What’s got two thumbs and is red all-over? These campers!
Halloween had Mike, now Friday the 13th has Jason. Years ago, in 1957, Jason Voorhees drowned at Camp Crystal Lake. No one helped him, no one heard his screams, he just drowned. The following year, the camp closed because of two tragic deaths of counselors, who were trying to do the nasty while they should have been watching after the kids. Since 1958, Camp Crystal Lake has been closed… until someone tries to reopen it and start the camp again. While townspeople surrounding the camp constantly warn of its curse, the counselors and owner of the camp don’t heed the warning one bit. What is the result of this? Death.
The premise behind Friday the 13th is impressive. Sure they could have just thrown a psychopath into the mix and let them go nuts, but a complete mysterious backstory was created to bring doubt to the viewers who were watching the film. Could this be the boy who drowned? Is the lake cursed? It wasn’t as straightforward as Halloween, that’s what made Friday the 13th different (potentially better). The second element that made it better, potentially, was the amount of blood and gore brought to the table. For a mainstream horror film, there hadn’t been a lot of blatant gore in those days (way back in 1980 — The Texas Chainsaw Massacre might have been the closest), so it was impressive to see some nice special effects that aren’t too far off from what the digital realm can do. I know that sounds funny, but in all seriousness the ways to die and the amount of onscreen death might have been far ahead of its time.
Outside of Kevin Bacon, who is a fine actor and probably loved doing this type of film (I can’t speak for him, but he got to grab a girl’s boob so it couldn’t be that bad — and he got paid for it), the general cast of characters were played by unknowns. I’m sure that some of them went on to decent acting careers (no, I’m not using IMDB to track their lives), but for the most part they weren’t headliners. Of course, you could tell they were unknowns as their acting abilities were a bit raw and just begging to be slaughtered. Now, if you want an extra kick out of this film, you should watch the first Scream movie, write down the rules and then predict who is going to get killed. It’s pretty funny/scary.
So how scary is this film? Well, the movie itself has some pretty intense moments. The way it was shot really dictated how much tension the audience was going to feel. The first person perspective in some of the shots created a lot of confusion when it came to identifying a death scene or if the scene was someone else moving along who wasn’t the killer. Regardless, there’s enough here (even for a 1980 film) to freak you out in 2009. My wife actually locked all the doors in the house after viewing this by herself. I plan on waking up sometime this week and scaring the sh*t out of her.
Yes, it’s that effective and entertaining.
Don’t get too Blu in the face
The transfer and clean up to HD was nothing short of miraculous. I could only imagine that this film was low budget when it was made (see original trailer for details), so it’s impressive to see that the Blu-ray actually looks much better than the original intent of the film. The lake is beautiful, the forest surrounding the camp is creepier looking and the old-crazy guy is… well… crazier. As for the audio, it only enhances the visual experience. Most horror films depend on audio to scare the crap out of you. It could be the music or it could be sound effects. Regardless, you’ll cringe or jump more than once thanks to the remastered HD audio.
As for the features, here’s what you get:
– Friday the 13th Reunion
– Lost Tales from Camp Blood / Part 1 HD
– The Friday the 13th Chronicles
– Secrets Galore Behind the Gore
– Theatrical Trailer HD
A good set of features that provide some entertainment and insight into the production of the movie. You also get a good explanation the gore (which is badass).