Halloween (1978) vs. Friday the 13th (1980)

[kangas]

People clearly don't understand the question--it's like asking if the sky is blue or purple.

Halloween is the better movie. Period.

But I think people are asking, "Which one do you like more?", at which point any answer is fine.

[The Hitman]

If you make all the characters reprehensible, nobody stands out as the 'hero' and it does add some more tension to the flick as well as providing you with the joy of seeing douchebags getting killed in interesting ways.

I don't disagree, but I do think what separates a "good" slasher from a "fun" slasher is the opposite - if you make most or many of the characters likeable, it also increases the tension, and for my money, increases the emotional investment in the characters. Take the F13 remake: You have an obvious leading man (Padalecki), an obvious leading woman (the girlfriend) and a target to save (the sister). Everyone else, for the most part, is a douche - unless you find the two comic relief characters funny.

You expect everyone is going to die except the three "important" ones, and maybe one of them (the final guy usually bites it).

Now, if the characters are all generally likeable or realistic (unlike, say, the lead douchebag in F13), you know they will die, but you don't necessarily know which, and you have not only the tension inherent in that, but the attachment to certain characters and/or a shock when the live or sorrow when they die.

Minor characters can serve the same purpose.

As a completely different example, take the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure version of Return to House on Haunted Hill (on BR).

If you pick one option, a relatively minor character lives rather than dying in the "regular" version of the movie. You will probably forget the character existed, or wonder what the heck happened to the character in the back of your mind (I chalked it off to a "glitch" in the CYOA).

Then, when the character reappears, it's shocking, and sort of fun.

In the original script for Jaws 2, one of the kids who dies (the girl who sacrifices herself to save the little brother) actually lives, along with the helicopter pilot. You read it as written, it actually sort of makes you feel good that two people trying to help others are rewarded, rather than punished.

Of course, had they actually lived, virtually no one in the film would have died, but that's another issue.

[Timberwolf West]

This is tough for me too. I think Halloween is a better film, but I enjoy Friday The 13th more. I am orignally from New England and I like that creppy camp feel, the lake and I'm a bigger Jason fan then Myers.

But Halloween is a better directed film.

[Mistress0fTheDamned]

I agree Halloween wins