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| From http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/fridaythe13th/images/9/91/ FridayThe13thPoster.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20151028231925 |
Director: Sean S. Cunningham
Screenplay: Victor Miller
Cast: Adrienne King (as Alice L.
Hardy); Harry Crosby (as Bill Brown); Kevin Bacon (as Jack Burrell); Jeannine
Taylor (as Marcie Stanler); Mark Nelson (as Ned Rubenstein)
A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies) #16
I've had the intention of going
throughout the Friday the 13th films
even if there might've been difficult to get a few of the later sequels (did I
get rid of my copy of Jason Goes To Hell:
The Final Friday (1993) or is it lost in the netherrealm of the wardrobe? I
really don't want to shell out of lot of money for a bad film like that second
hand...). I've however found a roadblock already, knowing how important the
first film let alone the franchise is in American horror history but with a
weary and ambivalent opinion of the first. This small review has taken needing
a rewatch of the first Friday the 13th
two times, with the immediate sequel watched inbetween, before I could write
this, the one I had the most familiarity to from the series when I watched it
years ago. What I realise is that, once my original hatred of slasher films was
broken down and I'm starting to go through them, this film is the plain vanilla
of the sub-genre and not interesting compared to all the obscurer ones.
I compliment the film in look and
tone. Ironically, despite the franchise being the catalyst for a lot of how the
eighties American horror films would be in presentation, even the non-slashers,
this is a seventies movie entirely in aesthetic. Lust, rugged forest locations
and normal people in the cast, the girls you'd met and date from next door and
chummy jocks you'd bump into on a street, Kevin
Bacon amongst them always seeming to be far more down-to-earth and
approachable to the point you could see him transition from this to being a
Hollywood star later on. Unfortunately having now caught the bug of
appreciating slasher films even for their repetition of plots, I have already
found better made, more schlocky, weirder and more entertaining ones whilst
barely scrapping the surface of it as a sub-genre.
A lot of this is that it's failed
as a horror movie in many ways, intentionally wanting to capitalise on Halloween (1978) but not having any
really distinct character to it if it wasn't for its rural camp setting,
something that can be found in many other slashers like Madman (1981) and The
Burning (1981). It relies on a build up to the kills compromised by the
characters being exceptionally bland, even the final girl played by Adrienne
King we're meant to finally get behind, the less the memorable dialogue
without unintentional camp or menace to it even less interesting than some of
these slashers can have. Also, while its great music, I entirely blame Harry Manfredini's score and how it's
used for a lot of the problems with overeager and overused scores in modern
horror films in terms of jump scares and deflating tension. The famous
whispering in the score is excellent and chilling, but altogether the score
when it builds up is overbearing. In direct comparison, the score for John Carpenter's Halloween, while signposting jumps, had a greater subtlety and
allowed for moments of stillness. The Texas
Chainsaw Massacre (1974) realise that just a collage of noise, pig sounds
and screaming would terrify anyone.
When it leads to the dynamic ending,
I feel Friday the 13th lets itself
down. While Betsy Palmer is memorable
and a much needed injection of charisma, the film doesn't build itself up
throughout its narrative to make her inclusion into the narrative have greater
weight. Even when it gets to the famous scene on the lake, which is a great
sequence possessing a great, serene synth track, the film undermines it by
having more scenes afterwards rather than letting it be the last moment before
the end credits to leave viewers with a buzz afterwards. Altogether, with these
flaws, Friday the 13th is just
bland, a film that may have kick-started the slasher craze in the early
eighties but not one for me personally that really stands out in the slightest.
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