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Parents' Guide to

Friday the 13th (1980)

By Charles Cassady Jr., Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 18+

Infamous, sadistic slasher film has violence, sex.

Movie R 1980 95 minutes
Friday the 13th (1980) Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

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age 14+

Based on 44 parent reviews

AdrielSwitch
AdrielSwitch Adult
November 11, 2022
age 18+

This title has:

Too much violence
Too much sex
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
2 people found this helpful.
Kenneth_Parker
Kenneth_Parker Adult
November 1, 2021
age 18+

Friday the 13th

Just two years after John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) this is another suspense horror film, though with a bit more gore than Halloween. The violent scenes and sexuality put this one a notch higher for viewing by kids.

This title has:

Too much violence
1 person found this helpful.
See all 44 parent reviews

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 reopening, 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, kids 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?

Our review:
Parents say (44 ):
Kids say (159 ):

Unless you award points for the creative, gross-out makeup (by cult-hero special effects artist Tom Savini), FRIDAY THE 13TH isn't a great horror movie. It has not aged very well. 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. Still, horror fans will be interested to see how the franchise began.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • 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?

  • At the time of its release, in the aftermath of the blockbuster hit Halloween, there were many gory and bloody slasher movies intended to appeal to the "teen market." Why do you think these movies remain so popular?

  • How was gratuitous sex presented in the movie? Did it seem necessary, or, like the violence, was it a way to try to appeal to a younger audience?

Movie Details

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