This is one of those films that really got to me in my childhood years. I'll never ever forget that final scene when Adrienne King is attacked by Jason in the canoe - a classic shock, far more frightening than the excessive violence and gore seen in every "Friday"-clone thereafter.
Since horror is an emotion rather than simply a filmic genre, these films can't be reviewed with the same guidelines as others. It's all about the atmosphere, the build-up and ultimate destruction of everything we've been told is right and normal. "Friday the 13th" does well on all those points. In fact it stands out as the best slasher-movie in history, competing only with "Halloween" from two years before.
The violence is grim and graphic indeed. Throat-slashings and decapitations galore and very little is left to the imagination. Strongest being the scene where well-known actor Kevin Bacon is impaled by an arrow through the neck, in one of the goriest moments in the history of the R-rating.
If you're looking for a classic chiller, this first "Friday" is the one to see. But stay clear of the sequels. Already by it's second installment this series of films started to imitate not only itself, but also it's imitations. And that's never a good sign. Not in any genre.
"Chh, chh, chh... hah, hah, hah..."
