Welcome to Wild Card Wednesday and another installment of the Original vs. Remake series I do with Tiffany A. White. This month’s movie is Friday the 13th. I’ll do the original, and Tiffany will do the remake on Friday.
(I’m sort of envious since the remake has the hot dude from Supernatural in it. I like his sideburns.)
The Movie
Friday the 13th was released in summer of 1980. It starred a cast of young, virtual unknowns which included Kevin Bacon, Adrienne King, and Harry Crosby (the son of Bing Crosby).
The most famous person in the film was Betsey Palmer. Ms. Palmer had been a regular on the game show I’ve Got a Secret, a guest on numerous TV shows, and had appeared in several movies in the 1950s. She agreed to work on Friday the 13th because she needed a new car.
Homemade summary: A group of young adults is terrorized by a killer at a remote summer camp.
Watch the trailer:
Making the Movie
Friday the 13th was filmed in New Jersey.
Camp NoBeBoSco (a Boy Scout camp in Hardwick Township, New Jersey) was used for Camp Crystal Lake. The in-town scenes were shot in Blairstown, New Jersey.
Filming started after Labor Day and went into October. Though the weather started out pleasant, it quickly turned cool. During the final days of filming, the temperature hit lows of 28 degrees.
Because the film’s budget was small, the crew worked long hours. Two different times, production was halted while the people in charge tried to make payroll.
The Gore
Tom Savini did the special effects for the film, which is why they are so good.
Savini has worked on movies such as George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, Stephen King’s Creepshow, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. He’s very good at what he does.
If you’re interested in learning more about the “how to” of the special effects, click here to watch a 10 minute You Tube video about it.
[Fun Factoid: Tom Savini occasionally appears in movies. His most memorable role—in my opinion—is Sex Machine in From Dusk Til Dawn.]
Influences
Sean S. Cunningham produced, and Steve Miner was editor. Both Miner and Cunningham had worked on the 1972 cult classic Last House on the Left. They were inspired to make a slasher film by the success of John Carpenter’s Halloween.
Victor Miller wrote the screenplay. In order to prepare, he watched Halloween and picked out elements that made it scary.
He decided to work with the following elements:
- Prior Evil — Twenty years before the events in Friday the 13th, Jason Voorhees drowned in Crystal Lake while two counselors snuck off for a tryst.
- Help is not coming — The adolescents in the movie were cut off from adult help because of the remote location.
- If you have premarital sex, you die — this one should be self-explanatory.
Popularity
The movie was panned by critics; nevertheless it was the blockbuster hit of the summer of 1980. This is due (in part) to two factors.
- The penultimate scene: what made the movie unique was the final five minutes. It is, by far, the scariest part of the film. I hate to do this, but if you want to see it, click here. You won’t see anything gross. It’s just weird, and it catches the first time viewer totally off guard.
- Though Friday the 13th was an independent film, it was unique because Paramount picked it up for national distribution and Warner Bros. picked it up for international distribution. It is very possible that, without these big names, the distribution would not have been as wide.
The Music
That scary friggin’ music.
It has become ubiquitous, even to people who have never seen Friday the 13th. If you’ve never heard it, click here to listen to it. You won’t see any gross images.
Harry Manfredi composed this theme. The “ki ki ki ma ma ma” sound is from a line in the movie.
Adrienne King Stalker
The lone survivor of the carnage in Friday the 13th was a character named Alice Hardy. Adrienne King is the actress who played Alice Hardy. Adrienne also appeared in the first five minutes of Friday the 13th II. It’s probably not too hard to guess what happened to her.
Adrienne had her own true life horror. I’ll share what little I know about that here.
Between the release of Friday the 13th and Friday the 13th Part II, Ms. King was the victim of a stalker.
In the early 1980s, stalker laws did not exist. Law enforcement officials told Ms. King they were powerless to help her until something physical was done to her.
These laws changed in 1989 with the murder of Rebecca Shaeffer. But in the early 80s, Ms. King had to ride it out.
Something happened that landed her in jail for one night. I’ve not been able to find out quite what this was, so I don’t want to speculate on it. The night in jail convinced Ms. King’s stalker to back off.
Ms. King was deeply affected by this experience. She disappeared from the on-screen side of the acting world and had a successful career doing voice-overs.
Very recently, she has ventured back into the acting world. I haven’t seen any of her movies, but some of them look like they might be horror. (Yaay!)
The Bottom Line
Friday the 13th changed the face of horror. The 80s became the decade of the slasher movie. Movies such as My Bloody Valentine, Prom Night, Sleepaway Camp, The Stepfather, and A Nightmare on Elm Street scared the holy guacamole out of my generation.
