Friday the 13th (1980)
As I go through the classic late-70s/early-80s slasher films, it'll be interesting if any of them don't suck. There's a quality to these films that apparently I don't see that earned them endless sequels and a lasting reputation. Friday the 13th feels unique in a few ways, and not good ways.
Compared to Texas Chainsaw Massacre, this does have a higher level of production quality and acting. This doesn't really change that it is a paper-thin plot designed to let us watch broad characters we don't really care about be slaughtered. Going further here is that the characters generally never know about the death of others. They might be a bit creeped out by the looney saying there is a curse combined with the isolation, but they never have to think about their death for more than a couple seconds leading up to it. There's something less terrifying in this.
The other factor is that Mrs. Voorhees, the legendary Jason's mother, is basically a non-presence in the role of the killer. We see her work (these aren't memorable kills), but we don't see her until the end. The ending is by far the best part of the film, if a bit expository. Not that TCM has any more sense about it, where it was a rougher film, it did at least maximize the creepiness of the setting and the panic of the individuals. Both of these classics are bad in their own ways. We'll see if any of the others on my slate can earn their status.
2/5
P.S. This is probably the least useful film in Kevin Bacon's filmography for six degrees of Kevin Bacon.