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Friday the 13th (film series)
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Friday the 13th is an American horror franchise that consists of twelve slasher films, a television show, novels, comic books, and various merchandise. The franchise mainly focuses on the fictional character of Jason Voorhees, who drowned at Camp Crystal Lake as a boy due to the negligence of the teenage counselors. Decades later, the lake is rumored to be "cursed" and is the setting for a series of mass murders. Jason is featured in all of the films, either as the killer or as the motivation for the killings.
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Encyclopedia
Friday the 13th is an American horror franchise that consists of twelve slasher films, a television show, novels, comic books, and various merchandise. The franchise mainly focuses on the fictional character of Jason Voorhees, who drowned at Camp Crystal Lake as a boy due to the negligence of the teenage counselors. Decades later, the lake is rumored to be "cursed" and is the setting for a series of mass murders. Jason is featured in all of the films, either as the killer or as the motivation for the killings. The original film was written by Victor Miller, and was produced and directed by Sean S. Cunningham; neither returned to write or direct any of the sequels.
Originally created to cash in on the success of John Carpenter's Halloween (1978), the success led Paramount Pictures to purchase the full rights to the Friday the 13th franchise. Frank Mancuso, Jr., who produced the films, also developed the television show Friday the 13th: The Series after Paramount released what would be their last film. The television series is not connected to the rest of the franchise by any character or setting, but was created out of the idea of "bad luck and curses", which the film series symbolized. While the franchise was owned by Paramount, four films were adapted into novels, with the film Friday the 13th Part III receiving two separate adaptations. When the franchise was sold to New Line Cinema, Cunningham returned to oversee two additional films, and a crossover film with Freddy Krueger from another horror film series, A Nightmare on Elm Street. Under New Line, thirteen novellas and various comic book series were published featuring Jason Voorhees.
Though not very popular with critics, it nevertheless became a financial success at the box office. Friday the 13th is considered one of the most successful media franchises in America not only for the success of the films, but also because the extensive merchandising and repeated references in popular culture. In addition, the franchise tops other American horror franchises in adjusted 2009 dollars for box office gross.
Films
Overview
In the original Friday the 13th (1980), Mrs. Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) stalks and murders a group of camp counselors who are preparing Camp Crystal Lake for re-opening. She is determined to make sure Camp Crystal Lake does not reopen after her son Jason (Ari Lehman) drowned in the lake while two counselors, who were supposed to be watching him, were off having sex and not paying attention. The last counselor, Alice (Adrienne King), fends off Mrs. Voorhees long enough to grab a machete to decapitate her. In Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981), Jason (Steve Daskewisz) is revealed to be alive, and fully grown. After killing the counselor who decapitated his mother, Jason returns to Crystal Lake to guard it from all intruders. Five years later, a group of teenagers arrive at Crystal Lake to set up a new camp, only for Jason to murder them, one by one. Ginny Field (Amy Steel), the lone survivor, finds a cabin in the woods with a shrine built around the severed head of Mrs. Voorhees, and surrounded by mutilated corpses. Ginny fights back, and slams a machete through Jason's shoulder. Jason is left for dead as Ginny is taken away in an ambulance. During the events of Friday the 13th Part III (1982), Jason (Richard Brooker) finds his way to Higgins Haven, Chris' family land at Crystal Lake. At the same time, Chris Higgins (Dana Kimmell) returns to the property with some friends. An unmasked and reclusive Jason kills anyone who wanders into the barn where he is hiding. Taking a hockey mask from a victim to hide his face, he leaves the barn to kill the rest of the group. Chris seemingly kills Jason with an axe to his head, but the night's events drive her into hysteria as the police take her away.
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) continues where Part III leaves off, with Jason (Ted White) found by the police and taken to the morgue at the Wessex County Medical Center. Once delivered, Jason, not dead, awakens and kills the coroner and a nurse, then makes his way back to Crystal Lake. A group of friends rent a house on Crystal Lake and fall victim to Jason's rampage. After killing all of the teens next door, Jason seeks out Trish (Kimberly Beck) and Tommy Jarvis (Corey Feldman). While distracted by Trish, Jason is attacked and killed by Tommy. Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985) tried to move in a new direction. Tommy Jarvis (John Shepherd) was committed to a mental hospital after the events of The Final Chapter and has grown up constantly afraid that Jason (Tom Morga) will return. Jason's body was supposedly cremated after Tommy killed him. Roy Burns (Dick Wieand) uses Jason's persona to become a copycat killer at the halfway home to which Tommy was moved. Tommy, supervisor Pam (Melanie Kinnaman), and a young boy named Reggie (Shavar Ross) manage to defeat Roy. They learn Roy was motivated to become Jason after witnessing the remains of his son, whom no one knew about, butchered at the hands of one of the patients at the institution. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986) begins with Tommy (Thom Mathews) visiting Jason's grave after being released from a mental institution. It is revealed that Jason's body was never actually cremated, but buried in Forest Green cemetery (formerly Crystal Lake cemetery). Tommy inadvertently resurrects Jason (C.J. Graham) via a piece of cemetery fence, which acts as a lightning rod. Jason remains in Camp Forest Green, the new name of Camp Crystal Lake. After killing the new camp counselors working there, Jason is chained to a boulder by Tommy, and left at the bottom of the lake to die.
