Review: Friday the 13th (1980)

John Dubrawa
Fri, 13 Apr 2012 22:05:11 +0000
Theatrical release, Friday the 13th, Psycho Killers, Slasher, USA

Sean S. Cunningham's Friday the 13th openly defies originality, borrowing liberally from John Carpenter's Halloween and Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, but succeeds in spite of it. Although far from being the paradigm of the genre, the film nevertheless paves a succinct pathway through its boogeyman tale, striking a few familiar notes of its predecessors while creating its own unique beats along the way. It's a slasher flick stripped down to its most primal vices-sex and violence-and Friday the 13th unflinchingly bathes the audience in copious amounts of both.