Thanks for checking out our Forgotten Fridays feature. This is a feature to review some older films that maybe you have forgotten about or maybe never got around to seeing that we just want to share. They may not be old, maybe not forgotten, but they are not new. Just fun to share.
And being October, I wanted to focus on scary films.
Today’s review is Friday the 13th
THE GENERAL IDEA
THE GOODThis was one of those movies that TRULY frightened me and gave me nightmares. I had a hard time with this one, granted I was like nine when I saw it (evil babysitters). This made me afraid of the dark and nervous at night when camping. This has the stereotypes that were not yet present in the world of Horror. When the power goes out and one person drifts off on their own into the dark to go find out why, you don’t roll your eyes. That just made sense.
And there was no Jason. Not yet. Just a masked killer. There was mystery and there was no supernatural. This was REAL and could happen. Some Kids are hired to re-open the camp and legends resurface as to why the campground was closed and someone starts killing them. Simple and terrifying.
It is also one of the very earliest appearances of Kevin Bacon.
THE BAD
The movie is a little dated, and while much horror that followed this film is attempting to emulate the terror presented here, its hard to forget the history. While you are screaming at the TV saying “Why would you do that?? He is behind that tree waiting for you with a machete!! Don’t you Watch Horror movies? ” Well in 1980 there wasn’t a lot of this going around in film.
OVERALL
This is a great film to watch with friends around Halloween. You can wonder at the very young Kevin Bacon, wash your brain of that weak unscary remake and see the origins of the Jason Voorhees we know from the sequels that dominated pop culture ever since. SPOILER Remember that Jason was the motivation of the killings, but it wasn’t until a stinger after the credits a morning after that this turned supernatural and Jason’s aged-to-adult form leaps out of the lake taking the film’s last victim.
This is worth a watch for those who have never seen it, or just want to actually
I am going to introduce a new rating system for my Forgotten Fridays picks.
Since all of these Forgotten Friday reviews are going to be what I would already give a high rating to, I had a Tv, Rent or Buy scale going on, but it would seem that an overwhelming majority of my picks get a BUY rating.
So with every Forgotten Friday you see from now on, you get to rate your anticipation for yourself!
TV – If you are at least a little curious, catch it if it comes on TV.
Rent – If it is something you have heard of and forgotten, or just remember enjoying this as much as I did once upon a time, go rent it.
Buy – But if you are like me, and you agree with my review you should go buy it. If its featured here, I already have.
Ugh…can’t get on board with the gore movies. This one will happily stay forgotten with me.
I’ve always thought Friday the 13th would have had the best ending of any horror movie ever if it had just left the part on the lake as the last scene. It’s shocking, scary, and hilarious at the same time, and the scene in the hospital afterward only takes away from that.
No, best horror film ending ever is “Sleepaway Camp”! So freakin weird and outrageous! Netfix it.
I have to confess that the first time I saw the First Friday The 13th, there was one scene that made me jump. That was when the arrow from an unseen archer hits the bulls-eye. “Jason” coming out of the water was nice, but then that bit was a nightmare.
When I think about the sequels, each one of them has a few scenes of interest/merit, but like the first film… lame as hell.
Part 2: Jason is back, kills survivor. Love Amy Steel. Jason’s mother’s head on table. Old geezer finally gets it.
Part 3: 3-D and Jason gets his Goalie Mask.
Part 4: The Final Chapter my a$$. But the returning character of Tom Jarvis is introduced- played by Corey Feldman.
Part 5: Note: here’s something that “Scream” forgot. In this one, Jason didn’t do the killing; it was a copycat. On another note, I was sad to see Susan J Sullivan to get an axe in the head. Sure her character was a spoiled brat; but she was kinda hot.
Part 6: Jason gets hit by lightning and is now a human tank; also some good pacing and a few dark humorous chuckles. The best of the whole lot
Part 7: The wait for most of the flick for the showdown between Jason and “Telekinetic Tina” was something of a letdown. (But folks, SIX MONTHS from schedule, to film, to finish…does that still hold a record from a major studio? Boy, we complain about rush jobs in this day and age…)
Part 8: Like the last one-another jip. Jason can take a ship; he cannot take Times Square. Things to like: Jason’s Toxic Waste death, babe alert on Kelly Hu, and, the film’s poster.
