15 scariest summer horror movies of all-time
By Wesley Lara
6. Friday the 13th (1980)
Directed by Sean S. Cunningham
In many aspects, the legendary Friday the 13th has aged fairly poorly, what with the stilted acting and the occasionally obvious special effects. The premise is also something that we have seen replicated over and over and over again in 2019: a group of horny students get terrorized by an unseen force of evil, leaving only one final girl (preferably a virgin because why embrace your sexuality?) to combat the killer and come out on top. Rinse and repeat, we get it.
That being said, despite not being the BEST of the horror movies featured on this list, it is undeniably the definitive summer horror flick, taking advantage of a seemingly fun time at summer camp to create a narrative where not even the kids are safe from whatever evil lurks in the shadows. The story itself may be a tad overstuffed in backstory, but the execution is simple at its core. It’s a slasher movie with unaware kids being the unfortunate victims.
The simplicity of the story may not be satisfying for horror fans that have grown up in an age where the genre has continued to evolve and include a higher variety of stories to tell, but we need to at least put some respect on the Friday the 13th brand for the heights it has been able to achieve from such a humble beginning. The series became a benchmark for summer horror movies and the iconic first movie still stands as one of the most influential horror movies in history.
Who can ever forget “Kill her, mommy!” as they lounge alone on a summer night?