Cheap Friday the 13th (DVD) (Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King) (Sean S. Cunningham) Price

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Customer Reviews of Friday the 13th

The best film in the slasher subgenre!
Plot summary:
When two romancing camp counsellors are savagely slain by the hands of an unseen killer one late night, Camp Crystal Lake is immediately shuttered for the safety of others. But now, twenty years later, when an ambitious man by the name of Steve Christy prepares to reopen the campgrounds with the help of several young counsellors despite grave warnings of a "death curse" by local residents (and a previous fire which burnt the camp down, as well as a deadly contamination with the water), the killings start again. On the dreaded day and date that is Friday the 13th, the curse proves true, as one-by-one each of the counsellors is attacked and savagely slain by the very hands responsible for the death of the first two back in the year of nineteen fifty-eight... just a year after the death of a young disadvantaged boy who drowned in the murky waters of Camp Crystal Lake due to the negligence of... romancing camp counsellors. Friday the 13th will never be the same... not after watching this movie-not after watching Friday the 13th
Although none had achieved the raving success of the original F13th, the majority of the sequels, although quite moronic at times and increasingly senseless, they're still very much entertaining and fun-to-watch; fun in the sense of watching a film regarding complete [dorks] (who were cared for early in the series) who embark upon the remotest forest locations at or nearby sites that are known for their death toll, summer-after-summer, merely to regret it as they ultimately become rendered helpless and, one-by-one, are slain in the most grisly of ways by an avenged killer who is far from human and whose purpose for his resurrection is to wreck havoc...over...over...and over again (don't those ruttish teens ever learn?). Besides, since when has an actual storyline been the driving forth as to why we find ourselves watching silly popcorn slashers like these, anyway? We do so-or so I believe-not necessarily for any real plot (or Oscar-worthy performances), but merely for a good time with friends. I'm I right? I mean, if you dig these kinds of films, you should know what I'm talking about here. They aren't high art, they're slashers. And now that I've got all that outta the way, let's begin with the one that started it all, shall we...

Released the same year as immediate blockbusters such as the legendary Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, Irvin Kershner's Star Wars-Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, and Harold Ramis' Caddyshack, which are still praised by moviegoers as of today, one wouldn't anticipate that a low-budget slasher like Sean S. Cunningham's Friday the 13th (also known as Long Night at Camp Blood) receiving the same success. Hell, even Cunningham himself was surprised when his film was that of one to be catapulted as one of the best twenty-five of the year. It was not only as successful, despite a lot of flack by critics, but was so influential that it spawned not only nine-and now apparently soon to be ten-sequels-which makes it the longest running series in the horror genre-but also a television series of its own! I personally like it as much as I do because it has a lot of ambience (we see the placid, murky lake; the trees dancing in the wind; the clouded full moon), a lot of ambience and mystery, that's partly caused by those very shots, because if they're not to hint that things may not be the way they seem to be, they're to show us the menacing nature if the campground's surroundings as day grows weary and night takes over.

Aside from the remote forest locations, there were a few other factors that elevated it from its peers in the successful and viable subgenre: An Oscar-worthy music score by Harry Manfredini (magnificent was its theme song in particular, which sounds both assuasive and mysterious, and therefore it, with the help of the film's low-budget, actually enhances the spooky feeling); inventive and horrific death sequences that, although it and its sequels were heavily cut by the dreaded MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), are still most definitely not suitable for the squeamish; and an energetic Tom Savini, whose gruesome makeup effects were beyond exceptional.

F13th also gave birth to Jason Voorhees, who radically altered the misogynistic "man stalks woman" formula, and quickly became one of the largest psycho-killers in the modern era, next to the darkly comical and horridly scarred Freddy Krueger from Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street, and the ghostly Michael Myers from John Carpenter's Halloween, which I am sure you (the reader) know that it also, very much like F13th, opened new doors in the subgenre and popularized numerous themes and techniques that are still used till this day.

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Friday the 13th (1980).
Written and directed by Sean S Cunningham, Starring Kevin Bacon...Make-up: Tom Savini. This early trendsetter spawned 8 sequels and set a new type of standard in the slacher genre. This bloody tale is about some youngsters camping around the area of Christal Lake. But what they don't know is that the camp has a curse, namely Jason's curse. Jason is(that most of us know) a young kid that drowned back in the 50's wile the dreadful teenagers made love. Now he is back for revenge, or is it his mother?

What more can I say then that this movie is amazing. Sean S Cunningham takes the genre one more step further then Halloween and adds a simple revenge story but whit a great touch of atmosphere and loads of gore. Fx guru Tom Savini gives us some truly terrifying death scenes (who can ever forget Kevin Bacons harpoon trough the chest scene) that really deliver entertainment to us dark souls. The Psycho inspired music and the dark settings give Friday the 13th a creepy stile. This is a historic flick in horror history that any serious fan of the genre should add in there horror collection. Many people underrate this kinds of films. I suggest you don't. Those people are boring moralists that are all to small minded. This flick deserves to be a classic as much as Psycho or Silence of the Lambs.

Earn your self to see this blockbuster. You will have a lot of fun seeing it (trust me). Remember this was one of those movies that started the hole area of 80's horror.

Rating: 5 stars of 5 possible.

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The best Friday ...
Though I enjoy Jason Voorhees a lot, this is the best Friday the 13th. For the most part, this movie actually didn't have that bad of acting, as did the sequels. It's better because it is the original storyline. The sequels are better in that since Jason is the killer, he has unique and gruesome ways of killing people, and he's much scarier and would be much harder to get away from.
This movie has everything that a horror movie should have. There is no way someone can go through their life claiming to be a huge horror fan and have no seen this movie INCLUDING the sequels. If you like teenage horror with plenty of killings, get this. A good movie to start off your horror collection.