Dismissed by critics on its’ original release as a rip-off of John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN, Sean S. Cunningham’s FRIDAY THE 13TH has endured over four decades, not least in that the critics have actually missed a few things in the process.
Writer Victor Miller actually watched HALLOWEEN to get a sense of what was required in a modern horror film, then basically interpreted it in his own way – and the result was FRIDAY THE 13TH. In documentaries since then, Cunningham said he created the film as a way of putting his kids through college, since his work up until then was more in the kids film genre.
Made for low-budget, FRIDAY THE 13TH opens in 1958 at Camp Crystal Lake, where two camp counsellors are brutally murdered whilst attempting to make out in a barn. In 1980, entrepreneur Steve Christy decides to reopen the camp with help from a new team of recruits, but it appears that somebody is keen to keep the place closed for one way or another – and will kill if they have to….
It’s the sort of movie that you sense something is wrong where, as you learn in the sequels, that you are getting more fun out of watching for who is going to get it next, but the original FRIDAY THE 13TH still at least makes you care some of the time about the characters, played by actors from New York’s then-theatre scene, including a baby-faced Kevin Bacon, long before he promoted phone networks in the UK.
Tom Savini provides the admirable and memorable gore effects – and by the way, make sure you don’t walk out before the end….