Friday the 13th, 1980 or 2009 edition?

Halloween is approaching, and what better way to prepare for the spooky holiday than watching horror movies! Recently I have watched many but my favorites are from the Friday the 13th series.  The series contains 12 movies, stretching from 1980 to 2009.  I decided to watch the 1980 movie, which is the first movie in the series, and the 2009 remake which is the latest movie that has come out.  There was also news that another Friday the 13th movie, the 13th movie in the sequel, would be coming out towards the end of 2017 or in 2018.  

The first Friday the 13th movie was released on May 9, 1980 in the USA and made over $59.8 million dollars in the Box office. Sean S. Cunningham directed and produced the movie and Victor Miller wrote the script.  Betsy Palmer stars as Mrs. Voorhees, the mother of Jason Voorhees, who drowned at Camp Crystal Lake.  Mrs. Voorhees comes back to stalk and murder the teenagers who come back to reopen Camp Crystal Lake after camp counselors let her son drown without helping him.  She terrorizes the teenagers throughout the whole movie, and seeks revenge for her son.

The movie was produced back in times when movies were still evolving, so it did not have the best camera quality.  The camera was very shaky when moving from scene to scene, and was not very clear, it was very grainy.  The acting was not very believable, especially when fighting, and screams sounded fake.  At a point in the film, Mrs. Voorhees and Alice (Adrienne King) are fighting in a cabin, and Alice throws different objects at her.  The camera flips slowly to Mrs. Voorhees, and the objects being thrown are delayed.  When there is a loud scene, the music, which is shrill and high pitched is so loud, that the actors/actresses’ voiceovers are forced to be louder.  Even though the plot was interesting, and the movie was well written, it wasn’t the best quality.

My favorite Friday the 13th movie, and probably the best quality was Friday the 13th released on Feb. 13, 2009.  This movie made over $92.7 million dollars worldwide and was one of the most popular movies of the series.  It was directed by Marcus Nispel and was produced by Michael Bay, Andrew Form, Brad Fuller and Sean S. Cunningham (who also produced the first 1980 movie).  The screenplay was written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, who also wrote the 2003 Freddy vs. Jason movie.  

Derek Mears, who stars as Jason Voorhees, comes back to the abandoned summer camp where he perished and was forgotten, with crossbows, swords, axes and traps to terrorize groups of young adults who visit the cabin there.  Clay Miller (Jared Padalecki), Jenna (Danielle Panabaker), Whitney Miller (Amanda Righetti) and Trent (Travis Van Winkle) all get stalked and terrorized by Voorhees.  Throughout the movie, he terrorizes the young adults and creates many jump scares.  The music, which was very faint in the background, really went with whatever was happening and created a lot of suspense.   

The 2009 movie was better produced than the 1980 one.  The special effects were much better, and the deaths and fighting looked way more realistic.  In the 1980 movie, you could tell easily that the blood was not real, but in the 2009, the deaths, due to the advancement of special effects were more believable.  The acting was also much better.  The actors and actresses seemed truly terrified and the screams and fighting appeared to be real.  

The movie was terrifying to watch, not only because of all the bloody killings, but the jump scares as well.  Jason Voorhees was portrayed perfectly, while in the first 1980 movie, he was not as scary.  The 2009 one was much more enjoyable, and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good scare. The 1980 one on the other hand, had a good plot, but wasn’t filmed very well. I would not recommend either of these movies to children under the age of 13. I would give the 1980 movie two pumpkins, and the 2009 one 5 pumpkins.  Rotten tomatoes gave the 1980 movie 59%, and the 2009 one 25%.