"It's got a death curse!"

Sometimes when you're clicking through your favorite streaming service, you might get the idea that the Ole Devil's power and influence over this world are waning. When faced with sub-standard pre-weekend viewing selections, some people even start to doubt my existence.

"If the Devil is real," they reason, "how come Big Trouble in Little China is the only John Carpenter movie on Netflix? If the Devil has any power, why is Creepshow 3 on Hulu, but never Creepshow or Creepshow 2? If he can't even force Amazon Prime to get its shit together and carry the entire Nightmare on Elm Street series forever, then why call him The Devil?"

Look, I work in mysterious ways, OK? Streaming services are run by people who have Free Will, so the best I can do, same as you, is complain like I did on Thursday, May 12, 2016. It appears my complaint has been heard.

Today is Thursday, January 12, 2017, so this week's Thursday Thriller is, I shit you not, Friday the 13th.

How's that for power and influence?

This 1980 Sean Cunningham film is about a murderer stalking the woods of Camp Crystal Lake where Steve Christy (Peter Brouer) is preparing to open up for a highly profitable season of providing upscale American adolescents with memories for a lifetime. I mean, I guess that's why you try to re-open a camp no one else will touch because of its history of having two counselors murdered there 30 years ago, and the year before that a special kid drowned in the lake. The locals don't go near the place. Crazy Ralph (Walt Gorney) says, "It's got a death curse!" Not many people would be ballsy enough to undertake such entrepeneurial risk, but Steve Christy loves risk .He sports a moustache and a neckerchief and no shirt.

Pretty soon, Christy's staff start dropping like flies.

If you haven't already seen Friday the 13th, you've at least heard about it. It spawned 10 sequels and a remake,was the basis for one of the worst Nintendo games ever and is due for a video game reboot, Drawing heavily on Halloween as an influence, it helped set a tone for popular horror in the 1980s.

It's a mystery who's killing off the young folks, and if you're familiar with the series only by reputation, you're probably wrong about who it is.

But was it any good?

It made a fuck ton of money and earned its place in horror history.

Kevin Bacon dies in it. Tom Savini did the makeup F/X. Just watch it.

Friday the 13th streams on Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime and YouTube. If you're looking for a guy in a hockey mask, you might go ahead and skip to part 3.