Usually, I either recommend or don’t recommend the movies I do for this series. Friday the 13th is a bit different.
If you haven’t seen it and don’t want to see it, it doesn’t matter. You see it anyway. You’ve heard the music. You know about slasher films. The elements in Friday the 13thhave become old hat in the thirty years since its release. The movie has become a part of our collective conscience.
However, if you are horror buff who has not seen this movie, shame on you. If you truly love horror, you have to watch this at least once–even if you laugh.
Now it’s time to welcome comments. Have you seen Friday the 13th? If so, think back to the first time you saw it. Did it scare you? If you haven’t seen Friday the 13th, what is the scariest movie you’ve ever seen and why?
Be sure to check out Tiffany’s post on the remake this Friday.
Sources:
http://adrienneking.com/Bio.html
Return to Crystal Lake (a documentary) — can be found on You Tube
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Gene Lempp said:
Here is one of my fav horror flicks. Actually did a marathon of Friday 1 thru 6 one day. Watched them all in order then in reverse, yeah it was a fun day (grins). Even against modern sfx these movies still stand out as scarier then anything currently running. Oh sure, the shock factor might be a bit lower – but real fright has to do with how it makes one quiver inside, not how it grosses out their eyes (a current pointless technique).
Awesome review, Catie and loads of cool facts in there. Thanks! (ki ki ki ma ma ma)…
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Catie Rhodes said:
It’s been years since I did a Friday the 13th marathon. Or any kind of movie marathon. My attention span has deteriorated so much that I am not sure I’d be able to sit through that many movies. Which is sort of a sad thing to admit. LOL
I think the current visual gross out is due to the technical frontier of computer generated special effects. Once it gets old, it’ll be less visible.
So glad you enjoyed the review and thanks for stopping by.
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Stacy Green said:
Friday the 13th is one of the classic horror movies. I remember watching it as a kid and being terrified, and yes, the final five minutes shocked me. I agree with Gene – real fright is the reaction on the inside, and this movie captured that.
I had no idea about Adrienne King’s stalker. That’s awful. And I lol’d when you mentioned Sleepaway Camp. What a terrible movie!
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Catie Rhodes said:
There were some awful slasher movies. I wanted to list at least a few really cheesy ones to illustrate how ridiculous the genre became before it fell out of fashion. I have heard the slasher movie is making a comeback. We’ll see.
Thanks for commenting!
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Patricia Yager Delagrange said:
I never knew about the “ki ki ki ma ma ma” – that’s so cool. And I watched the video about the special effects. THAT was really good.
I’ve seen all the Friday the 13th movies and though I get a little bored with all the gore, there’s something about the darkness of the movie that makes it eery.
Thanks, Catie.
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Catie Rhodes said:
I’m so glad you enjoyed the trivia in this post. It was hard to know what to talk about because Friday the 13th is so iconic. It has become a part of our culture. Even people who have never seen it know the elements of it.
Good point about the darkness of the movies. I never thought about that aspect of it. To me, the idea of being cut off always scared me. That concept is still one of the scariest, in my opinion.
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susielindau said:
I jumped about 4 times during the trailer alone! I am not a slasher girl. With my imagination, I have nightmares for weeks.
The scariest movie for me was the first Halloween. I went with a date and was completely undone by the performance of Jaime Lee Curtis.
When we got back to my apartment, said boyfriend came out of the kitchen with a butcher knife! I screamed so loud, I was surprised none of my neighbors called the police! I didn’t sleep for 3 nights!
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Catie Rhodes said:
Did he come out with butcher knife as a prank? If so, how mean!
Halloween is classic. It has been years since I watched it, but I remember how very scary it was the first time I saw it. The idea of the faceless killer who just keeps coming is interesting. It’s sort of like life, you know? You can’t stop the bad things from happening, and most of the time you can’t even see them for bad things when they first appear.
Thanks for commenting.
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Rhonda Hopkins said:
Friday the 13th scared the crap out of me the first time I saw it. I’ve seen all the 13 movies, but none scared me as bad as the first, although they were scary – some a little too gory. I know we’ve had this discussion before, but I like those best that are scary without the gore. I agree with Gene. The gore is pointless. My favorite all time horror flick is the original Halloween. Love that movie!
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Catie Rhodes said:
I agree with you Rhonda–none of the 13th movies scared me like the first one did. Some of the stories were a little more developed. Some were more gory. But nothing scared me like that final five minutes of the first one did.
I agree with you about the gore. One of my all time favorite horror movies is Rosemary’s Baby. No gore. It’s just the psychological aspect of it all.
