 | ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. |
 | OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
Friday the 13th (1980)
- Review Date: August 30, 2006
- R
- Genre: Horror
- 1980
Common Sense Media says
Beware of this infamous, sadistic slasher film.
Parents say
QUALITY
Kids say
QUALITY
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that there's lots of morbid, graphic bloodshed in this film; usually slashed throats and impalings, with the victims hung on hooks. When young camp counselors aren't busy being killed, they're either trying to get stoned or having sex.
What's the story?
A 1958 prologue (it looks like 1978) shows two young summer-camp counselors about to have sex when a mystery assailant -- apparently someone they know -- slashes them to death. The camp, now known to locals as "Camp Blood," is closed for 20 years as a result, but is now re-opening, on a dark-and-stormy Friday the 13th. Another group of young, largely sex-minded counselors are gathering for orientation (it's a small mercy that despite the summer-camp setting, children are not present in most Jason movies). Sure enough, an unseen attacker again begins knifing them to death, one by one. Since these youths are prone to playing practical jokes on one another, or sneaking off for sex and drugs, they take little note of their cohorts' strange absences until nearly all of them are dead.
Is it any good?
Unless you award points for the creative, gross-out makeup (by cult-hero special-effects artist Tom Savini), FRIDAY THE 13TH is a sick film with virtually no redeeming qualities, even in the metaphor-stretched world of horror where intellectuals argue that flesh-eating zombies are really symbols of mindless consumerism. Nobody defends Friday the 13th that way. Yet this movie series is infamous -- practically every kid knows about it. Hockey-masked "Jason" costumes are popular, and sequels continue to be produced. Too bad the first movie is, well, too bad.
Unlike other popular films in the genre, Friday the 13th hardly works as a whodunit because the Camp Blood murderer is nobody we've met or really know anything about. That just leaves the movie as one killing after another, with abundant, er, dead space in between. The doomed camp counselors go swimming, play "strip Monopoly," and chat unremarkably.
Explore, discuss, enjoy
Families can talk about the victims of choice in typical slasher movies. Why does the marauder often prey on the most sexually active characters first? Families might make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, so to speak, by talking about this theme -- that teenage sex deserves harsh punishment. Maybe not death, but if you need to drive home the point, why not add some slasher examples for effect? On a more serious side, critics often see such horror movies as the extremes of depravity and exploitation. But isn't that a paradox when they also follow such a harsh, Puritan morality code?
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Kid, 12 years old
December 4, 2010
AGE
Sex, Drugs, Blood, Oh My!
I was really excited when I walked out of Blockbust, clutching Friday the 13th in my arms. When I finished it, I didn't know why I wanted to see it. First of all, Pamela Voorhees has too much character, she was young. She should have been like she was portrayed as in Freddy Vs. Jason (though it was realeased 20 years later), a white haired, scratchy voiced, crazy old fart that she wasn't in the original. She actually didn't seem crazy. Young kids should not watch this as their is too much violence (done with stunning visual effects at least), too much sex, and no good messages whatsoever, as the campers are all sex-craving teenagers with a love for Strip Monopoly and dope. But don't worry young children, it isn't even a good film.
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Teen, 16 years old
March 21, 2011
AGE
Great movie...not as bad as common sense says
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AGE
horrable
people who make movies like this are stupid!
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AGE
horrable
people who make movies like this are stupid!
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Teen, 15 years old
June 30, 2011
AGE
Sex and Blood...
Plently of nudity and sexual content. A large amount of blood and "creative" deaths. It is suspenseful. Not good for young kids. Just teens and adults. I dont know why common sense gave this a "Not for Kids" rating because to be honest it isn't that bad. This is a good movie overall but I found it very unbelieveable (spoiler alert) that the killer was an old woman...
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Teen, 15 years old
October 15, 2009
AGE
Common Sense Epic Fail
AHA, common sense, you have no taste. I've suspected it long, but now it is proven. I'm 15 and I know this is a classic. And "No Kids" gimme a break. Is this site run by 82-year-old women? And I'm a pretty reasonable reviewer for being a kid, too.
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AGE
Not a comedy
This movie probaly could have gotten a NC-17 if they added one more speck of violence.
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AGE
Not a comedy
This movie probaly could have gotten a NC-17 if they added one more speck of violence.
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AGE
The awesome slasher flick
These ideas were my mom's ideas
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AGE
The awesome slasher flick
These ideas were my mom's ideas
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| Studio: | Paramount Pictures |
| Director: | Sean Cunningham |
| Cast: | Adrienne King, Harry Crosby, Kevin Bacon |
| Genre: | Horror |
| Run time: | 95 minutes |
| Theatrical release date: | May 9, 1980 |
| DVD release date: | October 5, 2004 |
| MPAA rating: | R |
| MPAA explanation: | graphic violence, profanity, sex, alcohol and drug use |
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