Retrospective Film Review

Friday the 13th (1980) • 40 Years Later

A group of counselors are stalked and murdered while trying to reopen a summer camp where a child drowned years before.

‘The terror before the mask’ promises my Friday the 13th Blu-ray. After 11 sequels, a namesake TV series, and even a video game, it doesn’t even matter if people haven’t seen these movies… they know that hockey mask belongs to Jason Voorhees. Back in 1980, a group of young counsellors arrive at Camp Crystal Lake to prepare for its reopening, only for an unseen killer to pick them off one by one, leading Alice (Adrienne King) to realise one spooky campfire tale is more real than the others. The disconnect with this plot summary and Friday’s impact on popular culture is how this killer isn’t Jason. He became synonymous with the brand and the focus of all the marketing today, but I can’t help feeling his famous hockey mask rudely overshadows the original’s own villain.

The shock ending to Friday the 13th is no secret, as anyone who’s seen Scream (1996) will know the abridged version. This film is momma Voorhees’ time in the…