Friday the 13th

Most of my score is for that final jump scare on the boat. Kudos, that actually got me. Pretty dumb otherwise.

To be honest I found this movie wholly unimpressive. It dragged in places quite a bit and screamed for tighter editing. The first 3/4ths of the film are tedious and it finally picks up once Jason's mother is introduced. However at that point she's beaten down and comes back so many times it's laughable. I can't see why this movie has received so much praise, besides Tom Savini's special effects and the brief moment with the mother I didn't find anything really memorable about it.

The twist and the picking-them-off-one-by-one murders are pretty thrilling, although Psycho and Halloween did both things better. Props to Tom Savini for the violent effects and Manfredini for the soundtrack. It's worth noting that the film's Carrie ending spawned the barely-related horror series, while the rest of the plot basically created the modern cabin in the woods / slasher genre. Since I can't tell whether I should praise or blame the movie for that, it didn't influence my rating.

With what became of the subgenre in the ensuing years there are a few yardsticks by which to measure the quality of a slasher, you have origin story, body count, gore, and kill method. In every way that counts "Friday the 13th" beats "Halloween". It may not have aged very well, but this movie is an undisputable classic horror movie.

This seems tame now, but I'm probably getting desensitised. I didn't care about any of the people being killed, apart from the cheery hitch-hiking lass. The film plodded along (how long does it take to make coffee?), punctuated with a few deaths, until ol' Mrs V and her exposition arrived and kicked it up a notch. The music, camerawork and setting created some atmosphere, and the make-up effects were decent. A bit silly, but watchable; check out Bava's A Bay of Blood if you liked this.