Friday the 13th (1980)

Camp counselors are stalked and murdered by an unknown assailant while trying to reopen a summer camp that was the site of a child's drowning.

Director:

Sean S. Cunningham

Writers:

Victor Miller (screenplay), Sean S. Cunningham (story),

Stars:

Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Jeannine Taylor

4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Betsy Palmer	...	Mrs. Pamela Voorhees
Adrienne King	...	Alice Hardy
Jeannine Taylor	...	Marcie Cunningham
Robbi Morgan	...	Annie
Kevin Bacon	...	Jack Burrel
Harry Crosby	...	Bill
Laurie Bartram	...	Brenda
Mark Nelson	...	Ned Rubinstein
Peter Brouwer	...	Steve Christy
Rex Everhart	...	Enos, the Truck Driver
Ronn Carroll	...	Sgt. Tierney
Ron Millkie	...	Officer Dorf
Walt Gorney	...	Crazy Ralph
Willie Adams	...	Barry
Debra S. Hayes	...	Claudette

Storyline

One summer at Camp Crystal Lake, a group of young counselors begin to get ready to lead campers. Unfortunately for the former, someone isn't happy about what's going on in the camp and enjoys playing kill the counselor. As bodies fall to the ground in the camp, no one is safe.

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Plot Keywords:

lake | summer | camp counselor | murder | teenager | 

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Taglines:

They were warned...They are doomed...And on Friday the 13th, nothing will save them.

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

X

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 May 1980 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Long Night at Camp Blood

Filming Locations:

New Jersey, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$550,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$37,465,200 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, Georgetown Productions Inc., Sean S. Cunningham Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

At one point, Mrs. Voorhess slaps Alice around a few times. Having worked onstage for years, Betsy Palmer was used to really striking her co-stars with a cupped hand along the jawline to achieve the scene. Sean S. Cunningham had to tell her about faking the blows and cheating with camera angles.

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Goofs

In the last scene, after the nurse gives Alice a shot, she briefly looks directly into the camera.

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Quotes

Tierney: It's not bad enough to have Friday the 13th, we've gotta have a full moon too. We keep statistics. We have more accidents, more rapes, more robberies, more homicides, more of everything when there's a full moon. It upsets people. Makes them nuts.
Steve Christy: You're making a science out of coincidence.

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Crazy Credits

We see giant letters proclaiming 'Friday the 13th' moving towards the screen and crashing into and smashing a pane of glass.

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Connections

Followed by Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)

User Reviews

A Classic, genre defining

Without a doubt, the work of Cunningham and Carpenter during 1978 & 1980 rocked the world of the horror genre. Friday the 13th is one of the films that to this day still has repercussions. It demonstrated the importance of setting the tone in horror movies, making the audience themselves feel as if they too were being stalked. Cunningham also was one of the few directors to introduce the idea of a possible female serial killer.

Without this film, Scream's Randy would have never uttered those famous words, 'There are certain rules to surviving a horror movie..' This film combined with Carpenter's Halloween, firmly etched the rules in stone. The creepy music, the infamous "ch-ch-ch-ha-ha-ha", the crude photography and the graphic depiction of the murders of the counsellors all blend together to give a classic piece of film history. It scared the hell out of multitudes of teenagers who, in many instances could see themselves in the victims of the stalker. These weren't bad people getting killed, these were just your typical average American kids, having a good time, getting picked off.

That is what makes this film so defining, that is why, for all its crude and harsh imagery, this is a classic. This is why alot of recent attempts at horror don't measure up. It's not the effects or the blood necessarily, it's the atmosphere and the familiarity that bring it home.It is more frightening to think, "That could be me"