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Friday The 13th [1980]
from Warner Home Video
starring Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Jeannine Taylor, Robbi Morgan, Kevin Bacon
directed by Sean S. Cunningham

Features:

• PAL

Editorial Review:

No matter how many sequels they've made or how big a hit it was in 1980, it's difficult to view the first Friday the 13th as anything but a quickie designed to cram in as many elements from horror movies that had been hits in the late 1970s--most obviously, Halloween and Carrie--while adding as little as possible to the formula. Director Sean S Cunningham has an archetypal plot at his disposal as a group of attractive, shallow teenagers out in the woods to reopen a once-cursed summer camp are murdered in manners designed to show off Tom Savini's gore effects. Kevin Bacon, killed early (arrow through the throat), is the only player who went on to have a career, and he hardly stands out from the strip-Monopoly-playing, goon-acting meat-on-the-hoof teens who fall prey to the mostly unseen murderer. That it's not a total write-off is down to a few neatly edited bits of classical suspense and, two decades on, a simmering nostalgia for a world of bouffant-haired bubbleheads in short shorts (and that's just the guys) observed by edgy subjective camera as the music hisses "kill kill kill".

On the DVD: Friday the 13th may be the least worthy of all horror "classics", but it's still nice to have an edition that (unlike earlier video releases) offers a 16x9-enhanced 1.85:1 restored image and a healthy dose of extras. The hard-sell trailer gives away most of the big scares, and so should be sampled after the film. The making of the movie is covered by a 20-minute "Return to Crystal Lake" featurette and a commentary track with input from many of the creatives (Cunningham, composer Harry Manfredini, stars Adrienne King and Betsy Palmer, writer Victor Miller). Some anecdotes get repeated, but there's a lot of solid background material. --Kim Newman

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

• Arguably the most influential slasher film of all time
  The original Friday the 13th is not the first, the most original, or the best slasher film ever made, but it is arguably the most influential. You almost have to take off one of your socks to count all of the sequels (and impending remake) this slasher granddaddy has spawned, and I daresay the majority of slasher films littering the genre in all the years since were constructed on the generic and simple framework of the Friday the 13th formula. Critics are still foaming at the mouth in indignation over this... more info

• MINDLESS SLASHER FILM
  Why is this considered a classic? Or a cult film? Its pure garbage. A bloody murder. A scare. A bloody murder. A scare. That's the the story. Is it really scary? No! Is it exciting? No! It's dull, lame and utterly boring. Only the special FX by Tom Savini might make this film watchable ONCE. So rent - DON'T BUY.

• Pretty Good
  Friday the 13th is a pretty good slasher flick. It has a solid story, creative deaths (arrow through Kevin Bacons throat), evil killer and girls running round with almost no clothes on!
  Yes, the film is incredibly cheesy, dated and the acting is pretty bad (with the exception of Betsy Palmer), but overlook that and you will see a hugely enjoyable horror classic.

• A good film.
  Don't get me wrong, I think this is a good horror but it wasn't up to the standerds I espected. Espeicially with the budget they had...

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