This film comes straight from Canada, is set in the United States and tries too hard for a clever ending with a twist or two. What we get in the way of the slasher genre is a bit of that red paint in lieu of anything remotely resembling blood, no nudity and some of the slowest paced kills ever put to film. It had its moments and had a couple of interesting kills, but the film was killed for me by an ending that is completely absurd! Are you going to be surprised by the ending? Probably, but I do not believe in a good way. Will the movie leave you thinking? Probably, but in a way that makes you question why the heck the killer did any of the stuff they did and chances are you are going to question the use of a mask that seems straight out of the Mission Impossible films and not something a teen in high school would ever be able to whip up especially in the 80's! The film also is overlong as a slasher should not be almost two hours long unless it features good actors like Anthony Hopkins or something.
The story has a group of friends that are like the most popular students at this private school. They like to hang out at a bar and they get to drink beer and do stupid things. A group of thoroughly unlikable teens that you won't mind seeing dispatched. Heck, one poor girl is taken out before she even makes it to the bar. One of the girls has a past that includes a horrific accident and an experimental brain surgery, the rest are pretty typical, until they all keep getting killed one by one! Well not all of them are killed, but a significant portion are.
This film has some interesting kills such as a weight kill that could have easily been avoided. Seriously, I had weights come down on me and I did not explode like that. There is the famous one depicted on many of the film's posters and covers with a guy getting a skewer of meat shoved into his mouth. Though it does not look as good in film. In the end though the absurdity and motives of the killer just tank this film in my opinion. Jason's mom and Jason had good motives to kill, Michael is a super evil psychopath so a good reason to kill and the Leatherface clan like some good barbecue. All much better motives and reasons than the one they present to us at the end of this film. It made more sense for them to end the film without that twist as that made some sense.
So, not a really good slasher, but not totally devoid of goodness. It was one of those who done it slashers where you wonder who is the killer. When I watched it with my fiancé so many years ago, she kept saying, "They have to be the killer" and I would say, "No, it is too soon to reveal them". Then they sort of did reveal them and then they added some horrible twist. I guess they were trying to be clever, but while a spot of cleverness is good, you really do at least need it to make some sort of logical sense.
The story has a group of friends that are like the most popular students at this private school. They like to hang out at a bar and they get to drink beer and do stupid things. A group of thoroughly unlikable teens that you won't mind seeing dispatched. Heck, one poor girl is taken out before she even makes it to the bar. One of the girls has a past that includes a horrific accident and an experimental brain surgery, the rest are pretty typical, until they all keep getting killed one by one! Well not all of them are killed, but a significant portion are.
This film has some interesting kills such as a weight kill that could have easily been avoided. Seriously, I had weights come down on me and I did not explode like that. There is the famous one depicted on many of the film's posters and covers with a guy getting a skewer of meat shoved into his mouth. Though it does not look as good in film. In the end though the absurdity and motives of the killer just tank this film in my opinion. Jason's mom and Jason had good motives to kill, Michael is a super evil psychopath so a good reason to kill and the Leatherface clan like some good barbecue. All much better motives and reasons than the one they present to us at the end of this film. It made more sense for them to end the film without that twist as that made some sense.
So, not a really good slasher, but not totally devoid of goodness. It was one of those who done it slashers where you wonder who is the killer. When I watched it with my fiancé so many years ago, she kept saying, "They have to be the killer" and I would say, "No, it is too soon to reveal them". Then they sort of did reveal them and then they added some horrible twist. I guess they were trying to be clever, but while a spot of cleverness is good, you really do at least need it to make some sort of logical sense.