Originally published: October 31, 2006 @ 7:03am PST

 

I’m a messenger of God. You’re doomed if you stay here. Doomed. You’re all doomed. - Crazy Ralph

Time to hit another classic series and in this one, we’re going almost to the start of the modern slasher genre, but not quite yet. Our stop this time is beautiful Camp Crystal Lake, or as the locals call it, Camp Blood. This series is different from yesterday’s Nightmare on Elm Street (my review), as I was introduced to it pretty late with part 6, Jason Lives. However, I quickly made up for it and now there’s only one movie I don’t think I’ve seen, and that’s part 4, The Final Chapter. You’re also invited to read my review of Jason X. Well, let’s get on to the movie, shall we?

 

We start at Camp Crystal Lake in 1958, where some counsellors are singing songs around a campfire. Two of them sneak off to make out and are quickly dispatched by an unseen killer who seems to be familiar to the victims. Flash forward 20 years and the son of the camp’s original owners, Steve Christy, is trying to renovate the camp and reopen it for the summer. We meet the new cook, Annie, as she’s walking into town and steps into a diner to try to find out how far she has to go. A truck driver, Enos, offers to drive her to the crossroads, halfway there, and she accepts the ride. On the way to his truck, Crazy Ralph steps out and starts going on about how "Camp Blood" has a death curse on it. On the way to the crossroads Enos warns her to quit right away, telling her about the different things that have befallen Camp Crystal Lake (the counsellors dying, a boy drowning the year before that, mysterious fires, etc.), but Annie tells him that she just can’t and he lets her off, cursing all the while.

Meanwhile, we meet three more counsellors arriving, including Jack. They arrive at the camp with no problems and are immediately set to work. Shortly after, Steve heads back to town to pick up some supplies, leaving the six counselors and Alice, an artistic friend of Steve’s who was helping to rebuild the camp, to relax and fend for themselves. As the group is playing around in the lake, we get an example of what I called the Killer Cam… ie, a killer’s eye view (complete with a shot of their hand as they parted some bushes) spying on the group. A little later, Annie is still walking up the road to the camp when a jeep pulls over to pick her up. Again, we never see the driver’s face as Annie explains how she’s going to work at Camp Crystal Lake. The driver passes the road to the camp and Annie panics, forcing her door open and getting away from the jeep, which backs up to where she jumped out. The driver gets out as Annie runs into the forest, trying to get away. As Annie stops to listen, she turns and runs into the driver, literally, who pulls out a knife and slashes across her throat. The reign of terror has begun again…

The movie shows its age in a few scenes, mainly in background stuff, though. The acting is better than what I’ve seen in some more recent movies, as well. The main character, Alice, was played by Adrienne King, who seems to have vanished from the acting scene after the second movie, in which she reprised her role. Her last roles in any other movies were voice acting roles in While You Were Sleeping and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? Betsy Palmer portrayed Mrs. Voorhees, the mother of the famous Jason. A veteran actress, some of her more recent movies include The Fear: Resurrection, and 2005’s Bell Witch: The Movie (not to be confused with the recent An American Haunting movie). Jack was played by Kevin Bacon, but this wasn’t his first movie, that being National Lampoon’s Animal House… so, there’s another movie to add to the Six Degrees game. Crazy Ralph was played by Walt Gorney, who reprises the role in Part 2, and, according to the Internet Movie Database, also does the opening narration for Part 7: The New Blood. And, in the flashback scenes, young Jason was played by Ari Lehman, who quit acting after the movie and later went into music (this is his band).

It was great seeing this movie again, and of course you know I’m giving it 5 out of 5. From when I made my original plans, I knew that I had to cover the big three franchises of the 70s and 80s. So, I hope I’ve entertained you with my review of the start of one of the great horror institutions of the United States. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to get my last movie reviewed, unfortunately, but I’m aiming for Halloween. If not that day, then the day after. The reason I’m not sure is that I haven’t received the movie from Netflix, as of yet. I’m hoping to get it tomorrow, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. At any rate, until next time, this is Red Hawk signing out!

-- by Red Hawk of http://www.happyhorror.com

Tags: horror, movie

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