Following the release of 1972’s The Last House on the Left, producer Sean S. Cunningham struggled to find similar success. He tried his hand at kid’s films with Here Come the Tigers and Manny’s Orphans, but neither made a profit. However, after John Carpenter’s Halloween was released to critical and commercial success, Cunningham got the idea to rip it off. He came up with the title Friday the 13th and placed a full-page ad in Variety to drum up interest. After drumming up investors, Cunningham hired Victor Miller to write a script originally titled A Long Night at Camp Blood. Special effects wizard Tom Savini was hired off of the success of Dawn of the Dead to create similar effects. With a $550,000 budget and a cast of relative unknowns, Cunningham went onto make the first in a long-running franchise. May 9th, 1980, saw the release of Friday the 13th.
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Synopsis
Steve Christy (Peter Brouwer) is planning on refurbishing and reopening Camp Crystal Lake after being closed for several decades. The locals are wary about him reopening the camp, dubbing it “Camp Blood” after various incidents involving people getting killed. Nevertheless, he hires Alice (Adrienne King), Bill (Harry Crosby), Marcie (Jeannine Taylor), Brenda (Laurie Bartram), Jack (Kevin Bacon), and Ned (Mark Nelson) as counselors. He also hires Annie (Robbi Morgan) to be the camp’s cook, but she gets killed before getting to the camp. Christy drives into town to gather supplies, leaving the counselors to fend for themselves at the camp during a thunderstorm. As the night goes on, the counselors start disappearing until Alice is the only one left, finding them all dead. While trying to escape, she’s stopped by Pamela Voorhees (Betsy Palmer), who worked at the camp years ago. Pretty soon, Alice learns who the true killer is.
Review
Friday the 13th is a simple yet effective slasher film that knows what it is and doesn’t go much further. Ordinarily, a lack of ambition would be a negative against the film, but its simplicity is what makes it work. That being said, the film is more well-made than you’d expect given its budget and the reason behind its creation. Cunningham’s direction is solid, capturing plenty of great angles and creating an effective mood like there’s some hidden figure watching. Acting-wise, everyone does a good job, Adrienne King and Betsy Palmer giving standout performances, along with a then-unknown Kevin Bacon. King makes for a good final girl, balancing between being scared and being strong, in addition to being likable. Despite only doing the film for a new car, Betsy Palmer is surprisingly great here, being both motherly and terrifying. You almost feel sympathy for what she went through.
Tom Savini, known for his realistically graphic gore, delivers some stellar special effects, each death scene more shocking than the last. The most famous death scene is Kevin Bacon getting an arrow through the neck with plenty of blood spurting out. However, there are moments where you can tell the appliances used don’t match the skin tone of the actors. Granted, this film had a low budget and they didn’t have much to work with, and it’s still impressive. Harry Manfredini’s score also helps add a sense of terror throughout, especially with its minimalism and how it’s used sparingly. It has a very similar sound to the scores of Bernard Hermann, specifically the score for Hitchcock’s Psycho. What the film lacks in ambition and drive, it makes up for in its simplicity, creating a slasher classic. Overall, Friday the 13th deserves its place in the annals of horror cinema.
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