This is a classic that almost everyone has heard of, and one that any true slasher fan has seen. It's not my favorite of the series, but its good for its time. Jason's mom is one freaky woman. The scene where Kevin Bacon gets killed (sorry if that's a spoiler for anyone) is great.

how many of you people here were born when this movie came out? It seems to me that for the time when this movie was new, it was state of the art special effects and the story actually had a plot. Sure Jason wasn't in half the movie, but did you watch all the sequels first or something? You were not supposed to know who was killing everyone in this movie, unlike the sequels where you know who it is and are expecting bigger badder death scenes, you actually had to think to like this movie. Most all horror movies nowadays are about the gore factor, not the story, you want horror, watch some of the originals, like this one. Good Movie, not the best, but good solid horror.

Sorry, I detest this movie (even though it was filmed in NJ), and the string of low-budget but highly lucrative sequels it spawned. Am I a prude of the Siskel/Ebert stripe or repulsed by gore and violence? Not necessarily, but I feel there is something almost pornographic about this series. There's absolutely no imagination or thought given to it...every "plotline" has a colorless and indestructible maniac killer dispatching copulating teenage couples in a variety of gruesome, violently-ridiculous ways. That's pretty much it. And the makers of this series laughed all the way to the bank. How stupid must they have thought their audience was, year after year, as they paid their money for admittance to what was basically the same dull movie?

this movie was not made for roger ebert it was made for horror fans and it is good

i used to love these movies. i would watch them by myself and then i would be scared the rest of the night jumping at every little sound.

A classic slasher i love halloween because it is my favirote movie but this was still good just watched it yesterday so what if it is a rip off of halloween it is still good go watch it it is still good

way too silly not scary just a rip off of halloween and if you took halloween took away the direction atmoshere acting music intence feelin brilliant mood add some blood and gore leave in the style and there you go you got friday 13'th

This was the one that started slasher horror flicks.

A pretty good beginning to a pretty good series.

Okay, they can be cheesey. But Jason deserves more respect.

I have seen some of this movie but it is just a rip-off of Halloween they tried to take the juicy eerie scary feeling of Halloween and add in a horrible story women nudity and blood and gore. So in other words do not waste youre time on this movie you are way way way way way way way way way more better of watching the extremley classic John Carpentetrs extremley scary movieHalloween.

A decent horror flick if you're looking for blood and guts mixed in with a lot of sex. I can tolerate the F13 films, but they are subpar when compared to some of the other films that thankfully are rated higher on this list. This film, like it's senseless sequels, suffers highly from a senseless plot and terrible acting. Entertaining, but not nearly as good as many others.

Mindboggling stupidity. These movies are a kind of porn, but curiously puritanical: only the teenagers who screw get killed, and they always get killed in very messy ways, using exactly the same filming tricks that are used in pornography.

The best horror series to date.

The first in an overly long series of braindead slasher films.This is far and away the best in the series.My only problem was with the fact that the killer is not introduced until very well into the movie.For those who have not seen this the plot revolves around a camp reopened after having been closed down after a negligent drowning death.A restless spirit or a human is out for revenge and starts killing off the camp counselors.

It's a good movie!!!!!

Who wasn't scared of Jason??? I couldn't swim in a lake for months after this one.

CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP. Can i stress that enough??? God, the only money they spent making these friday the 13th stuff was on a hockey mask and an old jumpsuit. Truly dissapointing. There are some good moments though.

This movie is not scary. It focuses on blood, guts, and nudity. A good storyline is completely wasted. The ending is horrible. I agree with Errol, this movie is the cause of the cheap horror.

the best in the series this was scary

Not as good as Halloween, but not as bad as some of the other slasher films out at the time. The setting was really interesting...the creepy woods at Crystal Lake...just not a place I would want to go to with lots of people dissapearing! Overall the first was the best in the series, but it just doesn't measure up to Halloween...and like that series of movies, this was the best of the lot.

The original slice 'em/dice 'em film. Even though Jason doesn't really show up until Jason IV(??), Betsy Palmer did a great performance as Jason's tormented mother and avenger. The first movies in any Horror Genre are the best, as the rest you no that everyone (except 1 person) will be killed and in different ways.

Im a big fan of Jason, he's da man!! I love the thrill and of course the "chi chi chi ha ha ha" in the movies. I have his mask on my bedroom wall and dissguised as Jason for halloween since I was like 13 years old.The first 3 movies sucked but the rest we're kool.I have all his movies and will love him forever. JASON RULES!!!!

It seems this is the movie that started the trend of using gore as a cheap way to create shock. The horror genre has never been the same since. Thanks.

This film is a blatant ripoff of Psycho by simply reversing the mother/son rolls and the acting was appauling. Even worse it begot a zillion even worse sequals.

Just a rip off of "Halloween" and who knows what else. Boring tripe.

The Shape thinks that along with Halloween, Friday is one of the most original and widely viewed horror movies over the last twenty five years. Halloween brought back suspense, Friday showed us gore. From the moment the audience sees a very young Kevin Bacon squered through the throat with an arrow, a new kind of horror film is on it's way to movie history; the teenage slasher film. Done on a very low budget, with excellent special effects by Tom Savini, this movie set a precedent that was copied thousands of time; the more gore, the better. The story was pioneering back in 1980, and unlike the horror films of today, original and suspenseful. Although nine sequels were to follow (parts 2,4, and 7 are worth seeing), none captured the magic of the first one. All real horror fans must see this film, and realize that 99% of all horror films since then are mere rip-offs. And thats the way the Shape sees it this 22nd day of June 2001

What a good horror movie. This along with the much better and scarier Halloween, started the teen horror revolution. This is by far one of the best classic 80's teen slash films of the decade. Shot well at an actual summer camp and consisting of a lightly talented cast(Kevin Bacon being the only one to go anywhere.He also has a startling scene in a speedo. )and an original idea for the time a kind of switch on the psycho idea and at a summer camp rather than a motel. Gruesome effects by the master Tom Savini also give this movie an extra boost. You cannot deny how cool that girl looks with that axe freshly buried into her youthful face or the realism of the the early on throat slitting if the counsler who never makes it to camp. Cool idea, cool deaths,led to a funny and entertaining franchise, led to Jason(who is only second to MichaelMyers of Halloween.)and helped Kevin Bacon start a career!Recommended. See it before camp counsling or camping. hehe. Has Callmetootie even seen this movie? There is like one boob in the whole movie! Far from spending alot of time on female nudity. But tootie got the Gorefest part right! Brains and guts? I must have missed that in the several trillion times I've seen this movie. I still love ya. HOORAY!

Friday The 13th is just another low-budget gore fest that wastes it's time on female nudity and blood and guts. Jason Voorhes drowned as a child, but they have found him, and he's dead... or is he? Teens are being slashed and murdered from some woman out there, who happens to be Jason's mother, just to let cha know. And Jason is still alive, it's just that his mother has been cooking up brains and guts for him the whole time and comforting him becuas ethe stupud teens were playing with eachother at the camp not watching the little monsters and he drowns so mom goes mental. I like soft pretzels.

The greatest horror saga of all time.

It was very scary and I was sitting on the edge of my seat.

It was good because it scared people. They created a monster who can come to your dreams to kill you.

the absolute pits in horror movies. Not one good comment about this no-brainer !

All of the movie sequences of Freddy are very well put together. The plot continues from one movie to the next.