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Friday the 13th
(Slasher/Campground/Teens/Mother) 10**********skulls
*Blood* *Violent* *No Strong Language* *Sexual Situations* *No Nudity* *Very Gory*
1981/Color/95 Min./Paramount Home Video & Paramount Pictures/Rated R
Director...........Sean S. Cunningham (Deepstar Six, The New Kids)
Screenplay......Victor Miller
Music...............Harry Manfredini (Friday the 13th & Part III)
Producer.........Sean S. Cunningham
Special Make-up Effects by Tom Savini*(Dawn of the Dead, Martin)
Dramatis Personae
Mrs. Voorhees...Betsy Palmer* (Friday the 13th II, Marty-TV, The Tin Star)
Alice.................Adrienne King (Friday the 13th, Part II)
Bill....................Harry Crosby (Minute-Maid Commercials)
Jack..................Kevin Bacon (Diner, Flatliners, Footloose, JFK, Tremors)
Marcie..............Jeannine Taylor
Annie................Robbi Morgan
Brenda..............Laurie Bartram
Ned...................Mark Nelson
Steve Christy.....Peter Brouwer
Truck Driver.......Rex Everhart (Blue Hotel)
Crazy Ralph......Walt Gorney* (Friday the 13th, Part II)
Jason................Ari Lehman
Sgt. Tierney......Ronn Carroll
Critique: This horror classic has everything the sequels lack: well written, directed, and acted, true shock and terror mount until the killer comes forth to finish the job. Special gore effects man Tom Savini provides some genre-defining work here. The suspense and the gore run start to electrifying finish and you'll never know who's behind it all until the very end. Go ask Alice, Crazy Ralph was right. Reopening Camp Crystal Lake was an criminally stupid act.
YIKES best Cameo Award for two of the meatiest cameos in horror history: Walt Gorney as Crazy Ralph and the wonderful Betsy Palmer as Jason's mom, Mrs. Voorhees.
Plot Summary: Camp Crystal Lake, 1958: at a party for counselors, two who have snuck off to be together are slain. The present: counselors begin to arrive for the grand reopening by truck, hitchhiking (whoops! cancel that hitchhiker) against the warnings of a death curse from the local "prophet of doom" Ralph. Steve Christy, heir to the unlucky camp's fortune, is determined to make a go of it, despite the drowned boy in 1957, the two kids murdered in 1958, bad water in 1962, and all the fires since. The locals call it "Camp Blood". They ain't seen nothin' yet! The teenagers have fun fixing up the camp, however not a scene goes by where they don't get a scare of some sort until the first stormy night when their lovemaking and games are rudely interrupted by a storm and accompanying power loss. One by one Alice notes the disappearances of her colleagues until she and Bill (Bing Crosby's son Harry) discover a bloody axe and she asks, "What the hell is going on?" Sorry kids. The phones are dead, the truck won't start, their friends are massacred, yet still Bill insists, "We'll be laughing about this tomorrow". Don't be too sure Bill. What follows is a traditional "Chambre du corp mord" for Alice's benefit as a prelude to a memorable showdown with the slayer. At least Steve should be back soon, and Mrs. Voorhees, an old friend of the Christies is on her way to check in on the kids. Maybe everything will be all right after all, if they don't get killed too, or if one of them doesn't happen to be the killer.
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