Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th

Sean Cunningham's "Friday the 13th" is the infamous slasher movie (in the style of Mario Bava and Alfred Hitchcock) where teen camp counsellors are bumped off one by one in a violent and stylish manner. Who is doing it and why ? Don't worry, as ever, you'll find out in the last reel of the film.

Massively underated and although coming across as the bastard offspring of Bava's "Bay of Blood", "Friday the 13th" is a absolute gem of a film. A point not lost on it's producers who went on to make countless (entertaining) sequels. After working with Wes Craven on "Last House on the Left", Sean Cunningham proved he still had bags of horrific class with this film and with the assistance of effects guru Tom Savini a movie legend was born.

Don't watch this film with the retro memory of a teen date fright flick, watch it afresh and enjoy as new. Classy, exciting and full of great gore too. Forget all your "I still know what you Screamed last Urban Legend" - this one beat's them all !

The disc contains itself has a very nice pristine widescreen print of the film, a trailer and that's your lot. A real shame as film as good as this (and as important to the horror genre) really does deserve more attention. Paramount will have to act quickly if they want the support of the horror buying crowd with future releases. At least they should be making the effort to use unrated directors prints when available (the print used here is allegedly R Rated but is still virtually uncut and very gory) and hey, a surround remastering wouldn't go amiss too.

But don't let that put you off, this one's an absolute gem and should be welcome in any horror fans collection.


 
Directed by Sean Cunningham
Released by Paramount
Rated R - Region 1
Ratio : Widescreen
Audio : Dolby Mono (English and French)
Running time : approx 95 mins
Extras : trailer
Subtitles : English
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