Friday the 13th (film series) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Friday the 13th is an American

Cinema of the United States

The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...

horror

Horror fiction

Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...

franchise

Media franchise

A media franchise is an intellectual property involving the characters, setting and trademarks of an original work of media , such as a film, a work of literature, a television program or a video game. Generally, a whole series is made in a particular medium, along with merchandising and endorsements...

that comprises twelve slasher film

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...

s, a television show, novels, comic books, and tie‑in merchandise. The franchise mainly focuses on the fictional character 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...

, who drowned as a boy at Camp Crystal Lake due to the negligence of the camp staff. Decades later, the lake is rumored to be "cursed" and is the setting for a series of mass murders. Jason is featured in all of the films, as either the killer or the motivation for the killings. The original film was 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...

and was produced and 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...

. However, neither returned to write or direct any of the sequels. The films have grossed over $

United States dollar

The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

465 million at the box-office worldwide.

The first film was created to cash in on the success of 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...

(1978), and its own success led 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...

to purchase the full licensing rights to Friday the 13th. Frank Mancuso, Jr., who produced the films, also developed the television show Friday the 13th: The Series
Friday the 13th: The Series
Friday the 13th: The Series is an American-Canadian horror television series that ran for three seasons, from October 3, 1987 to May 26, 1990 in first-run syndication....

after Paramount released Jason Lives
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives is a 1986 slasher film, the sixth film in the Friday the 13th film series. The film was written and directed by Tom McLoughlin...

. The television series was not connected to the franchise by any character or setting, but was created based on the idea of "bad luck and curses", which the film series symbolized. While the franchise was owned by Paramount, four films were adapted into novels, with Friday the 13th Part III adapted by two separate authors. When the franchise was sold to New Line Cinema

New Line Cinema

New Line Cinema, often simply referred to as New Line, is an American film studio. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne as a film distributor, later becoming an independent film studio. It became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996 and was merged with larger sister studio Warner...

, Cunningham returned as a producer to oversee two additional films, in addition to the crossover film with 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,...

from the Nightmare on Elm Street film series

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...

. Under New Line Cinema, 13 novella

Novella

A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...

s and various comic book series featuring Jason were published.

Although the films were not popular with critics, Friday the 13th is considered one of the most successful media franchises in America—not only for the success of the films, but also because of the extensive merchandising and repeated references to the series in popular culture. The franchise′s popularity has generated a fanbase who have created their own Friday the 13th films, fashioned replica Jason Voorhees costumes, and tattooed their bodies with Friday the 13th artwork. Jason′s hockey mask has even become one of the most recognizable images in popular culture.

Films

Film	Director	Writer(s)	Producer(s)
Friday the 13th (1980)	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...	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...	Sean S. Cunningham
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)	Steve Miner Steve Miner Stephen C. "Steve" Miner is an American film and television director who is also a film producer.Miner was born in Westport, Connecticut. Television programs Miner has directed include The Wonder Years, Jake 2.0, Felicity, Dawson's Creek , and Diagnosis: Murder...	Ron Kurz	Steve Miner
Friday the 13th Part III (1982)		Martin Kitrosser & Carol Watson	Frank Mancuso, Jr.
Friday the 13th: 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,... (1984)	Joseph Zito Joseph Zito Joseph Zito is an American film director. He is perhaps well known for directing many low budget action B-movies of the 1980s such as, Missing in Action, Invasion U.S.A., Red Scorpion, and many others. In the mid-1980s, Zito spent a year of pre-production on the Cannon version of Spider-Man...	Barney Cohen	Frank Mancuso, Jr.
Friday the 13th: A New Beginning Friday the 13th: A New Beginning Friday the 13th: A New Beginning is a 1985 slasher film. It was released on March 22, 1985. It is the fifth film in the Friday the 13th film series... (1985)	Danny Steinmann Danny Steinmann Danny Steinmann is an American film director. He is best known for directing Friday the 13th: A New Beginning.- External links :...	Martin Kitrosser, David Cohen & Danny Steinmann	Timothy Silver
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives is a 1986 slasher film, the sixth film in the Friday the 13th film series. The film was written and directed by Tom McLoughlin... (1986)	Tom McLoughlin Tom McLoughlin Tom McLoughlin is an American screenwriter, film/television director and former mime whose credits include numerous television movies, such as Murder in Greenwich, the feature film Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives and the 2009 Lifetime Movie Network film The Wronged Man.In 1977 McLoughlin was...		Don Behrns
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood is the seventh installment in the original Friday the 13th series, released in 1988. It also marked the first appearance of Kane Hodder in the role of Jason Voorhees.-Plot:... (1988)	John Carl Buechler	Manuel Fidello & Daryl Haney Daryl Haney Daryl Haney , also known by the pen name D. R. Haney, is an American actor, screenwriter, novelist, and essayist.- Film career :...	Iain Paterson
Friday the 13th Part VIII: 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... (1989)	Rob Hedden		Randy Cheveldave
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday is a 1993 slasher film, the ninth—and, as the title suggests, intended final—installment in the Friday the 13th film series and the first sequel to be distributed by New Line Cinema.... (1993)	Adam Marcus Adam Marcus Adam Marcus is an American film director, writer and actor.Marcus was born in Westport, Connecticut in the U.S.. He is the brother of Young Artist Award-nominated actor Kipp Marcus...	Jay Huguely, Adam Marcus & Dean Lorey Dean Lorey Dean Lorey is an American writer whose projects include movies such as Major Payne, television shows which include My Wife and Kids and Arrested Development, and most recently a children’s book, the first of a series, entitled Nightmare Academy.Lorey grew up in Conyers, Georgia before attending...	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...
Jason X Jason X Jason X is a 2002 science fiction horror slasher film directed by James Isaac. It is the tenth in the Friday the 13th film series and stars Kane Hodder as the undead mass murderer Jason Voorhees, the film made $16,951,798 worldwide with a budget of $14 million... (2002)	James Isaac James Isaac James Isaac is an American film director. He is best known for directing Jason X.- Movies :James Isaac created his first film in the late 1980s and did not make another film until 2001. This film was the 10th installment in the Friday The 13th franchise, Jason X which was a small box office...	Todd Farmer Todd Farmer Todd Farmer is an American writer and actor, having written the scripts for Jason X , Messengers 2: The Scarecrow , My Bloody Valentine 3D , and Drive Angry .-Early life:...	Noel Cunningham
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... (2003)	Ronny Yu Ronny Yu Ronny Yu Yan-Tai is a Hong Kong director, producer, and movie writer. Yu was born in Hong Kong and graduated from Ohio University. He has worked on both Hong Kong and American films.- Career :...	Damian Shannon & Mark Swift	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...
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... (2009)	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....	Damian Shannon & Mark Swift	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 Platinum Dunes Platinum Dunes is a production company created in 2001 by filmmakers Michael Bay, Brad Fuller, and Andrew Form. The company specializes in horror films, particularly remakes.Their website is part of Bloody Disgusting's site.... & Brad Fuller Bradley Fuller Bradley Fuller, better known as Brad Fuller, is an American film producer. He co-owns Platinum Dunes, a production company specialized in producing horror movies, most notably The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Amityville Horror, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. Fuller is a graduate of...

Overview

In the original Friday the 13th (1980), Mrs. 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:...

) stalks and murders the teenagers who are preparing Camp Crystal Lake for re‑opening. She is determined to ensure that the camp does not reopen after her son Jason (Ari Lehman) drowned in the lake because two staff members who were supposed to be watching him were having sex. The last counselor

Final girl

The final girl is a trope in thriller and horror films that specifically refers to the last woman or girl alive to confront the killer, ostensibly the one left to tell the story...

, 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:...

), fends off Mrs. Voorhees long enough to grab a machete and decapitate her. In 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), Jason (Steve Daskewisz/Warrington Gillette) is revealed to be alive and fully grown. After killing Alice, Jason returns to Crystal Lake to guard it from all intruders. Five years later, a group of teenagers arrive at Crystal Lake to set up a new camp, but Jason murders them. Ginny Field (Amy Steel

Amy Steel

Amy Steel is an American film and television actress, also credited as Amy Steel Pulitzer.-Biography:She is perhaps best known for her role as Ginny Field in the 1981 horror film Friday the 13th Part 2. She was offered the chance to reprise the role for the third film in the long-running series,...

