title: FRIDAY THE 13THyear: 1980
cast: Adrienne King, Betsy Palmer, Kevin Bacon, Harry Crosby
director: Sean Cunningham
rating: ***1/2
After so many sequels and a remake, and the fact this is the beginning of one of the biggest, most successful and inspired horror franchises ever, one would expect the original to be an extravagant horror flick but it's a low-budget exploitation with a cast who, except for pre-Footloose/post-Animal House Kevin Bacon, don't look like actors at all, underlining the realism as each doomed counselor gets picked off by an unseen menace who isn't Jason but Jason's mother, played by Betsy Palmer who, as a human being, adds an important element separating this from the other films: sole survivor Adrienne King actually has somewhat of a chance. And after the first hour there are plenty of fantastic Palmer/King cat-fights, and it's during this final act when the suspense builds to one of the scariest finales ever: involving the introduction of (a very young) Jason Vorhees.
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