The Story Behind Friday The 13th
Grab your hockey mask for a trip through horror history…
BY Sep 30th 2009 15:15PMFILED UNDER: Features
This week, the DVD Club team will be slashing into the original Friday The 13th.
So what better time to take a look at the whole franchise, from first horrific spark through the various sequels and this year's remake?
It doesn't look like Jason Voorhees is going away any time soon, so grab your knife, lose your inhibitions and come with us to Camp Crystal Lake - and beyond…
1. Friday The 13th
It's all Michael Myers' fault. Well, that and John Carpenter's. No, there's not some family connection - it's more one of inspiration as producer/director Sean S Cunningham cites Halloween as the main reason he decided to make a horror film.
Aiming to create "a roller coaster ride" that would make audiences "jump out of their seats", Cunningham got together with writer Victor Miller, who initially penned a first draft that went under the title Long Night At Camp Blood.
But Cunningham had something much more iconic in mind. A protege of Wes Craven, he knew a film needed a solid hook, and decided upon Friday The 13th, even going so far as to advertise the name in Variety before he was sure it was actually available, and hadn't already been copyrighted.
Working with a New York ad agency, Cunningham created a logo for the film, giant blocked letters of the title smashing through glass.
He's since claimed that there were no issues with anyone else using the title, though distributor George Mansour has argued otherwise: "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 (financier) Phil Scuderi paid them off, but it was finally resolved."
Miller's concept was honed, focusing in on a vengeful parent slaughtering camp counselors who she blames for the drowning death of her son, Jason Voorhees, and lurking at the isolated spot to kill anyone else who arrives to have fun at Camp Crystal Lake.
"I took motherhood and turned it on its head and I think that was great fun. Mrs Voorhees was the mother I'd always wanted - a mother who would have killed for her kids," explained the writer.
While hockey-masked Jason Voorhees has long since become the iconic focus of the franchise, he doesn't appear in the first film until the end, and doesn't get his mask until a couple of films down the line.
To shoot his indie horror, Cunningham chose Camp Nobebosco in New Jersey. It was a perfect location as almost every set required (bar one bathroom, which was constructed by the crew in the grounds) was readily available.
The camp itself is still in operation today, and boasts a wall of Friday the 13th paraphernalia to honor the fact that the movie was set there. Yes, that would make us stay there…
Realising that he'd need a makeup effects expert to pull off the bloody butchering, the producer/director recruited Tom Savini, whose work he'd loved in Dawn Of The Dead.
Savini would go on to be a hero of the the film, stepping in to double a body being thrown through a window, solving issues with fake wounds and even coming up with the gag of having Jason pop out of the lake at the end.
It's not a decision Miller agrees with - he saw the younger Voorhees as merely a plot device and not the focus for sequels, which at the time the film was being shot, weren't even being considered. "Jason was dead from the very beginning. He was a victim, not a villain."
Savini, however, argued his case: "The whole reason for the cliffhanger at the end was I had just seen Carrie, so we thought that we need a 'chair jumper' like that and I said, 'let's bring in Jason.'"
With the gorehound aboard, Cunningham gathered a cast of willing victims, including Adrienne King, Harry Crosby, Laurie Bartram and a youthful Kevin Bacon.
After Estelle Parsons signed but passed on the role of Mrs Voorhees, Betsy Palmer took the part, but only so she could buy a new car. She hated the script and described the film as "a piece of s**t". That's despite earning $1000 a day for 10 days' work. Tough job!
She wasn't alone - one critic was so angered by her role that he launched a protest by publishing her address and inviting fans to write to her to complain. Sadly, the idiot published the wrong address…
Despite the complaints from its elder actress, the film progressed smoothly, shooting for 28 days at the camp and using a budget of $550,000.
To help keep costs down, certain crew members (like Savini) stayed at the camp itself, entertaining themselves with Savini's Betamax (remember that, kids?) video player and the films Barbarella and Marathon Man. Savini can recite them by heart after watching one of them day for the entire shoot.
The camp time even helped influence a scene in the film. Inspired by Savini's encounter with a snake, the team added a moment where a real, live snake is discovered and killed by the teens. Suffice to say the Humane Society was not on set that day.
With the cut in the can, Cunningham needed music, and turned to Henry Manfredini to create it. The composer decided to stick to scoring the scenes where the killer is shown, largely using silence to up the tension at other times.
"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."
And he's also responsible for one of the other memorable aspects of the first film - the killer's theme, largely thought to be the whispered tone "chi…chi…chi… Ha…ha…ha…" But that's wrong - inspired by Mrs Voorhees' line "Kill her, mommy" (since she's supposed to be possessed by Jason), Manfredini spoke the words "ki, ki, ki, ma, ma, ma" ("kill" and "mommy" - get it?) into a microphone, added some reverb and a legend was born. Even if everyone hears it wrong. "Everybody thinks it's cha, cha, cha. I'm like, 'Cha, cha, cha? What are you talking about?"
Either way, the film was a roaring success, with Paramount immediately splashing out $1.5 million for distribution rights and lavishing promotional money on the movie both before it arrived in the US (on, er, May 9 1980) and after it began to perform well. With all the various promotional materials added in, the film cost $4.4 million and made $39.7 million across the pond.
The critics hated it - not a big surprise - but that didn't stop it rolling on to more than $20 million around the world.
While it's not exactly seen as a brilliantly made film, it's long since entered the pantheon of cult horrors.
And it has launched a sequel or two. Or 10…
Next: Friday The 13th Part 2
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