Starring Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Jeannine Taylor, Robbi Morgan, Kevin Bacon Directed by Sean S. Cunningham Rated 18 (UK) Released 1980
A group of camp counsellors are terrorised by the mother of a boy who drowned at the Camp 20 years beforehand.
I went into this movie with a lot of baggage. I'm 26 years old and have never seen it before, although when I was at school it seemed that everyone had seen it. I had avoided it because I didn't like that kind of movie. I avoided HALLOWEEN and A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET for the same reason. Then a few years ago I finally saw those two movies and thought they were excellent. For various reasons I still hadn't gotten around to viewing FRIDAY THE 13TH until today. And I have to admit, I enjoyed it. Granted it's not the greatest work of art ever to hit the screen, but it had one or two real jump-out-of-your-seat sections (for me at least!).
Firstly, though, the music. Right from the beginning it had some Herrmann-esque qualities, as I'm sure I heard both some PSYCHO and NORTH BY NORTHWEST riffs in there. Kevin Bacon himself is not an actor who I have ever liked, so seeing him offed gave me a certain sense of satisfaction, and just when I was thinking that the movie wasn't as gory as I was expecting, the axe entered the head. A great scene, with the tension built up well.
The acting was not bad, and Steve the camp manager, played by Peter Brouwer was creepy enough for me to think that he had something to do with the murders until he was dealt with himself.
I mentioned Bernard Herrmann before, and it is interesting to note that whereas in Hitchcock's PSYCHO, for which Herrmann wrote the score, it is the mother who lives on through the son, here it is the son who lives on through the mother (Betsy Palmer).
The one true shock scene for me was definitely the one near the end when Jason, the dead son, appears out of the water. I don't know how well publicised that scene was in the past, but I certainly wasn't expecting it. But am I wrong in thinking that Jason wears a hockey mask in the later movies? I've never seen any of them, but this one certainly entertained me enough to try to get hold of Part 2, if only to find out where the hockey mask comes in to play.
So, all in all, an enjoyable movie, for which I award it 7 out of 10.
© Shark Trager 1999
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