Friday the 13th (1980)

Verbal Diorama

There's a curse at Camp Crystal Lake. It's going to be a Long Night at Camp Blood. Except that didn't turn out to be the title of this movie.

The original Friday the 13th cleverly subverts horror tropes by making the killer a middle-aged mother, capitalizing on the fears associated with the number 13, as well as the success of Halloween in 1978.

Betsy Palmer's portrayal of Pamela Voorhees, who only shows up in the final moments, makes her one of horror's most subversive, and yet misremembered villains. Remember that scene in Scream? The answer is not Jason Voorhees, but it is for the myriad sequels to follow...

With memorable effects by Tom Savini, the success of Friday the 13th led to a surge of slasher movies throughout the early 1980s, not all as successful as this one, and also led to the death of the slasher, until A Nightmare on Elm Street came along to revive it...

They all should have listened to Crazy Ralph!

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