), the last counselor Jason attempts to kill, finds a cabin in the woods with a shrine built around the severed head of Mrs. Voorhees. Ginny fights back and slams a machete through Jason′s shoulder. Jason is left for dead as Ginny is taken away in an ambulance. During the events of Friday the 13th Part III (1982), Jason (Richard Brooker

Richard Brooker

Richard Brooker is an English stuntman, perhaps best known for his role in Friday the 13th Part III as Jason Voorhees.-Career:Brooker, a former trapeze artist from England, started his career in acting in a casting magazine, "Dramalogue"...

) removes the machete from his shoulder and finds his way to Chris Higgins's (Dana Kimmell

Dana Kimmell

Dana Kimmell is an American actress who has starred in movies and on television. She played Dawn Marshall on Texas and appeared on Days of our Lives as Diane Parker from 1983-1984.-Early Life:...

) local homestead. Chris returns to her property with some friends, and Jason kills anyone who wanders into the barn where he is hiding. Taking a hockey mask from a victim to hide his face, Jason leaves the barn to kill the rest of the group. Chris seemingly kills Jason with an axe to his head, but the night′s events drive her into hysteria as the police take her away.

Friday the 13th: 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,...

(1984) continues where Part III leaves off, with Jason (Ted White

Ted White (stuntman)

Ted White is an American stunt man/actor who doubled for John Wayne, Fess Parker, Clark Gable, Lee Marvin and Richard Boone, among others.-Sports career:The hulking White also played football for the University of Oklahoma....

) found by the police and taken to the local morgue after removing the axe. Upon arrival, Jason kills the coroner and a nurse before returning to Crystal Lake. A group of friends rent a house on Crystal Lake and fall victim to Jason′s rampage. After killing the teens, Jason seeks out Trish (Kimberly Beck

Kimberly Beck

Kimberly Beck is an American actress with over sixty television and film roles to her credit.-Biography:...

) and Tommy Jarvis (Corey Feldman

Corey Feldman

Corey Scott Feldman is an American film and television actor. He became known during the 1980s, with roles in the Hollywood films Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, The Goonies, Stand by Me, The Lost Boys, License to Drive, Dream a Little Dream, Gremlins and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...

), who live next door. While distracted by Trish, Jason is attacked and killed by Tommy. Friday the 13th: A New Beginning
Friday the 13th: A New Beginning
Friday the 13th: A New Beginning is a 1985 slasher film. It was released on March 22, 1985. It is the fifth film in the Friday the 13th film series...

(1985) follows Tommy Jarvis (John Shepherd

John Shepherd (actor)

John Shepherd is an American actor and producer who has starred in film and on television. He is best known for his role in the 1985 horror film Friday the 13th: A New Beginning as Tommy Jarvis and speaks in the commentary of the Deluxe Edition of the film in 2009.Other movies he starred in were...

), who was committed to a mental health institution after the events of The Final Chapter and grew up constantly afraid that Jason (Tom Morga) will return. Roy Burns (Dick Wieand) uses Jason′s persona to become a copycat killer

Copycat crimes

A copycat crime is a criminal act that is modelled or inspired by a previous crime that has been reported in the media or described in fiction.-Copycat effect:...

at the halfway home to which Tommy has moved. Tommy, supervisor Pam (Melanie Kinnaman

Melanie Kinnaman

Melanie Kinnaman is an American dancer and film and stage actress.A native of Holyoke, Massachusetts, she has starred in a couple of films...

), and a young boy named Reggie (Shavar Ross

Shavar Ross

Shavar Malik Ross is an American actor, film director, screenwriter, film producer, editor, photographer, author, and entrepreneur. He is known for his recurring television roles as Dudley Ramsey on the NBC sitcom Diff'rent Strokes, and as Weasel on the ABC sitcom Family Matters.-Biography:Ross...

) manage to defeat Roy. They eventually learn that Roy had a son who was murdered by one of the patients at the institution, triggering Roy to take on Jason′s likeness and kill everyone there. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives is a 1986 slasher film, the sixth film in the Friday the 13th film series. The film was written and directed by Tom McLoughlin...

(1986) begins with Tommy (Thom Mathews

Thom Mathews

Thom Mathews in Los Angeles, California is an actor who is perhaps best known for his appearance in the horror films Return of the Living Dead and Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives.-Career:...

) visiting Jason′s grave after being released from another mental institution. Tommy inadvertently resurrects Jason (C. J. Graham

C. J. Graham

C. J. Graham is an actor who became one of many actors/stuntmen to play Jason Voorhees in the sixth film of the Friday the 13th film series.-Career:...

) with a piece of the fence surrounding the cemetery acting as a lightning rod

Lightning rod

A lightning rod or lightning conductor is a metal rod or conductor mounted on top of a building and electrically connected to the ground through a wire, to protect the building in the event of lightning...

. Jason immediately heads back to Crystal Lake and kills the people working at the new summer camp. Tommy eventually chains Jason to a boulder that he tosses into the lake, where he leaves Jason to die.

Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood is the seventh installment in the original Friday the 13th series, released in 1988. It also marked the first appearance of Kane Hodder in the role of Jason Voorhees.-Plot:...

(1988) begins an indeterminate length of time after Jason Lives. Jason (Kane Hodder

Kane Hodder

Kane Warren Hodder is an American actor and stuntman. Standing , he is best known for his portrayal of Jason Voorhees in four films from the Friday the 13th film series . He is also known for his role as Victor Crowley in Hatchet. -Career:Hodder is the only actor to portray Jason Voorhees more...

) is resurrected again, this time by the telekinetic Tina Shepard (Lar Park Lincoln

Lar Park Lincoln

Lar Park Lincoln is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles in the 1987 film House II: The Second Story as Kate, and in the 1988 horror film Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood as Tina Shepard.-Biography:...

), who is trying to resurrect her father who drowned in the lake when Tina was a child. Jason once again begins killing those who occupy Crystal Lake and is returned to the bottom of the lake after a battle with Tina. Jason is resurrected again in Friday the 13th Part VIII: 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...

(1989) by an underwater electrical cable. He follows a group of students on their senior class cruise to Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

, where he kills the ship′s crew and the majority of the students. Upon reaching Manhattan, Jason chases Rennie (Jensen Daggett

Jensen Daggett

Jensen Daggett is an American film and television actress. Standing 5' 6", she performed as a comedic and dramatic actress.-Biography:After studying theater at Agoura High School in in Agoura Hills, California, Daggett moved to Los Angeles after her 18th birthday to study at the Stella Adler...

) and Sean (Scott Reeves

Scott Reeves

Gregory Scott Reeves is an American actor and country music singer. He is known for his role as Ryan McNeil on The Young and the Restless and for his role as Dr...

), the two remaining students, into the sewers. Jason eventually melts away because the sewer is flooded with toxic waste. In Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday
Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday is a 1993 slasher film, the ninth—and, as the title suggests, intended final—installment in the Friday the 13th film series and the first sequel to be distributed by New Line Cinema....

(1993), Jason, through an unexplained resurrection, is hunted by the FBI

Federal Bureau of Investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...

at Crystal Lake. The FBI sets up a sting that successfully kills Jason. Through possession, Jason manages to survive by passing his black heart from one being to the next. It is revealed that he has a sister and a niece, and that he needs them to get his body back. Jason resurrects himself, but his niece, Jessica Kimble (Kari Keegan

Kari Keegan

Kari Keegan is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for her lead role in the horror movie Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday . She appeared in an uncredited part in Jerry Maguire and as the lead role in the independent film Mind Games . She has been married since 1998 to Craig...

), stabs him with a mystical dagger and he is dragged into Hell

Hell

In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...

.

Jason X
Jason X
Jason X is a 2002 science fiction horror slasher film directed by James Isaac. It is the tenth in the Friday the 13th film series and stars Kane Hodder as the undead mass murderer Jason Voorhees, the film made $16,951,798 worldwide with a budget of $14 million...

(2002) takes place in the future, when Jason has again been inexplicably resurrected. A scientist, Rowan Lafontaine (Lexa Doig

Lexa Doig

Alexandra L. "Lexa" Doig is a Canadian actress. She portrayed the role of Rommie in the science fiction TV series Andromeda, and had a recurring character on Stargate SG-1.-Career:...

), decides that cryonic suspension

Cryopreservation

Cryopreservation is a process where cells or whole tissues are preserved by cooling to low sub-zero temperatures, such as 77 K or −196 °C . At these low temperatures, any biological activity, including the biochemical reactions that would lead to cell death, is effectively stopped...

is the only method of stopping him, but Jason breaks free and kills the army personnel guarding him before he can be again imprisoned. Rowan manages to lure Jason into the cryo‑chamber, but he ruptures the tank and freezes both himself and Rowan. Over 400 years later, a team of students studying earth discover Jason′s body and take it into space. Upon being thawed by the team, he proceeds to murder everyone aboard the spacecraft. He is seemingly killed, but is then resurrected via nanotechnology

Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...

as a cyborg

Cyborg

A cyborg is a being with both biological and artificial parts. The term was coined in 1960 when Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline used it in an article about the advantages of self-regulating human-machine systems in outer space. D. S...

version of himself. Finally, he is ejected into space and lands on the planet Earth 2. The next Friday the 13th film, 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...

(2003), was a crossover with A Nightmare on Elm Street

A Nightmare on Elm Street (franchise)

. Set in the contemporary period, Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund

Robert Englund

Robert Barton Englund is an American actor, voice-actor and director, best known for playing the fictional serial killer Freddy Krueger, in the Nightmare on Elm Street film series. He received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors in...

) resurrects Jason (Ken Kirzinger

Ken Kirzinger

Ken Kirzinger is a Canadian stuntman and actor best known for his portrayal of Jason Voorhees in Freddy vs. Jason and of Pa in Wrong Turn 2: Dead End . He also played "Mason" Jason Voorhees character spoof in the horror film parody, Stan Helsing.-Role as Jason Voorhees:At he is one of the...

) and sends him to Springwood hoping that he will create enough fear among the residents that Freddy will be strong enough to invade their dreams. Jason accomplishes this but refuses to stop killing. A battle ensues both in the dream-world and at Crystal Lake. The outcome is left ambiguous, as Jason surfaces from the lake holding Freddy′s severed head, which winks and laughs.

In 2009, a new 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...

film which restarted the film series continuity was released. In this film, after witnessing his mother being beheaded at a young age, an adult Jason (Derek Mears

Derek Mears

Derek Mears is an American actor and stuntman, best known for his role as Jason Voorhees in the reboot of Friday the 13th.-Early life:...

) follows in her footsteps and kills anyone who comes to Crystal Lake. Jason subsequently kidnaps a young woman, Whitney Miller (Amanda Righetti

Amanda Righetti

Amanda Righetti is an American actress and film producer. She is best known for her roles in The Mentalist, Friday the 13th and The O.C. In 2008, Righetti was the winner of the Best Actress award at the New York International Independent Film Video Festival for the Short Film category.-Early...

), who reminds him of his mother. Six weeks after her disappearance, her brother, Clay Miller (Jared Padalecki

Jared Padalecki

Jared Tristan Padalecki is an American actor. He grew up in Texas and came to fame in the early 2000s after appearing on the television series Gilmore Girls as well as in several Hollywood films, including New York Minute and House of Wax...

), comes to look for her. The pair reunite and work together to seemingly kill Jason.

Development

The original Friday the 13th was produced and directed by Sean S. Cunningham

Sean S. Cunningham

, 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 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"...

(1972). Cunningham, inspired by the success of John Carpenter′s

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...

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...

(1978), wanted Friday the 13th to be shocking, visually stunning, and "[make] you jump out of your seat". Distancing himself from The Last House on the Left, Cunningham wanted Friday the 13th to be more of a "roller coaster ride". The first film was meant to be "a real scary movie", and at the same time to make audiences laugh. The concept for Friday the 13th began as nothing more than a title. "Long Night at Camp Blood" was the working title Victor Miller used while he drafted a script, but Cunningham believed in his "Friday the 13th" moniker and rushed to place an advertisement

Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...

in International Variety. Worrying 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. Cunningham commissioned a New York advertising agency to develop his visual 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 contends that there was an issue: "There was a movie before ours called Friday the 13th: The Orphan. Moderately successful. But someone still threatened to sue. I don't know whether Phil [Scuderi] paid them off, but it was finally resolved."

Following the success of Friday the 13th in 1980, Paramount Pictures began plans to make a sequel and immediately acquired the worldwide distribution rights. According to Paramount Pictures′ Chairman and CEO Frank Mancuso, Sr., "We wanted it to be an event, where teenagers would flock to the theaters on that Friday night to see the latest episode." Initial ideas for a sequel involved the Friday the 13th title being used for a series of discontinuous films, released once a year, and each would be a separate "scary movie" of its own right. Phil Scuderi—a co‑owner of Esquire Theaters with Steve Minasian and Bob Barsamian and a producer of the original film—insisted that the sequel must have Jason Voorhees, Pamela′s son, even though his appearance at the end of the original film was only meant to be a joke. Steve Miner

Steve Miner

Stephen C. "Steve" Miner is an American film and television director who is also a film producer.Miner was born in Westport, Connecticut. Television programs Miner has directed include The Wonder Years, Jake 2.0, Felicity, Dawson's Creek , and Diagnosis: Murder...

, associate producer of the first film, believed in the idea, and he ultimately directed the first two sequels after Cunningham opted not to return to the director′s chair.

The studio continued to generate sequels over the years, based on the financial success they produced compared to their relatively low budgets. With every film repeating the same basic premise, the filmmakers came up with subtle adjustments so the audience would return. Changes involved the addition of a subtitle—as opposed to just a number attached to the end—like "The Final Chapter" and "Jason Takes Manhattan", 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. The third film would also be the birthplace of one of the most recognizable images in popular culture, that of Jason′s hockey mask. Producer Frank Mancuso, Jr. eventually decided to kill Jason for good, after he experienced problems finding new films to produce that were more than just horror movies, because his name brought constant association to the Friday the 13th film series.

Jason would not stay buried for long, as the success of The Final Chapter ensured another Friday the 13th film. Mancuso, Sr. stated, "Quite simply, the public still wanted to see these films. So until they really stopped coming, why not continue to make more?" A New Beginning shifted the focus of the story to the character of Tommy Jarvis and how he battles his inner demons, hallucinations, and "rages to kill" after his ordeal with Jason in The Final Chapter. This premise was not repeated, as the very next installment brought Jason back from the dead. Jason Lives attempted to create a "funnier, faster, and more action-packed [...] Friday" than had previously been done. The limited financial success of Jason Lives provided enough incentive to create another sequel, The New Blood. The idea proposed by screenwriter Daryl Haney stemmed from his realization that the films always ended with Jason battling the "final girl

Final girl

The final girl is a trope in thriller and horror films that specifically refers to the last woman or girl alive to confront the killer, ostensibly the one left to tell the story...

". Haney decided that this final girl should have telekinetic powers

Psychokinesis

The term psychokinesis , also referred to as telekinesis with respect to strictly describing movement of matter, sometimes abbreviated PK and TK respectively, is a term...

, which led Producer Barbara Sachs to dub the film, Jason vs. Carrie
Carrie (novel)
Carrie is American author Stephen King's first published novel, released in 1974. It revolves around the eponymous Carrie, a shy high-school girl, who uses her newly discovered telekinetic powers to exact revenge on those who tease her...

.

"Okay, we'll make Vancouver look like New York and we'll do it that way. But they came back again with, 'You can't do the Brooklyn Bridge

Brooklyn Bridge

The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States. Completed in 1883, it connects the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River...

in Vancouver. You can't do Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...

in Vancouver. You can't do the Statue of Liberty

Statue of Liberty

The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886...

in Vancouver.' Pretty soon it was half New York, half on the boat. Then it was the last third in New York. It just kept getting whittled down and down."

— Rob Hedden (writer/director) on the deconstruction of Jason Takes Manhattan′s story

Plans were made to take Jason away from Crystal Lake and place him in a larger environment for the eighth film. New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

was selected as the main setting, with Jason spending approximately a third of the movie on a boat before reaching New York. The film was then subtitled Jason Takes Manhattan. Ultimately, the character spent the majority of the time on the cruise ship, as budget restrictions forced scenes of New York to be trimmed or downgraded. Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

had to substitute for the majority of the New York scenes.

When Jason Takes Manhattan failed to perform successfully at the box office, Sean Cunningham decided that he wanted to reacquire the rights to Friday the 13th and start working with New Line Cinema on Freddy vs. Jason, as New Line owned the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. The concept of a fight between Freddy and Jason was not new, since Paramount had approached New Line about filming a crossover

Fictional crossover

A fictional crossover is the placement of two or more otherwise discrete fictional characters, settings, or universes into the context of a single story. They can arise from legal agreements between the relevant copyright holders, or because of unauthorized efforts by fans, or even amid common...

years before the latter had gained the licensing rights to Friday the 13th. At that time, both companies wanted the license to the other′s character so that they could control the making of the film. Negotiations on the project were never finalized, which led Paramount to make The New Blood. After Jason Takes Manhattan was released in 1989, the rights reverted back to Scuderi, Minasian, and Barsamianto, who sold them to New Line. Before Cunningham could start working on Freddy vs. Jason, Wes Craven returned to New Line to make New Nightmare
Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Wes Craven's New Nightmare is a 1994 horror metafilm written and directed by Wes Craven. Although it is the seventh installment of the Nightmare on Elm Street series, it is not part of the series continuity, instead portraying Freddy Krueger as a fictional movie villain who invades the real world...

. This effectively put Freddy vs. Jason on hold, but allowed Cunningham the chance to bring Jason back into the spotlight with Jason Goes to Hell. The ninth installment "turned a healthy profit", though it was only intended to open the door for a crossover with Freddy Krueger rather than to start a new series for New Line. Ultimately, the film series would go through another sequel before that would happen. Cunningham′s "frustration" with the delayed development of the Freddy vs. Jason project forced him to create another sequel in an effort to keep the franchise in the minds of audiences. Based on Jason Takes Manhattans concept of taking Jason away from Crystal Lake, the 10th film would put the titular character in space. The film suffered from the loss of its biggest supporter, President of Production Michael De Luca, when he resigned from his position. Lack of support forced the finished film to sit for two years before finally being released on April 26, 2002, and it would go on to become the lowest grossing film in the franchise at the domestic box office. It also held the distinction of having the largest budget of any of the previous films at that time.

After more than 15 years of off-and-on development, and approximately $6 million spent in 18 unused scripts from more than a dozen screenwriters, New Line finally produced a Freddy and Jason crossover for 2003. One of the biggest hurdles for the film was developing a story that managed to bring the two horror icons together. Potential stories varied widely, from Freddy having molested and drowned Jason as a child, to a cult of Freddy worshipers called the "Fred Heads". In January 2007, Platinum Dunes

Platinum Dunes

Platinum Dunes is a production company created in 2001 by filmmakers Michael Bay, Brad Fuller, and Andrew Form. The company specializes in horror films, particularly remakes.Their website is part of Bloody Disgusting's site....

producers Andrew Form and Brad Fuller outlined their intended goal to bring a Friday the 13th reboot to life. New Line approached Fuller and Form to create a reboot, but because Paramount still owned certain copyrights to the first film, the reboot would not be able to use anything from the original. Paramount, who wanted to be included in the development of a reboot, approached the producers and gave them license to use anything from the original films, including the title. With Paramount on board, Fuller and Form decided they wanted to use pieces from the early films. Fuller said, "I think there are moments we want to address, like how does the hockey mask happen." Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, writers of Freddy vs. Jason, were brought on to pen the script for the new film, with 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 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...

remake of 2003, hired in November 2007 to direct.

Music

When Harry Manfredini

Harry 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

Sheet music

Sheet music is a hand-written or printed form of music notation that uses modern musical symbols; like its analogs—books, pamphlets, etc.—the medium of sheet music typically is paper , although the access to musical notation in recent years includes also presentation on computer screens...

for the 1980 film, the decision was made to play the music only alongside the killer so as not to trick the audience into believing that the killer was around during moments that they were not supposed to be. Manfredini explains that the lack of music for certain scenes was deliberate: "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 about to happen, the music would cut off so that the audience would relax a bit, which allowed the scare to become more effective.
Since Mrs. Voorhees, the killer in the original Friday the 13th, does not show up until the final reel of the film, Manfredini had the job of creating a score that would represent the killer in her absence. Manfredini was inspired by 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 not seen for the majority of the film, but the motif created by John Williams cued the audience as to when the shark was present during scenes and unseen. While listening to a piece of 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...

music, which contained a chorus with "striking pronunciations", Manfredini was inspired to recreate a similar sound for Friday the 13th. He came up with the sound "ki ki ki, ma ma ma", based on the line "Kill her mommy!", which Mrs. Voorhees recites repeatedly in the final reel. 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

Reverberation

Reverberation is the persistence of sound in a particular space after the original sound is removed. A reverberation, or reverb, is created when a sound is produced in an enclosed space causing a large number of echoes to build up and then slowly decay as the sound is absorbed by the walls and air...

machine. Manfredini finished the original score after a few weeks and recorded it 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 makes note of the mispronunciation of the sounds: "Everybody thinks it′s cha, cha, cha. I'm like, 'Cha, cha, cha'? What are you talking about?"

When Manfredini returned for the first sequel, he had an easier time composing since he only needed to perfect what he had already created. Over the course of the sequels, Manfredini loosened the philosophy that the theme should be reserved just for the killer. Manfredini describes the style of the sequels as more of a "setting 'em up and knocking 'em down" approach, which meant that there were more "McGuffins

MacGuffin

A MacGuffin is "a plot element that catches the viewers' attention or drives the plot of a work of fiction". The defining aspect of a MacGuffin is that the major players in the story are willing to do and sacrifice almost anything to obtain it, regardless of what the MacGuffin actually is...

and red‑herrings" that required the killer′s theme music be played to try to trick the audience. Manfredini explains, "The original had the real myopic approach, and then we had to start thinking of the sequels as more conventional films." For Part 3, Manfredini only returned to score the first and last reels of the film because he was busy with a Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

production. Jack Tillar pieced together portions of the score from the first two films to fill the remaining time for Part 3, while Michael Zagar composed an opening and closing theme. Manfredini and Zagar met at the latter′s apartment, where Zagar rescored the original opening theme using a disco beat. Manfredini returned for The Final Chapter, and although there were similar elements to the score, everything was newly recorded for the fourth Friday the 13th.

When he began work on the score for A New Beginning, Manfredini created a theme just for the character of Tommy Jarvis. The idea was to suggest that there was "madness afoot", which he believed helped to "'point the finger' at various characters [...] to suggest that things were not as you might expect". For Jason Lives, Tom McLoughlin instructed Manfredini to create a score that would not alert the audience about what was happening or about to happen, "but instead allow the audience to do it to themselves". McLoughlin took this idea from John Carpenter′s 1978 film 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...

, which would always follow any shock in the film with Carpenter′s "Eeeeeeee!" sound. McLoughlin wanted something more subtle, with a "Gothic" resonance.

Manfredini did not score The New Blood and Jason Takes Manhattan because of prior film engagements, but his scores from previous films were reused. While Manfredini was working on Sean Cunningham′s DeepStar Six
Deepstar Six
DeepStar Six is an American 1989 science fiction horror film about the struggles of the crew of an underwater military outpost to defend their base against the attacks of a monster ....

, Producer Iain Paterson hired Fred Mollin, who was scoring Friday the 13th: The Series
Friday the 13th: The Series
Friday the 13th: The Series is an American-Canadian horror television series that ran for three seasons, from October 3, 1987 to May 26, 1990 in first-run syndication....

, to finish composing the music to The New Blood. Manfredini′s original music only filled half the film. Mollin returned to fully score Jason Takes Manhattan, and worked with Steve Mizer to write an original song reminiscent of Robert Plant

Robert Plant

Robert Anthony Plant, CBE is an English singer and songwriter best known as the vocalist and lyricist of the iconic rock band Led Zeppelin. He has also had a successful solo career...

for the opening credits. Manfredini would score the next two entries in the series before being replaced on Freddy vs. Jason. The official reason for Manfredini′s replacement was because New Line wanted to take the series in a "new direction", but Manfredini contends that the final cut of Freddy vs. Jason was "just the same thing".

Box office

The Friday the 13th films were never popular with critics, in contrast to other slasher films like Halloween. Critics disliked how the series favored high body counts over plot and character development and how each film was almost indistinguishable from the last. Nevertheless, the films were a financial success, prompting Paramount to release more sequels contingent on the box office appeal. When comparing Friday the 13th to the other top-grossing American horror franchises—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...

, Child′s Play
Child's Play (film series)
Child's Play is a horror film franchise created by Don Mancini, with its first installment, Child's Play, being released on November 9, 1988. The film has so far spawned four sequels and has gone into other media, such as comic books. The films all feature Chucky, a killer Good Guys doll with the...

, Halloween
Halloween (franchise)
Halloween is an American horror franchise that consists of ten slasher films, novels, and comic books. The franchise focuses on the fictional character of Michael Myers who was committed to a sanitarium as a child for the murder of his older sister, Judith Myers...

, the Hannibal Lecter

Hannibal Lecter

Hannibal Lecter M.D. is a fictional character in a series of horror novels by Thomas Harris and in the films adapted from them.Lecter was introduced in the 1981 thriller novel Red Dragon as a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer...

series, Psycho
Psycho (film series)
The Psycho film series is an American horror film franchise loosely based on the Psycho novels by Robert Bloch. The first film, Psycho, was directed by legendary filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock in 1960, with three sequels, a spin-off, and a remake following. The official films consist of Psycho,...

, Saw, Scream
Scream (film series)
Scream is a series of American horror slasher films created by Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven. The films star Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette. The series has grossed over $600 million in worldwide box-office receipts and consists, to date, of four motion pictures...

, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre—and adjusting for the 2011 inflation, Friday the 13th is the highest grossing horror franchise in the United States, with approximately $687.1 million. A Nightmare on Elm Street follows with $592.8 million, with the Hannibal Lecter film series closely behind with $588.7 million. Then comes Halloween with $557.5 million, Saw with $457.4 million, Scream with $442.9 million, Psycho with $376.3 million, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre with $304.6 million, and the Child′s Play film series rounding out the list with approximately $203 million. The financial success has extended to home release, with more than five million DVDs sold by 2005.

Film	Release date (US)	Budget	Box office revenue			Reference
Film	Release date (US)	Budget	United States	Foreign	Worldwide	Reference
1. Friday the 13th (1980)	May 9, 1980	$550,000	$39,754,601	$20,000,000	$59,754,601
2. Friday the 13th Part 2	April 30, 1981	$1,250,000	$21,722,776		$21,722,776
3. Friday the 13th Part III	August 13, 1982 May 13, 1983 (y)	$2,500,000	$36,690,067		$36,690,067
4. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter	April 13, 1984	$2,600,000	$32,980,880		$32,980,880
5. Friday the 13th: A New Beginning	March 22, 1985	$2,200,000	$21,930,418		$21,930,418
6. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives	August 1, 1986	$3,000,000	$19,472,057		$19,472,057
7. Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood	May 13, 1988	$2,800,000	$19,170,001		$19,170,001
8. Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan	July 28, 1989	$5,000,000	$14,343,976		$14,343,976
9. Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday	August 13, 1993	$3,000,000	$15,935,068		$15,935,068
10. Jason X	April 26, 2002	$14,000,000	$13,121,555	$3,830,243	$16,951,798
11. Freddy vs. Jason	August 15, 2003	$25,000,000	$82,622,655	$32,286,175	$114,908,830
12. Friday the 13th (2009)	February 13, 2009	$19,000,000	$65,002,019	$26,377,032	$91,379,051
Total		$80,900,000	$382,746,073	$82,493,450	$465,239,523
List indicator(s) A dark grey cell indicates the information is not available for the film. (y) indicates the film was re‑released.

Future

In an interview, producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form expressed an interest in doing a second Friday the 13th film, citing the enjoyment they had working on the 2009 reboot. On October 1, 2009, Warner Bros. announced that they planned to release the Friday the 13th sequel on August 13, 2010. Subsequently, Warner Bros. announced on December 10, 2009, that the sequel had been pulled from the August 13 release slot and is now listed as "TBD" (To Be Determined). Currently, Damian Shannon and Mark Swift are penning the sequel. On April 21, 2010, Fuller announced on his Twitter

Twitter

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

page that a sequel to the 2009 remake was no longer in the works, declaring it, "dead — not happening". In a later interview, Fuller explained that the making of the 2009 remake was a joint effort by Paramount and New Line, who both own portions of the Friday the 13th franchise. With the economy down, both studios are limiting the films that they produce each year, opting for lower risks and higher rewards. As such, films like Friday the 13th Part 2 were put on hold, with the hope that when the economy bounces back, they will move forward with the next installment. Form explained that since neither studio wants to walk away from the production of a sequel and have it perform well without their involvement, thus making them look like "idiots", the chance of having one studio being the primary producing house was rejected. Form and Fuller also mentioned that the Friday the 13th sequel may be a 3‑D film, should it ever get the green light for production. On February 1, 2011, it was reported that a script for a sequel had been completed. Brad Fuller states that he is ready when New Line Cinema

New Line Cinema

is ready.

Television

On September 28, 1987, Paramount began airing Friday the 13th: The Series
Friday the 13th: The Series
Friday the 13th: The Series is an American-Canadian horror television series that ran for three seasons, from October 3, 1987 to May 26, 1990 in first-run syndication....

, a television series that focuses on two cousins' attempts to recover cursed antiques that were sold from a shop they inherited from their uncle. The show starred John D. LeMay

John D. LeMay

John D. LeMay is an American actor who has starred in TV shows and on film.LeMay was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota and moved to Normal, Illinois in his teens. He went to Normal Community High School and participated in school plays and got into both singing and acting...

as Ryan Dallion and Louise Robey

Louise Robey

Louise Ann Robey is a Canadian singer-songwriter, model, and actress.-Early life and career:Born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Robey was educated throughout Europe and attended the Royal Ballet School. Discovered by French photographer Jacques Henri Lartigue while sunbathing in the French Riviera,...

as Michelle Foster. It was created by Frank Mancuso, Jr. and Larry B. Williams originally under the title of The 13th Hour, and the series ran for 72 episodes. Mancuso, Jr. never intended to link the television show directly to the film series, but he utilized "the idea of Friday the 13th, which is that it symbolizes bad luck and curses". The creators wanted to tie‑in Jason′s trademark hockey mask to the series, but the idea was discarded so that the show could have a chance to exist on its own. Mancuso, Jr. was afraid that mentioning any events from the films would take the audience away from "the new world that we were trying to create". The decision to name the show Friday the 13th, over the original title, was made because Mancuso, Jr. believed a "Friday the 13th" moniker would better help to sell the show to networks. Filming took place in Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. Friday the 13th: The Series aired in first-run syndication, initially in a late-night spot; the success of the series as a late-night show prompted some broadcasting stations to move it to primetime. Produced on a budget estimated below $500,000 per episode, the first season placed second in the male 18 to 49 year old demographic, just behind Paramount′s Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...

. In addition, the first season placed fifth in the female 18 to 49 year old demographic.

In September 2003, during a panel session at the Maniafest convention, Sean S. Cunningham spoke about the possibility of bringing Friday the 13th to television, with the series focusing on a group of teenagers living in the Crystal Lake area. On October 22, 2005, Cunningham discussed the potential series further. He explained that the idea was to call the series Crystal Lake Chronicles, and "set [it] in a town with all this Jason history". The series would focus more on "coming-of-age issues", in a similar style to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dawson's Creek
Dawson's Creek
Dawson's Creek is an American teen drama television series which debuted on January 20, 1998, on The WB Television Network and was produced by Sony Pictures Television. The show is set in the fictional seaside town of Capeside, Massachusetts, and in Boston, Massachusetts, during the later seasons...

, and Smallville
Smallville (TV series)
Smallville is an American television series developed by writers/producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar based on the DC Comics character Superman, originally created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The television series was initially broadcast by The WB Television Network , premiering on October...

, with Jason as more of a recurring "background" character.

Novels

"I couldn't believe it. He started writing this book with low expectations, but a few pages in, he was already enjoying himself. He'd found a way to tell the story in his own interesting way – with his own imprint – and he wrote the book in less than a week. Dad never wrote a book that he didn't like."

— David Avallone on his father′s experience writing Friday the 13th Part 3

Six of the 12 films have been adapted into novels

Novelization

A novelization is a novel that is written based on some other media story form rather than as an original work.Novelizations of films usually add background material not found in the original work to flesh out the story, because novels are generally longer than screenplays...

—Friday the 13th 1 - 3, Jason Lives, Jason X, and Freddy vs. Jason—with Friday the 13th Part 3 being adapted twice. The first novel was Michael Avallone

Michael Avallone

Michael Avallone was a prolific American author of mystery and secret agent fiction, as well as many novels based upon various television series and films...

′s 1982 adaptation of Friday the 13th Part 3; Avallone had previously adapted Beneath the Planet of the Apes
Beneath the Planet of the Apes
Beneath the Planet of the Apes is a 1970 American science fiction film directed by Ted Post and written by Paul Dehn. It is the second of five films in the original Planet of the Apes series produced by Arthur P. Jacobs...

and Shock Treatment
Shock Treatment
Shock Treatment is a 1981 musical-black comedy film and a follow-up to the film The Rocky Horror Picture Show. While not an outright sequel, the movie does feature several characters from the movie portrayed by different actors and several Rocky Horror actors portraying new characters...

. The author chose to use an alternate ending, one that was filmed for Part 3 but never used, as the conclusion for his adaptation. In the alternate ending, Chris, who is in a canoe, hears her boyfriend Rick′s voice and immediately runs back to the house. When she opens the door, Jason is standing there with a machete and decapitates her. The next book was not published until 1986, when Simon Hawke

Simon Hawke

Simon Hawke is an American author of mainly science fiction and fantasy novels. He was born Nicholas Valentin Yermakov, but began writing as Simon Hawke in 1984 and later changed his legal name to Hawke. He has also written near future adventure novels under the penname "J. D...

adapted Jason Lives. Hawke would also adapt the first three films into novels, and his adaptation of the original Friday the 13th was published in 1987, with novelizations of Part 2 & 3 both being published in 1988. Hawke′s first adaptation, Jason Lives, introduced the character of Elias Voorhees, Jason′s father, who was supposed to appear in the film before being cut by the studio. The book explains how Elias has Jason′s body buried, instead of the planned cremation, after his death in The Final Chapter.

In 1994, four young adult novels

Young adult literature

Young-adult fiction or young adult literature , also juvenile fiction, is fiction written for, published for, or marketed to adolescents and young adults, roughly ages 14 to 21. The Young Adult Library Services of the American Library Association defines a young adult as "someone between the...

were released under the title of Friday the 13th. These stories focused on different people finding Jason′s mask and becoming possessed by his spirit, but the actual character did not appear in the novels. In 2003 and 2005, Black Flame

Black Flame

Black Flame was an imprint of BL Publishing, the publishing arm of Games Workshop and a sister imprint to the Black Library and Solaris Books. Black Flame was devoted to publishing cult fiction in the fields of science fiction, fantasy and horror...

published novelizations of Freddy vs. Jason and Jason X. After the release of the Jason X novel, Black Flame began publishing two series of novels. One set was published under the Jason X title, while the second set used the Friday the 13th moniker. The Jason X series consisted of four sequels to the 2005 adaptation. The first to be published was Jason X: The Experiment, which saw the government attempting to exploit Jason's indestructibility to create an army of "super soldiers". The second novel, Planet of the Beast, follows the efforts of Dr. Bardox and his crew as they try to clone a comatose Jason and stay alive when Jason awakens. Death Moon revolves around Jason crash-landing at Moon Camp Americana, and the final novel, To The Third Power, is about the discovery of a Jason clone underneath a prison.

The Friday the 13th series of novels are not connected to the Jason X series and do not continue any story set forth by the films. Instead, each novel developed the character of Jason in its own way. Friday the 13th: Church of the Divine Psychopath has Jason resurrected by a religious cult. In Friday the 13th: Hell Lake, a recently executed serial killer, Wayne Sanchez, persuades Jason to help him escape back to the real world. In Hate-Kill-Repeat, two religious serial killers attempt to find Jason at Crystal Lake, believing that the three of them share the same contempt for those that break the moral

Morality

Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...

code. The Jason Strain places Jason on an island with a group of death row convicts—placed there by television executives running a reality game show—while a scientist attempts to create an age-retarding "super drug" from Jason's DNA. Instead, she creates a virus that reanimates the dead into zombies. The character of Pamela Voorhees returns from the grave in Carnival of Maniacs, and she searches for Jason, who is now part of a traveling sideshow and about to be auctioned off to the highest bidder.

Comic books

Since New Line Cinema

New Line Cinema

′s acquisition of the franchise, several Friday the 13th comic books have been published by Topps Comics

Topps Comics

Topps Comics is a division of the American trading card publisher and gum/candy distributor the Topps Company, Inc. that published comic books from 1993–1998, beginning its existence during a short comics-industry boom that attracted many investors and new companies...

, Avatar Press

Avatar Press

Avatar Press is an independent American publisher of comic books, founded in 1996 by William A. Christensen, and based in Rantoul, Illinois.Avatar initially published only mini-series; however, they have since begun to branch out...

, and DC Comics

DC Comics

DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...

imprint

Imprint

In the publishing industry, an imprint can mean several different things:* As a piece of bibliographic information about a book, it refers to the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication as given at the foot or on the verso of its title page.* It can mean a trade name...

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...

. The first comic book release for the franchise was the 1993 Topps Comics adaptation of Jason Goes to Hell, written by Andy Mangels

Andy Mangels

Andy Mangels is an American science fiction author who has written novels, comics, and magazine articles, and produced DVD collections, mostly focusing on media in popular culture...

. The three-issue series was a condensed version of the film with a few added scenes. Topps Comics published another series in 1995, with Nancy A. Collins

Nancy A. Collins

Nancy A. Collins is a United States horror fiction writer best known for her series of vampire novels featuring her character Sonja Blue. Collins has alsowritten for comic books, including the Swamp Thing series, Jason Vs...

writing a three-issue, non‑canonical miniseries involving a crossover between Jason and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre's Leatherface

Leatherface

Leatherface is the main antagonist in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre horror-film series and its spin-offs. He wears masks made of human skin and engages in murder and cannibalism alongside his inbred family. He is considered by many to be one of the first major slasher film villains alongside Michael...

. The story involves Jason stowing away aboard a train and eventually meeting Leatherface. The two initially become friends, with Leatherface adopting Jason into the former′s family. After a series of misunderstandings, Jason and Leatherface turn on each other.

On May 13, 2005, New Line first exercised their rights to use the Friday the 13th moniker when they, along with Avatar comics, released a special issue of Friday the 13th. Written by Brian Pulido

Brian Pulido

Brian Pulido is a creator, writer and producer of comic books and films.-Early life:Growing up in Long Branch, New Jersey, Pulido first developed an interest in the horror genre after the release of Night of the Living Dead when he was a child.-Comic book career:Pulido has created, written or...

and illustrated by Mike Wolfer and Greg Waller, the story takes place after the events of Freddy vs. Jason, where siblings Miles and Laura Upland inherit Camp Crystal Lake. Knowing that Jason caused the recent destruction, Laura, unknown to her brother, sets out to kill Jason with a paramilitary

Paramilitary

A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....

group so that she and her brother can sell the property. The issue pre‑sold more than 17,500 copies. Avatar released a three-issue miniseries titled Friday the 13th: Bloodbath in September 2005. The series was written by Brian Pulido, illustrated by Mike Wolfer and Andrew Dalhouse, and revolves around a group of teenagers who come to Camp Tomorrow, a camp that sits on Crystal Lake, for work and a "party-filled weekend". The teenagers begin to discover that they share common family backgrounds and soon awaken Jason, who proceeds to kill them. Brian Pulido returned for a third time in October 2005 to write another special issue for Avatar, titled Jason X. Picking up after the events of the Jason X film, Jason is now on Earth 2 where a bioengineer, Kristen, attempts to subdue him in hopes that she can use his regenerative tissue to save her own life and the lives of those she loves. In February 2006, Avatar published their final Friday the 13th comic, a two-issue miniseries titled Friday the 13th: Jason vs. Jason X. The series was written and illustrated by Mike Wolfer. The story takes place after the events of the film Jason X, where a salvage team discovers the spaceship Grendel and awakens a regenerated Jason Voorhees. The "original" Jason and Über-Jason, a version of Jason with mechanical limbs, are drawn into a battle to the death. In June 2006, a one-shot comic titled Friday the 13th: Fearbook was released, written by Mike Wolfer with art by Sebastian Fiumara. In the comic, Jason is captured and experimented upon by the Trent Organization. Jason escapes and seeks out Violet, the survivor of Friday the 13th: Bloodbath, whom the Trent Organization is holding in their Crystal Lake headquarters.

In December 2006, Wildstorm began publishing its own series of comic books under the Friday the 13th title. The first set was a six-issue miniseries that involves Jason′s return to Crystal Lake, a lone survivor′s tale of the murder of her friends by a monster, a new revelation about the evil surrounding Crystal Lake, and the truth of what Jason embodies. The miniseries pre‑sold approximately 60,318 copies altogether, with each issue pre‑selling 15,800, 9,600, 8,964, 8,637, 8,715, and 8,602 copies, respectively. On July 11 and August 15, 2007, Wildstorm published a two part special titled Friday the 13th: Pamela's Tale. The two issue comic book covers Pamela Voorhees' journey to Camp Crystal Lake and the story of her pregnancy with Jason as she recounts it to hitchhiker Annie, a camp counselor who is killed in the original film. The miniseries pre‑sold a combined 16,051 copies.

"I did about a 30 page treatment for the potential sequel, turned it in, and they all backed it. [...] After some time passed and the Ash thing had gone away [...] the New Line licensing guys started talking about doing it as a comic book. [...] while I was at New Line [...] I was trying to encourage it along as best I could, knowing [the comic] was the only way it was going to see the light of day."

— Jeff Katz on how the Freddy vs. Jason sequel became a comic

Wildstorm released another comic book special, titled Friday the 13th: How I Spent My Summer Vacation, consisting of two issues that were released on September 12 and October 10, 2007. The comic book provides insight into the psychology of Jason Voorhees as he befriends a boy born with a skull deformity. The first issue of How I Spent My Summer Vacation pre‑sold approximately 7,837 copies. Wildstorm released a six-issue sequel to Freddy vs. Jason, titled Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash
Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash
Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash is a six-issue comic book limited series that was released in November 2007 and ran until March 2008. It was published by Wildstorm, Dynamite Entertainment, and DC Comics. Based on the original Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash film treatment by Jeff Katz, the story serves as a...

, starring the two aforementioned killers and Ash

Ash Williams

Ashley J. "Ash" Williams is the protagonist in the Evil Dead horror film franchise, played by Bruce Campbell, and created by director Sam Raimi. Throughout the series, Ash has to face off against his loved ones inside an abandoned cabin as they are possessed by "deadites", the evil souls of the dead...

from the Evil Dead film series. The story focuses on Freddy using the Necronomicon

Necronomicon

The Necronomicon is a fictional grimoire appearing in the stories by horror writer H. P. Lovecraft and his followers. It was first mentioned in Lovecraft's 1924 short story "The Hound", written in 1922, though its purported author, the "Mad Arab" Abdul Alhazred, had been quoted a year earlier in...

, which is in the basement of the Voorhees home, to escape from Jason′s subconscious and "gain powers unlike anything he′s had before". Freddy attempts to use Jason to retrieve the book, but Ash, who is working at the local S‑Mart in Crystal Lake, learns of the book′s existence and sets out to destroy it once and for all. The story, by Jeff Katz, was a sequel to the Freddy vs. Jason film in development before the former film had been theatrically released. After meeting with executives, the negotiations ended and the story was shelved. Following the success of Freddy vs. Jason, the idea of including Ash was brought up again, but New Line ultimately decided they would put the story in comic book form and bring in James Kuhoric to write and Jason Craig to do the artwork. On January 9 and February 13, 2008, Wildstorm released another two-issue miniseries, titled Friday the 13th: Bad Land, which was written and illustrated by Ron Marz and Mike Huddleston, respectively. The series explores the history of Crystal Lake before Pamela and Jason Voorhees arrived. Bad Land takes place in two time frames, the "present day" and 250 years before "present day". It follows three hikers in the present and three fur trappers

Fur trade

The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of world market for in the early modern period furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most valued...

in the past, each of whom is snowed in by a blizzard at Crystal Lake. Each group experiences similar events, suggesting that there is a connection between the two groups. A one-shot comic, titled Friday the 13th: Abuser and the Abused, written by Joshua Hale Fialkov

Joshua Hale Fialkov

Joshua Hale Fialkov is an American comic book writer who primarily works in the horror genre. He is best known for Echoes, Elk's Run, I, Vampire, and the 2008 film Infected. He has been nominated for multiple Harvey Awards....

with artwork by Andy B., was released on April 30, 2008. The story involves a teenager named Maggie tricking her abusive boyfriend into travelling to Crystal Lake, where she plans to murder him, but she encounters Jason shortly after arriving at the camp. On June 24, 2009, the six-issue sequel to Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash, subtitled The Nightmare Warriors

Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors

Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors is a six-issue limited series comic book written by Jeff Katz and James Kuhoric, with art by Jason Craig. The series was published by Dynamite Entertainment and DC Comics, with imprint by Wildstorm, beginning in August 2009 and concluding in December...

, began. Written by Jeff Katz and James Kuhoric, and illustrated by Jason Craig, the miniseries has Ash and survivors of both Freddy and Jason banding together to defeat the two after Freddy is released from the world of the Deadites by government operatives who had discovered the Necronomicon.

Documentaries

There have been two documentary books released chronicling the making of the Friday the 13th films. In February 2005, FAB Press published their book containing interviews with the cast and crew of the Friday the 13th series of films. David Grove, a film journalist who has written for Fangoria
Fangoria (magazine)
Fangoria is an internationally-distributed US film fan magazine specializing in the genres of horror, slasher, splatter and exploitation films, in regular publication since 1979.-Planning:...

, Cinefantastique
Cinefantastique
Cinefantastique was a horror, fantasy, and science fiction film magazine originally started as a mimeographed fanzine in 1967, then relaunched as a glossy, offset quarterly in 1970 by publisher/editor Frederick S. Clarke...

, and various other British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

magazines detailing the creation of the Friday the 13th films, wrote the comprehensive book, Making Friday the 13th: The Legend of Camp Blood. Grove interviewed over 100 "key personnel involved in making the films" to collect "detailed production histories of each of the 11 films", not including interviews with other film professionals like Wes Craven

Wes Craven

. Grove′s book also includes previously unseen production photos which were acquired from private collections.

Eight months after the release of Grove′s book, Titan Books

Titan Books

Titan Publishing Group is an independently owned publishing company, established in 1981. It is based at offices in London, England's Bankside area. The Books Division has two main areas of publishing: film & TV tie-ins/cinema reference books; and graphic novels and comics reference/art titles. The...

, in association with Sparkplug Press, released a detailed history on the Friday the 13th series. Peter M. Bracke released Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th on October 24, 2005. The book chronicles the creation of the series up to the release of Freddy vs. Jason. Bracke spent three years researching the series and collecting more than 200 interviews from the cast and crew of each of the films. Bracke′s extensive work for the book prompted Sean S. Cunningham to provide a foreword

Foreword

A foreword is a piece of writing sometimes placed at the beginning of a book or other piece of literature. Written by someone other than the primary author of the work, it often tells of some interaction between the writer of the foreword and the book's primary author or the story the book tells...

. Crystal Lake Memories also includes images, storyboards, concept art, and publicity material that had not been released to the public. A private party was held on October 22, 2005 at Universal Studios CityWalk Hollywood for the book′s premiere.

A documentary film, titled His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th, was released in February 2009. The film was directed by Daniel Farrands, who wrote the film Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers is a 1995 American horror film and the sixth installment in the Halloween series. Directed by Joe Chappelle from a screenplay by Daniel Farrands, the plot involves the "Curse of Thorn", a mystical symbol first shown in Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers...

and a documentary on The Amityville Horror
The Amityville Horror
The Amityville Horror: A True Story is a book by Jay Anson, published in September 1977. It is also the basis of a series of films released between 1979 and 2005...

. The film was broadcast on the Starz television channel during the first week of February, and afterwards it was released on DVD on February 3, 2009. The documentary is hosted by special make‑up effects artist Tom Savini, who interviews the cast and crew members of each of the Friday the 13th films, asking them questions on the choices they did during filming. It also features interviews with journalists and other filmmakers who offer their opinion of the series.

Merchandise

In addition to the films, television series, and various literature based on the Friday the 13th franchise, there are over 100 licensed products that have grossed more than $125 million in revenue. In May 1986, Domark

Domark

Domark Software was a video games software house based in the United Kingdom. The name was derived from the given names of its founders, Dominic Wheatley and Mark Strachan...

released a Friday the 13th game for the Amstrad CPC

Amstrad CPC

The Amstrad CPC is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom,...

, Commodore 64

Commodore 64

The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...

, and ZX Spectrum

ZX Spectrum

The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...

. The plot involved the player picking a "sanctuary

Sanctuary

A sanctuary is any place of safety. They may be categorized into human and non-human .- Religious sanctuary :A religious sanctuary can be a sacred place , or a consecrated area of a church or temple around its tabernacle or altar.- Sanctuary as a sacred place :#Sanctuary as a sacred place:#:In...

" on a map, and then trying to persuade other teenagers to go hide there. Jason is "disguised as a friend" until he decides to attack the player. Three years later, LJN

LJN

LJN was an American toy company and video game publisher. It created toy lines and video games based on movies, television shows, and celebrities. It was headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, and later in Lyndhurst, New Jersey.-Founding:...

developed a game

Friday the 13th (NES game)

Friday the 13th is an action-adventure video game published by LJN for the Nintendo Entertainment System video game console. It is an adaptation of the Friday the 13th franchise....

for the Nintendo Entertainment System

Nintendo Entertainment System

The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...

. In the 2000s, Xendex developed their own Friday the 13th game, this time for mobile phone

Mobile phone

A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...

s. In the game, the player takes the role of one of the staff members at Camp Crystal Lake. While the staff is preparing the camp for its first summer weekend an "unknown stalker" begins murdering each of them. The player must discover the truth and escape the camp alive. There was also a Friday the 13th board game released in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

, which contained "blood capsules that you crunch in your mouth to create home‑made special effects".

Over the years, the characters of Friday the 13th have been marketed under various toy lines. In 1988, Screamin' toys produced a model kit

Model figure

A model figure is a scale model representing a human, monster or other creature. Human figures may be either a generic figure of a type , a historical personage , or a fictional character .Model figures are sold both as kits for enthusiast to construct and paint and as pre-built, pre-painted...

of Jason Voorhees. Six years later, Screamin' toys issued a second model kit based on Jason′s appearance in Jason Goes to Hell. Both kits are no longer in production. In 1998, as part of McFarlane Toys

McFarlane Toys

McFarlane Toys, a subsidiary of Todd McFarlane Productions, Inc., is a company started by Todd McFarlane that makes highly detailed models of characters from movies, comics, musicians, video games, and sport figures...

′s Movie Maniacs 1 collection, a figure of Jason from Jason Goes to Hell was released. Jason was one of the three most popular figures sold from Movie Maniacs 1 collection, and the other two were Freddy Krueger and Leatherface. The following year, 6 in (152.4 mm) scale models of Jason and Freddy in a glass display case were released by MacFarlane Toys. In 2002, as part of its Movie Maniacs 5 collection, McFarlane released a model of Über-Jason from Jason X. McFarlane did not release another Friday the 13th collectable until November 2006, when a 3-dimensional

3D computer graphics

3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...

movie poster was released. Since 2002, there has been a steady production of action figures, dolls, and statuettes, with more merchandise tying into the film Freddy vs. Jason.

Apart from video games and toys, the series has also seen the release of its films' soundtracks, which consist of the musical scores created by Harry Manfredini and Fred Mollin. In 1982, Gramavision Records released a LP album

LP album

The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...

of selected pieces of music from the first three films.

Impact

In December 2006, IGN

IGN

IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...

ranked Friday the 13th seventh in the top 25 film franchises. Qualifications included: the franchise must have at least three films released before December 2006; the franchises must be either a commercial or artistic success; and the franchise must have had some form of impact on popular culture. Three senior editors

Managing editor

A managing editor is a senior member of a publication's management team.In the United States, a managing editor oversees and coordinates the publication's editorial activities...

, the editor-in-chief, and IGN′s entertainment editorial manager judged the various film franchises. In commenting on Friday the 13ths seventh place ranking, the general consensus among the reviewers was that even though the Halloween franchise started the slasher genre, Friday the 13th became one of "the most influential franchises of the 1980s" and that its commercial success through 11 films, novelizations, comic books, and other collectables is proof of its legacy. ABC Online′s

ABC Online

ABC Online is the brand name in Australia for the online services of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, managed by ABC Innovation. It covers a large network of websites including those for ABC News, television, radio, and video-on-demand through ABC iView.ABC Online is one of Australia's...

Arts and Entertainment reporter, Gary Kemble, makes note of the popularity of the franchise throughout popular culture. Kemble points out that Jason′s mask, which was not adopted until the third film in the series, is one of the most widely recognizable images in popular culture. Talking with Brenna O'Brien, co‑founder of the Fridaythe13thfilms.com website, the pair discusses how the fan base of the franchise has become so impassioned with the series that they have created films, latex body suits to emulate Jason′s appearance, and tattoos of Jason and the Friday the 13th moniker on their body.

"Everybody in the audience imitated hoot‑owls and hyenas. Another girl [in the film] went to her room and started to undress. Five guys sitting together [in the theater] started a chant: 'We want boobs!'"

— Karnick believes that this excerpt from Ebert′s review of Friday the 13th Part 2, shows how critics have misunderstood the point the Friday the 13th films have tried to make.

S. T. Karnick, editor of American Culture, wrote an article for the National Review
National Review
National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...

detailing the impact Friday the 13th has had on the slasher genre and noting that the reasons critics have deplored the films are the same reasons why the franchise has had such a strong influence. Karnick explained that Friday the 13th did not try and recreate the same "clever" film that John Carpenter made in 1978, but instead "[codified] the formula" of Halloween, and "[boiled] it down to its essentials" so that it could be copied by other filmmakers. In his assessment, Friday the 13th changed the horror genre by purposefully not providing back‑stories for characters so that when the audience witnessed a character′s death, they are "strangely unaffected". Instead, Friday the 13th focuses on the history and motivations of the killer, who would exact revenge not on the people directly responsible, but on innocent people—a formula Karnick notes was replicated in A Nightmare on Elm Street, Child′s Play, Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer
I Know What You Did Last Summer
I Know What You Did Last Summer is a 1997 American horror film. The film stars Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe and Freddie Prinze Jr. The screenplay was written by Kevin Williamson, writer of Scream, and very loosely based on Lois Duncan's popular novel of the same title...

, Saw, the Hannibal Lecter films, and the Halloween sequels. As Karnick sees it, "these films spoke directly to fears of increasing crime and social dislocation [and] provided audiences with ways to detach from these worries and conquer their fears of violence by laughing at it."

In Karnick′s eyes, contemporary critics have failed to see how the film has affected audiences and subsequently branded the film series as "both irresponsible (for numbing audiences to violence) and puritanical (for showing the murders of sexually active teens)". Quoting director John Carpenter, Karnick emphasized that "teens thus dispatched became victims not as punishment for sexual activity but simply because they were too preoccupied to notice the presence of a murderer". Pointing to 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...

as a prime example of how critics have misunderstood the films (Ebert wrote that during a screening of Friday the 13th Part 2, he noticed that the audience had no sympathy for the victims and cheered during death scenes), Karnick explains that Ebert′s remarks show how the film series forces "audiences to experience the very thing that motivates the murders: a lack of compassion". In closing, Karnick suggested that these films were not puritanical, but proved that audiences "could be just as indifferent and callous as the characters in the films".

External links

Databases

Friday the 13th film series at Allmovie
Friday the 13th film series at Box Office Mojo
Box Office Mojo
Box Office Mojo is a website that tracks box office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way. Brandon Gray started the site in 1999. In 2002, Gray partnered with Sean Saulsbury and they grew the site to nearly two million readers when, in July 2008, the company was purchased by Amazon.com through...

Miscellaneous

Fridaythe13thfilms.com
Interview with Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti - Writers of Windstorm′s six-issue Friday the 13th comic
Bloody Disgusting - "13 days of Friday the 13th" (A series of articles exploring the series)

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.