Logan Sork Film Reviews
Friday the 13th
After the release of John Carpenter’s Halloween in 1978, the slasher genre took the world by storm. Due to this intense popularity of the genre, many filmmakers rushed to get a piece of the action. One of the films that was made as a result of the slasher craze was Friday the 13th. Upon initial release the film was a major success at the box office, resulting in the birth of a franchise with 12 features to this date. Due to the immense popularity of the franchise, one would think that the original film would be good or at least decent, unfortunately that is not the case. This film is the bare minimum for a slasher film and serves as nothing more than a copy of the much more effective Halloween.
The film is directed by Sean S. Cunningham and centers around a group of teenage camp counselors who are preparing for a re-opening of the summer camp at Crystal Lake. The camp has received a bit of a bad reputation in the past years, with the drowning of a young child and a brutal murder of two camp counselors in the past, leading many to think that the camp is cursed. The new owners want to re-invigorate interest in the camp and prepare for the grand re-opening. On a stormy night, the camp counselors are stranded at the camp, as they are stalked by an unknown killer lurking in the shadows waiting to kill them one by one.
One of the biggest problems with the film is the apparent lack of tension. There is often little to no suspense throughout the entire film. This is mainly due to the decision to repeat the same formula for all of the major kills in the film. It’s always one person who’s alone, walking around and then they get killed. There is not a single attempt to change the formula throughout the entire film. With other films of the genre there was always creativity to help them standout from the other films, this is not found in Friday the 13th. Even the kills themselves don’t feel all that unique or inventive and are quite dull when compared to other films of the genre.
The poor pacing also brigs this film’s quality down immensely. We hit the ground running in the opening scene that should set the tone for the film. After the opening scene we the get another unique encounter with the killer as one of the counselors travels through town. This is all good, but once we reach the camp however, the film stops dead. We spend the day time with the counselors as they prepare for camp, this could be interesting if the characters were good, but alas they are cardboard cutouts serving as nothing more that bait for the killer. Because of the dull characters, the first half of the film is an absolute slog to get through, this doesn’t change even when night falls and the killing begins. Because of the lack of tension, there is no sense of real danger when the killer is about resulting in the audience losing investment for the” characters”.
So, is there anything good to be found in this film? Well there is a unique twist on who the killer of the film actually is. It is unique within the genre and helps the film standout from others like it. It’s just unfortunate that the filmmakers decided to revel it within the last 10 minutes of the movie, because this is a case in which the reveal could’ve added some much-needed tension to the movie.
Apart from the unique twist on the killer, this movie is honestly really nothing special. It’s your run of the mill slasher movie, and a sub-par one at that. Containing thin characters, poor pacing and uninventive kills, it’s a wonder how this film blossomed into the unique franchise that we know today.
3/10