Ashley says: The Halloween countdown continues this week with my number four pick: “Friday the 13.”
When people think of these movies, they think of one particular character, Jason Voorhees, the hockey mask wearing, undead creature that apparently hates anything and everything that has to do with teenagers and was the “bad guy” for all of the “Friday the 13” films, all but this one.
What many people who haven’t seen this film don’t know is that Jason didn’t appear until the second movie in this long line of sequels. In the first movie, the terror at “Camp Crystal Lake,” isn’t caused by Jason, but instead by his vengeful mother Pamela Voorhees.
She wants revenge on the teenage camp counselors (and anyone like them) who allowed her deformed son, Jason, to drown in Crystal Lake while they had their fun.
The greatest thing about this edition to the “Friday the 13” saga and what puts it at number four on my countdown is the fact that it isn’t really like the others.
In a way it’s unique from them in the fact that the killer isn’t the hockey mask wearing icon we all know, it’s simpler and it is because of this one that the others could exist.
As a kid I had always wanted to go to a summer camp and after seeing this movie I can only imagine how many kids’ wishes of a go at summer camp were dashed. It’s gory, its messy and at times down right hilarious with it’s bad acting and cheesy effects but the movie has a lasting appeal and definitely should be watched this Halloween.Amanda says: The movie that transformed the image of a hockey mask into a sign of death, Friday the 13, the original was one of the scariest movies of its time and my #4 pick in the Halloween movie countdown.
Jason is an icon in the horror film industry. And though in the very first Friday the 13 he wasn’t shown or even portrayed as the psychotic serial killer we have all become familiar with.
His mother, Pam Voorhees was the perpetrator and murderer of the innocent. Flashing back to 1958 and the murder of two horny camp counselors, the film goes forward to 1980 at a summer camp where Jason’s mother, Pam Voorhees takes her revenge for the drowning of her beloved son in 1957.
Interestingly, not very often in horror genre history is the mother of the deranged killer portrayed as a killer herself. I think it is a nice twist in the cliché plot line of all the other movies of its kind to follow.
Original horror films, despite their bad special effects and poor acting skills, are usually always the best. I didn’t really care for any of the preceding films in the saga of Friday the 13.
The first was my favorite because of its diverse plot. It is a classic and great for a movie watching spook fest.
So if you’re scared of the hockey mask wearing undead Jason, watch a movie where his mother takes his place as a symbol of supreme fear and vengeance, you’ll never go camping again.

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