Bad Movie Logo
"A website to the detriment of good film"
Custom Search
HOMEB-MOVIE REVIEWSREADER REVIEWSFORUMINTERVIEWSUPDATESABOUT
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?
March 28, 2024, 06:59:05 AM
713325 Posts in 53055 Topics by 7725 Members
Latest Member: wibwao
Badmovies.org Forum  |  Information Exchange  |  Movie Reviews  |  Friday the 13th « previous next »
Pages: [1]
Author Topic: Friday the 13th  (Read 2548 times)
clockworkcanary
Bad Movie Lover
***

Karma: 112
Posts: 880



WWW
« on: August 02, 2007, 02:56:57 PM »

This movie is pretty lackluster for the one that started it all.  Most slasher series can at least say the first was the best, but not in this case.  This does kick off the core legend of Camp Crystal Lake, however.  The mood and atmosphere are decent enough, but maybe not quite as effective as in part 2.  But yes, it does set up the whole series even though watching any of the later entries will bare no resemblance to this one in any fashion.

And as usual, the characters are annoying and the plot is a bit incoherent.  It's a who-dun-it with no clues as to who's responsible.  I will give them credit for the swerve, building it up like the killer was a man but giving us a twist, revealing it was Jason's mother, the camp cook.  Too bad they didn't introduce her earlier in the film so there was some kind of payoff/gratification.  But the movie steals elements from Psycho (but reversed), Halloween, and Ten Little Indians, so I guess the Friday series remains consistent on the aspect of borrowing elements from elsewhere.
Quick Recap:

Late 50s, Crystal Lake.  Two teen counselors get murdered.  Flash to early 80s - a councilor is late, has a run-in with Crazy Ralph, who naturally prophesizes doom.   She hitchhikes halfway to camp.  Trucker cops a feel and exposits that there were murders, some water poisoning, at one other year there was some arson.  She is unphased so she keeps on.  She hitchhikes again, this time in a jeep.  The quiet driver starts driving fast and crazy until hitchhiker bails.  She gets chased down to a tree and stabbed  by someone in black trousers and a plaid shirt.

Steve Christy buys the camp and fixes it up.  80s councilors show up with Kevin Bacon and they all act a fool, but real boring-like.  A few pranks later cop shows up to warn about Crazy Ralph.  Steve heads to town so they can all die.  They find a snake in a cabin and kill it.  Crazy Ralph acts all crazy-like.

They die one by one: Kevin gets an arrow through the neck by the perv who's been hiding under their bed while he had sex.  Bacon's girlfriend with the nice hips goes to the dingy bathroom to greet an axe in the face.  Yeah that's what you get for doing bad impersonations at this camp.  After a game of Strip Monopoly, Skelewhore goes out to do some arrow-catching.  Steve Christy is out playing in the rain and gets stabbed for it.  The rest either get killed off screen or it's so non memorable it doesn't deserve mentioning.

Finally, it comes down to Moustache Final Girl.  She goes around to discover all the corpses, runs around, acts retarded, and tries to barricade herself in.  A body gets tossed through the window, which starts a new trend.  Suddenly, jeep lights show up, making the last event damn near impossible but don't think about it too hard.

Final Girl rushes outside to greet Steve but it's a huge blue-sweatered soccer mom instead.  She takes her in to show her all the bodies and Soccer Mom starts to act kinda weird.  Pam is her name, camp cooking is her game...er it was at least until her son drowned while those councilors were playin' the beast with two backs.  She reveals all this as she descends into madness, revealing she was responsible for all those deaths.  I find this interesting that in 1980, we get to see another parental figure loose his mind in the Shining, which I believe was showing in the theater at the same time.

What follows is one of the funniest cat fights I've seen in a long time.  They start fighting it out all over the camp grounds, fighting in various buildings and even outside.  We get to see some b***h slaps, some biting, some head-thunking into the ground, and oar beating, and finally a decapitation.  Final Girl has had enough with Mrs. Voorhees playing possum for the 80th time so she whacks the angry soccer mom with a machete of all things.

