Friday the 13th

At last count Friday the 13th is about to embark into its tenth sequel (it also spun off briefly into a television series) a dubious achievement for a film which was essentially a cheap imitation of John Carpenter’s seminal slasher film Halloween (1978). It also inspired a series of horror films set around commemorative and public holidays (Mothers day, My bloody valentine, April fool’s day, Silent night, deadly night etc..) and launched the careers of Kevin Bacon and horror make-up artist Tom Savini. This however is where all the slasher rules and cliches began. Starting off in 1958, two teenage camp counselors are brutally murdered by an unknown assailant at Camp Crystal lake. Flashing forward 20 years on and a new group of counselors have ascended onto the camp, affectionately dubbed by the wary locals as ‘Camp blood’. Soon enough the body count begins to pile up as the horny teens get dispatched in various gruesome scenarios, all the while ignoring the blatent signs that this is not a good place to be. Cast includes Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Harry Crosby, Laurie Bartram, Mark Nelson, Jeannine Taylor, Robbi Morgan