Thread by @midnitetease

It's been awhile since I watched Friday the 13th. Pursuant to a main theme, we start with counselors singing Christian spirituals in 1958. As two counselors run off to have sex, the rest of the group switches to "Tom Dooley", a huge pop hit in 1958 for the Kingston Trio.

The "By God, Youth Today!" message is not only overt (via the actions), it is re-enforced by the music choice.

Interesting to note, in comparison to my memory of the end of the movie: "The Watcher in the Woods" is present at the beginning, spying on the kids and the counselors.

So let's track our lore here:

1) In 1958, two counselors were killed by a mysterious watcher at Camp Crystal Lake.

Title screen and credits appear at 5% into the movie. Just an interesting thing to keep track of in a long-running franchise.

Even in HD, "The Present" looks like the 70's.

Add to Crystal Lake Lore:

1957: A kid drowned. There were a bunch of fires.
1958: Two counselors were killed when they attempted a sexual act.

Oh, and in 1962 the water was bad.

Does that actually count?

Camp Crystal Lake is in New Jersey.

I never noticed that. I guess it's not actually important.

It's really hard, with decades of learned tropes, to view these characters the way they might have been seen at the time.

We've met Annie; sweet, friendly, pretty; who the truck driver likes in spite of himself. First one introduced...we know she is the final girl.

Now two characters in a pickup truck making out, and a driver who is either a dope, a geek, or a sleazeball. They will all die.

Oh no! A virginal blonde appears! I may have been wrong about the final girl!

I know she's virginal because she's wearing conservative clothing. Not one of those inappropriate T-shirts. Not those leg-baring shorts.

Interesting time skip, here. Alice leads the three chuckleheads in the pickup away so they can get changed, the owner Steve turns, walks around the corner of a building (looking for another worker) and finds Alice re-hanging a rain gutter.

The watcher is back. But is it Ralph?

The other guy in the truck is just a dick. He almost kills another counselor to get her attention.

Annie is picked up by someone in a Jeep who refuses to talk and chases her through the woods. Annie becomes the third confirmed counselor kill in "Present Day".

The first intentionally derpy performance is the deputy on the motorcycle. He's even named Dorf. I suspect he most directly influenced the long line of derpy, overacting deputies in horror movies.

Why was Ralph waiting in the pantry? Does he normally hang out there?

Sexual encounter happening. But there's also a missing person. Are they interrupted by Ned's death, or their own?

Still one of the greatest slasher kills. The Kevin Bacon one.

And no one has discovered a body yet.

Axe to the head holds up in HD. Impressive.

Halfway through, 4 counselors dead and 3 left alive. Plus Steve.

54 minutes in, we get our first clue to the killer. The "help me!" voice is clearly feminine.

Now everyone is isolated, and it makes sense. It's not a mystery. Hell, most of it could have happened without a serial killer doing anything.

Great touch: Steve knew who the killer was, and he's the only person that's faced the killer that had a reason to know.

Two counselors left. The audience knows it. No one still alive knows about even ONE murder yet. Masterful.

Alice finds Bill shot with arrows. She's the only one left, but she doesn't know it.

Then Brenda is thrown through a window. When that doesn't send Alice running screaming out the door, the killer runs back to the Jeep, fulls it forward and flashes the lights as if arriving.

And the reveal. Although I guess you wouldn't know it the first time.

What monster could have done this?

It is made perfectly clear Mrs. Voorhees is completely insane.

Now Annie, in the Jeep. But not the Jeep she was chased by. Are there two Jeeps? I've never been clear.

There must be 2 Jeeps. One has a trailer on it. Also, when did she have time to hang Steve from a tree, and why?

I kinda feel it would have been more effective if Mrs. Voorhees *wasn't* insane. If she was just like "yeah, this is revenge killing. for the rest of my life. I kill you if you come here."

I am pointing a gun at you. The right end, so supposedly I know how this works. So if you come any closer, I'll attempt to stab you with it.

And now the famous ending.

Honestly I think the ending takes away from the rest of the movie. A couple of misteps, but that was the biggest, IMO. As a dream, it's fine. And maybe the intention is to show her mental anguish. But that's not how it works out.