As a sub-genre of horror, the slasher film has had quite a storied history. Much like film noir and screwball comedy, it has been the subject of a lot of debate, both around the specific criteria that go into the creation of a particular film, and when it first started. By the time Sean S. Cunningham stepped behind the camera to make the film that would become of the most iconic in the genre, there had already been a small but strong canon of films that set the foundation for this brand of horror – Psycho pioneered it, while The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Halloween perfected it. However, it was Friday the 13th that made it financially and commercially successful, which is not an easy task for a film that essentially is built around the idea of a maniacal psychopath killing off their victims one by one. Yet, everything about this film has proven to be contrary to expectations, and even nearly half a century later, we find that there are elements of Friday the 13th that have relentlessly stood the test of time in a way that is quite remarkable, and it remains a culturally significant work of art that carries itself with such a unique style, it is impossible to not find the incredible merit that sits beneath the sometimes gruesome nature of the surrounding story. It is difficult to look at a film that has become such an integral part of not only this specific genre, but cinema as a whole, and not be entirely enamoured, especially since this is one of the examples of a film that does everything right, and achieves a solid, consistent tone that is not only in line with what audiences were expecting at the time, but came to be defining of the genre as a whole, which was never quite the same after this run of incredible and unconventional slasher films that took the industry by storm ad continues to be a major component of the genre.

The concept of do-it-yourself horror has always been quite appealing, and it is something that has existed in some form or another since the beginning of cinema. There is something quite endearing about filmmakers that are so dedicated to the idea of frightening audiences, they will do whatever they can to bring their vision to screen, even if it means working with the most paltry of resources. For many, the low-budget can contribute to the overall aesthetic, since it adds layers of grit and darkness that a more polished film would not be able to achieve. Few genres have not only benefitted from scarce resources but actually encouraged them as much as horror, and while it may still have a few elements that point towards something of a budget being present (as opposed to the non-existent resources with which a lot of independent filmmakers tend to work at the start of their careers), the main thrust of Friday the 13th is formed from a darker and more bleak style of filmmaking, and credit has to go to Cunningham for his efforts in bringing this film to life. Not a veteran of the genre, but rather someone who had worked in it for about a decade previously, he did have enough experience to convincingly hit all the necessary criteria, and the result is a fascinating work that is simultaneously terrifying and wickedly entertaining, which is exactly what we expect from this kind of devil-may-care slasher film, in which logic is disregarded and rational thought never quite factors into the narrative. As one of the more wacky entries into the genre, Friday the 13th is granted the chance to be more offbeat, and it takes full advantage of this opportunity, proving to be much more engaging the less seriously we take it, which is generally a good rule of thumb for this kind of off-the-wall horror film.

Yet, while we can wax poetic about the brilliance of the slasher genre and launch into a retrospective analysis of this style of filmmaking and why it works so well, the reality is that Friday the 13th is beloved not because of any theoretical complexity, but rather because it is simply extremely entertaining, which it achieves through refusing to take itself all that seriously. Unlike other classics of the genre like A Nightmare on Elm Street or the aforementioned The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, it is not necessarily comedic (although there are a few funny moments, they are marginal to the plot), but this doesn’t stop it from embracing the absurd in interesting and compelling ways. There is something fundamentally appealing about a film that can so closely embrace violence while never crossing boundaries – this is a gruesome film with many scenes of explicit violence that remain shocking by contemporary standards, so one can only imagine what the response was over forty years ago when audiences were first introduced to this bizarre and off-kilter world. However, there is still something so beguiling about how it uses violence as a narrative tool. It had a conceptual foundation and attempted to be a work that examines trauma and revenge, but these elements are only incidental and serve to factor more into the climax than the overall plot. Cunningham was the right filmmaker to helm this film, solely because he was gleefully insistent on focusing less on the story and more on the violence – a solid hour of Friday the 13th is just wall-to-wall gore, with very little plot in between. It’s only towards the end that we need to pay attention, and even then, the conclusion is very obvious. Slasher horrors are perhaps the only genre in which being predictable is not an impediment, since we don’t come to these films for the complexity, but rather for the escapism that can come with seeing a truly deranged work of fiction that can terrify and entertain in equal measure.

Yet, despite its limited scale and sometimes bizarre narrative decisions, Friday the 13th is still quite inventive, which is where we can start to apply more complex theory around how this film captures the concept of fear as an artistic commodity, rather than just being an emotional reflex. Something this film does very well is establishing a distinct tone, which it does through not giving us the solution right away – for the first hour, we don’t see the killer in their entirety, with only a shoe or fragment of trousers being seen, and their murders being done through their point-of-view, which is a unique approach that was first pioneered in TITLE, but which this film manages to develop extremely well. However, the true genius comes in how Friday the 13th looks at the concept of fear – what scares us is not what we can see, but rather what we don’t see but the suspect is lurking in the shadows, just out of view. The scariest moments in this film are when a character catches a glimpse of something in the distance, or hears a sound that takes them by surprise – and while in reality this usually tends to amount to nothing, in a film like this, there is always something dangerous lurking just out of sight. It may not be the most inventive use of the idea of an unseen killer, but it certainly uses the concept well enough to keep us invested and engaged, leading to a film that is extremely strange but also profoundly captivating, which is one of the many reasons why horror cinema has developed into such a profitable industry, despite banking almost entirely on the inherent fears in every viewer being provoked, which is done frequently throughout this film.

It isn’t clear whether they knew Friday the 13th was going to be such a sensation – sequels were not a foregone conclusion, and the idea of cinematic universes and franchises was still a few decades away, at least in the more official format in which they would come. Yet, it has proven to be one of the most commercially successful horror properties, and with a dozen films and forays into television and graphic novels, the character of Jason Vorhees and the world he inhabits has proven to be wildly successful – and it all started with this small, intimate independent slasher that set out to do something different from what had previously been seen, and in the process consolidated many of the ideas that drive the entire genre. It’s not a particularly daring film in terms of the traditional elements – the structure of assembling around half a dozen characters that allow their cockiness and arrogance to get in the way of reason, leading them to become victims of a vengeful killer that seemingly acts without motive until we eventually discover why they hold such a grudge. It’s a common premise that has been replicated countless times – but Friday the 13th serves as the blueprint, showing how this structure can be brilliant and entertaining when done right. It also helps that Betsy Palmer infuses so much life into the film when she arrives, playing the iconic Pamela Vorhees – she may only appear in the climactic moments, but she immediately establishes herself as one of the great horror villains and elevates this film to become even more subversive and bizarre. As a whole, Friday the 13th is deservedly iconic – offbeat and brilliant, but also quite daring in a few ways, it helped set forward a new style of horror, one that is off-kilter, gruesome and wickedly entertaining, standing at the forefront of a genre that continues to rise in popularity as time goes on.