1h 35m
Director: Sean S Cunningham

Set in Camp Crystal Lake, we follow a killer as they commit mass murder, tearing through the camp attendees with absolutely no respect for their right to keep breathing.

Kevin Bacon is in this movie.

You're probably very familiar with this set up, a bunch of youngsters get stalked and murdered in cold blood. The tension builds as the killer hunts their prey and we get to see the fear and chaos as it dawns on the victim that the murderer's there to do something lethal. We then repeat the formula.

Kevin Bacon is in this movie.

It's pretty formulaic stuff. We start by introducing all the characters and we augur a prior massacre at Crystal Lake which we brush with in the initial scene of the movie. We're essentially working with a few attractive young characters playing a range of basic archetypes. Sex, screaming and kills. We have all the elements we need to keep the audience engaged on a primal level anyway!

Simple premise, easy to grasp and therefore a wide appeal judging by the success of this franchise. Some inventive kills in there too!

The killer's motives are unclear to me and it all feels a bit gratuitous and uncalled for. It would work much better if there was some personal vendetta against specific camp attendees and it wasn't just a general serial killer. There aren't any real stakes if you don't really understand why the character is taking certain actions.

There's some borderline hilarious performances from some of the locals who are of the opinion that all the youngsters are done for. If not for the creepy musical overtones it feels a bit like a comedy skit.

As you can tell, I find it all a bit unstimulating but then I've been graced by the multi-layered narratives that have grown out of simple stories like these, so I'm probably just being spoilt. It's a nice, straightforward horror if you want something unchallenging!

Mrs Vorhees does turn up to give an exposition dump later in this movie and the twist is that it was her all along, having had a psychotic break following the death of her son. There is a beheading in the final confrontation and a final double twist when we discover that her son does still appear to be alive, or does he? I'll let you find when you binge the other 11 films in this franchise.

I'm probably going to get skewered by those who are aware of the production crew's pedigree...

Did I mention that Kevin Bacon is in this movie!



Trailer: