Plot
Camp counselors are stalked and murdered by an unknown assailant while trying to re-open a summer camp that was the site of a child's drowning.
Release Year: 1980
Rating: 6.3/10 (37,739 voted)
Director:
Sean S. Cunningham
Stars: Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Jeannine Taylor
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.
Cast: 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
Taglines:
On Friday The 13th, They Began To Die Horribly, One......By One (UK - Theatrical Tagline)
Release Date: 9 May 1980
Filming Locations: Blairstown, New Jersey, USA
Box Office Details
Budget: $550,000
(estimated)
Opening Weekend: $5,816,321
(USA)
(11 May 1980)
(1 Screen)
Gross: $39,754,601
(USA)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia: Victor Miller's working title for the script was "Long Night at Camp Blood".
Goofs:
Continuity:
When Alice reaches the canoe, it is relatively dry inside. There a major downpour less than an hour earlier, which should have partially flooded the canoe.
Quotes: Pamela Voorhees:
[seeing Brenda's dead body]
Oh, good Lord! So young. So pretty. Oh, what monster could have done this? Alice:
Bill's out there.
User Review
A Classic, genre defining
Rating:
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"
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