I know quite a bit about the Friday the 13^th franchise; how it began as a Halloween cash-in, how Jason isn’t the killer in the first film, how he doesn’t don the classic hockey mask until Part 3 and how it gets sillier and sillier with every sequel. Yet, with the exceptions of Jason X and Freddy V Jason, I actually haven’t seen a Friday the 13^th.

With the coronavirus delaying most releases, leaving me, a horror fan, with little to no new content to review, I thought this Halloween was the best time to expose myself to one of the most iconic horror franchises of recent history.

The Friday the 13^th series consists of 12 films, so hopefully I should be able to cover three a week but don’t expect anything in-depth. I’ve heard a lot about these films but I’ve never seen them before, so in each review I’m just going to say what I expected, what I saw and whether or not I liked it. That’s it.

With that said, let’s get into it with the one that started it all, the original Friday the 13^th.

A group of counsellors gather at a campsite that is allegedly cursed. Dismissing the locals’ warnings, the group settle in. That night however, they realise just how real the curse is as a mysterious killer butchers them one by one.

What I was Expecting

While I know that the slasher genre was mostly established by John Carpenter’s Halloween, I always knew that the genre didn’t really take off until after Friday the 13^th. Going into the first film I was expecting the typical cliches and archetypes; the dumb promiscuous teens, the arrogant old adults, the gory kills, the final girl, etc.

All of that I could see myself forgiving as I’d be watching a film from a time when those cliches weren’t cliches.

However, I was expecting, or rather hoping, to be surprised. I was aware that most of the film consisted of talky bits with the characters and yes I knew that some of it was going to be wooden and cringey but not all of it. Some of it, even a little bit, I was hoping would actually be good. There’d be characters who were interesting and flawed with interpersonal conflicts. I thought that the original Friday the 13^th would have a little more to offer than just gore and camp.

What I Got

At the beginning of the film, I was pleasantly surprised. My hopes seemed to have been fulfilled. Some of the younger characters are conflicted and have histories. We learn that one of them is having an affair with the campsite’s owner and wishes to move away, against the owner’s wishes. The adult characters, while indeed arrogant, have reasons for being so.

Yes I was surprised. Was I like that for the rest of the film? Unfortunately I was not.

As the counsellors get cosy and daylight descends, the film becomes exactly what you expected it to be from the start. The plot devolves into a cycle of character gets murdered and others panic until another gets murdered. This goes on until only one of the counsellors remain and the killer is revealed in a very strange and poorly-executed twist.

I’m sad to say that the make-up effects by the great Tom Savini have not aged well. Whenever a character is cut or wounded, you can see the line between the prosthetics and the actor’s skin.

The only parts of the film that’re entertaining are the parts that you’ve already seen in parodies or compilations. The rest is just dull.

It’s going to be interesting to see what the sequels offer as I am aware that Friday the 13^th is one of those series that doesn’t really develop its identity until later on. Maybe I can look back at this film as the first step toward something greater.

I give Friday the 13^th a pretty bad 2 out of 10.

Watch this space as well as my Twitter and Facebook page as I’ll be cranking out my review of Part 2 very soon! Here’s to a fantastic Halloween!