You know what month it is, right? Halloween! Yes, it lasts all month. (Actually, it's just a coincidence that the next three movies I planned to watch from my personal collection were all horror films but just go with it, ok?)This is one of the big three classic slashers. I think it should be required watching. One of my favorite things about it is the idea that horror doesn't just happen in October. This is set on June 13, the beginning of summer, when things are warm and green and daylight seems to last extra long. None of that matters when you're being stalked by a crazed lunatic and I think that's great.
Camp Crystal Lake has a history of mishaps. In 1957, a boy drowned in the lake. The next year, two counselors were brutally murdered. But, in 1980, the camp reopens. A group of kids all sign up to be counselors and agree to meet two weeks early to get the camp back in shape. But someone doesn't want Crystal Lake back in business. One by one, the teens are picked off in gruesome ways until only one girl (Adrienne King) is left to discover the truth.
I can't even begin to count the ways in which this film was influential. The first person perspective, the twist ending, the now iconic score -- it adds up to a great horror flick, even if the effects are a little dated now. It even perpetuates the tradition of A-listers boosting their careers, because Kevin Bacon is one of the counselors that breaks a cardinal rule: no premarital sex.
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