Friday the 13th (1980)

Here is one of the heavyweights of horror, Jason Voorhees. For now, I’m only covering the original Friday the 13th (FTT1) up to FTT8: Jason Takes Manhattan, which marks the original run of sequels before the franchise changed hands from Paramount Pictures selling the rights to New Line Cinema. This is also the first time I've seen FTT1 since it aired unedited on the old WNEW-TV, Channel 5 Movie Club (now WNYW Fox 5 here in New York) when it was still a local independent channel. This was the first film the "Club" aired, and people complained. As a thank you to those who tried to give the channel and show bad press, they aired Part 2 unedited and then followed up with Parts 1 and 2 back-to-back a few weeks later. The effects for FTT1 were done by some guy named Tom Savini. Never heard of him, so I guess this was his only film credit. Same with this other guy named after a breakfast side dish, Kevin Bacon. He was never to be seen again. :) Anyway, you know what you're getting here- debauchery. Sex, violence, and a backstory that changes faster than a soiled pair of underwear. Is it good? No, it's not. I'm not saying it's terrible; FTT1 is kinda dull, but it does try to be an actual film with a story, decent acting, and structure. But then it spends the middle of the film cycling through dialogue, sex, murder, and more dialogue, all stalling for a pretty decent wrap-up. Like yesterday's Blade 2, it all gets jettisoned in the first 10 minutes of FTT2. Regardless, you know why you're watching this and what you’re getting into. The series picks up after FTT3D.