horrorfan_1986

In celebration of the DVD release of Friday the 13th (June 16th) I will be reviewing the entire series culminating with the new DVD. Unlike my other review threads (Jim reviews SNME or the IC title thread) updates will be done on a more regular basis. (Day or two wait at the most.) Each will have a similar layout:

The story - Summery of what happens in the film
The characters - Brief bios of the main characters in the film
The verdict - My review of the actual movie
The extras - death count, boob count, best kill and rating out of 10 bloody machetes


The Story

The film starts out in 1958. Two camp counselor heads up stairs in a cabin to have some fun. In the middle of this, an unknown person comes up and kills them both. The camp (Camp Crystal Lake) eventually shuts down for years. We jump ahead some years and the camp is being reopened up. Due to a string of bad luck (A drowning in 1957, the two kills in '58 and other issues that kept re-openings from happening) locals have given the camp a new name, Camp Blood. Owner, Steve Christy, puts together a new crew of workers and counselors. With just days before the first batch of kids arriving, it's a race against time to finish setting things up.

On her way to Camp Crystal Lake, Annie, the camp cook, meets up with Ralph. Ralph is the town crazy who predicts more bloodshed if the camp is opened up again. Hitchhiking to the camp, Annie discovers just how true Ralph is really. With the unknown killer on camp grounds, one by one the new counselors are killed off. Being the final one alive, Alice (The former lover of Steve) comes face to face with the killer. Mrs. Voorhees was the camp cook back in 1957 when he son drowned because the counselors were not paying attention. Desperate to keep the camp from opening up again, she declines more and more into insanity. To avenge his death, she has killed everyone as if they were the staff back at the time of the drowning. Alone with Alice on the beach, Mrs. Voorhees slaughtering night comes to an end when Alice decapitates her with a machete.

The sole survivor climbs into a canoe and drifts off into the middle of the lake until help can arrive. While dawn breaks and serene music plays as the police arrive, Alice feels safe. Just then coming out of the lake is the remains of the boy who drowned, looking to pull down the girl who killed his mother. Alice wakes up in a hospital room surrounded by doctors and the town sheriff. The cop confirms that everyone else is dead. When Alice asks about the boy, the sheriff is puzzled for his men found Alice alone that morning. The film ends with Alice realizing that that boy must still be out there. Jason is still waiting...

The Characters

Alice - An inspiring artist, she starts off the film unsure about whether she wants to stay or not. Although having a past fling with Steve, it seems as if she not has an attraction towards Bill.

What she brings to the movie: The ability to chop off heads.

Steve Christy - Taking over the ownership of Camp Crystal Lake from his parents, Steve looks to reopen the camp to all. While Alice appears to be over Steve, he still seems to want to be in a relationship with her. Steve spends most of the film away in town as everything goes down.

What he brings to the movie: Rocking out in short shorts without a shirt.

Bill - The quiet handyman appears to be Steve's right hand man. Throughout the movie, he becomes Alice's knight in shinning armor. The true hero in the film.

What he brings to the movie: Cuts up a snake with a machete.

Brenda - This old fashion woman comes off as one of the more annoying characters. Not much is known about her and is perhaps the most pointless counselor.

What she brings to the movie: Strip Monopoly.

Ned - Ned is your classic lonely, over sexed, joker who spends most of the time annoying his fellow workers. He would be the blue-print for future Friday characters.

What he brings to the movie: The thought of always checking the top bunk.

Jack and Marcie - Friends with Ned, they act as your normal couple which gives the excuse for a filmmaker to show sex scenes.

What they bring to the movie: The first full sex scene in Friday history.

Crazy Ralph - Ralph is the old crazy man in town. He becomes a top suspect for who the murderer may be due to always trying to warn people of the camp's terror. Ralph ends up being the last visitor the camp has before the blood shed.

What he brings to the movie: A lovable and memorable crazy character.

Mrs. Voorhees - The former cook, we only meet Voorhees at the very end of the movie. She is revealed to be the major surprise of the film.

