Friday the 13th is a horror film built on a simple trick: it makes you care about people before it kills them. That’s the whole game. And it mostly works. The film follows a group of young counselors trying to reopen a summer camp with a grim history, stalked by an unseen killer whose methods grow increasingly brutal as the night goes on. It is not subtle, and it does not try to be.
Trailer, via ScreamFactoryTV.
Opening Night
The film opens in 1958, where two counselors are killed in a supply shed by an assailant nobody ever sees. Then we jump to 1979, where a truck driver named Enos tells Annie, the camp’s counselor and cook, about the camp’s past: a young boy drowned in Crystal Lake in 1957, and the camp has been closed since. Enos drops Annie off at a crossroads, and she gets a ride from an unseen driver who later slashes her throat in the woods.
The remaining counselors — Ned, Jack, Bill, Marcie, Brenda, and Alice — arrive at the camp. Alice and Steve Christy, the owner, refurbish the cabins while Steve heads out for supplies during a storm. Ned sees a cloaked figure enter a cabin and follows it. Jack and Marcie are killed next, one with an arrow to the throat, the other with an axe in the bathroom. Brenda is lured to the archery range by a boy’s voice, turned on by floodlights, and attacked offscreen. Alice and Bill find a bloodied axe in Brenda’s bed and disconnected phones.
Steve returns and recognizes the killer, who stabs him at the camp entrance.
The Cast
The film’s strength is its cast. Adrienne King plays Alice, the lead survivor, and Betsy Palmer plays Mrs. Voorhees, the mother of the drowned boy. Kevin Bacon, Jeannine Taylor, and Mark Nelson round out the younger cast, and the way they react to each other gives the film a pulse that pure shock alone could not sustain.
The film also understands pacing. The killings come fast in the middle stretch, but the setup before them — the talk around the campfire, the nervous jokes, the quiet dread of an empty cabin — earns each death. The film knows when to hold back and when to push forward, and that balance is what keeps the audience invested even when the violence grows extreme.
The Script’s Weak Spots
The film’s weakness is its script. The killer’s identity is revealed too late, and the reveal itself feels rushed rather than earned. The film spends so long building dread that the moment of revelation lands flat, and the audience is left wondering why the story waited so long to say what it was going to say anyway. The dialogue is thin, and the actors are often asked to deliver lines that do not serve the scene around them.
The violence is also blunt. The film does not bother to disguise its effects, and the gore stands in for character development. That approach can work in short bursts, but sustained across a full runtime it wears down the tension it builds in the first hour. The film also leans heavily on the unseen killer, which means the audience never gets the satisfaction of seeing the threat face to face — a choice that works in the film’s favor but limits the payoff of the final scenes.
Behind The Scenes
The film was sold in Variety in early 1979 while the screenplay was still being drafted, with Sean S. Cunningham directing and Victor Miller writing. Filming took place in New Jersey in the fall of 1979 on an estimated budget of between $550,000 and $650,000. The casting firm headed by Julie Hughes and Barry Moss found eight young actors, including Kevin Bacon, Laurie Bartram, Peter Brouwer, and Adrienne King, all of whom had previously appeared on soap operas.
The producers originally wanted Sally Field for the role of Alice but could not afford her, so they went with unknowns instead. The role of Alice was set up as an open casting call, a publicity stunt designed to draw attention to the film. The film’s original critical response was largely unfavorable, with critics deriding it for its graphic violence, though it did receive some praise for its cinematography and score.
| Comparison | Strength | Weakness |
|---|---|---|
| Cast | Likable, natural chemistry | Thin dialogue, rushed reveal |
| Violence | Brutal, unflinching | Blunt, repetitive |
| Pacing | Earns each kill | Too much held back |
The Numbers
Friday the 13th was released on May 9, 1980, and became a major box office success, grossing $59.8 million worldwide. It was the fifteenth highest-grossing film of the year and the second highest-grossing film for Paramount. The film’s critical response was largely unfavorable, with numerous critics deriding it for its graphic violence, though it did receive some praise for its cinematography and score.
Ranking The Kills
- Annie’s attack — the first victim, and the one that sets the film’s tone.
- Barry and Claudette’s murder in the supply shed — the origin story, told in flashback.
- Jack’s throat pierced by an arrow — the first on-screen death, sudden and brutal.
- Marcie’s death in the bathroom — the second on-screen death, quick and violent.
- Brenda’s attack at the archery range — the third on-screen death, offscreen and terrifying.
- Steve’s stabbing at the entrance — the fourth on-screen death, and the reveal of the killer’s identity.
Final Word
Friday the 13th is a flawed but effective horror film. Its strengths — a strong cast, a steady pace, and a killer who stays unseen — are enough to overcome its weaknesses, which include a thin script and a reveal that arrives late and underwhelming. The film is not subtle, and it does not pretend to be. It is a machine designed to scare, and for the most part, it does.
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