Friday the 13th (1980)

They were warned...They are doomed...And on Friday the 13th, nothing will save them.

Since today is Friday the 13th, I figured we could celebrate the holiday with a review of the original Friday the 13th!  Also be prepared for every Friday the 13th after this for a new review, luckily there's currently 12 movies, so I'm good for at least 2 if not 3 years!  On to the movie!

Opens at Camp Crystal Lake in 1958 with a group of counselors and campers singing around a fire.  We are then transported to one of the other cabins, where all the campers are sleeping, we hear the iconic Jason music, signaling that we are most likely seeing this from Jason's P.O.V.  Two of the counselors from the singing group head up to the attic to make out, are caught by Jason and killed.  Now in present day, June on Friday the 13th, we see a women, Annie, backpacking through town on her way to the reopening of Camp Crystal Lake where she will serve as a counselor. 

She stops into a diner and ask how far away Camp is, she ends up scoring a ride with Enos, a trucker, who drives her half way to Camp.  Before they leave they run into Ralph, the town crazy, telling her that if she goes there she will die.  On the ride to the half way point, Enos tells her to rethink her idea to go there and tells her about the murders in '58.  She gets dropped off at the half way point which is a cemetery, that in it self should have been an omen enough for her to turn around.  We then meet couple, Jack and Marcie, and Jacks friend, Ned, who are heading to camp as counselors, they arrive and meet owner, Steve, Alice, Steve's ex, Bill, the handyman, and Brenda, another counselor.

"He neglected to tell us downtown they call this place Camp Blood"

Steve tells them to get to work and that he will be gone awhile, and leaves, we also find out that Annie is not actually a counselor but the camp cook.  Can I just say that Steve is really creepy.  Back with Annie we see her get picked up by someone in a jeep, we then see them drive past Crystal Lake, the driver wont stop, and Annie takes it upon her self to jump out.  The person from the jeep, who we still haven't seen, stops and starts chasing after Annie, she eventually falls, and gets her throat slit.  Back at camp all the counselors are swimming and having a good time, they are about to get back to work when Ned fake drowns, only so he can get a kiss from Brenda. 

In Alice's room, she finds a snake, everyone runs in and after a lot of fuss manage to kill the snake.  A police officer arrives in search of Ralph, but to no avail heads back into town, everyone else heads back to work.  Alice is cleaning up the kitchen when she finds Ralph in the pantry, he warns them about Crystal Lake and leaves on his bicycle.  Everyone starts working on dinner, they realize that the power isn't working and head out to the generator, and there's light.  Later that night, Marcie and Jack head into one of the cabins to get out of the storm that has descended  and end up having sex, which is one of the big no-no's in horror movies!  10 out 10 times the people who have sex end up dying.

"Can it goat cheese"

Back in a main cabin, Brenda, Alice, and Bill are setting up for strip monopoly while drinking and smoking a joint, at this point Ned has been missing for awhile.  Marcie and Jack are in the middle of having sex when they pan to the bed above them and we see Ned's dead body, they finish and Marcie leaves the room.  Jack is laying in bed when a drop of blood lands on his head, he is then killed, in the bathroom with Marcie, she starts hearing noises and goes to investigate, but ends up getting an axe to the head.  The door busts open and ends Brenda, Bill, and Alice's game of strip monopoly, Brenda heads out to her cabin, while Bill and Alice stay behind to clean up.

"Where are you?"

At a diner in town we see Steve heading back to Crystal Lake in what has turned into a really nasty storm.  In the bathroom, Brenda gets ready for bed, we see Jason in the corner, but Brenda leaves before she can die.  On the road we see that Steve's car has broken down, and a police man has shown up and gives him a lift back to Crystal Lake.   In bed, Brenda is reading when she starts to hear noises and goes to investigate, she hears someone yelling 'help me', she leaves her cabin to go find the person and ends up getting killed.  In the main cabin with Alice and Bill, Alice tells Bill that she thought she heard Brenda scream and they leave to go investigate.  These kids know nothing about horror movie rules, you should never investigate, especially if your at Camp Blood in the middle of a storm.

"What is going on?"

In Brenda's room they find an axe in her bed, and start looking for not only Brenda, but Marcie, Jack, and Ned.  They can't find any of them, and head to the camp office to call for help, but the phone lines have been cut, they try the cars, but they wont start either.  In the police car, we find out that it's not only Friday the 13th, but it's also a full moon, the rain starts to stop, Steve gets dropped off and the police car takes off.  As Steve approaches the camp, a light gets shone into his face and he approaches the person, only to be killed.  Back in the office with Bill and Alice, he starts lighting lantern's and heads outside, while Alice tries to fall asleep.  Bill heads to the generator room to try to get the lights back on, but it has run out of gas, while he's doing that Alice wakes up and starts making cocoa. 

"No, there all dead, don't leave me"

Alice leaves the cabin to find Bill, and heads to the generator room to find Bill dead, she then heads back to the cabin.  Inside she rigs up a contraption to keep the killer out, she then heads to the kitchen, and Brenda's dead body gets thrown into the room through the window.  Alice sees a car pull in and an older women gets out of the car, her name is Mrs. Voorhees, she comforts Alice and heads inside the cabin.  Mrs. Voorhees sees Brenda's body and tells Alice of the little boy, Jason, who drowned in the lake the summer before the opening murders, we then find out she is Jason's mom.  In what may be the biggest plot twist since Psycho, we find out that Jason is not the killer, but it's Mrs. Voorhees that is the killer.  Alice runs out of the cabin and starts finding all of the other dead bodies, before running into the shed. 

"Jason was my son, and today is his birthday"

In the shed we have a face off between Mrs. Voorhees and Alice, Alice manages to get the upper hand before running out with Mrs. Voorhees on her trail.  Alice manages to evade Mrs. Voorhees and head back to the cabin and hides in the pantry, we hear Mrs. Voorhees come in, then we think we hear her leave, but she opens the door.  Alice hits her over the head with a frying pan and leaves the cabin, heading to the lake to sit in a canoe, which is a little odd.  Mrs. Voorhees attacks her from behind and they fight until Alice finds a machete and chops Mrs. Voorhees head off, which is a really cool scene.

"But...then he's still there"

Then Alice sails out on a canoe, instead of hoping in the perfectly running jeep, and in the morning the police arrive and see her asleep floating in the canoe.  She awakens, as we pan into her face Jason pops out of the water and takes her down with him, Alice re-awakens in a hospital, and asks if they found Jason.  The police tell her they didn't find a boy, and she remarks that he must still be there.

The End.

 

I love the Friday the 13th Franchise, it's one of my favorite franchise's, Jason is also one of my favorite killers, even though in the original movie, his mom was the killer.  Tell me what you think of the movie in the comments, on Twitter (@ohmyskittles13) or on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/SilentToHughes).  I will see you all with another Friday the 13th review on December 13th, 2013, and here have a fun fact, is exactly 13 weeks from today, how awesome is that?

 

Hope you all have a great night despite the date!