By the time Friday the 13th saw the light of day in 1980, the groundwork for the slasher film had already been established. Whether you go back to proto-slashers like Hitchcock's
Psycho, Michael Powell's
Peeping Tom, or Mario Bava's
Twitch of the Death Nerve (some of whose kills were, uh, borrowed for the early
Friday films), or if you stick to more traditional horror outings like
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,
Black Christmas, and
Halloween (which may be the purest form of slasher),
Friday the 13th is hardly an original or groundbreaking entry in the about to explode sub-genre. It is curious that this one, of all films, became the franchise-spawning, MPAA lightning rod, and virtual poster child for the slasher genre.