What she brings to the movie: The kills...duh.

The Verdict

The aspect that stands out the most is the acting. To put it bluntly, it's atrocious. Especially early on, the teenagers are not believable at all. All they're doing is reading the script and doing as it says to do. However, you're not going to watch a Friday the 13th movie and expect a Meryl Streep-like performance. Putting that aside, the best aspect of the movie is the originality. This first film is so different than any of the other Friday's. Contrary to popular belief, it's not a rip off of Halloween. The only similarities is a killer who likes to stalk and a good amount of kills. The whole POV kill wasn't even originally done by Halloween. If anything, this is a loose remake of The Bay of Blood. The first time seeing the film (Unless you have it spoiled for you which I assume is just about anyone once this series became a huge hit), you're wondering who's doing all this. There's only been a few horror movies at this point with a woman as the killer. Since then, I can really only think of the Sleepaway Camp movies and Scream 2 for women slashers.

The other great thing about the movie was it's revolutionary makeup effects. Tom Savini was able to bring these unique kills to light without any computer effects. Suddenly, there were now ways to show an arrow popping up through a person's neck without any cutaways.

The biggest single weakness of the film is the story. For the most part, there isn't one. Unknown kills camp counselors. Those four words pretty much sums up the whole movie up until reveal of the killer. You don't need some long complex story line for a slasher, but giving us something would of been good. The love triangle between Steve, Alice and Bill could of been something. Even that was never really addressed besides a comment by Steve and Bill giving Alice a small kiss on the cheek near the end. The driving force of this film is the deaths. Once one death scene occurs, you're just waiting for the next one with some filler in between.

It's a decent enough start to the film and even better than a lot of rip offs later on, but there were some things to improve on.

The Extras

Death Count: 10
(In a series that is known for high body counts, it's a great way to start out the series)

Boob Count: 1
(Just one lonely boob. Don't worry, there's plenty more to come)

Best Kill: Jack (Kevin Bacon)


To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


Grade: 5
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
's

__________________

WCW

Cool. Good job. Keep em coming.

Bigpapa42

Nice. I just recently watched "His Name was Jason", so this fits right in. Always loved the series.

__________________

TheBoogeyMan

The series as a whole is good, however Jason X is one of the worst films i have ever seen. I cant wait to see that review.

Kayla

Just gotta say: that gif is the shit.

__________________

Necro

Yah very cool review. I can't wait for more.

__________________

The Brain

Oh hell yes. It's about time this board recognized the awesomeness that is the Friday the 13th series. Being an avid fan, I'll be watching this thread with great interest.

Also, I have to thank you, Jim, for helping me fill out my digital collection of 13th movies.

I also watched "His Name Was Jason", and learned that it was Tom Savini's idea for Jason to be a mongoloid. If not for Savini's input to the Jason character, what would he have looked like in the later films? Think about that for a second. The makeup artist for the first film is responsible for the base, human look of Jason Voorhees. That look would be built upon for the rest of the series.

Granted, the story isn't very deep, but there is definitely a story there. In my opinion, the main story is a mother's love for her son.

Her son died due to the irresponsibility of some counselors at this camp. The very next year, she killed those counselors. It's not confirmed in the film, but I like to believe she's behind the issues that kept the camp from reopening in the 10 years afterwards. When it finally reopens, she goes on a killing spree to avenge her son again.

That's easily the best kill in the movie, and that's including the beheading of Jason's mother at the end. That really left a big impression on me the first time I saw it.

__________________

horrorfan_1986

Once I rewatch Part 4 (Another Savini film), I'll answer the question. I can't remember if he changed much between 3 and 4.

All that is true (Although I do question if Ralph had anything to do with some of the misfortunes after the killings in '57), however; it takes a good 80 minutes before we realize all this. So for most of the movie, the only "Story line" is 'who's going to die next?' Although none of the sequels had any complex story lines, several of them had some easy to recognize story lines from the start of the movie that played out throughout the entire film. This movie reminds me a lot of the script for Halloween 2. The entire story was just pointless up until we could finally have Michael vs Loomis and Laurie. There wasn't any real story up until they could meet up again.

