Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Camp counselors are stalked and murdered by an unknown assailant while trying to reopen a summer camp that was the site of a child's drowning.
Friday the 13th is a landmark slasher film that helped define a genre. Its plot is thin and largely a vehicle for set pieces, and the acting is uneven at best. However, its cinematography effectively builds dread through POV killer shots borrowed from Argento and Bava, giving it genuine craft. Its novelty score is high because it crystallized the slasher formula — the summer camp setting, the unknown killer, the final girl — in a way that proved enormously influential and distinctive for its moment. The ending twist (the revelation of Mrs. Voorhees as the killer, followed by Jason's lake emergence) remains one of horror's most memorable shock finales, earning a genuine 4.