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Rhonda Hopkins said:
Rosemary’s baby was definitely spooky. And Psycho. All without the gore.
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Julie Glover said:
I am not a slasher fan. I never saw any of these horror franchises, and I wanted to kill the jerk who took me to see Pet Semetary on a date. LOL. But that music is awesome…perfect for a horror film.
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Catie Rhodes said:
That music is great, isn’t it? The only one that is better is tubular bells from The Exorcist.
No gore. I promise.
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Julie Glover said:
Oh yeah, that’s even awesomer! (So not a word.)
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Rhonda Hopkins said:
Oh me too, Julie! I had a jerk take me to see that and it is one of two films, I really wanted to leave before the end, but he wouldn’t. The other was Last House on the Left. I don’t scare easily and love the horror genre – but those two movies creeped me out in ways I can’t express.
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Catie Rhodes said:
Last House on the Left is horrifying. Especially the original. If anything, the remake was softer. I think I’d have gotten up and left that fool sitting in the theater by himself.
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Julie Glover said:
(I did walk out of The Fly on a date! Right when she started giving birth to a maggot. Blech!)
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August McLaughlin said:
I haven’t seen the film, other than a few bits I snuck in before I was old enough to watch horror movies, in my parents’ opinions.
You’ve inspired me to check it out. As a side note, I kinda dig Friday the 13th when it comes around. There’s something extra special about great things happening on a day that people anticipate the freaky.
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Catie Rhodes said:
You’ll have to let me know what you think of Friday the 13th. I suspect you’ll find it laughable if you’re a horror fan, but every horror fan needs to see it. I first saw 13th when I was pretty young. It came out in 1980, and I saw it on HBO when it was relatively new. So I was 8 or 9. I think that was my first taste of scaring myself for fun, and I was an instant addict.
Thanks for commenting!
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alandhopewell said:
I didn’t see FRIDAY THE 13TH until years after the initial release, and by then, I’d read all about it in FAMOUS MONSTERS and FANGORIA; not really scary, although I loved the ending.
The scariest film I’d ever seen, to me, was NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD-my brother Mike and I were ten and twelve, respectively, when we saw it in initial release in 1968. We’d never seen anything like it at the time, particularly the good guy getting killed at the end.
There’s more to it, though. NIGHT OF TGHE LIVING DEAD featured a cast of unknowns, so you didn’t have a recognizable Karloff or Price to remind you that it was just a film. Also, it was shot in grainy black and white, just like documentaries and news specials we saw on tv.
Finally….this film came out at a time when the nation was in turmoil, and had been for several years-JFK, MLK, RFK, Apollo I, Vietnam, To a twelve year old, America was beginning to get scary. Then, along comes this film, about everything you know, and love, dying, and rising again to feed on you….
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD WAS 1968.
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Catie Rhodes said:
Alan, your breakdown of the meaning/psychology behind Night of the Living Dead really interested me. I too believe that horror is a reflection of what is going on in our society at any given time. I recently watched a documentary about the psychology behind horror films. It really captured my interest, even though I’m not a social commentator. The name of the documentary was Nightmares in Red, White, and Blue. It might interest you if you get the chance to watch it.
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alandhopewell said:
Stephen King wrote a nonfiction work about horror, DANSE MACARBE, back in the early eighties; it was about why we like horror, and how it works on us; quite interesting.
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Jamie Manning said:
When Friday the 13th came out on video, my older sister and her girlfriends rented it one night and had a slumber party. I was maybe 10 years old, and I snuck into the dining room and crouched down by the wall to watch it with them (my mom wouldn’t let me, so naturally I did, lol). Well…I spent the next three weeks sleeping in my mom’s bed because of nightmares–but it was awesome! Been a HUGE horror fan ever since!
Thanks for such an awesome post–I love learning the behind-the-scenes stuff on my favorite classics!
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Catie Rhodes said:
Your story made me giggle. I am sorry, but it sounded so much like my early experiences with horror films. I remember sleeping with my closet door barricaded after a combination of reading Stephen King’s “Boogeyman” and watching Nightmare on Elm Street. And I was a teenager! LOL
Glad you enjoyed the post and thanks for commenting.
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Emma said:
As a horror movie fan, I’m ashamed to say I haven’t seen this film in full, so yes, definitely shame on me. I always seem to catch a few minutes here and there but this year, I’m going to watch it on Halloween.
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Catie Rhodes said:
How cool! I want to have a horror Halloween this year, but I want to watch a really scary movie. Preferably one I haven’t seen before. Thanks for commenting!
