Friday the 13th

Having recently watched Friday the 13th (Sean Cunningham, 1980) the formula in this film is slightly different than Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978) and Nightmare on Elm Street (Wes Craven, 1984). Besides the teenagers in distress, which in this film they’re all camp counselors and avoiding the temptations they encounter. Friday the 13th, like so many of the slasher films, is actually a steadfastly conservative piece of work (Muir 98).

            Following up the success of Halloween, Friday the 13th cemented Hollywood’s belief that a holiday or event-centric slasher film, one produced inexpensively, could make a killing at the box office, and consequently the slasher floodgates opened (Muir 99). Following much of the profit Halloween made, Friday the 13th became one of the most iconic slasher films and made almost the same amount of money in the box office as Halloween.

            Friday the 13th opens to a small camp called “Camp Crystal Lake” in 1958, where a group of camp counselors are altogether singing a song. Two camp counselors sneak to a shed to make out. Up until this point, the audience is unaware that they are seeing the killer’s perspective. It is then revealed the killer finds the couple and murders them. The film then jumps ahead to 1980, where the audience is introduced to a new group of counselors, who are quickly warn about the dangers of Camp Crystal Lake by the locals. They don’t realize that they are being stalked by the killer. This film does utilize many slasher ideas, including many young people getting killed after having sex. Then one by one others get killed and the main actress Alice (Adrienne King) who runs and sees a car pulling up. We then see a lady come and introduces herself as Pamela Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) and tries to comfort Alice. Once they both see the deaths of all the counselors Mrs. Voorhees starts talking about her son Jason who drowned in the lake and then goes nuts and tries to kill her. Alice starts to run as Mrs. Voorhees (talking in Jason’s voice) tries to kill her seeking revenge for her son. Mrs. Voorhees catches up to Alice and fights but Alice grabs the machete and decapitates her and sails into the lake. Jason emerges from the water and pulls her in but police find and tell her there’s no little boy in the lake.

            Unlike Halloween, however, Friday the 13th does not begin with a single-take point-of-view shot that systematically stays on the younger lovers. Instead is hovers over a summer camp, implying the killer’s lurking presence but is not confirmed until the end (Dika 67). Some slashers still follow this same formula. The camera hovers over the whole Camp Crystal Lake at the beginning and at the end. Unlike Halloween where the camera focused on Michael Myers and Laurie Strode, this film overlooks the whole camp and people there than two people. Also, at the beginning of the film it makes it as if the killer is seeing everything but we are unaware if it is the killer.

            The other thing is in Friday the 13th, however, there is no tension between the vision of the killer and that of the heroine. (Dika 70) Which means is Alice even though is the main character of the film, even though everyone is the main focus of the film. Although once everyone dies, we focus on her, which we figure out okay she’s survived (Final Girl) she’s the main character. She also breaks the rule of having pre-marital sex but manages to kill the killer and survive, but in the sequel, she pays her price. 

            These films all share the same elements all of them have different camera movements. They all start off when the event happens to present day. Also, with the camera overlooking everyone and the setting, not just two characters. Also, the formula breaks with the Final Girl and this film is very unique.     

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Works Cited

Friday the 13th. Dir. Sean Cunningham. Paramount Pictures, 1980. Film.

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Halloween. Dir. John Carpenter. Compass International, Falcon Productions, 1978. Film

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Nightmare on Elm Street. Dir. Wes Craven. New Line Cinema, 1984. Film

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Dika, Vera. Games of terror: Halloween, Friday the 13th, and the films of the stalker cycle. Rutherford: Associated U Press, 1990. Print.

Muir, John Kenneth. Horror films of the 1980s. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2007. Print.