Camp Crystal Lake was the site of a great tragedy when a young boy drowned, and now someone is out for revenge against the counselors. (Be warned that, as this is for Friday the 13th, some of the imagery will be graphic) We open on Camp Crystal Lake in 1958 as the counselors are doing what we all know teenagers would clearly be doing: singing campfire songs. Two of them, Barry (Willie Adams) and Claudette (Debra S. Hayes), sneak away to have sex, despite her fears that they'll be caught. Before the action begins, an unseen person enters the room, and as they bashfully try to explain, the person murders them both. Twenty-three years later, a girl named Annie (Robbi Morgan) enters a diner on her way to Camp Crystal Lake to ask for directions. When she says the camp's name, the people go quiet, surprised that "Camp Blood" is reopening and a truck driver named Enos (Rex Everhart) agrees to give her a ride to a cemetery halfway to the camp. On the way out, an odd man named Ralph (Walt Gorney) grabs Annie, warning her to stay away from the camp, and that they're doomed. Annie explains during the drive that she'll be a cook, and Enos asks if her boss told her anything about what happened, hesitant to do so himself. Pressed, he finally tells her about the teenagers murdered in 1958, a boy who drowned the year before, and fires. All the occurrences went unexplained, and when people tried to reopen in '62, the water was bad. He urges Annie to quit, but she refuses, stating that she's not afraid of ghosts, and he drops her off at the cemetery. Meanwhile, other new counselors Ned (Mark Nelson), Jack (Kevin Bacon), and Marcie (Jeannine Taylor) arrive at the camp and meet owner Steve (Peter Brouwer). While he has the others help him remove a tree stump, he calls in Alice (Adrienne King), who says counselors Bill (Harry Crosby) and Brenda (Laurie Bartram) are busy elsewhere. Steve, while flirting with Alice after finding her drawing notebook, promises that things will get better when he realizes she's unhappy. Everyone is in a rush working because the camp is opening soon, and Steve leaves to pick up supplies. As everyone gets to work, Ned gives Brenda an archery scare. Out on the road, Annie hitches a ride with an unseen person in a jeep, only to become frightened and jump out when the person passes the road to camp and speeds up. She escapes into the woods, her leg injured, with the person in hot pursuit. Though she escapes for a few seconds, the person soon finds her and slits her throat, with some pretty nice practical effects used. While the counselors swim in the lake, Brenda thinks she sees someone watching, and Ned angers everyone by pretending to drown to scare them. They return to the campground, where Alice finds a snake in her room. Everyone rushes in, causing a wild panic, and Bill manages to kill the snake with a machete. A crabby cop, Officer Dorf, shows up searching for Ralph, and is suspicious of the campers, partially believing they are smoking weed, especially after Ned enters in his underwear and a Native American headdress. The kids don't exactly take him seriously, especially when he is called back to the station, but say they never saw Ralph and promise to keep things normal at the camp. Alice, working in the kitchen, finds Ralph hiding in a supply closet, startling them by saying God sent him to warn them to leave, otherwise the curse would doom them. He leaves in a hurry, repeating that they're doomed, and the counselors get to setting up the kitchen. Alice notices the power is wonky, so Jack, Brenda, and Bill go repair the generator. Later, Ned feels jealous and lonely after noticing Jack and Marcie together, and turns in time to see a figure go into one of the cabins. As a storm rolls in, Marcie tells Jack about a nightmare that made her afraid of storms, in which blood rain came down. The rains starts pouring, so they go to a nearby cabin to have sex, while in another building the other counselors start playing "Strip Monopoly." Somehow unbeknownst to Jack and Marcie, Ned's body is on the bunk above them; his throat has been slit. Marcie leaves to pee, and while she's gone, the murderer grabs Jack's head and forces an arrow up through the bed and his throat. When Marcie returns, she finds the cabin seemingly abandoned, and the murderer soon comes after her as well, killing her with an ax to the face. The game of strip Monopoly is interrupted when Brenda realizes her cabin windows are open. Steve has been stuck at a diner due to the rain, but decides he has to return. While the killer stalks Brenda, Steve gets stuck out in the rain when his jeep breaks down, but a nearby policeman gives him a lift. Brenda hears someone calling for help, and when she investigates the archery range, the lights flare on and we hear her scream offscreen. Bill returns to the cabin with Alice after checking the generator, only to decide to check around after she tells him about the lights and Brenda's scream. The check the other cabins, finding only a bloody ax, so Alice decides they need to call for help, but the office phone and payphone are both dead. They try to leave with Jack's car, but Bill finds it is wet under the hood and won't start, so he suggests they wait for Steve since the nearest town is 20 miles away. Unfortunately, the officer gets a call about a problem in town, and lets Steve out to walk since the rain has stopped. Returning to the camp, the unseen killer gets a flashlight on Steve. He seems to recognize them, giving a greeting, but they kill him when he gets close. Bill and Alice have gone back to a cabin in the meantime, but when he realizes the generator has been shut off, Bill leaves to fix it, suggesting that Alice wait for him. With Bill taking a while, Alice decides to go look for him, only to find his body pinned to the shed's door with arrows. Alice barricades herself in another building and arms herself, but Brenda's body is suddenly thrown through a window. She goes to another room in fear, and sees a car drive up. Rushing outside, she meets Pamela Voorhees (Betsy Palmer), who says she used to work for the camp owners. Though Alice thinks she's safe now that she's with Pamela, there is still more to come on this unlucky Friday. Friday the 13th is another one of those film series that, although there are aspects about it that are definitely dated, it's an enjoyable classic that had a lot of work.
Despite some things, as stated, being a bit cheesy, especially in the final section, a lot of the special effects work is actually pretty incredible. Right near the start, when Annie is caught in the woods, her throat is slit, and it looks pretty real in the coloring both before and after her wound gushes blood. There are similar effects throughout the film, thanks to Tom Savini's work, like when the arrow pierces Jack's throat, or when Alice finds Bill's arrow-ridden body. One thing you might think is an good effect, but apparently wasn't, was when Bill killed the snake in Alice's cabin. In the first video of the "Kill Count" series of the YouTube channel "Dead Meat," host James A. Janisse mentions that a real snake was killed for the scene. Many things in the film would now be seen as tropes, like teens going off on their own and being murdered seemingly because they had sex. However, when really looking at this movie, you have to remember that it's one of the reasons those tropes exist; back then, people didn't know to expect them. What I never gave much thought to before is that crazy man Ralph was right, though of course his belief that they were doomed could be chalked up to his craziness combined with common knowledge of past events, rather than really predicting what was going to happen at the camp. One of the things this series is known for is the unique kills, which you can see in the game, where Jason can get creative environmental kills like shoving people's heads into a fireplace or shoving marshmallow roasting stick down their throats. This first movie doesn't have quite as many of these, with some people killed offscreen, and often with a simple knife. We do get some cool kills, however, like Jack's, and the reason for less interesting kills could be because the killer isn't who some might immediately remember. Some parts of the movie are actually pretty funny, like freaky Ralph and his supposed prophetic warnings to the kids. I couldn't help but laugh when he was in the closet. With so many characters and the killer's reasons for their actions, it's no surprise that kills come fast in this movie; heck we saw one right near the start. For those looking to watch slaughterfest, this is a great classic to watch, even if some of the kills can be dull, like Steve's. There's a good use of both kills and quiet moments in this movie, with long stretches of little even being said, which helps up the tension. If you don't know who the killer is or where they are, having the characters walk around when they're out there causes the feeling that something could happen at any moment. This doesn't really ever lead to jumpscares, however, which is a good thing, with even sudden moments happening in a way that aren't just in-your-face annoying. With many sequels and a lot of kill down the line, this is one film that left its mark on the horror industry forever, and still packs a punch.
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