__________________

horrorfan_1986

The Story

Five months after the events of the first film, Alice is trying to deal with what happened. The movie opens up in her house as she's having a nightmare. Cut back and forth between watching her sleep we are shown the entire ending to the previous movie. As she awakens, Alice wanders around the house before coming down stairs. Her cat gives her a fake scare, but the real scare comes when she opens up the refrigerator to find the head of Mrs. Voorhees. All grown up Jason comes behind her and kills the last surviving counselor.

Five years have now past without any incident. A group of counselors comes together to Crystal Lake at a neighbor camp of Camp Blood. The camp is some sort of training facility for counselors even though everyone there has already been a counselor before. Crazy Ralph makes another appearance proclaiming doom to all who goes back to the lake. This time around, the crew has doubled in size, but there's some striking resemblances to past counselors. The first night there, Paul Holt, the man in charge, tells the story of Jason and how he's still out there. The only one who seems to take it serious is Paul's love interest, Ginny (Played by 80's scream queen, Amy Steel). Two counselors heads over to the old Camp Blood where they find the slaughtered animal that resembles, Muffin, the dog of another counselor. Jason appears to be at work. The next night, half of the crew heads out for one final night of fun in town, thus leaving us with our main characters.

Like before, the kills begins at night fall and doesn't let up until there's only two survivors. Paul and Ginny, head back to camp early from being in town to find blood on the beds. There, Jason attacks Paul leaving it a cat and mouse game between he and Ginny. Ginny eventually makes her way to Jason's decrepit cabin where she finds the head of Mrs. Voorhees in some sort of shrine with her sweater. Just as Jason comes to his cabin, Ginny comes up with one last idea of putting on the sweater and trying to convince Jason that she is his mother. The plan goes sour once Jason sees the head of his mother is still on the table. Paul though, makes his return and saves Ginny. In an act similar to the previous movie, Ginny seemingly kills Jason with an axe hit. Before leaving, Ginny pulls of Jason's potato sack to see what he really looks like.

The pair is finally able to relax as they head back to their cabin. One last fake out scare turns out just to be Muffin, who was not the dead animal found at Camp Blood. Just as everything appears peaceful, Jason, with the sack over his head jumps through the window attacking Ginny. Cut to white and we now see Ginny being loaded up in the ambulance. Much like with the last film, we do not know if what happened at the end really happened or not. Just as we don't know Paul's fate.

The Characters

Ginny - The new heroine is spunky, thoughtful and very observant. Much like Alice, she is in the middle of a fling with the owner of the camp.

What she brings to the movie: The willingness to believe in tales.

Paul - A younger, better looking version of Steve. He has the hard ass nature of his predecessor, but the confidence to keep the girl. The owner of the camp.

What he brings to the movie: An owner that we can actually care about.

Ted - The film's version of Ned. Not only is his name just one letter off of Ted, but he's a skinner and geekier version of Ned. At the same time, he's more likable.

What he brings to the movie: How many geeks do you know has a six pack?

Mark - The wheelchair bound counselor is very down to earth and still has a cool element about him. He's perhaps the most realistic character in the movie.

What he brings to the movie: Guys in chairs can still get the girl...and knife.

Vickie - Even more annoying than Brenda in the first movie. Throughout the entire film, she might as well have a shirt that says "I'll fuck anything that wheels"

What she brings to the movie: An annoying character you just want to see dead.

Jeff and Sandra - The younger, better looking versions of Jack and Marcie. Another excuse to have a sex scene.

What they bring to the movie: Double impalement.

Terry - A runner, she seems to be a very normal girl. Oddly, she's the eye candy of the movie wearing clothes that just barely covers.

What she brings to the movie: Boobs and very little clothes.

