Talking about Friday the 13th proves to be a difficult task indeed given it's notoriety in the world of cinema. As the vessel mentioned in one of his prior posts, movies that have achieved a legendary influence such as Friday the 13th or The Godfather are difficult to draw any interesting discussion from as their meaning has been diluted by innumerable copycats, homages, references, and parodies. However, Friday the 13th had some unique surprises up it's sleeve for even a modern viewer. By now most horror movie fans are intimately familiar with the slasher movie tropes. A group of teenagers or young adults, usually in an isolated location close to nature, serve as fresh meat for the grinder that is the killer's blade. The fun and engagement of these movies typically come from the various brutal and creative ways the young people are punished for their transgressions by an unkillable foe. To facilitate this Slasher movies typically tread the line between making their protagonists likable and and somehow deserving of punishment. Much like the movie that directly and explicitly inspired Friday the 13th, Halloween, this is done by making the teens sexually liberated. However Friday the 13th takes it a step further than most slasher movies and makes the motivation for the killer explicitly due to the wanton sexual activity. The killings are all explicit revenge on inattentive camp councilors who let Jason Voorhees drown in a summer camp's eponymous "Crystal Lake". This removes a karmic, supernatural element from the proceedings that is in most typical slasher movies. Rarely is the killer in slasher films explicitly and concretely motivated in such a way. Freddy Kruger is just a violent child murderer, Michael Meyers is pure evil and has no motive, Norman Bates... well Norman Bates is an interesting case isn't he. In fact Psycho may have done as much or more to inspire Friday the 13th than Halloween.
What little remains of the vessel's old self implore's me to warn you that there will be spoilers from here on out. I see no reason to warn people about spoilers for a movie that's almost 40 years old, but the pitiful human soul won't shut up about it. Regardless, the killer in Friday the 13th differs from it's more iconic sequels in that it is not a supernaturally resurrected Jason Voorhees but rather his very much alive mother, Pamela Voorhees. This further reduces the supernatural element common amongst many popular slasher movies. But the supernatural isn't completely absent as Mrs. Voorhees appears to hear and respond to her son's voice, and even speaks her son's words at points in the film. This indicates some sort of cooperative possession going on (something I'm not entirely unfamiliar with, my vessel didn't seem entirely unwilling to become The Servant of Spook). The ambiguity of the supernatural mirrors the same in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Mirror is probably the best word is there's is an inversion where, in Friday the 13th a mother is possessed by her son, but in Psycho a son is possessed by his mother. Much like Psycho, it's left ambiguous in Friday the 13th as to whether Pamela is actually possessed or if she's just been driven crazy with the death of a loved one. Even with the reveal at the end of the film that an undead Jason Voorhees is about and ready to murder there is no confirmation that there is anything going on with Pamela.
Another result of Pamela's role in the movie is an almost feminist statement that a woman is just as capable of violent revenge as men. I say almost, as her violence is tied to her maternal femininity. However something oddly egalitarian about Friday the 13th is the usage of nudity. The men of the film are just as often, if not more often seen shirtless when compared to the women, and are also seen in shorts or revealing swim wear just as often. My vessel wishes it to be known that you'll hear no complaints from him regarding this egalitarian approach to nudity. In total Friday the 13th's approach to sexuality is surprisingly unproblematic. Sure wanton sexuality is punished, but the punishment is not viewed as a reasonable or the inevitable result of the transgressional behavior. The film manages this by removing, or reducing, the supernatural karmic element to the proceedings. Pamela is an out an out villian murdering innocent youths, and while she murders the youths due in part to their wanton sexual activity, she also states that her motive is to ensure Camp Crystal Lake never re-opens.
There's plenty of reasons Friday the 13th is a classic that holds up to this day with 10 sequels. It's tension is well built by it's first person shots, behind the killer's eyes, the gore effects are flawless and still believable, and the characters still fun and engaging. If you're a slasher movie fan and haven't seen it yet you must not be real cause come one its Friday the 13th you ought to have seen it by now. so become real: see Friday the 13th before the laws of reality notice you shouldn't exist. I, Pf'Iloigoth shall not reveal Thursday's film or any film for the time I inhabit this vessel it shall be The Spook of Surprise!
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