5¼ Pies

Reviewed by Yankee

Plot Summary

Twenty years ago, a tragedy at Camp Crystal Lake forced it to close. Now, a new group of young, eager camp counselors prepare to reopen it. After several unheeded warnings from the village nut job, the counselors are murdered one by one. Will anyone survive? And what is the connection between these murders and a drowning from more than twenty years ago?

Review

I first saw this movie a few years after having watched parts 3 and 4 knowing little else about the franchise. At the time, part 6 was still in theaters, and being 13, I was still too young to go see it. I had missed seeing part 5 for similar reasons so I was happy to watch the original on cable.

For a little while, I was led to believe that this story was based on true-life events taking place at Crystal Lake Park in New York. Unfortunately, that was a vicious lie fed to me by people who should be chopped into little pieces. “What? Nobody died there? That SUCKS!”

I can honestly say that the film was not what I was expecting. Sure, there were elements that I recognized from the later films that started here, but apparently the mythos of Jason started off differently then I had imagined. And that is actually a good thing because the way the first three films build off each other is part of what makes this series great!

The ending was something that I did not see coming (though I guess I would have if I had remembered the recap in the beginning of part 3 or seen the beginning of part 2). And the good news for those of you that have no idea what I am talking about is that I won’t need to spoil anything to get this review done. Yay!

Quotes:

Officer Dorf: We ain't gonna stand for any weirdness out here!

Annie: You're an American Original.

Brenda: What hath God wrought?

Bill: If this is a joke, I'm gonna brain 'em!

Crazy Ralph: You're going to Camp Blood, ain't ya?

Crazy Ralph: It's got a death curse!

Spook Factor: ¼ Pie

I’ll rank this the same as Halloween as I wouldn’t really consider this a scary movie but at the time of release this was considered hardcore. The build up of tension and terror is noticeable throughout the movie but the revelation of the antagonist at the end kind of diffused the bomb if you know what I mean. Speaking of which….

Antagonist: ¼ Pie

I was really surprised by this when I first saw it because I based all my expectations on what I saw in Parts 3 & 4. While the twist was good, the antagonist was not. Voorhees was fantastic when hiding in the shadows, but when revealed to the protagonist (and the audience), came off more as just being crazy rather than evil. An easy defeat later and we sit here with a measly slice of pie. Oh well, there’s always part 2…right?

Story: ½ Pie

There is some good stuff here. You have motive for the murders. There is even continuity throughout the story. However, there are issues with the pacing and when things finally do pick up, it almost seems as if the director was just filling up time with death. Yes, the deaths are cool but the flow suffered a bit for the sake of gore candy. (Did I just make up a new term for horror reviews? I sure hope so.)

Acting: ½ Pie

The acting was actually not too bad considering the trends of this genre, but then the genre was still fairly young and believe it or not, they actually did try to present movies like this as proper and elegant. You’ll find that earlier slasher films like this tend to have that certain elegance to them and that the casts tended to move on to “higher quality” films when the genre took a dip. For example, Kevin Bacon was in this movie (it would have been great to have his foot cut loose). A special “hats off” to Betsy Palmer for both nailing and making famous her role as Pamela Voorhees.

Directing: ¾ Pie

Sean S Cunningham is famous for his involvement in projects like Last House on the Left, the House movies, A Nightmare on Elm Street and of course the Friday the 13th series. His directing on this film is a solid testimony to why that is so. However, like its distinct competition in the slasher genre, Halloween, it suffers from my pet peeve in the POV shots where you would have to literally be blind to not see Voorhees coming at you from a safe distance. Maybe the movie union had a clause in the late 70s and early 80s where a killer wasn’t allowed to actually be sneaky in order to kill, just to make the victims dumber than shit.

Soundtrack: ¾ Pie

One of the coolest things about the early 80s classics is the original music that stood the test of time. This soundtrack is both effective and timeless. It predates that 80s trend to use the “rock/metal band of the moment/upcoming” that not only dates the material but also lowers its credibility.

Special Effects: ¾ Pie

The special effects here are pretty top notch for the time this film was made. The realism of the deaths was ahead of its time and even a little original as the effort was put in to actually “show you what happened.” It may not be as effective as off screen death but definitely cool for introducing us to gore candy. (There I go again!)

Tom Savini made a great name for himself in this and many other movies (especially Romero’s Dead films) for his ability to give us special effects that were organic and real. His work still stands as a strong argument in favor of practical effects over CGI.

Gore: ½ Pie

OK, before you start flipping out… I am quite aware of the gore in this movie but you have to make comparisons to what constitutes the various scores. A blood festival would earn you a full pie; a couple of droplets of blood that doesn’t make you think a movie is gory earn you a quarter. When I stop and think about what lies ahead in this series and how tame this movie is in comparison…how could I possibly give it more than half?

With that in mind, if you don’t like to see blood…well, if I need to tell you that this franchise has blood…then you deserve to have your stomach turned! (And that means YOU, Mom!)

Replay, Rewatch, Rewind: ¼ Pie

A definitely entertaining movie that is great for starting a marathon of this series or any other slasher movie run. However, out of context this movie only delivers the excitement if you never saw it, or haven’t seen it in a few years. It’s also cool for breaking in your girlfriend into horror. Personally, I think you will get far more mileage from the sequels.

Pros

An excellent twist on a new genre started years before by movies like Halloween; great music for the mood and superior special effects for the geek inside us all that likes it the old way.

Cons

Annoying point of view shots and a little bit of a story pacing issue in the middle of an otherwise exciting thriller.

Final Word

See where it all started. See how it developed. If you’re new to horror then this one makes a great starting point. If you’re starting here and watching the full run then you are in for quite a ride!

Doomed! You're all doomed!