Jason Voorhees - Son of Mrs. Voorhees, fully grown and wanting to avenge the death of his mother. Potentially hears his mother speaking in his head telling him to kill all that enters his woods.

What he brings to the movie: Blood...lots of blood.


The Verdict
Long before Saw became a hit and started releasing sequels every year, Friday the 13th was the first to really create that marketplace. Released the same year as Halloween 2, the goal seemed to be simple. Make a movie with so much kills and blood flow that Halloween 2 (Which was to be released several months afterward) would not be able to compare. For that part, they easily did that. The first thing that jumps out at me is how similar this is to Part 1. It's as if they decided to remake the first one changing the things that could of been better. Just looking at the cast, most of the main actors are basically the same characters as in the first one. The only difference is that they're more memorable and better looking.

One of my main issues with the previous film was that there wasn't a story for most of the film. From the start of the movie, there was a simple story of Jason wanting revenge. It's a very small addition, but it made a big difference for me. The campfire scene where Paul tells the story of Jason also properly gives cause for Jason killing everyone in this and in future movies. Basically, if you come in the woods, you're trespassing to Jason. The most interesting line during a later scene was Ginny realizing that Jason most likely doesn't understand death. That would really do a lot in explaining the large masses of kills he would perform later on.

Having Jason become the killer help the series have more longevity compared to having Mrs. Voorhees live in the first film. With her being an older normal woman, her being able to kill everyone becomes less and less believable as the movies go on. Jason on the other hand, is seen as this strong animal like being that doesn't quite understand what he's doing.

While Ginny does have a few traits similar to Alice, she's a very different character. Ginny is her own woman not always needing to be saved. She reminds me a lot of Laurie Strode in the first two Halloweens. If you go back and rewatch those films, Laurie is the only one observant enough to see Michael around. In the second film, even in a drugged up state, she's smart enough to stay hidden while others die. Ginny is always thinking about how to survive. That alone makes her one of the more likable characters in the entire series.

For horror lovers, another noticeable improvement are the scares. Jason isn't just a random killer who pops out of nowhere for a quick scare. Once again, he's unfairly compared to Michael Myers. Both men are smart killers. But while Michael stalks his kill because he loves the thrill of freaking people out, Jason is different. Instead, Jason is almost an impatient child. If something isn't working (For example, a locked door), he quickly gives up on it and tries another route to get his kill. Not only does it make him smart, but makes him far more scary because you never know where he's going to be. In Halloween, Laurie locked herself in the kitchen while trying to escape. Michael tries opening the door, but is unable. So he wastes several moments trying to break his hand through the door to unlock it. While it is a very suspenseful scene, it shows the difference between he and Jason. A similar event happened here with Ginny locking herself in a room. Instead of banging on the door, Jason heads outside to break through the window of the room.

For the most part, I didn't have too many issues with the film. Of course there's the typical poor script and not so hot acting, but as I said, you expect that. The one problem I did have was all of the characters. There were several characters that didn't really need to be in the movie. Scott, who's sole purpose is to try to get into the pants of Terry, ends up dying without any real care. With Ned having such a major character in the first half of the movie, he heads off into town and doesn't even play a part of the events back at camp. Why would they invest so much time with him if he wasn't going to have an ending? With the exception of the nudity, Terry was another useless character. Did we really need four different relationships going at the same time?

Overall, it's a great improvement on the first film and really laid out what Friday sequels would be all about.

The Extras

Death Count: 9 (?)
(With the fate of Paul unknown, it's only 9, potentially 10. 11 if you count the dead animal found at Camp Blood. Surprisingly, the same number as the first film.)

Boob Count: 1
(We only get to see one girl naked, but they show everything.) Sadly, despite being in a sex scene, the closest to being naked we see Sandra is in a bikini top.)

Best Kill: Mark
(Best viewed on a dark skin)

To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


Grade: 7
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
's

__________________

Daddy

That is awesome Jim. You are my horror hero. Great reviews.