by Sophia Tran (’24) | October 6, 2023
Imagine this scene. You are in the middle of a wooded forest in New Jersey with your camping knapsack strapped to your back. You are surrounded by six other teenage camp counselors, all cooped up in a secluded summer camp ground. Oh, and there’s a serial killer who speaks like her dead son and wants to murder all of you. Unsurprisingly, this wouldn’t be the greatest way to spend your summer.
An iconic relic from the ’80s, Friday the 13th remains a memorable, albeit trashy horror film. Although doctors would scoff at this movie’s “realistic” death scenes, the movie still provides a strong foundation for the more refined horror movies that have succeeded it. The film may be far from modern-day horror movies, but Friday the 13th achieves the universal goal of all horror movies: scaring its audience.
The first scene of the movie already starts building up the audience’s fear. The filmmakers employ one of the oldest techniques of horror—pairing seemingly idyllic scenes with an intentionally ominous music soundtrack. As the characters first arrive at the camp, viewers can’t help but sense the danger hidden within the glistening lake and swaying forest leaves. Even before the serial killer has revealed herself, the foreshadowing builds up our anxiety, preparing us for the undoubtedly thrilling later scenes. The director intentionally plays with this trick throughout the movie, developing a sense of anticipation through the psychological phenomenon of imagined fear. The true fear the audience experiences does not derive from the action itself; rather, the fear comes from what could be. Our brains are conditioned to associate horror with disorder, but in this case, the fear exists in not finding the disorder within the order.
As the plot moves along, the filmmakers become less creative with their build-up. For the majority of the movie, the scenes adhere to the following formula: first, a naive camp counselor decides to go to a secluded part of the woods alone; then, the serial killer emerges and proceeds to spend a full ten minutes with their ax; finally, everyone involved is dead. This lack of creativity stalls the plot as the audience becomes accustomed with their response of fear. The stimulus of each scene is always some act of ignorance that ultimately results in death.
The filmmakers try to compensate for this lack of creativity by increasing the amount of gore. Strangely enough, the copious amount of flesh and blood appeals to the cathartic pleasures of the audience. In the context of psychology and horror films, the concept of cathartic pleasure relates to the usage of excessive gore and violence to “purge” the audience’s negative emotions. It’s unnerving but true that humans derive pleasure when psychologically stimulated by homicidal acts in horror films like this.
Despite the movie’s many plot holes and prolonged action, Friday the 13th is an interesting example of horror movies in the earlier era of the industry. Not only did its inclusion of gore and scenes with contrasting elements set the backdrop for future horror films, but Friday the 13th also utilizes fundamental psychological concepts related to the topic of fear and violence to further its impact. A guilty pleasure of a movie, Friday the 13th will still remain an icon from the ’80s era of horror films and is definitely a movie to save for a Friday night. Let’s just hope it’s not the thirteenth.
