an american original
...woe to the viewer of Friday the Thirteenth I who identifies with the male killer only to discover, in the film’s final sequence, that he was not a man at all but a middle-aged woman. (Clover, 1992, p. 44) Friday the 13th , like Halloween (and Peeping Tom , after some establishing shots) before it, begins with the first-person POV of a killer. It’s a common element in the slasher film that we take on the role of the killer. And, it’s not an accident that slasher films tend to follow the killers from film to film, with the victims being (mostly) interchangeable. (Awesome sidenote, considering that time I made a parallel between Groundhog Day and slasher films: the old crazy guy who tries to warn Annie away from going to “Camp Blood” is named Ralph, just like one of the guys Phil drinks with.) The audience for slasher films, myself (and my sisters) included, doesn’t go into the theater (or the living room, with a rented copy) for a sequel to one of these things to find a bun...