The Weekened

The Weekened is a 1980 American slasher film directed by David S. Goyer and written by Guillermo del Toro. The film concerns a group of teenagers who are murdered one by one while attempting to re-open an abandoned campground, and stars Vera Miles, Hale Barry, Julia Roberts, George Clooney,  Crispin Glover, Russell Crowne and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. It is considered one of the first "true" slasher movies.

When originally released, the film received very positive reviews from film critics. It grossed over $39.7 million at the box office in the United States. It developed a cult following in the years that followed and it has become one of the most profitable slasher films in cinema history. It was also the first movie of its kind to secure distribution in the USA by a major studio, Paramount Pictures. The film's box office success led to The Weekened Part 2 (1981), a long series of sequels, a crossover with the An Nightmare Hour franchise and many novelizations.

Plot
In 1958, Barry and Claudette, two camp counselors at Camp Clamy, sneak away from a gathering to have sex. An unseen assailant stalking the two of them attacks them and brutally murders them both.

Twenty-one years later, on Friday, June 13th, 1979, a young girl named Annie is making her way to Camp Clamy under the employment of the original camp owners' son Steve Christy who intends to reopen the camp. The history of the murders, water poisonings and fires has the town wary, and Crazy Ralph, a local man, warns her that the counselors are doomed. She shrugs the warnings off and hitches a ride with a truck driver Enos who has similar warnings for her.

Meanwhile, the other counselors, jokester Ned, his best friend Jack, Jack's girlfriend Marcie, vegetarian Brenda and quiet Alice arrive at the camp and they begin repairs and fixes around the camp, enjoying a little free time in between the chores. Annie hitches a ride in a Jeep CJ-5 with an unseen driver. When the driver refuses Annie's stop at Crystal Lake, she flees and is chased through the woods before having her throat slashed by the killer's hunting knife. Back at the camp, Steve Christy heads to town for supplies. The counselors decide to take a swim in the lake, but it is quickly interrupted when Ned pretends to drown just to get CPR from Brenda. Soon after, more bad things begin to happen, as Alice finds a snake in her cabin and Crazy Ralph arrives at the camp, and tells Marcie, Ned and Alice that they're all doomed. Ned encounters a stranger at the camp and goes into a nearby cabin in search of them while Marcie tells Jack about a dream she had that terrified her during storms.

As a storm comes up, they seek shelter in their cabin and have sex, unaware that Ned is lying dead on the top bunk, having had his throat slashed. Marcie soon leaves the cabin and Jack is killed by an assailant who impales his throat with an arrow from under his bed; the assailant then follows Marcie to the outhouse and kills her with an axe to the face. Elsewhere, Steve returns on foot to the camp after his Jeep breaks down and recognizes the killer before being stabbed to death by the unseen assailant. Alice, Brenda and Bill finish their game of strip Monopoly when Brenda realizes her cabin windows are open and she turns in for the night. She is lured out into the storm with what sounds like a child calling for help and is killed on the archery range. Suspicious of the happenings, Bill and Alice find many strange things wrong with the camp but are unable to find their friends. Thinking it is all a joke, Bill convinces Alice to return to the cabin. The killer turns off the generator and Bill heads out alone to fix it as Alice falls asleep. Soon after, Alice awakens to go find him and discovers him impaled to the generator room door with a variety of arrows. Alice goes back to the cabin and Brenda's bloody corpse smashes through the window.

Horrified, Alice runs off just as a vehicle pulls up to the cabin. The driver is Glenda Bates, who at first seems very concerned and tries to comfort the hysterical Alice. Almost immediately, though, Mrs. Bates begins to grow violent as she talks about her son Kevin, who had drowned as a boy in 1957. She becomes psychotic and pulls a hunting knife on Alice who flees, and Mrs. Bates is revealed as the killer, taking revenge for the death of her son. Alice fends Mrs. Bates off with a fireplace poker and flees, finding Annie and Mr. Christy's body in the process. During the chase, Mrs. Bates repeats the sentence "Kill her, mommy!" over and over, in Kevin's voice. Alice runs into the boathouse and tries to trick Mrs. Bates into thinking she has a loaded gun, but this fails instantly. Mrs. Bates slaps Alice in the face multiple times and throws her onto a table. But Alice strikes her with the gun and runs back into the main cabin, where she hides in the pantry. Mrs. Voorhees breaks down the door of the pantry with a machete, but Alice hits her in the side of the head with a frying pan. Alice then goes and sits on the side of the lake. But it is not over, when Mrs. Bates attacks her for a final struggle by the lake. In the fray, Alice gains control of a machete and decapitates Mrs. Bates. Afterwards she climbs into a canoe and falls asleep offshore.

The next morning, police arrive to find a dazed Alice in the canoe. When they call to her, she is attacked by a young decayed Jason and pulled out of the boat, which is in reality a dream. She awakens in the hospital and discovers her friends are all dead, but remembers and asks about the boy. The sheriff tells her that no boy was found, and Alice says "Then he's still there..." as the final shot shows the lake in peace. Bubbles can be seen erupting from the bottom, before the screen fades to black.

Cast

 * Vera Miles as Glenda Bates
 * Hale Berry as Alice Kruger
 * Julia Roberts as Annie
 * George Clooney as Ned
 * Crispin Glover as Jack
 * Joan Cusack as Marcie
 * Kelly Hu as Brenda