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richardwhittle@rocketmail.com said:
This Movie scared the peewaddin’s outa me! I actually saw it in the theater sitting next to a girl I was trying to impress. As a 14 year old boy unaccustomed to this type of cinematic experience, I fear I failed in my attempt to be the macho stud I wanted her to think I was! Lol. Prior to this movie I only had ‘The night of the living dead’ to torture my imagination when I found myself home alone on dark cold nights.
I always thought the words to the background music were; Kill Kill kill kill, die die die die.. Apparently my mind was making it even scarier than it was meant to be!
I have pointed out to my own children that the promiscuous characters in horror films were always the first to be killed. (Kinda like wearing a red shirt on Star Trek) and that should I learn of their involvement in any ‘indiscretions’ I would be taking on the roll of Jason Voorhees in their soon to be short lives. Who’d a thought ‘Friday the 13th’ could be used as a vehicle to promote abstinence! LOL..
Thanks Catie!
Rich-
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Catie Rhodes said:
Your story about the Friday the 13th date is hysterical. It made me try to think of what the first horror movie I saw at the theater was. I can’t remember right now, but you’ve given me something to ponder all evening.
When I was very small, my dad took me to the movies to see a kids’ movie. We went into the wrong theater and sat through the first few minutes of Jaws. Seeing that at such a young age ruined any kind of open water experience for me. I love the ocean but won’t go in. Same for lakes and ponds. Something evil is always lurking beneath the surface. LOL
Your advice to your kids sounds about like what my parents told me.
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borntolie said:
It’s been a while sense I’ve seen the original, but I remember liking it. Have you seen Jason x yet? It’s bad, and not in that Killer Clowns From Outerspace bad that is so bad it’s good…but just bad. Only thing that makes it worth while is the sleeping bag scene in the holodeck.
I keep forgetting how old I am. The thought that someone who likes horror movies could have possibly missed seeing the first Friday the 13th confused the hell out of me…until you said the movie was 30 years old.
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Catie Rhodes said:
If I have seen Jason X, I have forgotten it. This is not unusual with me. I read so much and watch so many shows that story lines slip away pretty easily if they are not remarkable.
It is amazing that things people of our generation took as run-of-the-mill are totally lost on the current generation. Examples:
1. A YA author asked her facebook followers which “classic” horror movie they had heard of between Rosemary’s Baby and The Omen. None of them had even heard of Rosemary’s Baby. Few had heard of The Omen. And I was aware of both by the time I was 15. Great horror movies (IMHO).
2. My teenage neighbor was wearing a shirt with Jimi Hendrix on it. I said, “Oh, I love his music!” She said, “I don’t know who he is. I just thought the shirt was cool.” Again, I was listening to Hendrix when I was 14-15.
Gotta love the cell phone generation.
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borntolie said:
I remember talking to a waitress one night back when I used to spend all my time drinking coffee until three or four in the morning. We, as in me and my table of friends, got talking about David Bowie and the waitress said she didn’t know who he was. The rest of it went something like this…
me: the guy from Labyrinth
her: huh?
me: with the muppets?
her: huh?
me: Jim Henson…
her: who?
me: …Kermit, Kermit the ****ing frog…
her: ohhh, ok. This Bowie guy did the voice for Kermit the frog?
me: I need something stronger than coffee…
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Tiffany A White said:
I LOVE Friday the 13th!! The movies and the actual calendar days… because of the movies. I’m big into horror and slashers, and Friday the 13th is to thank! The idea of being alone, in the woods, in cabins, by the lake, you name it – it terrifies me! At Halloween, when kids ring the doorbell with that Jason hockey mask on, I cringe. But it’s a good cringe! And you’re right, the music is hella-scary.
I had no idea about the Ms. King story. As always, Catie, you teach me something new!
GREAT post! Now I’m off to go rewatch the remake for my Friday contribution to the series…
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Catie Rhodes said:
I love Friday the 13th calendar days. Like Halloween, they feel magical. The best Halloween costume I’ve seen was this guy (he wasn’t a kid) who came down our road wearing these awful filthy clothes, a hockey mask, and carrying a running chainsaw. He was awesome. We let him have the rest of our candy and went inside for the evening.
Glad you enjoyed the post. I’ll look forward to reading your post on Friday.
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Louise Behiel said:
You are one of the few people in the world, Catie who could make me consider watching a horror flick. well done. I haven’t rented it yet, but you never know.
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Lauralynn Elliott said:
As I mentioned on Tiffany’s blog, Friday the 13th was the first slasher movie I had ever seen. I was surprised when you mentioned Halloween was first…I thought Friday the 13th was first. I’m more into eerie ghost stories than slasher movies, but this one was a classic. I never saw any of the sequels, though. I might consider watching the remake…if my husband will watch it with me.
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