Friday The 13th (1980) – Analysis

Friday The 13th is a slasher horror film. The film was written by Victor Miller and

directed and produced by Sean S. Cunningham. The companies that distributed the film include Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures. There have been several

sequences to the film.

The film looks at several teenagers who are preparing a summer camp, so it is ready to re-open after closure for several years. However slowly the teenagers are murdered one by one. Several techniques are used to create the slasher horror feel. One of the first things we see is the point of view tracking shot. We are firstly put in the eyes of the murderer. The camera is what he sees. This puts us in the position of the killer and allows us to firstly relate to him. However the next actions leave the audience shocked. We see two of the camp councillors go off alone, and start to passionately

kiss. This is a theme often used in horror slashers – that any female characters who are sexually explicit will be killed. This is followed as we (in the killers point of view)

watch him kill the character. We are then taken to years later for the preparation of reopening the camp.

Something we never see throughout the entire film up until the very end is the

murderer. This is because the idea of not knowing who it is leaves the audience on the edge, wanted desperately to find out. It allows the viewers to think for

themselves and link what they’ve seen to try figure it out. We slowly get hints of the killer to add to the suspense. During this time period horror films were most popular amongst the teenager audience. This film’s main characters are all teenagers and so this draws in teenagers to watch it. The idea of them being the same age as it’s target audience is again it makes it more relatable and that is one of the key ways to scare people, give

them fear in what could happen.

The editing of the film can be quite fast paced. During killings and chase scenes our sights is very limited due to the fast editing to different angles and shots. This

creates tension as we just want to see who is there and the entire picture. Not knowing makes the audience on edge, and therefore scared. Another technique

used a lot is zoom and slow motion. When someone is murdered at the beginning it

slow motions is used to allow us to zoom in slowly on the persons face – seeing their emotions and allowing us as an audience to really take in and realise the effect of what is going on. Also because this is the first murder we are taken aback by it.

The setting of the entire film is in a small camp, this is a regular occurrence that

happens every summer in America. But this camp is different, as we as an audience know that it was closed due to murders being held there and this is the first year re-

opening. Because of our knowledge of previous events it makes the camp very eerie to begin with as being in a place where such crime occurred and staying there would

make anyone extremely uncomfortable. Another thing is a very typical event used in horror stories due to them being stereotypically scary. This is the thunderstorm,

which happens the night of the majority of the murders. The rain and thunder creates a loud and intense atmosphere, as well as it being night time and extremely

dark, limiting our sight again.

Non-diegetic sound is also incredibly important as this really sways the audience to feel certain ways towards certain characters and situations. When there is a chase music builds up, where as when someone is looking for something, suspecting someone to be there the music lowers and creates a very dragging effect. This makes the audience feels on edge, as the music grows more intense building the audience’s anticipation. Something that also occurs a lot throughout the film is, of course, gore. During this time period gore was a major must have for horror films and this is what created the suspense, tension and worry. It was something you didn’t necessarily expect to see and was horrifying when you did – creating the scare.