Of course, after a night of running from a psychotic mom who talks to her "dead" son, Final Girl does what I would do and goes for a canoe ride.  The cops finally show up in view across the pond.  Final Girl looks up in time for Jason's mongoloid, 10-year old body to emerge from the water dragging her down.  Flash to the hospital and Final Girl inquires about the missing boy.  Of course the cops are clueless.

Now this begs the question: if Jason drowned  in like, what, 1957, wouldn't he be just a bit older than 10 in 1980? This is just the start of one confusing timeline that's a signpost of worse to come.  And by part 8, we're talking much much worse. 

Good

The overall atmosphere
Betsy Palmer's chewing of the scene
Character: Steve Christy was at least believable
It's Kevin Bacon!
The final scare
The score
(Good as in funny as hell) The cat fight climax!

Bad

Close-ups of Betsy Palmer's teeth
Skeletor girl, eat a steak sandwich er somethin',  damn!
The inept cops
The overly long do-nothing scene footage

Fugly

The terrible impersonations
The pacing of this movie
Final Girl's moustache
Strip Monopoly with Skeletor and Moustache Girl...yikes

Things I've Learned from this Movie:

Pamala Voorhees's killing spree was in vein considering Jason was alive for at least 10 more movies
Random truckers are great actors
An angry soccer mom can throw a body through a window like nobody's business
We'll never see a single place in this town again
Logged

Join us as we discuss all things schlock at Three Knock Theater podcast:

Facebook Group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/197572800347267/

Youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrLYkyXabfSwpcRQjhUMErQ
onionhead
Bad Movie Lover
***

Karma: 5
Posts: 465



« Reply #1 on: August 09, 2007, 03:54:33 PM »

This one established some ground rules for mad-slasher flicks to come
If you have sex, you're doomed
If you're a virgin, you're the hero by default (in most cases)
If you are the class clown, your death will be comical--at least to the killer
If you are a couple, you're doomed (see rule #1)
If you are a cop, you're doomed
If you're a cop, you usually act stupid, and thus are doomed
The most likely suspect is either A: The last one killed
OR introduced in the last reel of the film

I never understood how this took off to breed the franchise that it did--shows you what I know.
Logged

Some people like cupcakes better--I for one care less for them
Pages: [1]
Badmovies.org Forum  |  Information Exchange  |  Movie Reviews  |  Friday the 13th « previous next »
    Jump to:  


    RSS Feed Subscribe Subscribe by RSS
    Email Subscribe Subscribe by Email


    Popular Articles
    How To Find A Bad Movie

    The Champions of Justice

    Plan 9 from Outer Space

    Manos, The Hands of Fate

    Podcast: Todd the Convenience Store Clerk

    Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

    Dragonball: The Magic Begins

    Cool As Ice

    The Educational Archives: Driver's Ed

    Godzilla vs. Monster Zero

    Do you have a zombie plan?

    FROM THE BADMOVIES.ORG ARCHIVES
    ImageThe Giant Claw - Slime drop

    Earth is visited by a GIANT ANTIMATTER SPACE BUZZARD! Gawk at the amazingly bad bird puppet, or chuckle over the silly dialog. This is one of the greatest b-movies ever made.

    Lesson Learned:
    • Osmosis: os·mo·sis (oz-mo'sis, os-) n., 1. When a bird eats something.

    Subscribe to Badmovies.org and get updates by email:

    HOME B-Movie Reviews Reader Reviews Forum Interviews TV Shows Advertising Information Sideshows Links Contact

    Badmovies.org is owned and operated by Andrew Borntreger. All original content is © 1998 - 2014 by its respective author(s). Image, video, and audio files are used in accordance with the Fair Use Law, and are property of the film copyright holders. You may freely link to any page (.html or .php) on this website, but reproduction in any other form must be authorized by the copyright holder.