This Friday is the 13th and everyone’s favorite hockey mask wearing serial killer returns to the big screen to celebrate as the series is rebooted. The hockey mask wearing executives at Paramount have released the original to coincide with that return.
What might surprise some is that Jason isn’t the killer we’ve grown to loath and there’s not a hockey mask in sight.
In the 1950s, a deformed, mentally retarded boy named Jason (Ari Lehman) drowns in the lake when the camp counselors supposed to be watching him are too busy making out. They meet a bloody end by unseen hands.
Ever since then the camp has been seen as cursed as more death occur. We cut to modern day (well, 1980) and Steve Christy (Peter Brouwer) is reopening the camp. Alice (Adrienne King) is already at the camp, but soon counselors Ned (Mark Nelson), Jack (Kevin Bacon), Bill (Harry Crosby, Bing’s son!), Marcie (Jeannine Taylor), Brenda (Laurie Bartram) arrive to start refurbishing the run down camp.
Annie (Robbi Morgan) is hitchhiking to get to the camp so that she can be the camp cook, however she meets a grisly fate after getting picked up by a mysterious stranger. The carnage continues and Annie is trying to avoid the terrible fate suffered by her friends and she unexpectedly runs into Mrs. Voorhees (Betsy Palmer), an old friend of the Christys.
Friday the 13th certainly rivals Freddy Krueger when it comes to movie sequels, but this 1980 romp was the one that began it all. I can imagine that the current generation will be most disappointed when they discover that there’s not a hocky mask to be found in the film (it wouldn’t become a staple until part three) and the gore isn’t as prevelent as the sequels.
Each sequel would develop a “top the last one” mentality as the series progressed. In fact, when making a television cut, they only had to edit out some seconds to make it pass network standards.
This uncut version really only adds some more seconds to that running time and what is added probably wouldn’t amount to much in today’s MPAA rating, the 1980s were a bit more tough on the splatter.
However, it’s welcome for the full cut to finally make it to DVD. Jason only really makes a cameo appearance and the real killer is someone else, though a rather obvious someone else.
It wouldn’t be until the second sequel that Jason would become a killing machine. The first film was critically reviled but I think that it’s a bloody fun romp. In the day, it was, as they say in the special features, like a magic trick watching these teens get killed on screen and then trying to figure out how they did Kevin Bacon in.
These sort of films would start making the makeup men, Tom Savini in this case, the stars of the show though they were behind the camera. The series was seen by director Sean S. Cunningham as a tentpole name for a series of scary movies, but the sequels would focus more on Jason and make him a hockymask wearing, unstoppable killing machine (and evenutally send him to Manhattan, Hell, and Space).
This first film is fun in its simplicity as we have the unknown killer knocking off the poor camp counselors and definitely not the “jump the shark” moments of the later films.
Friday the 13th is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include a commentary hosted by Crystal Lake Memories author Peter Bracke and features director Sean S. Cunningham, writer Victor Miller, Adrienne King, Betsy Palmer, composer Henry Manfredini, and other crew members.
Next is the 16 minute “A Friday the 13th Reunion” which is a panel discussion with Savini, Ari Lehman, Adrienne King, Betsy Palmer, and Victor Miller. The 14 minute “Fresh Cuts: New Tales from Friday the 13th” is more interviews with Savini, Manfredini, Lehman, Miller, and addes Robbi Morgan who is the first onscreen victim (well, I’d argue that the first victims are the two horney counselors in the 50s).
The 9 minute “The Man behind the Legacy” is a interview with Sean S. Cunningham. The 7 minute “Lost Tales from Camp Blood – Part 1” is a short film that draws inspiration from the series. Finally, you get the 2 minute theatrical trailer.
The Friday the 13th franchise got pretty silly by the end and now they’ve decided to reboot it. The film that started it all was a rather straightforward slasher film (drawing “inspiration” from Halloween) and may seem tame today but it ushered in a horror icon in a hocky mask.
Friday the 13th Uncut is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for this version of the DVD in the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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