Since this is the first Friday the 13th of 2015, why not look back at the first Friday the 13th? The story has been told and retold a hundred times since the early 80's, but let's just focus on the film's own merits.
We open at scenic Camp Crystal Lake in 1958. While a gaggle of counselors plays "Michael Row the Boat Ashore", two counselors slip away to the safety of a darkened cabin to have some good old fashioned sex. Someone else is in the cabin with them, however, and that the stranger (despite being known to the boy of the couple at least) expresses his or her displeasure with the couple's lovemaking by stabbing the boy to death and advancing on the screaming girl.
Jumping ahead to the present day, Camp Crystal Lake is now an abandoned wreck affectionately called 'Camp Blood' by the locals. None of this matters to Steve Christy (Peter Bouwer) though. His family owned the land and he intends to make the area grand again. He's already spent 25 grand on repairing the old place though, and already has seven counselors coming in to help get the place up to code before the campers arrive in a week.
The first to get to town is Annie (Robbi Morgan). She looks forward to cooking for the children, although she has problems getting a ride to the remote camp. Town crazy 'Crazy' Ralph (Walt Gorney) informs her that she's doomed, as the place has a death curse. One of the local truck drivers takes her with him though, and informs her of the camp's history. Beside the two counselors dying back in '58, there was also a drowning about a year before that and accidents that plagued the area since then.
The other counselors arrive at the camp. Bill (Harry Crosby), Marcie (Jeannie Taylor), and Jack (Kevin Bacon) are all set to help set up the camp. Counselors Alice (Adrienne King), Brenda (Laurie Bartram), and Ned (Mark Nelson) have been there before and done most of the work. The counselors can be broken down into various character classes. Alice is the Nice Girl, Brenda isn't as Nice, as she implies that she enjoys sex; Jack and Marcie have no characteristics besides wanting to have sex with each other and smoke some dope, Ned is the Practical Joker, and Bill has all the personality of a wet board.
During all of this, no one wonders where Annie is; after being dropped off by the trucker, she hitches a ride with someone driving a blue jeep. Things seem fine, until Annie mentions her choice of employer. The jeep starts to drive wildly. Annie throw herself free and tries to hide in the woods, but the driver easily tracks her down and slashes her throat open with a large hunting knife.
From there things get worse. A thunderstorm blows into the area as the rest of the counselors decide to skip the whole restoring the camp and just decide to screw. Ned, thinking he spotted someone in one of the cabins, goes to investigate. He was right...dead right...
Jack and Marcie retire to yet another cabin to continue their lovemaking. Unknown to them, Ned's body is an unwilling witness to their amorous activities. The killer is there too, as Jack finds out when Marcie leaves to take a shower. Marcie meets her end shortly thereafter at the hands (and ax) of the killer.
The rest of the cast then gets whittled down to just Alice and here is where things just get dumb. The jeep returns and Mrs. Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) warmly greets Alice. Alice rushes her inside and within five seconds it's obvious the older woman is the killer. Why is this dumb?
Throughout the entire film the killer has been kept in the shadow. There are hints to nearly a half a dozen characters and Mrs. Voorhees comes waltzing in in the last ten minutes. In most murder mysteries, the killer is introduced near the first and the viewer is allowed to guess alongside the detective. Here though the makers just laugh and say "yeah, you wasted your time". If Doyle or Christie ended their stories with 'yup, the killer was the obviously crazy person I introduced on the last page', they wouldn't have been publishing for very long.
The gore effects and music save the film, because God knows it isn't the story or characters. From a historical perspective, the film is important, but from an entertainment perspective, good grief. This pretty much took the elements of Halloween and Black Christmas, stripped away anything resembling story and upped the gore. Worth it if you like that sort of thing.
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