer until the final confrontation between killer and the last survivor.
The makeup effects by special effects maestro Tom Savini are what makes this film so effective, the kills – with throat slashes, axe wounds, beheadings and the famous arrow through the throat are massively impressive and yet also fleeting, it's weird how time plays tricks with your memories and I was surprised at how brisk each of the kills are, bare seconds, before the camera cuts away.
What makes this film so delightful is the realness of some scenes, the secondary cast of what looks like actual locals and locations and feel and look of it. It's been 43 years since I last saw this at the cinema and it's strange that what was once an 'X' film or an 18 is now reduced to the level of a 15. It's most certainly a child of its time and while the direction by Sean S. Cunningham is oddly old fashioned, the music is most effective.
Lovely to see it back on the big screen but what once caused the audience I first saw it with when I was 17 to scream out loud now causes laughter and giggles.
7/10
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