The Lowdown: Arguably THE most iconic slasher flick. While it would later spawn endless sequels that became increasingly goofier and crappier, there is no denying that Friday the 13th is a classic. As a film, it’s pretty terrible; it has all the hallmarks of a bad slasher flick. Still, it is one that every horror fan has seen. Heck, this film may be review-proof.
1. The Plot: A group of young camp counselors trying to reopen Camp Crystal Lake is stalked by an unknown assailant. That’s it. It’s a bare-bones plot and that’s all the film needs. Just put a bunch of young people in one place and have someone pick them off one by one. In the case of a film like this, a simpler plot works better.
2. The Characters:It is really difficult to critique acting in Friday the 13th, or most slashers in general. The acting is also bare-bones, serving only to generate the most basic human expressions, and sometimes failing to do even that. While Kevin Bacon is in the film, he isn’t exactly trying to earn any accolades. He’s just another camp counselor. All they do is set up camp, talk, have sex, and occasionally run and scream when someone tries to murder them. It’s standard slasher fare, and nothing compared to the likes of Halloween (1979). However, given that this was the first film in a long-running franchise that would become the archetypal “generic Hollywood slasher”, the mediocre acting can be somewhat forgiven.
3. The Slasher Template: Watching Friday the 13th today for the first time, one can be forgiven for thinking “Really, that’s it?” after the film ends. Though it is a definite classic today, back in 1980, I doubt many would have ever thought that this would become a franchise that would span 30 years and 12 films, and go on to influence so many slasher flicks that came after it. My theory is that Friday the 13th was at the perfect level of average when it was released. By no means is it a great film (it got nominated for the Razzie for Worst Picture), but it is by no means super terrible. It’s just average, and that made it the perfect template film. Future directors would see the original film and think “What can I do to make it better?”, and then they would go about attempting to improve on the formula. Each subsequent film in the franchise would attempt to “top” the previous film, although there was rarely an attempt to change up the story or characters. Those two elements existed solely to provide a framework for the increasingly inventive kills. The bottom line in many slashers is how creative the kills can be. It’s twisted, but why else would one watch a slasher except for cheap thrills? Each Friday the 13th film gets bloodier and bloodier as filmmakers devise new ways for dumb teenagers to get killed. However, there is a bit of a downside. As filmmakers became increasingly creative, the films became increasingly silly. There’s only so much one can do with the same recycled plot and characters before people get bored, so the only way to maintain interest is to kill people in more creative ways. However, ideas are stretched thin in that department too. Since stabbing with machetes is old and boring, let’s use other objects! In Freddy vs. Jason (2005), Jason kills a guy with a bed. Yes, a bed.
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There’s also the question of the villain. In this case, it is Jason, who has been the villain in 11 of the 12 Friday the 13th films. By the fourth film, the only logical thing to ask would be “Geez, how many times does Jason have to die before he stays dead?” And that’s the driving point of the series. He doesn’t die. He just gets conveniently resurrected in some ridiculous way so he can kill more dumb teenagers in the next film. In Jason X (2001), he gets cryogenically frozen and wakes up in space. Actually, forget what I said about stretching ideas too thin, because the “Jason in space” idea has got to be the best worst idea for any film ever.Pictured: Hilarity.
The Bottom Line:Friday the 13th is a classic slasher because it became the template for so many other Hollywood slashers after it. As a film, it’s completely average, but filled with all of the basic building blocks for generic slashers. There was only room for improvement, although that could only go so far before “improvement” became “how creatively and gruesomely can we kill this character?” It’s kind of sad, but that’s just how it is. For better or for worse, Friday the 13th is iconic.Friday the 13th is property of Paramount Pictures, Georgetown Productions Inc., and Sean S. Cunningham Films. This review was written by me.
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