Movie Review: Friday the 13th (1980)

Friday the 13th (1980) - USA - Rated R

Directed by Sean S. Cunningham

Stars Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Jeannine Taylor, Kevin Bacon

Slasher flick that set the standard for other slasher flicks to follow keeps the tension going but the killer is unbelievable and a disappointment.

In 1958 two camp counselors at Camp Crystal Lake sneak off to have sex and are abruptly interupted and murdered by an unseen assailant. Fast forward 20+ years later since the murders and the camp being subsequently shut down and new counselors are arriving to refurbish and reopen the camp for a new owner, despite warnings from locals and a crazy man on a bicycle to leave things alone and their lives are in danger. Being the previous murders were never solved, someone is still out there and stalking the new counselors.

Even though Friday the 13th came on the heels of John Carpenter's Halloween in an attempt, and a successful one at that, to capitalize on its success, along with the aforementioned Halloween it would provide a standard template for slasher flicks many would copy, including the producers of Friday the 13th itself. Beyond its success it obviously was very influential and set the tone for the use of tension and gore in movies of the stalk and slash variety. Of course it also set the tone for two-dimensional cardboard characters, and in this first one the killer is a big disappointment, but despite its flaws, and it's not lacking in those, it accomplishes its goal in telling a story while keeping the mood going and can be an entertaining watch for the easily amused.

My Rating: 2 Fingers

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Movie Review: Animal House (1978)

Animal House (1978) - USA - Rated R

Directed by John Landis

Starring John Belushi, Tom Hulce, Mary Louise Weller, Kevin Bacon, Karen Allen, John Vernon, Peter Riegert

Funny and sleazy depiction of college losers and lowlifes taking on the system that is trying to get them to shape up or ship out.

Delta House is the campus eyesore at Faber College. As delapidated as the frat house itself is, so goes the character of its inhabitants. The Deltas are in school to drink beer, get laid, have toga parties and avoid the draft; an education is somewhere beyond last place in their minds, evidenced by having the lowest grade point averages of the entire student body. Their next door neighbors are the Omegas, a fraternity of snotty upper class brats who are in league with the Dean, Wormer, of the school to get rid of the Deltas. Even in the face of double secret probabtion and being expelled from school, the Deltas won't go without a fight.

Animal House is an odd movie of sorts. Despite how dispicable and lowlife most of its main characters are (they cheat on tests, use the obituaries to get pity sex, will lay anybody's wife, and are huge underacheivers), the situations they get themselves into and how they handle them are definitely the stuff of comedy. Animal House keeps the story moving with bawdy, lewd, and offensive behavior while keeping the laugh meter well above average. This makes it a movie that is easily rewatchable. Yes, most every character in the movie is an anti-role-model and loser, but take that as a caveat that these are not the cool guys and they are to be laughed at and not with.

My Rating: 4 Fingers

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