Part 9: Erin Grey. Oh, and the whole NEW SPIN on Jason, including eating his (black) evil heart which possesses people and …Jason is a worm. Nods to Evil Dead and, of course, Elm Street.
Part 10: See above.
Part 11 or FvJ: Clash of the titans where Freddy Kruger is getting way too annoying. Jason kills folks before Freddy can. Pretty funny.
Remake/Reboot: Retarted.
“Remake/Reboot: Retarded.”
Do u mean in the good or bad sense?
A little bit of good and a whole lot of bad.
I love the way crispen glover was killed in part 4. He gets a corkscrew shoved in his hand, and then a blade directly to the face…ouch. The dude in part 3 that gets split in half, while doing the handstand-walk, so good.
Wait, I just popped in my Friday the 13th disc to look for this:
“SPOILER Remember that Jason was the motivation of the killings, but it wasn’t until a stinger after the credits a morning after that this turned supernatural and Jason’s aged-to-adult form leaps out of the lake taking the film’s last victim.”
and did not find the stinger. What were you talking about?
At the end of the film the last survivor rows a boat out into the middle of the lake and passes out. She wakes in the morning and the body on shore is gone and suddenly a full grown man leaps out of the water and drags her down and credits role.
That was Jason, who all the sequels are based on. Mystically grown to adulthood and out for blood.
Nothing mystical ’bout it, Rodney. You forgot something. That survivorwoke up in the hospital. The Jumping Jason was part of a nightmare.
Then the credits roll.
Yeah that’s what I thought Rodney might have meant, ok now its clear
YAY for Friday the 13th!
I wasn’t impressed by this film either. I would prefer to watch Jason X over this movie. Or any of the Halloweens (except 3 and the Ice Cube one).
I think you mean Busta Rhymes.
Ice Cube never appeared in any Halloween film.
As for Jason X…or Friday The 13th meets Andromeda/Jason turns Terminator, that and aside from the VR gag with the Camp Crystal Lake simulation, there really isn’t anything standout about the film.
I really hate this film, decent twist, but the rest is terrible. The only thing that seems to be forgotten about this is that the “Friday the 13th” series has always been bad, it’s not like some of these other horror franchises that start out good and decay into some terrible mess. I get why you chose it Rodney, but personally I feel that people would have been better reminded that a series like Halloween was started by a terrific film (best slasher ever if you ask me) and then descended into the muddled mess it is today, rather than starting out as one. Something I find more and more people forgetting.
So true, this movie sucks and is in no way deserving of its reputation.
This movie is a schlocky Halloween ripoff with no more credibility than its peers like Prom Night and My Bloody Valentine. That people put this cheap and inelegent series on the same level as vastly superior movies like Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street is an insult.
I believe that Wes Craven popularized that piece of Friday the 13th trivia in his opening scene of the smash hit “Scream”.
My horror classic that I would consider forgotten is John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness with Sam Neill. What a ride that movie was!
I dont know anyone who hasn’t seen this or doesn’t know of it’s existence. Check out House, rodney! C’mon!!!
With the remake happening, Halloween horror movie traditions and how people still don’t get that Jason wasn’t really in the first movie… I felt it was apporpriate.
Also read the very first paragraph. A Forgotten Friday film doesn’t have to be completely Forgotten, just one worth revisiting.
alright alright…I’ll go with that. would you please check out House though? Great horror comedy and George Wendt (I believe that’s his last name) is awesome and funny in it. Also, Bull from night court is in it. Soo good!
On top of that, Dave?
Who produced that William Katt flick from ’86?
That’s right- Sean S Cunningham! The director of the “Friday The 13th”!
(Also, Steve Miner, director of House, also directed Fridays 2&3)
No shit darren! hahaha awesome! hopefully that’ll also convince rodney to check out the movie. i’m glad someone else is into besides me. The scene with katt and wendt trying to catch the ghost in the closet makes me laugh everytime.
Nice review Rodney. I’d be most interested to see a top 10 of yours. The Fifth Element and this one have probably been my favorites. Pet Semetary can’t bear such scrutiny, but I loved this one enough for Halloween. I actually enjoy watching this for Halloween than I do, well, Halloween (whether or not Halloween is one of my top three favorite slasher films, not flicks, of all time).
Nice job man.