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988) begins an indeterminate amount of time after Jason Lives. Jason (Kane Hodder) is resurrected again, this time by the telekinetic Tina Shepard (Lar Park Lincoln), who was trying to resurrect her father. Jason once again begins killing those who occupy Crystal Lake, and, after a battle with Tina, is returned to the bottom of the lake. Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989) sees Jason return from the lake, brought back to life via an underwater electrical cable. He follows a group of students on their senior class trip to Manhattan, boarding the Lazarus to wreak havoc. Upon reaching Manhattan, Jason kills the rest of the survivors, with the exception of Rennie (Jensen Daggett) and Sean (Scott Reeves); he chases the final two into the sewers, where Jason is caught and melted away by toxic waste. In Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993), Jason, through unexplained resurrection, returns to Crystal Lake, where he is being hunted by the FBI. The FBI sets up a sting to kill Jason, which proves successful. Through possession, Jason manages to survive by passing his black heart from one being to the next. Though Jason is hardly seen throughout the film, it is learned that he has a sister and niece, and that he needs them to get his body back. After resurrecting his own body, Jason is finally killed by his niece, Jessica Kimble (Kari Keegan), and dragged to Hell.
Jason X (2002) takes place in the future, where Jason has again been inexplicably resurrected. He is being held and experimented upon in a research facility. It is determined that he has regenerative capabilities and that cryonic suspension is the only possible solution to stop him since he cannot be killed. Jason breaks out of captivity and manages to slice through the cryo-chamber, spilling the cryonics into the room and freezing the only other survivor, Rowan (Lexa Doig). Over four hundred years later, Jason's body is discovered by a team of students studying Earth. Upon being thawed by the team, he proceeds to murder everyone aboard the spacecraft, before finally being blown into space, and landing on Earth 2. The next Friday the 13th film was a crossover with A Nightmare on Elm Street, entitled Freddy vs. Jason (2003). Set in the contemporary period, Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) has grown weak, as people in Springwood, his home, have suppressed their fear of him. Freddy, who is impersonating Pamela Voorhees (Paula Shaw), tricks Jason (Ken Kirzinger) into going to Springwood to cause panic and fear. Jason accomplishes this, but refuses to stop killing. A battle ensues in both the dream-world and Crystal Lake. The outcome is left ambiguous, as Jason surfaces from the lake holding Freddy's severed head, which winks and laughs.
In 2009, a new Friday the 13th was released. This film starts the continuity fresh, acting as a reimagining of the original film. In this film, after witnessing his mother being beheaded, Jason (Derek Mears) follows in her footsteps and begins killing anyone who comes to Crystal Lake. Almost thirty years later, Jason kidnaps a young woman who reminds him of his mother. Six weeks after her disappearance, her brother Clay Miller (Jared Padalecki) comes looking for her. The pair are soon reunited and working together to seemingly kill Jason.
Development
The original Friday the 13th film was produced and directed by Sean S. Cunningham, who had previously worked with filmmaker Wes Craven on the film The Last House on the Left (1972). Cunningham, inspired by John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) and films by Mario Bava, wanted Friday the 13th to be shocking, visually stunning, and "[make] you jump out of your seat". Distancing himself from The Last House on the Left, Cunningham wanted Friday the 13th to be more of a "roller-coaster ride".
The first film was meant to be "a real scary movie" and at the same time make the audience laugh. Friday the 13th began its life as nothing more than a title. "Long Night at Camp Blood" was the working title during the writing process, but Cunningham believed in his "Friday the 13th" moniker and rushed to place an ad in International Variety. Worried that someone else owned the rights to the title and wanting to avoid potential lawsuits, Cunningham thought it would be best to find out immediately. Cunningham commissioned a New York advertising agency to develop his concept of the Friday the 13th , which consisted of big block letters bursting through a pane of glass. In the end, Cunningham believed there were "no problems" with the title. Distributor George Mansour contends that there was an issue: "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 Phil [Scuderi] paid them off, but it was finally resolved."
Following the success of Friday the 13th in 1980, Paramount Pictures began plans to make a sequel. First acquiring the worldwide distribution rights, Frank Mancuso, Sr. stated, "We wanted it to be an event, where teenagers would flock to the theaters on that Friday night to see the latest episode." The initial ideas for a sequel involved the Friday the 13th title being used for a series of films, released once a year, that would not have direct continuity with each other, but be a separate "scary movie" of their own right. Phil Scuderi—one of three owners of Esquire Theaters, along with Steve Minasian and Bob Barsamian, who produced the original film—insisted that the sequel have Jason Voorhees, Pamela's son, even though his appearance in the original film was only meant to be a joke. Steve Miner, associate producer on the first film, believed in the idea and would go on to direct the first two sequels, after Cunningham opted not to return to the director's chair. Miner would use many of the same crew members from the first film while working on the sequels.
