Betsy Palmer

The only value in seeing Sean Cunningham's original Friday the 13th is in knocking one of the slasher classics off your list. That's why I watched it. It's not actually all that scary. A wretched 80s score ruins every single skillful set up by Cunningham - he's actually not a bad suspense creator. But the acting is poor, the order of deaths is annoyingly predictable, there are no real scares to be found, it's not haunting or chilling, and the iconic, hockey-masked slayer of lore isn't even in it. I would have to see Friday the 13th part 2 to get a look at him. But I have no desire to see another unscary 80s thriller. I sure would have liked to have watched a fast-paced movie with a scary Jason brutally killing people, but there was no Jason and there were quite a few disappointing kills. Not to say the film doesn't have its moments, but its way too dated to send any proper scares your way. Also it's just a very unintelligent movie.