Three Things I Noticed While Re-Watching Friday the 13th (1980)

With yesterday being Friday the 13th, last night's movie choice was kind of a no-brainer, especially since our youngest daughter hadn't seen the 1980 classic yet. As I re-watched the movie in its entirety for the first time in about a half dozen years, I noticed somethings I hadn't noticed before.

There is a very clear Alfred Hitchcock influence. It's probably because I also recently re-watched Psycho, but the similarities were a lot more obvious than I realized. This starts with a character who, at least at first, seemed to be one of the main characters (and possibly the final girl) only to be one of the first victims. In addition, the first-person perspective of the killer and the killer being influenced by a dead person's voice were very Hitchcock-like.

Speaking of the movie's final girl, the one that does survive until the end is kind of dumb. I won't spoil things by saying which one it was, just in case you haven't seen the movie yet, but it was almost as though she was trying to get killed. She avoids using a perfectly functional car because of a dead body being inside. Plus, as many times as she gained an upper hand on the killer without making sure that person was incapacitated was getting a bit comical toward the end. Fool her once, shame on you. Fool her a half dozen times, why isn't that girl dead yet?

Is it a youth camp or an indoctrination center? OK, I can buy a camp that teaches archery. However, what was with the arsenal of guns? That might have been more disturbing than anything else in this movie. I know it was a different time, but I kind of feel like maybe the killer was just trying to stop some sort of government insurrection attempt using student soldiers.

Just some food for thought in case you decided to watch/re-watch the film too. I've always thought it was a little overrated but now I'm tempted to watch it again. just to see what else I missed.