AMC is showing all the Friday the 13th movies this week, and since I haven't seen them in years, I am going to watch them all and the next few posts will be about these films (with the occasional other movie popping up).
(I know that I will be watching the edited versions on TV, but I have seen all of these un-cut often enough that I don't mind)
Friday the 13th (1980)
This film, along with Halloween, is the one that started the early 80s slasher boom. I think it stands right at the top of the all-time slasher film list (keeping in mind that Halloween is on its own list, which is above this list).
You can see almost all of the features we commonly find in slasher films on display here (although some of them had their start in Halloween and are just being copied here). Unknown killer not revealed until near the end of the film. Splitting up the large group into smaller couples (and then into individuals) and then picking them off. Couples that have sex are killed (including a feathery-haired Kevin Bacon!). The killings take place on the anniversary of a former tragedy or other milestone.
The story is pretty well known - teens are working on getting Camp Crystal Lake ready for the summer and a crazed killer decides to do away with them as revenge (in her mind) for counselors allowing her son, Jason, to drown at the camp 22 years earlier. It also happens to be Jason's birthday, so that is bad luck for the teens.
The movie manages to do a good job of building up the tension as each character is picked off 1 by 1 by not showing too much - some of the kills even happen off screen - and leaving a lot up to your imagination (the edited version I watched didn't even have to remove too much. Topping off the movie is the weirdly creepy portrayal of Mrs. Voorhees, the killer. She is only in the movie at the very end, but man is that lady freaky. Friday the 13th also has one of the most iconic soundtracks in horror - almost everyone recognizes its signature "ki ki ki, ma ma ma".
Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
While this sequel is not as well regarded as the original, i think I like it almost as much. Its certainly my favorite of the films where Jason Voorhees is the killer, probably because in this one (despite the fact that he had been living in a lake for 22 years) he comes off as just a normal person, rather than the supernatural unkillable zombie he becomes in every film after this.
Part 2 takes place 5 years after the original (other than the opening scene, in which Jason tracks down the only survivor of the first film to take care of some unfinished business), which is long enough for everyone to forget the original killings and make their way out to Crystal Lake again. The plot is pretty similar to the first one - a bunch of teens are together in the woods (this time for counselor training), they all get separated and then get picked off one by one. Even the ending is similar - the survivors think they are out of danger before one last unexpected scare. Since this is a sequel, things are turned up a notch - more nudity, more blood (although not to much, as once again not a lot had to be edited out of the AMC version as far as the killings are concerned), more inventive kills. Its not quite as good as the original, but still pretty decent.
Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982)
And here is where things start to go downhill, quality-wise...
First of all, this movie was released in 3D, and they tack on so many superfluous shots just to have more 3D scenes that it makes a lot of the film very cheesy. Some examples of the crappy 3D - someone tosses a wallet across a store; as one of the characters lays on the round, another plays with a yo-yo right over her head; someone makes popcorn on the stove. UGH. Another mark against this movie are too many scenes similar to the first Friday the 13th (there is one kill similar to the way Kevin Bacon's character was killed in, and the survivor winds up in a canoe on the lake for one last scare at the end). I am sure they are suppose to be homages, but they just come off as inferior imitations.
This is the first Friday film that has the version of Jason Voorhees with which most people are familiar - big, hulking, relentless, hockey mask-wearing unstoppable killer (seriously, Jason is like twice as big as he was in Part 2). Also, the style of kills employed by Jason are more outlandish than in either of the first 2 films (ex. Jason uses a spear gun on one victim, and crushes the head of another with his bare hands) that will continue through the rest of the series.
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
I always enjoyed this sequel better than Part 3, mostly because of the ending (there is no point in talking about what comes before the ending, since its the same as what happened in the first 3 movies). Even though the ending is a takeoff of the ending to Part 2 (someone puts on a disguise to confuse Jason - in Part 2 it was as his mother, and here its as Jason himself - Jason isn't very bright), I thought it was very effective, mostly due to the performance of Corey Feldman (I know, surprising, right?). Corey's character shaves his head to appear more like Jason as a child, which looks creepy enough on its own. Then, Corey viciously attacks Jason with a machete when it is apparent that Jason is not yet dead. The look on Feldman's face as he performs the attack was always very disturbing.
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