The one that started it all!
The first slasher/horror film to spawn 12,761 sequels and the first horror movie franchise to pass the magical 1,000,000 body count milestone!
Friday the 13th was released in May of 1980.
The film featured only one “Star”, Actress Betsy Palmer. Palmer had appeared in dozens of films and Television shows over the previous 3 decades in Hollywood.
The rest of the cast were virtual unknowns at the time of filming.
One of the doomed Camp Counselor’s was Actor Kevin Bacon who was fresh off a minor role in “Animal House“.
If you have seen the film, you know that Bacon meets his end via an arrow through the throat after a romantic tryst with a female counselor.
The director was Sean S. Cunningham. The movie did not exactly jump start his directing career in that he has only directed 5 theatrical films since Friday the 13th.
The location used for Camp Crystal Lake is actually Camp Nobebosco in New Jersey. It is still a functioning Summer Camp and features a wall adorned with Friday the 13th Movie Memorabilia to commemorate the filming of the movie at that location.
Five of the actors were actual real-life camp counselors and were actually killed and mutilated during the filming of the movie in order to add “realism” to the film.
The film was made for only $550,000 and ended up grossing nearly $40,000,000 at the box office.
Actress Adrienne King, who played the only Camp Counselor to actually survive in the film, only made one other Film in her career, a short appearance in “Friday the 13th: Part 2″.
The writer of the Screenplay admits he was just trying to cash in on the success of the film “Halloween” and was just looking for a “Halloween at Summer Camp” type movie.
Actual body count in the film: 10
Out of all the sequels in the series, 2003′s “Freddy vs Jason” had the most success at the Box Office.
The series has sparked a whole line of novels, comic books, costumes, and other merchandise that has made the film series one of the most profitable franchises in film history.
The “Jason” mask is one of the most popular Halloween costumes ever produced.
The movie was remade in 2009. Future remakes of the 12,761 sequels are the still in the planning stages.
No actual actors were killed during the filming of the movie, I made that part up. (Dramatic License)
