Skip to main content

Friday the 13th (1980)

By Nate Feldman

In 1958, two camp counselors at Camp Crystal Lake are brutally murdered by a mysterious killer.  Many years later, the camp is re-opening, but the local townspeople warn the new counselors that the place has a death curse.  The camp owner and workers do not pay attention to this, but little do they know they are being stalked by the same vicious and unseen killer from the past.  Eventually, the counselors, one by one, are slain, leading to the question of who, or what, is causing all of the carnage at Camp Crystal Lake?

This movie was a surprise box-office smash in 1980 and spawned countless sequels, as well as a remake in 2009.  It remains iconic in the horror genre.  By modern horror standards, the film is actually quite tame, but it was exceptionally grisly and gory for its time.  

The film seems to learn on extreme violence to catch the audience's attention, and while that may have worked for me when I was younger, I feel now that a lot of the blood was unnecessary as the film would have been good whether it was a gore fest or not.  

I still love the score by composer Harry Manfredini, which perfectly captures the mood.  The infamous sound when the film is shown through the killer's eyes (Chi Chi Chi Ha Ha Ha, or Ki Ki Ki Ma Ma Ma as Manfredini has said is the appropriate sound) still is effective all these years later. 

I also like the idea of a camp in the woods as a location for the story.  The sense of isolation and remoteness does give the impression that the victims are trapped.  The scenery in the film is nice, and it's a big reason why I decided to visit its location in New Jersey in 2021.  

Finally, once the killer is revealed, who it is and their explanation is unexpected if you hadn't heard of the movie previously.

So, if you are a horror film buff, I still recommend the original Friday the 13th all these years later.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Superman (2025)

By Nate Feldman Superman stops a war between Boravia and Jarhanpur.  Lex Luther wants a war between them because he has a relationship with the Boravian leader, who will give some of Jarhanpur to Luther for him to rule.  So, Luther starts a misinformation campaign against Superman to get him out of the way.  He finds a video that Superman's parents sent to the young superhero as a boy, instructing him to take over the Earth, not help it which he always assumed was his purpose.  When this video is shown to the public, it turns people's opinions against the hero, and makes Superman question his own purpose.   However, with the help of one of Luther's assistants, a colleague at the Daily Planet, where Superman works as Clark Kent, reveals Luther's true intentions.  So, Superman and his friends with the Justice Gang work together to stop Luther and the war between Boravia and Jarhanpur. 
Post a Comment
Read more

Elio (2025)

By Nate Feldman Elio is a 2025 film by Disney Pixar.  Elio is a young boy who lives with his Aunt after his parents die.  His Aunt is a Major in the military and is overwhelmed with her new parenting roles.  Meanwhile, Elio longs to be abducted by aliens to escape his living situation. Eventually, Elio is taken aboard an alien spaceship where he encounters the Communiverse, a form of intergalactic government of various alien species.  While there, he witnesses them reject the membership of Grigon, an extremely aggressive cyborg alien called a Hylurgian who vows revenge on the other aliens for this.  The Communiverse asks Elio to try and convince him not to launch a war on them.  In return, they will give the boy membership to their group, and he'll never have to return to Earth.   When Elio goes to Grigon's spaceship, he learns a couple of things.  First of all, Hylurgians are very unintimidating sluglike creatures that only get into a roboti...
Post a Comment
Read more