Friday The 13th (1980)

[Chucky]

I understand that the original Friday The 13th is a staple on the slasher genre but I've never particularly found it to be special enough to call it a great movie.

What do you think of it?

[Crash Dummie]

Not great. Definitely a product of its time.

It's pretty much an artless movie to make a quick buck on Halloween's back where nobody really seemed to care. This is pretty much confirmed by the producer.

The special effects are pretty good, and it accidentally manages to create a good mythos with the camp grounds setting and Jason's vengeful mother killing for her lost son. Some kind of "reverse-Psycho" inspiration was in there, I'm pretty sure.

And if you don't think too much about how nobody's found Jason in the woods in about 20 years, including the police and his distraught, loving mother who would have done everything for him, the idea that he didn't actually drown and starts killing himself to avenge his mom is a pretty good idea that made for a MUCH better movie in part 2.

I actually feel that one of the things the Friday remake got right was that Pam Voorhees first rampage is also her last, and Jason witnesses her death as a child. By all accounts, Jason was a sweet and innocent boy until the sight of his mother's decapitated head drove him mad. It makes more sense having him go missing for a couple of days after his presumed drowning, then coming back to his mom just as she's getting killed, driving him to madness and reclusion at a young age.

Anyway, two of Friday the 13th's main characteristics were terrible continuity and false advertising. The time frames between movies rarely make any sense, very few of them take place on the titular date and they had subtitles that indicated it would be the last move in the series twice, and both times were lies.

[Chucky]

I agree with everything you've said. Though the cash-grab aspect of it doesn't affect my opinion of this movie as much as it does for you because technically a lot of 80's horror, including sequels, were cashing in on the success of earlier movies.

I was teetering between a 6-7 out of 10 for it and decided to edge it to a 7 just because the ending is pretty good but the majority of the movie isn't all that great aside from Savini's kill effects.

[Crash Dummie]

Oh, absolutely. I don't mind that it's a cash grab, but in the end, it's not as entertaining to me as some other entries in the franchise. Part 2, 4 and FvJ are arguably good (if intentionally cheesy and exploitive) movies. Part 6 is actually pretty great, it's a nice hommage to old monster movies and a precursor to subversive horror comedies like Scream. The other ones are all different degrees of bad and entertaining.

[Jigsaw]

Classic movie, easy 8/10. Honestly, when talking about the Friday the 13th series, you can't really go wrong with 1-5. Great film, and enjoyed seeing it once again.

[Chucky]

Jigsaw and I recently discussed this movie: