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Friday the 13th (film)
Encyclopedia
Friday the 13th is a 1980 American slasher film
directed by Sean S. Cunningham
and written by Victor Miller
. The film concerns a group of teenagers who are murdered one-by-one while attempting to re-open an abandoned campsite and stars Betsy Palmer
, Adrienne King
, Harry Crosby
, and Kevin Bacon
in one of his earliest roles.
Friday the 13th, inspired by the success of John Carpenter
's Halloween
, was made on an estimated budget of $550,000. Released by Paramount Pictures in the United States and Warner Bros. Internationally, the film received negative reviews from film critics
, but grossed over $39.7 million at the box office
in the United States, and went on to 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 a long series of sequels, a crossover
with the A Nightmare on Elm Street
franchise and a series reboot
released on February 13, 2009.
), after asking for directions at a local diner. She is warned by the town crazy Ralph (Walt Gorney
) that the camp is cursed and is also warned by Enos who tells her about the murders of 1958. After being driven part of the distance to the camp, Annie dismisses the warnings when she leaves and continues to Crystal Lake, later being picked up by an unseen driver in a Jeep. As the driver speeds past the entrance to the camp, Annie becomes concerned and leaps from the moving vehicle when the driver fails to stop, fleeing into the woods. The unseen driver chases her into the woods and slits her throat with a hunting knife.
Meanwhile, several other counselors have been hired to help Steve with the camp, including Alice (Adrienne King
), Bill (Harry Crosby
), Marcie (Jeannine Taylor
), Jack (Kevin Bacon
), Brenda (Laurie Bartram
), and Ned (Mark Nelson). The counselors begin refurbishing and renovating the camp as Steve heads off to get supplies in town. Ned follows a figure wearing a black rain slicker he sees disappearing into an old cabin and is murdered. Jack and Marcie take refuge in a bunkhouse and have sex, unaware that Ned's corpse rests on the upper bunk. Both are later murdered by the same unseen figure.
Meanwhile, Steve's car breaks down and he is escorted back to camp by a police officer. Upon arrival at the camp, Steve is murdered by the same attacker, although Steve appears to know the person. After playing strip Monopoly
, Brenda is murdered while walking back to her cabin after hearing a child-like voice calling "Help me!" from the woods. Hearing her scream, Bill and Alice go to investigate but only find a bloody axe in Brenda's bed.
After discovering the phone lines have been cut and none of the vehicles at the camp are operational, Bill leaves to check the generator. When he fails to return, Alice searches for him, finds his corpse pinned to a door with arrows and flees back to her cabin. After barricading herself in the cabin, Brenda's corpse is hurled through the window, forcing Alice to run back outside only to meet a middle-aged woman who identified herself as Pamela Voorhees
(Betsy Palmer
). As Alice begins to tell Mrs. Voorhees about the murders, Mrs. Voorhees tells Alice about her son Jason who had drowned in the lake at the camp years before. Blaming camp counselors who were not watching her son, Mrs. Voorhees charges at Alice with a knife, and Alice realizes that Mrs. Voorhees is the murderer.
A lengthy chase ensues in which Alice appears to subdue Mrs. Voorhees several times and finds several other dead bodies in the process. Facing off near the shore of the lake, Alice manages to finally defeat Mrs. Voorhees, decapitating her with a machete. With Mrs. Voorhees dead, Alice climbs in a canoe and floats onto the lake.
The next morning, Alice wakes to find police officers on the shore. However, as Alice continues to float in the canoe, the decayed corpse of Jason
(Ari Lehman), Mrs. Voorhees's son, leaps up from the surface and pulls Alice underwater. Suddenly, Alice awakes in the hospital, the previous scene with Jason having been a nightmare. Alice asks about Jason, but when the officer explains that no child was found at the camp, Alice replies, "Then he's still there."
Friday the 13th was produced and directed by Sean S. Cunningham
, who had previously worked with filmmaker Wes Craven
on the film The Last House on the Left
. Cunningham, inspired by John Carpenter
's Halloween
, and films by Mario Bava
, wanted Friday the 13th to be shocking, visually stunning, and "[make] you jump out of your seat." Wanting to distance himself from The Last House on the Left, Cunningham wanted Friday the 13th to be more of a "roller-coaster ride".
This film was intended to be "a real scary movie" and at the same time make the audience laugh. Friday the 13th began its life as nothing more than a title. Initially, "Long Night at Camp Blood" was the working title during the writing process, but Cunningham believed in his "Friday the 13th" moniker, and quickly rushed out to place an advertisement in Variety
. Worried that someone else owned the rights to the title and wanting to avoid potential lawsuits, Cunningham thought it would be best to find out immediately. He commissioned a New York advertising agency to develop his concept of the Friday the 13th logo, which consisted of big block letters bursting through a pane of glass. In the end, Cunningham believed there were "no problems" with the title, but distributor George Mansour stated, "There was a movie before ours called Friday the 13th: The Orphan. It was moderately successful. But someone still threatened to sue. Either Phil Scuderi paid them off, but it was finally resolved."
The film was shot in and around the townships of Blairstown and Hope, New Jersey in the fall (September) of 1979. The camp scenes were shot on a working Boy Scout camp, Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco. The camp is still standing and still works as a summer camp.
, who has gone on to write for several television soap opera
s, including Guiding Light
, One Life to Live
and All My Children
. Miller delighted in inventing a serial killer who turned out to be somebody's mother, a murderer whose only motivation was her love for her child. "I took motherhood and turned it on its head and I think that was great fun. Mrs. Voorhees was the mother I'd always wanted - a mother who would have killed for her kids." Miller was unhappy about the filmmakers' decision to make Jason Voorhees the killer in the sequels. "Jason was dead from the very beginning. He was a victim, not a villain." The idea of Jason appearing at the end of the film was initially not used in the original script, and was actually suggested by makeup designer Tom Savini
. Savini stated that "The whole reason for the cliffhanger at the end was I had just seen Carrie, so we thought that we need a 'chair jumper' like that and I said, 'let's bring in Jason.'"
began working on the musical score, the decision was made to only play music when the killer was actually present so as to not "manipulate the audience". Manfredini pointed out the lack of music for certain scenes: "There's a scene where one of the girls […] is setting up the archery area […] One of the guys shoots an arrow into the target and just misses her. It's a huge scare, but if you notice, there's no music. That was a choice." Manfredini also noted that when something was going to happen, the music would cut off so that the audience would relax a bit, and the scare would be that much more effective.
Since Mrs. Voorhees, the killer in the original Friday the 13th, appears onscreen only during the final scenes of the film, Manfredini had the job of creating a score that would represent the killer in her absence. Manfredini borrows from the 1975 film Jaws
, where the shark is likewise not seen for the majority of the film but the motif created by John Williams
cued the audience to the shark's invisible menace. Sean S. Cunningham sought a chorus, but the budget would not allow it. While listening to a Krzysztof Penderecki
piece of music, which contained a chorus with "striking pronunciations", Manfredini was inspired to recreate a similar sound. He came up with the sound "ki ki ki, ma ma ma" from the final reel when Mrs. Voorhees arrives and is reciting "Kill her, mommy!" The "ki" comes from "kill", and the "ma" from "mommy". To achieve the unique sound he wanted for the film, Manfredini spoke the two words "harshly, distinctly and rhythmically into a microphone" and ran them into an echo reverberation machine. Manfredini finished the original score after a couple of weeks, and then recorded the score in a friend's basement. Victor Miller and assistant editor Jay Keuper have commented on how memorable the music is, with Keuper describing it as "iconographic". Manfredini says, "Everybody thinks it's cha, cha, cha. I'm like, 'Cha, cha, cha? What are you talking about?"
in 1,100 theaters. It took in $5,816,321 in its opening weekend, before finishing domestically with $39,754,601. The film finished as the eighteenth highest grossing film of 1980. Friday the 13th was released internationally, which was unusual for an independent film
with, at the time, no well-recognized or bankable actors; aside from well known television and movie actress Betsy Palmer. The film would take in approximately $20 million in international box office receipts. Not factoring in international sales, or the cross-over film with A Nightmare on Elm Street's
Freddy Krueger
, the original Friday the 13th is the highest grossing film of the ten film series. To provide context with the box office gross of films in 2009, the cost of making and promoting Friday the 13th—which includes the $550,000 budget and the $1 million in advertisement—is approximately $4.4 million. With regard to the domestic box office gross, the film would have made $117,917,391 in adjusted 2009 dollars. In terms of recent box-office performance, Friday the 13th would be the highest grossing horror film of 2008 using the adjusted figures. On July 13, 2007, Friday the 13th was screened for the first time on Blairstown's Main Street in the very theater which appears shortly after the opening credits. Overflowing crowds forced the Blairstown Theater Festival
, the sponsoring organization, to add an extra screening at 11:00 PM. The event was covered by local media and New York City's Channel 11. A 30th Anniversary Edition will be released on March 5, 2010.
who in his review called Cunningham "one of the most despicable creatures ever to infest the movie business". He also published Betsy Palmer's home address and encouraged fellow detractors to write to her and express their contempt for the film. Siskel and Roger Ebert
spent a entire episode of their TV show
berating the film because they felt it would make audiences root for the killer. Leonard Maltin
initially awarded the film one star, or 'BOMB', but later changed his mind and awarded the film a star and-a-half stating "...simply because it's slightly better than Part 2." and called it a "...gory, cardboard thriller...one more clue to why SAT
scores continue to decline." Variety
claimed the film was "low-budget in the worst sense - with no apparent talent or intelligence to offset its technical inadequacies - Friday the 13th has nothing to exploit but its title." The film currently holds a 60% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes (the highest percentage for any film in the series).
The ending sequence of the film was listed at #31 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments
, and the film was voted #15 in Channel 4
's 100 Greatest Scariest Moments.
The film was nominated for AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills.
with A Nightmare on Elm Street
villain Freddy Krueger
. Friday the 13th Part 2
(1981) introduced Jason Voorhees
, the son of Mrs. Voorhees, as the primary antagonist, which would continue for the remaining sequels (with exception of the fifth movie) and related works. Most of the sequels were filmed on larger budgets than the original. In comparison, Friday the 13th had a budget of $550,000, while the first sequel was given a budget of $1.25 million. At the time of its release, Freddy vs. Jason
had the largest budget, at $25 million. All of the sequels repeated the premise of the original, so the filmmakers made tweaks to provide freshness. Changes involved an addition to the title—as opposed to a number attached to the end—like "The Final Chapter
" and "Jason Takes Manhattan
", or filming the movie in 3-D
, as Miner did for Friday the 13th Part III (1982). One major addition that would affect the entire film series was the addition of Jason's hockey mask
in the third film; this mask would become one of the most recognizable images in popular culture. Cunningham did not direct any of the film's sequels, though he did act as producer on the later installments; he initially did not want Jason Voorhees
to be resurrected for the sequel.
A reboot to Friday the 13th
came to theaters in February 2009, with Freddy vs. Jason writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift hired to script the new film. The film focused on Jason Voorhees, along with his trademark hockey-mask. The film was produced by Michael Bay
, Andrew Form, and Brad Fuller through Bay's production company Platinum Dunes, for New Line Cinema. In November 2007, Marcus Nispel
, director of the 2003 remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
, was hired to direct. The film had its United States release on February 13, 2009.
A number of scenes from the film were recreated in Friday the 13th: Pamela's Tale, a two-issue comic book prequel released by WildStorm
in 2007.
In 2011, the uncut version of Friday the 13th was released in a 4-Disc DVD collection with the first three sequels.
Slasher film
A slasher film is a type of horror film typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, often with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe...
directed by Sean S. Cunningham
Sean S. Cunningham
Sean Sexton Cunningham is an American film director, producer, and writer. He is best known for creating the Friday the 13th series of horror films, which introduced the fictional killer Jason Voorhees...
and written by Victor Miller
Victor Miller (writer)
Victor Miller or Victor B. Miller is an American writer for film and television. Perhaps his best known and most acknowledged work is his script for the first Friday the 13th film, the popularity of which spawned a long series of sequels, none of which has his involvement, though he remains...
. The film concerns a group of teenagers who are murdered one-by-one while attempting to re-open an abandoned campsite and stars Betsy Palmer
Betsy Palmer
Betsy Palmer is an American actress, best known as a regular panelist on the game show I've Got a Secret, and later for playing Pamela Voorhees in the notorious slasher film Friday the 13th.-Life and career:...
, Adrienne King
Adrienne King
Adrienne King is an American actress, dancer and painter. She is mostly known for her starring role in the original Friday the 13th.-Life and career:...
, Harry Crosby
Harry Crosby (actor)
Harry Lillis Crosby III is an American actor, singer and investment banker.Crosby was born in Hollywood, California, at Queen of Angels Hospital. He is the fifth son of actor and singer Bing Crosby, the eldest from Bing's second marriage to Kathryn Crosby...
, and Kevin Bacon
Kevin Bacon
Kevin Norwood Bacon is an American film and theater actor whose notable roles include Animal House, Diner, Footloose, Flatliners, Wild Things, A Few Good Men, JFK, Apollo 13, Mystic River, The Woodsman, Trapped, Friday the 13th, Hollow Man, Tremors, Death Sentence, Frost/Nixon, Crazy, Stupid, Love....
in one of his earliest roles.
Friday the 13th, inspired by the success of John Carpenter
John Carpenter
John Howard Carpenter is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.- Early life :Carpenter was born...
's Halloween
Halloween (1978 film)
Halloween is a 1978 American independent horror film directed, produced, and scored by John Carpenter, co-written with Debra Hill, and starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut and the first installment in the Halloween franchise. The film is set in the fictional midwestern...
, was made on an estimated budget of $550,000. Released by Paramount Pictures in the United States and Warner Bros. Internationally, the film received negative reviews from film critics
Film criticism
Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films, individually and collectively. In general, this can be divided into journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, and other popular, mass-media outlets and academic criticism by film scholars that is informed by film theory and...
, but grossed over $39.7 million at the box office
Box office
A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....
in the United States, and went on to 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
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
. The film's box office success led to a long series of sequels, a crossover
Freddy vs. Jason
Freddy vs. Jason is a 2003 American slasher film directed by Ronny Yu. The film is a crossover between the A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th franchises...
with the A Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street (franchise)
A Nightmare on Elm Street is an American horror franchise that consists of nine slasher films, a television show, novels, and comic books. The franchise began with the film series created by Wes Craven. The franchise is based on the fictional character Freddy Krueger, introduced in A Nightmare on...
franchise and a series reboot
Friday the 13th (2009 film)
Friday the 13th is a 2009 American slasher film directed by Marcus Nispel and written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift. It is a reboot of the Friday the 13th film series, which began in 1980 and the twelfth Friday the 13th film in total...
released on February 13, 2009.
Plot
In the summer of 1958, two counselors, Barry (Willie Adams) and Claudette (Debra S. Hayes), at Camp Crystal Lake, are murdered by an unseen assailant after they sneak away to a cabin to have sex. As the film jumps to present day Friday, June 13th, the camp is being re-opened by Steve Christy (Peter Brouwer). Annie (Robbi Morgan), one of the teens who will be a counselor at the camp, is hitchhiking to Crystal Lake and is given a lift by a friendly truck driver, Enos (Rex EverhartRex Everhart
Rex Everhart was an American film and musical theatre actor.Everhart appeared in such films as 1978's Superman...
), after asking for directions at a local diner. She is warned by the town crazy Ralph (Walt Gorney
Walt Gorney
Walter Gorney was an American actor. He was known for his role as Crazy Ralph, the drunken old man who warns "You're all doomed!" in the 1980 hit horror movie Friday the 13th. He reprised his role in the sequel Friday the 13th Part 2...
) that the camp is cursed and is also warned by Enos who tells her about the murders of 1958. After being driven part of the distance to the camp, Annie dismisses the warnings when she leaves and continues to Crystal Lake, later being picked up by an unseen driver in a Jeep. As the driver speeds past the entrance to the camp, Annie becomes concerned and leaps from the moving vehicle when the driver fails to stop, fleeing into the woods. The unseen driver chases her into the woods and slits her throat with a hunting knife.
Meanwhile, several other counselors have been hired to help Steve with the camp, including Alice (Adrienne King
Adrienne King
Adrienne King is an American actress, dancer and painter. She is mostly known for her starring role in the original Friday the 13th.-Life and career:...
), Bill (Harry Crosby
Harry Crosby (actor)
Harry Lillis Crosby III is an American actor, singer and investment banker.Crosby was born in Hollywood, California, at Queen of Angels Hospital. He is the fifth son of actor and singer Bing Crosby, the eldest from Bing's second marriage to Kathryn Crosby...
), Marcie (Jeannine Taylor
Jeannine Taylor
Jeannine Taylor is an American actress.Taylor portrayed Marcie in the 1980 horror movie Friday the 13th and also starred in a TV film called The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana....
), Jack (Kevin Bacon
Kevin Bacon
Kevin Norwood Bacon is an American film and theater actor whose notable roles include Animal House, Diner, Footloose, Flatliners, Wild Things, A Few Good Men, JFK, Apollo 13, Mystic River, The Woodsman, Trapped, Friday the 13th, Hollow Man, Tremors, Death Sentence, Frost/Nixon, Crazy, Stupid, Love....
), Brenda (Laurie Bartram
Laurie Bartram
Laurie Lee Bartram was an American actress and ballet dancer.- Career :She was an actress and ballet dancer who started in 1973...
), and Ned (Mark Nelson). The counselors begin refurbishing and renovating the camp as Steve heads off to get supplies in town. Ned follows a figure wearing a black rain slicker he sees disappearing into an old cabin and is murdered. Jack and Marcie take refuge in a bunkhouse and have sex, unaware that Ned's corpse rests on the upper bunk. Both are later murdered by the same unseen figure.
Meanwhile, Steve's car breaks down and he is escorted back to camp by a police officer. Upon arrival at the camp, Steve is murdered by the same attacker, although Steve appears to know the person. After playing strip Monopoly
Monopoly (game)
Marvin Gardens, the leading yellow property on the board shown, is actually a misspelling of the original location name, Marven Gardens. The misspelling was said to be introduced by Charles Todd and passed on when his home-made Monopoly board was copied by Charles Darrow and thence to Parker...
, Brenda is murdered while walking back to her cabin after hearing a child-like voice calling "Help me!" from the woods. Hearing her scream, Bill and Alice go to investigate but only find a bloody axe in Brenda's bed.
After discovering the phone lines have been cut and none of the vehicles at the camp are operational, Bill leaves to check the generator. When he fails to return, Alice searches for him, finds his corpse pinned to a door with arrows and flees back to her cabin. After barricading herself in the cabin, Brenda's corpse is hurled through the window, forcing Alice to run back outside only to meet a middle-aged woman who identified herself as Pamela Voorhees
Pamela Voorhees
Pamela Sue Voorhees is a fictional character in the Friday the 13th films, and the antagonist of the original Friday the 13th film. She is a former camp cook and the mother of Jason Voorhees, the main character of the series....
(Betsy Palmer
Betsy Palmer
Betsy Palmer is an American actress, best known as a regular panelist on the game show I've Got a Secret, and later for playing Pamela Voorhees in the notorious slasher film Friday the 13th.-Life and career:...
). As Alice begins to tell Mrs. Voorhees about the murders, Mrs. Voorhees tells Alice about her son Jason who had drowned in the lake at the camp years before. Blaming camp counselors who were not watching her son, Mrs. Voorhees charges at Alice with a knife, and Alice realizes that Mrs. Voorhees is the murderer.
A lengthy chase ensues in which Alice appears to subdue Mrs. Voorhees several times and finds several other dead bodies in the process. Facing off near the shore of the lake, Alice manages to finally defeat Mrs. Voorhees, decapitating her with a machete. With Mrs. Voorhees dead, Alice climbs in a canoe and floats onto the lake.
The next morning, Alice wakes to find police officers on the shore. However, as Alice continues to float in the canoe, the decayed corpse of Jason
Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees is a fictional character from the Friday the 13th series of slasher films. He first appeared in Friday the 13th , as the son of camp cook-turned-murderer, Mrs. Voorhees, in which he was portrayed by Ari Lehman. Created by Victor Miller, with contributions by Ron Kurz, Sean S...
(Ari Lehman), Mrs. Voorhees's son, leaps up from the surface and pulls Alice underwater. Suddenly, Alice awakes in the hospital, the previous scene with Jason having been a nightmare. Alice asks about Jason, but when the officer explains that no child was found at the camp, Alice replies, "Then he's still there."
Cast
- Adrienne KingAdrienne KingAdrienne King is an American actress, dancer and painter. She is mostly known for her starring role in the original Friday the 13th.-Life and career:...
as Alice - Harry CrosbyHarry Crosby (actor)Harry Lillis Crosby III is an American actor, singer and investment banker.Crosby was born in Hollywood, California, at Queen of Angels Hospital. He is the fifth son of actor and singer Bing Crosby, the eldest from Bing's second marriage to Kathryn Crosby...
as Bill - Laurie BartramLaurie BartramLaurie Lee Bartram was an American actress and ballet dancer.- Career :She was an actress and ballet dancer who started in 1973...
as Brenda - Jeannine TaylorJeannine TaylorJeannine Taylor is an American actress.Taylor portrayed Marcie in the 1980 horror movie Friday the 13th and also starred in a TV film called The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana....
as Marcie - Kevin BaconKevin BaconKevin Norwood Bacon is an American film and theater actor whose notable roles include Animal House, Diner, Footloose, Flatliners, Wild Things, A Few Good Men, JFK, Apollo 13, Mystic River, The Woodsman, Trapped, Friday the 13th, Hollow Man, Tremors, Death Sentence, Frost/Nixon, Crazy, Stupid, Love....
as Jack - Mark Nelson as Ned
- Peter Brouwer as Steve Christie
- Robbi Morgan as Annie
- Betsy PalmerBetsy PalmerBetsy Palmer is an American actress, best known as a regular panelist on the game show I've Got a Secret, and later for playing Pamela Voorhees in the notorious slasher film Friday the 13th.-Life and career:...
as Mrs. Voorhees - Ari Lehman as Jason Voorhees
- Walt GorneyWalt GorneyWalter Gorney was an American actor. He was known for his role as Crazy Ralph, the drunken old man who warns "You're all doomed!" in the 1980 hit horror movie Friday the 13th. He reprised his role in the sequel Friday the 13th Part 2...
as Crazy Ralph - Rex EverhartRex EverhartRex Everhart was an American film and musical theatre actor.Everhart appeared in such films as 1978's Superman...
as Enos the truck driver - Debra S. Hayes as Claudette
- Willie Adams as Barry
Development
Sean S. Cunningham
Sean Sexton Cunningham is an American film director, producer, and writer. He is best known for creating the Friday the 13th series of horror films, which introduced the fictional killer Jason Voorhees...
, who had previously worked with filmmaker Wes Craven
Wes Craven
Wesley Earl "Wes" Craven is an American actor, film director, writer, producer, perhaps best known as the director of many horror films, particularly slasher films, including the famed A Nightmare on Elm Street and Wes Craven's New Nightmare, featuring the iconic Freddy Krueger character, the...
on the film The Last House on the Left
The Last House on the Left (1972 film)
The Last House on the Left is a 1972 horror film written and directed by Wes Craven and produced by Sean S. Cunningham.The story is inspired by the 1960 Swedish film The Virgin Spring, directed by Ingmar Bergman, which in turn is based on the 13th century Swedish ballad "Töres döttrar i Wänge"...
. Cunningham, inspired by John Carpenter
John Carpenter
John Howard Carpenter is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.- Early life :Carpenter was born...
's Halloween
Halloween (1978 film)
Halloween is a 1978 American independent horror film directed, produced, and scored by John Carpenter, co-written with Debra Hill, and starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut and the first installment in the Halloween franchise. The film is set in the fictional midwestern...
, and films by Mario Bava
Mario Bava
Mario Bava was an Italian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer remembered as one of the greatest names from the "golden age" of Italian horror films.-Biography:Mario Bava was born in San Remo, Liguria, Italy...
, wanted Friday the 13th to be shocking, visually stunning, and "[make] you jump out of your seat." Wanting to distance himself from The Last House on the Left, Cunningham wanted Friday the 13th to be more of a "roller-coaster ride".
This film was intended to be "a real scary movie" and at the same time make the audience laugh. Friday the 13th began its life as nothing more than a title. Initially, "Long Night at Camp Blood" was the working title during the writing process, but Cunningham believed in his "Friday the 13th" moniker, and quickly rushed out to place an advertisement in Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
. Worried that someone else owned the rights to the title and wanting to avoid potential lawsuits, Cunningham thought it would be best to find out immediately. He commissioned a New York advertising agency to develop his concept of the Friday the 13th logo, which consisted of big block letters bursting through a pane of glass. In the end, Cunningham believed there were "no problems" with the title, but distributor George Mansour stated, "There was a movie before ours called Friday the 13th: The Orphan. It was moderately successful. But someone still threatened to sue. Either Phil Scuderi paid them off, but it was finally resolved."
The film was shot in and around the townships of Blairstown and Hope, New Jersey in the fall (September) of 1979. The camp scenes were shot on a working Boy Scout camp, Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco. The camp is still standing and still works as a summer camp.
Writing
The script was written by Victor MillerVictor Miller (writer)
Victor Miller or Victor B. Miller is an American writer for film and television. Perhaps his best known and most acknowledged work is his script for the first Friday the 13th film, the popularity of which spawned a long series of sequels, none of which has his involvement, though he remains...
, who has gone on to write for several television soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
s, including Guiding Light
Guiding Light
Guiding Light is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running drama in television and radio history, running from 1937 until 2009...
, One Life to Live
One Life to Live
One Life to Live is an American soap opera which debuted on July 15, 1968 and has been broadcast on the ABC television network. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature racially and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social...
and All My Children
All My Children
All My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia. The show features Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime's most...
. Miller delighted in inventing a serial killer who turned out to be somebody's mother, a murderer whose only motivation was her love for her child. "I took motherhood and turned it on its head and I think that was great fun. Mrs. Voorhees was the mother I'd always wanted - a mother who would have killed for her kids." Miller was unhappy about the filmmakers' decision to make Jason Voorhees the killer in the sequels. "Jason was dead from the very beginning. He was a victim, not a villain." The idea of Jason appearing at the end of the film was initially not used in the original script, and was actually suggested by makeup designer Tom Savini
Tom Savini
Thomas Vincent "Tom" Savini is an American actor, stuntman, director, award-winning special effects and makeup artist. He is known for his work on the Living Dead films directed by George A. Romero, as well as Creepshow, The Burning, Friday the 13th, The Prowler, and Maniac. He directed the 1990...
. Savini stated that "The whole reason for the cliffhanger at the end was I had just seen Carrie, so we thought that we need a 'chair jumper' like that and I said, 'let's bring in Jason.'"
Music
When Harry ManfrediniHarry Manfredini
Harry Manfredini is an American film composer and jazz-soloist, who has scored more than one hundred films, most notably perhaps being the Friday the 13th film series. He has had years of classical training, as well as twenty years in the popular music scene...
began working on the musical score, the decision was made to only play music when the killer was actually present so as to not "manipulate the audience". Manfredini pointed out the lack of music for certain scenes: "There's a scene where one of the girls […] is setting up the archery area […] One of the guys shoots an arrow into the target and just misses her. It's a huge scare, but if you notice, there's no music. That was a choice." Manfredini also noted that when something was going to happen, the music would cut off so that the audience would relax a bit, and the scare would be that much more effective.
Since Mrs. Voorhees, the killer in the original Friday the 13th, appears onscreen only during the final scenes of the film, Manfredini had the job of creating a score that would represent the killer in her absence. Manfredini borrows from the 1975 film Jaws
Jaws (film)
Jaws is a 1975 American horror-thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. In the story, the police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant man-eating great white shark by closing the beach,...
, where the shark is likewise not seen for the majority of the film but the motif created by John Williams
John Williams
John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T...
cued the audience to the shark's invisible menace. Sean S. Cunningham sought a chorus, but the budget would not allow it. While listening to a Krzysztof Penderecki
Krzysztof Penderecki
Krzysztof Penderecki , born November 23, 1933 in Dębica) is a Polish composer and conductor. His 1960 avant-garde Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima for string orchestra brought him to international attention, and this success was followed by acclaim for his choral St. Luke Passion. Both these...
piece of music, which contained a chorus with "striking pronunciations", Manfredini was inspired to recreate a similar sound. He came up with the sound "ki ki ki, ma ma ma" from the final reel when Mrs. Voorhees arrives and is reciting "Kill her, mommy!" The "ki" comes from "kill", and the "ma" from "mommy". To achieve the unique sound he wanted for the film, Manfredini spoke the two words "harshly, distinctly and rhythmically into a microphone" and ran them into an echo reverberation machine. Manfredini finished the original score after a couple of weeks, and then recorded the score in a friend's basement. Victor Miller and assistant editor Jay Keuper have commented on how memorable the music is, with Keuper describing it as "iconographic". Manfredini says, "Everybody thinks it's cha, cha, cha. I'm like, 'Cha, cha, cha? What are you talking about?"
Box office
Paramount bought Friday the 13th's distribution rights for $1.5 million, after seeing a screening of the film. They spent approximately $500,000 in advertisements for the film, and then an additional $500,000 when the film began performing well at the box office. Friday the 13th opened theatrically on May 9, 1980 across the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1,100 theaters. It took in $5,816,321 in its opening weekend, before finishing domestically with $39,754,601. The film finished as the eighteenth highest grossing film of 1980. Friday the 13th was released internationally, which was unusual for an independent film
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
with, at the time, no well-recognized or bankable actors; aside from well known television and movie actress Betsy Palmer. The film would take in approximately $20 million in international box office receipts. Not factoring in international sales, or the cross-over film with A Nightmare on Elm Street's
A Nightmare on Elm Street (franchise)
A Nightmare on Elm Street is an American horror franchise that consists of nine slasher films, a television show, novels, and comic books. The franchise began with the film series created by Wes Craven. The franchise is based on the fictional character Freddy Krueger, introduced in A Nightmare on...
Freddy Krueger
Freddy Krueger
Frederick Charles "Freddy" Krueger is a fictional, horrifying character from the Nightmare on Elm Street series of horror films. He first appears in Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street as a disfigured dream stalker who uses a glove armed with razors to kill his victims in their dreams,...
, the original Friday the 13th is the highest grossing film of the ten film series. To provide context with the box office gross of films in 2009, the cost of making and promoting Friday the 13th—which includes the $550,000 budget and the $1 million in advertisement—is approximately $4.4 million. With regard to the domestic box office gross, the film would have made $117,917,391 in adjusted 2009 dollars. In terms of recent box-office performance, Friday the 13th would be the highest grossing horror film of 2008 using the adjusted figures. On July 13, 2007, Friday the 13th was screened for the first time on Blairstown's Main Street in the very theater which appears shortly after the opening credits. Overflowing crowds forced the Blairstown Theater Festival
Blairstown Theater Festival
The Blairstown Theater Festival operated from December 2006 through November 2007 at historic Roy's Hall , a former silent movie theater built in 1913 at 30 Main Street in Blairstown Township, New Jersey....
, the sponsoring organization, to add an extra screening at 11:00 PM. The event was covered by local media and New York City's Channel 11. A 30th Anniversary Edition will be released on March 5, 2010.
Critical response
Upon release, Friday the 13th received negative reviews from critics. Its most vocal detractor was Gene SiskelGene Siskel
Eugene Kal "Gene" Siskel was an American film critic and journalist for the Chicago Tribune. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted the popular review show Siskel & Ebert At the Movies from 1975 until his death....
who in his review called Cunningham "one of the most despicable creatures ever to infest the movie business". He also published Betsy Palmer's home address and encouraged fellow detractors to write to her and express their contempt for the film. Siskel and Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
spent a entire episode of their TV show
Sneak Previews
Sneak Previews was an American film review show, running for over two decades on Public Broadcasting Service . It was created by WTTW, a PBS affiliate in Chicago, Illinois. It premiered on September 4, 1975 as a monthly local-only show called Opening Soon at a Theater Near You, and was renamed in...
berating the film because they felt it would make audiences root for the killer. Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
initially awarded the film one star, or 'BOMB', but later changed his mind and awarded the film a star and-a-half stating "...simply because it's slightly better than Part 2." and called it a "...gory, cardboard thriller...one more clue to why SAT
SAT
The SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...
scores continue to decline." Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
claimed the film was "low-budget in the worst sense - with no apparent talent or intelligence to offset its technical inadequacies - Friday the 13th has nothing to exploit but its title." The film currently holds a 60% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes (the highest percentage for any film in the series).
The ending sequence of the film was listed at #31 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments
100 Scariest Movie Moments
The 100 Scariest Movie Moments is a television documentary miniseries that first aired in late October 2004 on Bravo. Aired in five 60-minute segments, the miniseries counts down what producer Anthony Timpone, writer Patrick Moses, and director Kevin Kaufman have determined as the 100 most...
, and the film was voted #15 in Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
's 100 Greatest Scariest Moments.
The film was nominated for AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills.
Sequels
As of 2009, Friday the 13th has spawned ten sequels, including a crossover filmFreddy vs. Jason
Freddy vs. Jason is a 2003 American slasher film directed by Ronny Yu. The film is a crossover between the A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th franchises...
with A Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street (franchise)
A Nightmare on Elm Street is an American horror franchise that consists of nine slasher films, a television show, novels, and comic books. The franchise began with the film series created by Wes Craven. The franchise is based on the fictional character Freddy Krueger, introduced in A Nightmare on...
villain Freddy Krueger
Freddy Krueger
Frederick Charles "Freddy" Krueger is a fictional, horrifying character from the Nightmare on Elm Street series of horror films. He first appears in Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street as a disfigured dream stalker who uses a glove armed with razors to kill his victims in their dreams,...
. Friday the 13th Part 2
Friday the 13th Part 2
Friday the 13th Part II is a 1981 slasher film directed by Steve Miner, who also directed its sequel, Friday the 13th Part III and several other popular horror films. A sequel to Friday the 13th , it is the second film in the Friday the 13th film series. It was a moderate box-office hit, opening on...
(1981) introduced Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees is a fictional character from the Friday the 13th series of slasher films. He first appeared in Friday the 13th , as the son of camp cook-turned-murderer, Mrs. Voorhees, in which he was portrayed by Ari Lehman. Created by Victor Miller, with contributions by Ron Kurz, Sean S...
