The original Friday the 13th came out all in 1980 and is already 40 years old. It came out during the peak years of slasher films, between Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street, and quickly established itself in the genre.
What's interesting about the franchise's success is that the first film doesn't even really feature the franchise's star. The film follows Jason's mother on a revenge quest after two camp counselors after they left her son unsupervised and her drowned in the lake. The movie is filled with loud sounds to inspire jumpscares and scream queens to further the slasher horror. The horror in Friday the 13th is also the unique editing of the film, each murder until the ending is done in the first person so that the viewers never really know who is behind it all until the grand reveal.
10 The Couple Would Probably Get Sued/Arrested
The couple responsible for "letting Jason drown" would realistically probably get in a whole lot more trouble than they do in the film. Between being distracted and letting a child die under their watch, the couple would definitely not be let off with nothing more than a slap on the wrist like it seems they were in the film. Nowadays, those camp counselors would be severely punished, maybe even arrested for involuntary manslaughter. Maybe if the kids were rightfully punished, Jason's mom wouldn't have gone on her rampage.
9 The Creepy Boss
Steve Christy, the owner of the camp is a pretty creepy boss. Not only does he tell the new counselors that they have to get everything done within the next few days when he originally told them they had a full two weeks, but he also hits on Alice when she's alone after complimenting her art. Alice looks obviously uninterested, something Steve even notes, but he keeps going. The age difference is also pretty evident between them so Steve Christy just seems generally creepy.
8 Everything About Ned
Ned is one of the camp counselors and he makes some pretty questionable jokes throughout the film. He wore a feathered headdress at one point, which obviously is incredibly incorrect, and then made a fool of himself in front of a police officer, continuously acting like silly and antagonizing the police officer.
The other counselors around him seemed incredibly annoyed with him, but he just couldn't keep his mouth shut. He also played in the archery area, pointing arrows at another counselor to scare her and be silly. Marcie even comments that Ned has been acting like a jerk. Ned is what started the "funny guy who dies first" trend.
7 The Killer's Strength
Jason is an incredibly strong guy. For one, he is huge and seemingly can lift and throw his enemies without much issue. And maybe Jason got his strength from his mother, because in the original Friday the 13th film, Mrs. Voorhees somehow manages to throw people out of windows, pin them to walls, and generally seems to have a pretty easy time killing everyone. When they do reveal Mrs. Voorhees, she is a fairly small woman, so it must be the strength of a mother in rage or something that simply didn't age well.
6 Kevin Bacon's Minor Role
Kevin Bacon acts as Jack, one of the camp counselors of the film. He is the boyfriend to Marcie and actually has a pretty small role considering his fame. It turns out that this was one of the first films Kevin Bacon starred in. Looking back, someone of his magnitude in the acting world probably would be considered one of the main characters in the film, but he is on of the first counselors to die, at around the halfway point of the film.
5 The Title Sequence
The title sequence at the beginning of the film is the words "Friday the 13th" breaking the glass on the screen in a loud performance. The words are accompanied by a loud bang of the theme music, making it one of the first jumpscares in the movie. However, the way it looks would probably be pretty scorned today. The title sequence looks old, the words look flat and a bit boring, more like a Powerpoint project than an actual movie title sequence.
4 Breaking Of The Slasher-Flick Rules
Everyone knows that if you're in a horror movie, you're not supposed to use illegal substances or be intimate, but that is not the case for these characters in the original Friday the 13th. In fact, Friday the 13th (along with Halloween) is one of the core films to establish this rule. The fact that it did so has aged the movie for all watching it now. Everyone who sees it now can almost pick out who is going to be killed next based on their actions before. Scream mocked this tradition in slasher flicks and started to break the mold of what made a slasher flick.
3 The Sequels & Remakes
All the sequels and remakes made after the original are a big contributor to why Friday the 13th had aged pretty poorly. Over time the movies got dumber and dumber and fans started associating the franchise more with Jason X than they do with the original film.
There was also a remake in 2009 that many fans and had some pretty lousy reviews, however, it was still enjoyed by the majority of fans. Jason was even more aggressive and brutal throughout this film with a much shorter temper than the previous films.
2 The Last 20 Minutes Are The Best Part
Though the film tried to do something innovative with the first-person murder scenes, it wasn't executed as well as the film creators had hoped. Instead, it made the bulk of the film feel pretty flat, nothing more than just teenagers doing teenage things and dying on a stormy night in the woods. Many people felt like the film wasn't scary when it came out and it isn't scary now. The film takes note from Alfred Hitchcock by making the music intense and horrifying, the performances and cinematography make it all the better, but something about the plot is just lacking. Many critics called it low-budget and it has been noted that the sequel is better than the original. However, it is widely acknowledged that the last twenty minutes of the film, in which Mrs. Voorhees reveals herself, is exquisite and many wish the entire film could have been like that.
1 The Weak Ending
The ending of the original Friday the 13th is notorious and one of the most popular ending sequences in horror movie history. However, some of it definitely should have been left out. After Alice, the (slightly forgettable) final girl of the film kills Mrs. Voorhees, she falls asleep in the canoe and drifts out over the lake. In an epic finale, a decomposing Jason leaps out of the water, grabs her, and pulls her under. The movie should have ended there, it would have left space for the sequel and would have been an epic and amazing jump scare to tie the bow on the end of the film. However, the movie continues with Alice waking up in the hospital after cops pulled her out of the boat. It makes viewers think, has Alice just gone crazy, or was that sequence with Jason real. But by adding this question, the film makes that scene way less scary and weakens one of the best scenes in the movie.
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