Friday the 13th

A small group of camp counsellors turn up to get an old summer camp back in shape before the season starts, the kind of place that shut years ago after something went badly wrong and never really recovered from it. They are young, cheerful, and hopelessly unprepared for how the week is about to go. Someone out in the woods does not want the camp reopened, and they have a very direct way of making that known.

There is no ghost drifting down a corridor here, no dread that builds slowly. This is a woods-at-night sort of fear, footsteps you cannot place, a noise you should not go and check, and a killer who stays unnamed and unseen for most of it. It leans on nerves rather than atmosphere, and it does the job properly.

Good for a night with someone who jumps easily, because watching them jump is half the enjoyment. Not one for a first date unless you already know they can take it. Sean S. Cunningham built something properly nasty out of a summer camp, a body count, and a killer with a grudge, and it still holds up as a decent scare all these years later.