Friday the 13th (1980)

Friday the 13th is the 1980 horror movie that was one of the first slasher films and kicked off the long-running franchise. I'd never seen any of them but decided if I was gonna be watching horror films that had an impact on the genre this one needed to be seen. I won't be watching the rest of them. It's just not my "thing". I can see how it would be much more effective if seen when it was released.

trailer:

Moria says the acting is bad and,

Directorially, Friday the 13th is a crude film. The teenagers are dimensionless victims and their dialogue consists only of variations on “We should do something.” Certainly, there is nothing of the style and haunting eerieness that John Carpenter invoked in Halloween to be found. There is not a great deal of subtlety to any of the film.

1000 Misspent Hours says, "this flick’s story has the raw, brutal simplicity of a boy scout’s campfire tale." HorrorNews.net says, "For the first film in a very long series, Friday the 13th is a pretty good start as it sets the tone for a good portion of the films that follow it." Rotten Tomatoes has a 58% critics rating.