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| Friday the 13th | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Credits | |
| Title: | Friday the 13th |
| Directed by: | Sean S. Cunningham |
| Written by: | Victor Miller Ron Kurz |
| Produced by: | Alvin Geiler Steve Miner |
| Music by: | Harry Manfredini |
| Cinematography: | Barry Abrams |
| Edited by: | Bill Freda |
| Production | |
| Distributed by: | Paramount Pictures Georgetown Productions, Inc. Sean S. Cunningham Films |
| Released: | May 9th, 1980 |
| Rating: | R |
| Running time: | 95 min. |
| Country: | USA |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $700,000 (estimated) |
| Gross: | $5,816,321 |
| Navigation | |
| Previous: | — |
| Next: | Friday the 13th Part 2 |
Friday the 13th is an American horror film of the slasher sub-genre directed by Sean S. Cunningham and produced by Steve Miner. It is the first in a series that spans more than ten sequels and is arguably one of the most influential modern horror films of all time. Friday the 13th was remade in 2009 by Marcus Nispel, but only includes snapshots of events chronicled in the original movie.
The plot of the movie is loosely inspired by the 1971 Mario Bava film Reazione a catena (known in the US market as Bay of Blood). The story involves a group of young campground counselors who decide to repair and re-open Camp Crystal Lake for the summer. They soon discover that Camp Crystal Lake has a dark and sordid history and the past comes back to haunt them as an unseen figure begins killing off the unsuspecting camp counselors one at a time.
Cast[]
Appearances[]
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Miscellaneous
Production[]
The genesis of Friday the 13th actually began with its title, though the seeds that eventually gave birth to the super-successful franchise actually began a decade earlier. Producer Sean S. Cunningham had already established a substantial foothold into the horror genre with the 1972 thriller The Last House on the Left, but it was his connection to theater chain owners Stephen Minasian and Philip Scuderi that paved the way for his critical success with Friday the 13th. In addition to the Esquire Theaters chain, Minasian and Scuderi established a film distribution firm known as the Hallmark Releasing Corporation, which managed to put obscure low-budget films such as Tombs of the Blind Dead, Mark of the Devil and Twitch of the Death Nerve into the public eye. Mario Bava's Twitch of the Death Nerve, known in some markets as Bay of Blood proved to have an influential impact on Cunningham's work with Friday the 13th. [1]
The Last House on the Left pigeonholed Cunningham into the horror genre, and though he tried to branch out into more family-friendly films, his work on projects such Manny's Orphans and Here Come the Tigers proved to be box-office bombs. Desperate for a commercial hit, Cunningham realized that there was a fresh market for suspenseful psycho-thrillers when an independent film by a director named John Carpenter became an overnight blockbuster. The film was Halloween.
In the wake of Halloween 's success, Cunningham began putting together ideas for a film entitled Long Night at Camp Blood. He later ditched the title concept when he discovered that nobody had laid a claim to the title Friday the 13th. Working with only the bare bones of a concept, Cunningham took out a full page ad in Variety magazine with the pronouncement "From the producer of Last House on the Left comes the most terrifying film ever made". It was his hope that the ad would hook investors, but he knew that he would need a strong script to make it work. [1]
Cunningham hired Victor Miller, who had worked with him on Manny's Orphans to write the script. Miller had very strong ideas about how Friday the 13th should be laid out. He wanted a group of teenagers placed into an environment where they would be completely isolated from the world with no adult influences or any sense of protection. [2] Miller drafted a script and presented it to Stephen Minasian and Philip Scuderi. Scuderi hated the script and felt that it was too tepid so he hired his own writer Ron Kurz to buff up Miller's script to give it some more meat. The script went through many re-writes and the final draft for Friday the 13th bore little resemblance to Miller's original concept for the film. [1]
Before its release, some scenes had to be re-shot, mostly close-ups and shots involving the film's climax. The reshoots were filmed in Connecticut, close to Sean Cunningham's home.
Notes & Trivia[]
- The tagline for this film is, "They were warned... they are doomed... and on Friday the 13th, nothing will save them.".
- Friday the 13th has been made commercially available on Betamax, VHS, Laserdisc, DVD and Blu Ray. It was included as part of the Friday the 13th: From Crystal Lake to Manhattan Ultimate DVD collection and part of the Friday the 13th the Complete Blu Ray Collection.
- The opening sequence featuring the deaths of Barry and Claudette was originally intended to be a longer scene, which involved Pamela Voorhees chasing them around a barn at the camp. Shooting of these scenes was to commence in September of 1979, but due to heavy snowfall, they had to be scaled down. According to special effects artist Tom Savini, these are the only omitted scenes from the final draft of the shooting script. [1]
- On the set of Friday the 13th, older cast members such as Kevin Bacon poked fun at fourteen-year-old Ari Lehman (Jason) for "getting into character". [2]
- Steve Miner directed the closing scene of Alice in the hospital with Sergeant Tierney. Sean Cunningham and director of photography Barry Abrams were both unavailable to film the scene.
- Adam Marcus, who would later go on to direct Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday was a visitor on set during production of Friday the 13th. [1]
- This is Alvin Geiler's first, and to date, only known film work. He is an executive producer on this movie.
- This is Bill Freda's second film work as an editor. It is his first work in the horror genre.
- The variant cover to Evil Dead 2: Dark Ones Rising #1 is an homage to the film poster from Friday the 13th.
- In the 1996 film Scream, the masked killer known as Ghostface telephoned Casey Becker and forced her to play a trivia game with him. He asked her to name the killer from Friday the 13th. Casey incorrectly answered "Jason", and Ghostface corrected her, indicating that it was Mrs. Voorhees who was the killer, and that Jason did not take center stage until sequel.
See also[]
Friday the 13th media
The World of Jason Voorhees
External Links[]
- Friday the 13th at AMG
- Friday the 13th at IMDB
- Friday the 13th at Wikipedia
- Friday the 13th at Rotten Tomatoes