A refreshing watch nowadays?

Strange to think any type of horror could classify as refreshing, but re-watching this last night was a good decision for a few reasons.

1. It's good to see the origin of the series. As expected, the series has evolved from this type of 80s campy feeling movie (to its own type of campiness now), but you can see how many tropes we expect when sitting down to watch most horror movies that come from the original.

2. I think it's actually a decent movie, despite the cheesiness at times. I'm not a major horror movie fan and I know there are die-hards out there regarding the series and genre, but seeing this for what it is - now a 40-year old movie at this point - I do think it's a good watch. Some old threads below have a nice good viewpoint i.e. female villain and hero is a nice touch, especially for the 80s. Beyond that, the "twists" of Mrs. Vorhees being the killer and then of course Jason in the lake work well - good surprises in a slasher film.

3. Most importantly the rewatch let me see just how the big horror villains and films (jason, michael, freddy) have evolved from then, good or bad, and the effect on the genre itself. However, thinking about this movie as a "standalone" film makes me think how different things could be if we had horror movies as purely one-offs, instead of sequel after sequel.

This watch reminded me of the infamous, often-hated Halloween III (https://moviechat.org/tt0085636/Halloween-III-Season-of-the-Witch) which I actually enjoyed cause I think it should be viewed outside of the typical Halloween universe (even though it wasn't billed as such). Watching that movie and picturing an anthology of films (as I think was the plan) lends to this idea of a unique set of films that could have come out every year or two and each film then having it's own unique style, villain, etc.

A rewatch of Friday the 13th - not as a Jason origin story - but as its own individual horror film (for the older among us 'Twilight Zone episodes' or 80-90s kids 'Are You Afraid of the Dark) - to me would have been a really cool thing to have at the cinema. Like a fresh new take every year, maybe a rehash after X number of years if there was a huge demand for a particular world or character.

It would be much different than what we have now, for sure, but unique in its own way and I say that knowing full well the audiences desire (and sometimes my own) for seeing 'more' of whatever world was created.