So concluding my mini-run of horror films for Halloween is Friday the 13th. I always mix up this franchise with A Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween (which would have been a much more fitting choice to watch today) as these are the big three of the slasher flick genre. The names Jason Voorhees, Freddy Kruger and Michael Myers are practically household names. I've seen a film from each series, but bizarrely enough, none of the originals. As it turns out, I picked the one that is least regarded by the critics. Oops.
Camp Crystal Lake. A drowned boy. A series of gruesome murders. Forty years later a new group of teens go out to the lake. A big storm is brewing. A sex scene with bobbies. Girls wandering off by themselves in their panties. A young Kevin Bacon. Bodies start to drop.
What is kind of interesting about the film is that we don't know anything about the killer until the very end, but it's not meant as one of those Scream type whodunits so there is no surprise. We just wait till the end to have things explained to us and have the killer revealed. But since there is no build up to it, the impact isn't as great.
Another thing regarding the killer is that not only do we not know anything about the killer, we never see the killer till the end. All the kills are done either with a POV shot or with the weapon of choice slashing the victim with the killer off screen or shrouded in darkness. In a way the killer is sort of like the shark in Jaws, how we don't see it in full form till pretty deep into the film. I think most horror films work like this. It allows you to build up an image of the monster in your head; often times your imagination will work better than anything the director could put out there. However, in this film it kind of works against it because there are none of the patented cat and mouse hide and seek scenes between the killer and the victims. One of the problems with the film is that the killer picks off the victims one by one without the victims even realizing they're being hunted. As the audience we know they're going to die, but sometimes it's important for them to know it as well to add to the terror of the scene. So all the scary moments come down to waiting for something to pop out on screen rather than an actual build up of suspense and fear. In other words, cheap ten second thrills rather than well crafted scenes.
So between all those issues, you get a decent film that doesn't transcend its genre; it is as good as the formula allows it to be. So I am somewhat skeptical when people say this is a classic. It's enjoyable for what it is but that's where it stops. I will say though that the ending is pretty trippy and once the killer is out in the open things get pretty juicy. It's too bad the rest of the film didn't have that same feel.
SPOILER ALERT:
I didn't even realize Jason isn't the killer in this film. The whole mother angle reminded me a lot of the dual identity Norman Bates has in Psycho. Jason does make an appearance though in the serene lake scene which has the exact same feel as the ending of Carrie. I thought these connections were pretty cool, even if they are coincidental.
END SPOILER
GRADE: C+
No comments:
Post a Comment