FRIDAY THE 13th (1980)
Blogtober Qualifications: Murder, dark woods, bloody axes, long oners that may or may not have a purpose
Camp Crystal Lake, 1958
A group of camp counselors is having fun singing around a fire. A pair of the counselors breaks away from the group to, well... have some time alone. However, their secret moment of passion is brought to a terrible end as the two are brutally murdered.
Present Day (Well, 1980)
Camp Crystal Lake is re-opening for what is presumably the first time since the murders. The owner of the camp hires a new group of counselors, then leaves camp for the night, leaving the counselors to tend to a set of tasks around the campgrounds.
Things go fine at first, until the murders begin again.
So here's sort of a weird thing. I claim Jason Voorhees as my favorite slasher villain. To me, no other slasher (that I know of) can match up to Jason in the arena of sheer cool factor. Chucky is second, but that's more from nostalgia than anything else.
Still, for some reason, much like King Kong, I've never seen any of the Friday the 13th movies. It's been something I planned to do for a long time, but I've only now gotten around to it. But what better time, right? Watching Friday the 13th on Friday the 13th, and in October, no less. Past this point, I have plans now to watch the next movie in the series (or maybe a couple) anytime a Friday the 13th rolls around on the calendar. So those reviews will be really inconsistent and oddly spaced apart.
But enough about that, how was this movie? Honestly, believe it or not, it was downright relaxing. This may be the most laid-back horror movie since the old Universal series. That's not to suggest that it's boring, since I enjoyed most of it. It's just something that I noticed. It's really quiet most of the time, and there's an extended period during which it's raining in the woods, and the rain sound serves as some great white noise. My wife is pretty susceptible to a scary atmosphere, and she started falling asleep near the end of the movie. Though, to be fair, she falls asleep pretty easily.
It's also, honestly, pretty tame for the genre. There's a very brief amount of nudity, and there's blood, as to be expected. But outside of a couple noteworthy scenes, most of the kills happen offscreen, and the bodies are discovered later. One of the bodies, I couldn't even actually tell what the cause of death was supposed to be. I think this actually adds to the more laid-back atmosphere.
There's something else that adds to the relaxation factor, but it's actually a complaint now. Sometimes, the movie is just way too slow. There are several shots that hang just a bit too long, but worse than that are entire minutes-long oners (slang for long scenes filmed in one take) that serve absolutely no purpose. One scene features Alice (Adrienne King), the more-or-less main character, just... making coffee. In one long take, we see her go through every step involved in making a cup of coffee. If that weren't bad enough, the movie decides to be a tease by cutting the scene right before the coffee is actually finished. After sitting through all that, we don't even get to see her drink it!
Another thing I took note of is how pleasant all the camp counselors are. Nobody's really noteworthy, and the only well-known actor among them (Kevin Bacon), was not well-known at the time, so he's just there to be killed like everyone else. The interesting thing that sets it apart is that these kids haven't really done anything that bad, all things considered.
Sure, there's the couple having sex, but it isn't sleazy and they seem to care a lot about each other. Compare that to just how responsible everyone is. They don't even start horsing around until after their work is done for the day. There is the prankster character, who's so obnoxious and oblivious that he doesn't realize that one of his pranks could have very easily killed someone. But when that same prankster is pretending to drown in the lake, literally every other person jumps into action trying to save him. Like, seriously, these are some good kids.
They're kind of dismissive of the local police officer that pays the camp a visit, but he was a jackass anyway, so you can't really blame them.
So, here's the thing: there's a plot twist in this movie, right near the end. Everyone knows the twist, but I'm actually not going to spoil it, just in case you don't. I will say that the ending twist is absolutely perfect.
Or at least it would be, if they didn't undo it two seconds later.
The gore effects are a bit of a mixed bag, but I think that's only because the movie is in HD now, so every flaw is glaringly obvious. For instance, in the scene where Kevin Bacon's character is killed, you can clearly tell that the part of the body taking the kill-shot is a very different color from his actual skin tone. Again, this isn't really the fault of the movie, it's just a side effect of technology moving forward.
What is most definitely the fault of the movie is when the acting falls flat. There's one scene where a couple of the characters find a bloody axe, and Alice's reaction is somehow overacted and deadpan at the same time. I have to believe they could only afford one take, because otherwise they should be ashamed of themselves. It's not the only time the acting is less than great, it's just the most noteworthy time.
All in all, I enjoyed Friday the 13th. It clocks in at 95 minutes, which is definitely a nice break from the two-hour-plus movies I've been watching the last while. There's more good here than bad, and it's not surprising that it became the juggernaut it did. There's no telling when we'll get another one, though, which is just a shame. Still, there's plenty of others in the series to keep me occupied.
And I can always come back to this one, especially if I need a nice nap.
Tomorrow we'll be taking a look at an anthology film from the mind of the most famous horror writer of all time. Which, if history serves, means we'll be getting a lot of scary stuff mixed in with some really, really baffling stuff.
Until next time!
Current interests:
Listening - Franz Ferdinand: You Could Have It So Much Better (2005)
Playing - Bloodborne: NG+ (2015)
Reading - Hellboy in Hell: The Death Card (2014)
Watching - Thunderbirds Are Go! (2015)
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