Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Friday The 13th(1980) Review




9/10

In 1980, director Sean Cunningham, and writer Victor Miller came up with the landmark slasher film "Friday the 13th."  This movie really skyrocketed the low budget slasher films to a whole different level. This movie really pushed the envelope for violence in films, and outrageousness in all different ways.  While the movie was basically a knockoff of "Halloween," this movie and series really heightened up the blood and gore by a bunch, and they made made a much more fun experience that you never forget.  This movie was met with mixed reviews at its time, with many critics trashing it for its disgusting nature and brutal content. The movie is now a cult classic, and it is seen as one of the greatest slasher films of all time.  

I personally love this first movie in the series a lot(although I would never lie and say that it is the best of the series).  There is a very funny undertone to the movie, even with the brutal killings and horrors that take place.  I honestly laugh at the teenagers in this film, because they're very likable characters, and their bumbling nature is quite hilarious.  The most likable in my opinion is an early Kevin Bacon.  His character is very cool and funny, and is also part the most iconic scene of the whole movie in my opinion(don't worry I won't ruin what happens, as if you can't figure it out).  The rest of the teens are great too, and they share many funny moments. For example, the scene when they freak out over the snake in the room.  

I find the technique of filming this movie to be great too. I love how the villain(no spoiler) is shown in first person when it does the killings. It gives off the same suspenseful vibe that "Predator" later did in 1987. This idea made it so there was a lot of mystery in the killings, and to hide the identity of the killer.  This was one of the strongest factors of this first film, because it was something different, and it was not repeated in any of the sequels.

One of the things that this film took from "Halloween" was the idea of letting one female live at the end of the film.  I find this idea to be pretty brilliant, because they took out all of the characters that were sexually promiscuous and drug users, and let the purest of the bunch be alive at the end. I don't know if this was a statement of a sort, but I really think that it was a great idea for the movie.  

One of the bittersweet things about this film for me is that Jason is only shown briefly as a child, and he does not end up being the killer. This is one of the most shocking things in a film series for me, because Jason is basically what everyone knows about this series, and he isn't even really in this film.  This isn't completely bad though, because it leaves mystery of who the killer really is, and it is definitely shocking.

I feel that the violence in this movie was pretty good, but later films in the series definitely topped it. There were some truly brutal kills in this film; whether an arrow, axe, machete, etc was used. Some of these scenes are very shocking too, but it's definitely not as outrageous as you would see in a film like part 4.  This, like the other films in the series were at great risk of getting the X rating, and a lot of cuts were done to keep that from happening. Thankfully, they released the 'Uncut' version of the film later which recovered all of the original brutalities. 

Overall, while this film is not at the top of my list in the series, it is still an amazing watch.  The original 8 films in this series were all amazing, so not putting this one right at the top is not in any way discounting it as a movie. It just doesn't have the same spark as Part 4, 2, or 8 of the series.  One of the main reasons for this is the lack of Jason.  Jason is my favorite part of the series, so not having him definitely makes it hard to call it the best. Definitely check out this film though, because it will shock you, make you laugh, and shoot you with adrenaline all in one hour and a half. 

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