Friday the 13th
Reception

Friday the 13th (1980)

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External reception

6.4
5 platform(s) · 7 ratings 191,357 votes
6.3/10 11,078 votes Synced 2026-07-20
6.4/10 176,505 votes Synced 2026-08-20
Audience 6.3/10 325 votes Synced 2026-07-19
Critics 2.2/10 Synced 2026-07-19
Audience 6.0/10 Synced 2026-07-17
Critics 7.0/10 Synced 2026-07-17
6.4/10 3,449 votes Synced 2026-09-17

External reviews

Dave Kehr · Chicago Reader 50.00/100.00

The crude technique of director Sean Cunningham borrows whatever sophistication it has from Halloween's precise and elegant point-of-view shots of the killer, though Cunningham often cheats by using the ploy inconsistently. For all its shoddiness, the film manages, just barely, to achieve its ignoble goals--it delivers what it promises.

synced 2026-07-19
Staff (Not Credited) · Time Out 30.00/100.00

A tame, poorly plotted serving of schlock, less horrific for its ketchup-smeared murders than for the bare-faced fashion in which it tries and fails to rip off Carpenter's Halloween in matters of style and construction.

synced 2026-07-19
James Berardinelli · ReelViews 50.00/100.00

Friday the 13th is neither tense nor frightening (although, to be fair, it is at times creepy and atmospheric, due in part to budgetary limitations that led to a low-key style).

synced 2026-07-19
Kim Newman · Empire 40.00/100.00

As the bodies pile up amongst this testy crowd of horny teens, there remains a vacant hole were someone scary should be. In a strange way, this film stands unique amongst all slasher films as one where the killer is nearly intangible.

synced 2026-07-19
Josh Larsen · LarsenOnFilm 25.00/100.00

A woefully bad low-budget slasher flick, complete with a requisitely inept cast (including Kevin Bacon in uncomfortably tight shorts); laborious pacing; and an interminable catfight climax.

synced 2026-07-19
Jeremiah Kipp · Slant Magazine 50.00/100.00

It's a formula with no pretensions.

synced 2026-07-19
Ron Pennington · The Hollywood Reporter 30.00/100.00

Gruesome violence, in which throats are slashed and heads are split open in realistic detail, is the sum content of Friday the 13th, a sick and sickening low budget feature that is being released by Paramount. It’s blatant exploitation of the lowest order.

synced 2026-07-19
Staff [Not Credited] · Variety 20.00/100.00

Lowbudget in the worst sense – with no apparent talent or intelligence to offset its technical inadequacies – Friday the 13th has nothing to exploit but its title.

synced 2026-07-19

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