Many critics compared the film unfavorably against John Carpenter's "Halloween", among them Marylynn Uricchio of the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette", who added: ""Friday the 13th" is minimal on plot, suspense, and characterization. It's not very original or very scary, but it is very low-budget." Dick Shippy of the "Akron Beacon Journal" similarly suggested that Carpenter's "Halloween" played "like Hitchcock when compared to Cunningham's dreadful tale of butchery." "The Burlington Free Press"s Mike Hughes wrote that the film "copies everything, that is, except the quality" of "Halloween", concluding: "The lowest point of the movie comes near the end, when it exploits the genuine grief and madness of the villain. By then, things simply aren't fun anymore." Ron Cowan of the "Statesman Journal" noted the film as a "routine 'endangered teenagers' exploitation movie", adding that "Cunningham betrays a rather plodding approach to suspense for most of the film, sometimes allowing his camera to act as the killer, sometimes as the victim. And the victims, of course, deliberately put themselves in peril."