What is horror?
Is it atmosphere? The macabre?
Death? Some combination of all of the above? Or perhaps it is something darker,
sinister, a Freudian synthesis of our fears seated deeply in the recesses of
our consciousness.
How do we outlet this need? How do
we manage this emotion we call fear without letting it control us? What is it
about the horror film that attracts us, so that even as we are repelled by it,
we are inexplicably drawn to the darkness?
Many would say that the horror film
is a way to process fear as an emotion; to experience the thrilling rush of the
fight-or-flight response without placing ourselves in true immediate
danger. Contrary to the stereotype,
horror as a genre is strikingly diverse. From the paranormal to the everyday,
scary movies cover a wide variety of topics, settings, cultures, and
worldviews. Moreover, it very well may be the oldest of genres, dating all the
way back to the bare beginnings of cinema with films such as L’Inferno (1911) and even farther back, Le Manoir du Diable (1896).
The result of such a storied and
wide-ranging history is that the annals of horror generally have something for
everyone. We all have a favorite, whether it be sci-fi like Alien (1979), paranormal á la The Exorcist (1973), or on lighter side
with It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie
Brown! (1966).
Like everyone, I also have my
personal favorites and they range across the board. But at the top of the list
is a little low-budget gem from 1980 that spawned eleven sequels and a genre
icon: Friday the 13th (1980).
The slasher subgenre of horror is
generally accepted to have begun with John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978). Some place the genesis as far back as Psycho (1960) and include several
subsequent films such as The Texas
Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and The Town
That Dreaded Sundown (1976). But regardless of the origin, it can’t be
denied that the slasher’s heyday came in early 1980’s, roughly from about
1980-1984.
During that time literally hundreds
of films were made, all practically using the same blueprint: Get a group of
attractive teens/20-somethings, put them in an isolated situation, and pick
them off one by one using a killer with a unique modus operandi. Typically, the outline functioned as a sort of
morality tale: Don’t have sex, don’t do drugs, and definitely don’t go out
alone. Marry that with a unique mythology surrounding the killer and there you
have it! A slasher film.
While Halloween is generally held as the best of the lot, Friday the 13th is arguably
the farthest reaching, longest lasting, and most influential. Directed by Sean
S. Cunningham and released in May of 1980, the film followed all the basic
guidelines that Halloween had set
down but for two.
First off, John Carpenter’s film found
evil stalking babysitters in suburbia, the idea being that the danger was in
our own backyards. Friday the 13th
instead places the action at a summer camp – Camp Crystal Lake! – far out in
the woods where no help can be reached.
Secondly, where Jamie Lee Curtis and
Donald Pleasence gave grabbing performances with an emphasis on character
development for Halloween, here
Cunningham’s focus was on, as he put it, “good-looking kids you might see in a
Pepsi commercial.”
Both of these departures from the
early formula became staples in the genre. Isolation is arguably much more
frightening than familiar surroundings if only because there is no possibility
of escape. And, as politically incorrect as it may sound, attractive people are
simply fun to watch. It makes sense that audiences would more willingly trade
their hard-earned bucks for a chance to see cute and determined Adrienne King
as opposed to the pudgy and world-weary Donald Pleasence.
In practice, Friday the 13th claims one more notable, and this time
perhaps most important, difference from Halloween
that may be the number one reason for its success. It is gory. More specifically, it features absolutely astounding
practical make-up effects from SFX master Tom Savini (famous for his work on Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Maniac (1980) among others). Where Halloween
achieved its shivers from suspense and build-up, Friday the 13th goes for the jugular, making it a more
visceral and primal experience.
The grue isn’t tasteless either.
Where many famous gross-out pictures rely on the messiness to carry the
excitement, here the blood-letting is simply a dot on the ‘i’. Rather than
being the focus, the gore is a nuanced touch designed to be the push that sends
your nerves over the edge! The violence isn’t lingered on, and aside from two
or three moments, we see only the aftermath. The result is strikingly
effective, keeping every moment of violence fresh and shocking, rather than
numbing the audience and thereby stalling the picture.
There is also something to be said
about the look of the film. Though it may only be an unintentional byproduct of
time and place, as well as budget, the grainy ‘80s film stock and stripped down
aesthetic give the film a gritty and realistic tone that many modern films
simply cannot replicate. The natural lighting of the cabins and woods are also
a factor, contributing a murky darkness in the nighttime terror that comprises
the second half of the film.
In conjunction, no analysis of Friday the 13th would be
complete without a mention of Harry Manfredini’s score. The stripped down
minor-second stings played on violin and cello are obviously inspired by
Bernard Herrmann’s score for Psycho.
But the score’s kicker comes from Manfredini’s notice of Betsy Palmer saying “Kill
her mommy! Kill her!” He spoke the primary syllables ‘Ki’ and ‘Ma’ into a
microphone, and then looped the recording and ran it through an echoplex. The
result is the highly chilling “Ki-ki-ki-ki…
Ma-ma-ma-ma..” now so iconic in pop culture.
All of these factors combine to make
Friday the 13th a
memorable and terrifying thrill ride. But none of it would be half so effective
without one specific performance: Betsy Palmer as the psychotic killer Pamela
Voorhees.
Though she has insisted time and
again that she thought the script, “A piece of [bleep]” and only agreed to do
it because she needed another car, the casting of Betsy Palmer is a stroke of
genius. She was fairly well-known by that time thanks to her roles in several
television shows such as Murder, She
Wrote, Studio One in Hollywood,
and The United States Steel Hour. But
she had not acted for several years.
She has also been on record saying
that she thought her reveal at the end was a cheat; her character never being introduced
beforehand and the killer only in point-of-view sequences during the majority
of the film. But she’s wrong. It plays off beautifully! The refusal of the film
to give a reason for the mayhem until the very end simplifies and streamlines
the events. This is not a Hitchcockian exercise in red herrings and Macguffins.
To add that dimension would mire the script in unnecessary details.
Ergo the reveal of Mrs. Voorhees at
the finale introduces an opportunity for Palmer to give the craziest and most
memorable turn of her career. Her monologue about her son Jason (THE Jason who
would return in the sequels as the hockey-masked titan of terror!) is the
highlight of the film. Doubtless she thought that the little-picture-that-could
would never be seen by such a wide audience, else she most likely would have
never let loose with such a deranged and undignified performance.
Without spoiling the deliciously
inspired (and endlessly imitated) final scare, Friday the 13th ends on a razor’s edge. It manages to
conclude in an incredibly satisfying way, yet leave room for a sequel and subsequently
a franchise that has stubbornly refused to die over the past thirty years. It
is also surprisingly accessible. The gore is wince-inducing but not extremely
off-putting. The suspense is spine-tingling but not overly unbearable. And most
of all, it is undeniably fun – that most important of aspects at the core of
cinema.
The attractiveness of the flick is
perhaps best described by the omen delivered by another memorable character:
Crazy Ralph.
“You’re going to Camp Blood ain’tcha?”
he says to a hapless teen early on, “You’ll never come back again! It’s got a death curse!”
And like the unfortunate teenagers
who ignore his warning, we cannot help being sucked in. We just have to see
more of Friday the 13th!
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