Review of Friday the 13th

To call the characters paper thin will be an understatement. They are just meant to be in the film to get killed off one by one. I could go crazy with my interpretive brain and propose that film is trying to explore the friction between the conflicting ideologies of conservatism and the sexual liberation movement that gained strength during the 1960s and 1970s. But in reality, the film just isn't deep enough to be thought of along those lines. In reality, there is no subtext. The ultimate revelation is abrupt which ruins the credibility of everything that happens before, and the final combat scenes are downright laughable. One can easily feel that both the director Sean S. Cunningham and screenwriter Victor Miller were huge Hitchcock fans. In terms of writing, the ultimate revelation owes a heavy debt to 'Psycho'. The only thing that I genuinely liked about the film was Cunningham's visual style which again owes a heavy debt to Hitchcock. The camera acts as a voyeur. There are some scenes in which it almost feels like we are watching everything from an anonymous individual's POV. I especially liked the way Cunningham used extended long takes in certain scenes to build up tension. He constantly delays the prospect of any character confronting a dead body in the film. But when it does happen, it is done with a really well executed setup and I found that whole sequence impressive. Talking about Hitchcock, the score that accompanies the scenes of terror and murder in 'Friday the 13th' is basically a rip-off of Bernard Herrmann's 'The Murder' score from 'Psycho'.

'Friday the 13th' is not deep nor is it trying to be. The characters are a bunch of nobodies. The ultimate revelation and combat scene is laughable. But I'll be lying if I say I didn't somewhat like the direction and the use of camera movements in the film.