Friday the 13th (1980)

Getting a chance to see Friday the 13th on Friday the 13th was too good an opportunity to miss. I thought it was a bit random to chose this Friday the 13th to screen this but the film is set on June 13th so that made a lot more sense. I never watched the Friday the 13th films until about 2020 so I didn't get to experience this film at the right age. The set up is pretty simple, a group of horny young people including a very young Kevin Bacon arrive at Camp Crystal Lake when it is in the process of being restored after the death of Jason. As the film progresses people are killed as they all get separated and then start looking for each other as the rain starts to fall and Ralph freaks everyone out although he is right (to a point).

The film is quite basic in how it progresses as the film is more about the kills and who is responsible. The deaths are quite good and bearing in mind that it was 45 years ago, some of the effects work quite well including the death of Jack (Kevin Bacon). It shouldn't come as a great surprise as the effects are done by Tom Savini and they are awesome. It's weird seeing Kevin Bacon now because all I think of when I think of Kevin Bacon is the EE adverts that he has been the face of for over a decade. Sadly he’s not in the film long enough but at least he probably gets the best death of the entire film. Ned is the most annoying of the group because he thinks that funny one but he’s about as funny a head cold and the only disappointment is that he doesn't have the best death. In fact his death is off screen and it did feel a bit cheap like they ran out of money in the middle of filming. 

Steve Christy is the owner of the Camp and completely useless to the plot. He is working when everyone gets there, goes off for something and then the next time we see him is at the diner about to make his way back. He then drives back, gets stuck and picked up by a police car and then has to walk the rest of the way back and just as he gets there he is killed. He adds absolutely nothing to the story and when got killed I found I didn't really care because he had such a minimal impact on the story and also wasn't very likeable and came across as a bit too up himself.

The main reason why I like this film and think it's one of if not the best of the franchise is the big twist of the film is that the one who is doing the killings is the mother of Jason. The idea that a woman is the big villain of a film doesn't quite get the credit it deserves for a film that came out in 1980.  Now bearing in mind that Jason is known to be what the films are about, it was surprising that Jason doesn't really feature in the film. We get a couple of glimpses but nothing more than that. Some might be disappointed that Jason’s mother is the killer but it totally works for me. Betsy Palmer does a believable job as the mother who lost her son and it seems to be a twist on Psycho where the parent is the mad one and the child is telling her what to do. The fight between Mrs Voorhees and Alice does seem a little slow by today's standards and I don't know how realistic it is how Alice is about to knock Mrs Voorhees’ head off as easily as she does but that's a minor issue.

Overall I thought that this was a good solid horror film. There are continuity issues in later films and plot holes that are created but as a solo film and  horror film that was trying to cash in on the success of Halloween, the film does what it does very well and it worked very well on the big screen. The picture quality was perfectly fine and I didnt notice any quality issue unlike when I saw 28 Days Later at the same cinema. Friday the 13th is a horror film that should be seen and despite the lack of Jason, the film is really just about killing people in creative ways in between them having sex or playing strip Monopoly.