The original Friday the 13th was an independent film and it shows…low budget, just over half a million it was made for teen audiences after the success of Halloween. Looking back at it today, many wonder why it was so successful, spawning 11 addition slasher movies, including a crossover with Freddy Kruger and a TV series not to mention the spin off merchandise.
The story premise is pretty simple. The hereditary owner of the summer camp decides to reopen the long closed location after years of neglect. It’s 1980 and he has advertised for some summer counselors who are willing to help him with a few repairs and set up to get the camp going. We discover that the nearest community is against the campsite reopening, they consider it cursed after first, a boy drowned in the lake in 1957, then two counselors were brutally murdered the following season. The camp has remained closed since. (Spoiler alert!! – Do not read further if you have never seen this movie, watch it instead).
We see one of the would-be counselors attacked just outside the camp and then we are introduced to the other counselors and the new owner Steve Christy played by Peter Brouwer. The sky is darkening with what appears to be an impending storm and Steve leaves to grab some more supplies. As the others are cleaning up Ned (Mark Nelsen) notices someone lurking around the building and wanders off to investigate.
Everyone else heads indoors, and a bored Jack (Kevin Bacon, pre Footloose) and Marcie (Jeannine Taylor) sneak off to have sex in the bunk house. Unbeknownst to them the corpse of Ned lies above them with it’s throat slashed. Marcie gets up to use the bathroom and as Jack is lying in his bunk in the afterglow an arrow is shot through his throat from beneath the bed. The murderous fiend then follows Marcie into the bathrooms and attacks her with an axe. The viewer is kept on their seat as the killer is neither revealed or identified.
Brenda (Laurie Bartram) hears a voice calling for help and goes out to investigate. She goes to the archery range and is blinded when the lights are suddenly turned on. Next we see Steve returning, it is well after dark. He sees the killer and amicably engages in conversation, only to be shockingly stabbed. Alice our heroine, played by Adrienne King and Bill, the straight laced counselor, played by Harry Crosby (Bing’s son) are now alone in the clubhouse and begin to wonder about their absent friends. Investigating, they find the phone lines down, that Ned’s truck won’t start and an axe in Brenda’s bed. Then the power goes out. Bill heads to the generator, while Alice runs inside. The window is smashed as Brenda’s body is hurled through it. Shortly thereafter Alice hears a vehicle and runs out expecting Steve. She meets a middle-aged woman Mrs. Voorhees who says how she knows Steve and his family well, that she used to work at the camp. She continues on about how her son drowned in the lake, because the counselors who were supposed to watch him were making out. She attacks Alice who fights back, knocking her unconscious. Their struggle ends up lakeside where Alice was trying to escape the camp. This time Mrs. Voorhees has a machete and when Alice gets a hold of it, she decapitates her attacker. Alice then collapses into a canoe and drifts out onto the serene lake.
Just when we think it is over…a grisly hand of rotten flesh comes up from the water and grabs at Alice. We next see her surrounded by medical staff and police asking about Jason. The cop explains that no boy was found, and she lays back defeated, saying then he is still out there.
