FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH
US, 1980, 95 minutes, Colour.
Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Harry Crosby, Kevin Bacon.
Directed by Sean S. Cunningham.
Friday the 13th is now part of cinema history. In 1978, John Carpenter made Halloween and set a trend for popular horror films for the next quarter of a century. Sean S. Cunningham then began the Friday the 13th series in 1980. Wes Craven followed with A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984.
The film has the basic plot about a summer camp, its past sinister history, the owner reopening it, a series of gory murders, especially of young people who come to the camp. Betsy Palmer portrays the mother of the mad Jason Voorhees, who wore a mask in committing his killings. The Jason mask also became very, very popular.
This film led to a very long series as well as in 2003 to Freddy versus Jason. (And a young Kevin Bacon appears as a camp counsellor.)
1. The reputation of this horror film? Its extraordinary box-office success in the United States, overseas? Its quality? Skill in presenting what it set out to do?
2. The appeal of the horror violent film? Audience revulsion yet fascination? Shuddering and laughing? Shocks. scares? Atmosphere, anticipation? Identifying with the victims, survival, aggression towards the murderer? Nightmares and the value of watching nightmares?
3. The basic 'B' grade material - theme, treatment? How well done? Exploitative?
4. The various devices to entice the audience into response - the manner of tracking shots, editing and cutting, shocks, explicit violence, the use of nature? Darkness and light, shadows? The cumulative effect of the atmosphere? Visuals, aural horror? Musical score?
5. The overall effect of the experience an hour and a half immersed in horror and violence?
6. The basic situation of an unknown killer and the various members of a group being killed? The need for survival? The puzzle as to the murderer? Mystery? The audience being led into participation, puzzle, identification for survival? Aggression in the face of attack?
7. The pre-credits sequence and the 1958 atmosphere? The camp guards? Their enjoying themselves? The barn and the first murder? The transition to 1978? The difference in the styles of the times? Similarities? A foreboding atmosphere?
8. The picture of the town, the twenty years, Camp Crystal Lake and its reputation, the madman in the town, the police and their attitudes? Mrs Voorhees, her presence? The initial death and her vengeance? How credible her motivation, her behaviour, cruelty, her physical presence and violence? Her death?
9. The introduction to Annie. her arrival, joy, hopes for her job, accepting the lift, the atmosphere of fear, her leaping from the truck, her being pursued in the forest? The violence of her death? Setting the tone for what van to follow?
10. The counterbalance with the other members of the group - their individuality, seeing them at work, various types, their responsibility, enjoyment and horseplay? How well delineated their characters? Audience identification? Their work, their rooms, relationships? The preparation for their deaths?
11. The systematic elimination of each of the group? The situations of their deaths? The explicit violence? The audience waiting? The greater foreboding for those who survived? Mystery? How exploitive was the violence? Excessive or in proportion to the theme?
12. The manager and his going to town, his return, the truck breaking down, the unexpectedness of his death?
13. The finale with Alice and her search, the full moon, the rain? The cumulative terror, the pursuit inside and outside the house, within the cupboard? Exhaustion, fighting? The cutting off of Mr. Voorhees's head?
14. Mrs Voorhees and her arrival, welcoming friendship. changing menace? Her strength?
15. Alice going onto the lake, escaping? Her being frightened by the demon child leaping from the river? The nightmare and the hospital sequence? Jason and his vengeance - and his taking over his mother (and her speaking to him and like him) and Alice possibly being possessed by Jason for the future?
16. The value of the horror film? Audiences participating in the horror?
