#10 - Friday the 13th - 1980"I'm not sure I'll last all week."
-- Alice
I'll keep this short being as I don't remember all to much about this film (And my notes are somewhat ineligible).
'Friday the 13th' is one of those films that you remember as being better than what it is. More than likely the memory of all the films roll into one, and it gets so you can't really tell them all apart. Only when you sit down and watch them do you realise that actually, the original film is one of the worst films of the whole series. The opening entry's only notable credit is that it really created the template for the slasher films that followed (Although 'Halloween' pre-dated it. This film created a specific template that seemed to be adhered to since).
The film also has that great twist (Well for those who had seen it for the first time) of Pamela Vorhees being the killer. It doesn't make that much sense, being as she offs Teenagers who are at the very least half of her age with considerable ease. But Betsy Palmer infuses the role with enough mad eyed craziness that she's able to pull it off (Even though she considered the script "A piece of shit" and only did it because she wanted a new Car). Well technically speaking the film has 2 twist moments. The film was created mainly as a money making scheme, shoot it low budget, pack in some shocks and people will come flocking. Of course it worked. The film's second twist is the final appearence of Jason Vorhees dragging Alice into the Water. It's only a dream sequence (Kind of?) but it was an effective final scare (And also a rip off from the end of 'Carrie', which has a near identical scare, right down to the whole dream-like effect of the whole scene). The moment was supposedly thought up late in production as a neat way to end the film, but it's hard not to imagine they were seeing their way into a sequel with that one.
The killings in this one are somewhat more sparse than prehaps what we're used to. There's long stretches of teenage revelry to contend with before the next big kill. I will say though that the kills, masterminded by F/X genuis Tom Savini are all nicely done, with one highlight being the 'Arrow through the throat from under the Bed kill' of a young Kevin Bacon. I believe the R2 release of the DVD also features the deaths uncut, which only amounts to a few extra seconds of footage in total. But it's nice for those of you who like the sight of blood (Kathryn).
The series didn't really kick off until the Second film, but even that is different enough from its predeccesors, in ways I'll get to another time. Hmm, maybe tonight?
No comments:
Post a Comment