Aside from Halloween, this film may be the quintessential eighties horror flick. It has all the elements: great sex scenes, tension filled murders that are sometimes unexpected and sometimes horrifying, it’s loaded with subtext and, since the kid who ends up killing Jason in the end, seems to be headed for a career as a special effects maestro, it’s even a little bit meta. The only thing that grates about the film is the terrible music that for some reason continues to be used. Nothing about Part 1 has been carried over to the sequels (the killer’s different, the people being killed are different, etc.) except for the terrible theme. Harry Manfredini, the creator of that terrible theme, is also the only crew-member that has remained throughout the series. Whether this is because they are just recycling the music from the first film for all of the sequels I do not know. Whatever the reason, I just can’t understand why anyone would choose to keep using this terrible music
Also, a minor concern I suppose, but when did Jason get superpowers? In the previous two films (he wasn’t in the first one), he’s just a regular fucked up psycho but here he suddenly has the power to throw people through walls and bust down doors with this hands. Although his previous incarnations were a little stronger than your average human, his exploits were still more believable than the shotgun blast to the chest induced flight across the room of most action films. Now, however, and without explanation, he has powers. I suppose he needed to have superpowers to survive the axe to the head that ended the third film, however, I think an explanation as to the origin of these powers is needed or, barring that, it would be nice for someone to at least comment on the fact that he seems to have superpowers.
Still and all, this is a very good, maybe the best, entry in the series. It’s got a lot to chew on after the killings are done. The one that’s still working its way around in my brain is what’s going on the final scene where Tommy, after crippling Jason, sees his hand twitch and so proceeds to beat his head until it’s turned to liquid. On seeing the next film, I suppose one might think that it was meant to leave the door open for Tommy to become the new Jason. But from the production values and the subtitle, I really think this was intended to be the last Friday the 13th. So would they really plant the seed for a sequel in what was supposed to be the last film in the series? I doubt it. So what’s going on there? Why does Tommy only really beat on Jason after the heat of the moment has passed? I guess it says something about the nature and power of violence and the addictive rush it can give the person committing it. I think it also might say something about the nature of people in these movies in general. Nobody seems to be in this film for any other purpose than to kill or be killed. And since Tommy isn’t going to be the latter he must embrace the former, there’s no middle ground in Friday the 13th.
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