, the son of Mrs. Voorhees, as the primary antagonist, which would continue for the remaining sequels (with exception of the fifth movie) and related works. Most of the sequels were filmed on larger budgets than the original. In comparison, Friday the 13th had a budget of $550,000, while the first sequel was given a budget of $1.25 million. At the time of its release, Freddy vs. Jason
Freddy vs. Jason
Freddy vs. Jason is a 2003 American slasher film directed by Ronny Yu. The film is a crossover between the A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th franchises...
had the largest budget, at $25 million. All of the sequels repeated the premise of the original, so the filmmakers made tweaks to provide freshness. Changes involved an addition to the title—as opposed to a number attached to the end—like "The Final Chapter
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter is a 1984 slasher film. It is the fourth film in the Friday the 13th film series. Though it was billed as "The Final Chapter," there have been many further sequels in the franchise. The popularity and financial success of the film, which grossed over $32 million,...
" and "Jason Takes Manhattan
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan is a slasher film released on July 28, 1989. It is the eighth film in the Friday the 13th film series, and deals with Jason Voorhees stalking a group of high school graduates on a ship en route to New York City, and was the last film in the series...
", or filming the movie in 3-D
3-D film
A 3-D film or S3D film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception...
, as Miner did for Friday the 13th Part III (1982). One major addition that would affect the entire film series was the addition of Jason's hockey mask
Goalie mask
A goaltender mask, commonly referred to as a goalie mask or a hockey mask, is a mask worn by ice hockey, inline hockey, and field hockey goaltenders to protect the head from injury. Jacques Plante was the first goaltender to create and use a practical mask in 1959. Plante's mask was a piece of...
in the third film; this mask would become one of the most recognizable images in popular culture. Cunningham did not direct any of the film's sequels, though he did act as producer on the later installments; he initially did not want Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees is a fictional character from the Friday the 13th series of slasher films. He first appeared in Friday the 13th , as the son of camp cook-turned-murderer, Mrs. Voorhees, in which he was portrayed by Ari Lehman. Created by Victor Miller, with contributions by Ron Kurz, Sean S...
to be resurrected for the sequel.
A reboot to Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th (2009 film)
Friday the 13th is a 2009 American slasher film directed by Marcus Nispel and written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift. It is a reboot of the Friday the 13th film series, which began in 1980 and the twelfth Friday the 13th film in total...
came to theaters in February 2009, with Freddy vs. Jason writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift hired to script the new film. The film focused on Jason Voorhees, along with his trademark hockey-mask. The film was produced by Michael Bay
Michael Bay
Michael Benjamin Bay is an American film director and producer. He is known for directing high-budget action films characterized by their fast edits, stylistic visuals and substantial practical special effects...
, Andrew Form, and Brad Fuller through Bay's production company Platinum Dunes, for New Line Cinema. In November 2007, Marcus Nispel
Marcus Nispel
Marcus Nispel is a German–American feature film director and producer, and formerly a director of television commercials and music videos. Many of his films have been remakes, all of which have met with a negative critical reception....
, director of the 2003 remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003 film)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a 2003 remake of the 1974 horror film of the same name. The 2003 film was directed by Marcus Nispel and produced by Michael Bay...
, was hired to direct. The film had its United States release on February 13, 2009.
Adaptations
In 1987, seven years after the release of the motion picture, Simon Hawke produced a novelization of Friday the 13th. One of the few additions to the book was Mrs. Voorhees begging the Christy family to take her back after the loss of her son; they agreed. Another addition in the novel is more understanding in Mrs. Voorhees' actions. Hawke felt the character had attempted to move on when Jason died, but her psychosis got the best of her. When Steve Christy reopened the camp, Mrs. Voorhees saw it as a chance that what happened to her son could happen again. Her murders were against the counselors, because she saw them all as responsible for Jason's death.A number of scenes from the film were recreated in Friday the 13th: Pamela's Tale, a two-issue comic book prequel released by WildStorm
WildStorm
WildStorm Productions, or simply WildStorm, published American comic books. Originally an independent company established by Jim Lee and further expanded upon in subsequent years by other creators, WildStorm became a publishing imprint of DC Comics in 1999...
in 2007.
Uncut DVD and Blu-ray releases
On February 3, 2009, Friday the 13th released an uncut home video version for the first time in the United States. It is available on both DVD and Blu-ray Disc. The uncut version of the film contains approximately 10 seconds of previously unreleased footage.In 2011, the uncut version of Friday the 13th was released in a 4-Disc DVD collection with the first three sequels.
Awards and Nominations
- 1st Golden Raspberry Award
- Nominated: Worst PictureRazzie Award for Worst PictureThe Razzie Award for Worst Picture is an award given out at the annual Golden Raspberry Awards to the worst film of the past year. Following is a list of nominees and recipients of that award, including each film's distribution company and producer.-1980s:...
- Nominated: Worst Supporting ActressRazzie Award for Worst Supporting ActressThe Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress is an award presented at the annual Golden Raspberry Awards to the worst supporting actress of the previous year...
Betsy Palmer
External links
- Interview with Betsy Palmer on the podcast The Future and YouThe Future And YouThe Future and You is a podcast hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb and teamed with Jim Baen's Universe Magazine...
(includes anecdotes about working on Friday the 13th) - Official website for the friday the 13th films