The studio would continue to produce more sequels over the years, based on the financial success they produced from the relatively low budgets of the films. With every film repeating the same premise, the filmmakers had to come up with little tweaks to provide freshness so the audience would return. Changes could involve an addition to the title—as opposed to just a number attached to the end—like "The Final Chapter" and "Jason Takes Manhattan", or filming the movie in 3-D, as Miner did for Friday the 13th Part 3. The third film would also be the birthplace of one of the most recognizable images in popular culture, that of Jason's hockey mask. Frank Mancuso, Jr., who was constantly associated with the Friday the 13th film series in the filmmaking community, was prevented from being able to "read anything that wasn't in that ilk". Mancuso, Jr. felt that the next logical step was to kill Jason for good.
Jason would not stay buried for long, as the success of The Final Chapter would ensure another Friday the 13th film. Paramount Picture's Chairman and CEO Frank Mancuso, Sr. stated, "Quite simply, the public still wanted to see these films. So until they really stopped coming, why not continue to make more?" A New Beginning attempted to shift the focus of the story to the character of Tommy Jarvis, and how he battles his inner demons, hallucinations, and "rages to kill" after his ordeal with Jason. This premise was not repeated, as the very next installment brought Jason back from the dead, appropriately subtitled Jason Lives. The film attempted to create a "funnier, faster and more action-packed […] Friday" than had previously been done. The limited success of Jason Lives provided enough incentive to create another sequel, The New Blood, which screenwriter Daryl Haney believes Paramount was hoping the movie would provide for them. The idea proposed by screenwriter Daryl Haney stemmed from his recognition that the films always ended with Jason battling the final girl; Haney proposed this time the final girl should have telekinetic powers. Producer Barbara Sachs would dub the film, Jason vs. Carrie.
| "Okay, we'll make Vancouver look like New York and we'll do it that way. But they came back again with, 'You can't do the Brooklyn Bridge in Vancouver. You can't do Madison Square Garden in Vancouver. You can't do the Statue of Liberty in Vancouver.' Pretty soon it was half New York, half on the boat. Then it was the last third in New York. It just kept getting whittled down and down." | | — Rob Hedden (writer/director) on the deconstruction of Jason Takes Manhattan's story |
Plans were made to take Jason away from Crystal Lake, and place him in a "broader" environment for the eighth film. New York City was quickly selected as the main setting, though Jason would spend "the first third of the movie […] on the boat"; the film was consequently subtitled Jason Takes Manhattan. Ultimately, the character spent the majority of the time on the cruise ship, as budget restrictions forced scenes of New York to be trimmed or downgraded. Vancouver became the New York substitute, but there were complications.
When Jason Takes Manhattan failed to perform successfully at the box office, Sean Cunningham decided that he wanted to reacquire the rights to Friday the 13th and head to New Line Cinema in an effort to start work on Freddy vs. Jason. The concept of a crossover between Freddy and Jason was not new since Paramount had approached New Line, years before they had gained the rights to Friday the 13th, about doing a crossover film. Unfortunately, both companies wanted the license to the other's character so that they could control the making of the film. Negotiations on the project were never finalized, which led Paramount to make The New Blood. After Jason Takes Manhattan was released in 1989 the rights reverted back to Scuderi, Minasian and Barsamianto, who sold them to New Line. Before Cunningham could start working on Freddy vs. Jason, Wes Craven returned to make a new Nightmare on Elm Street, titled New Nightmare. This effectively put Freddy vs. Jason on hold, but allowed Cunningham the chance to bring Jason back into the spotlight, with Jason Goes to Hell. The ninth installment "turned a healthy profit", though it was only intended to open the door for a cross-over with Freddy Krueger, rather than start a new series for New Line. Ultimately, the film series would go through another sequel before that would happen. Sean Cunningham's "frustration" with the Freddy vs. Jason project, which was stuck in development hell, caused him to create another sequel in an effort to keep the franchise in the minds of audiences. Based on Jason Takes Manhattan's concept of placing Jason away from Crystal Lake, the tenth film would take put the titular character in space. The film would suffer from the loss of its biggest supporter, Michael De Luca, President of Production, when he resigned from his position. Lack of support forced the finished film to sit for two years before finally being released on April 26, 2002; it would go on to become the lowest grossing film in the franchise at the domestic box office, ironically with the largest budget of any of the previous films at that time.
After more than fifteen years of off-and-on development and approximately $6 million spent in eighteen unused scripts from more than a dozen screenwriters, Freddy and Jason were finally set to meet in 2003. One of the biggest hurdles for the film was developing a story that managed to bring the two horror icons together. Potential stories varied widely from Freddy having molested and drowned Jason as a child, to a cult of Freddy worshippers called the "Fred Heads", before settling on the story actually used.
In January 2007, producers Andrew Form and Brad Fuller outlined their intended goal to bring the remake to life. Fuller and Form were approached by New Line to create a remake, but because Paramount still owned certain copyrights to the first film the remake would not be able to use anything from the original. Paramount, who wanted to be included in the remake, approached the producers and gave them license to use anything from the original films, including the title. With Paramount on board, Fuller and Form decided they wanted to use pieces from each of the first three films. Fuller stated, "I think there are moments we want to address, like how does the hockey mask happen. It’ll happen differently in our movie than in the third one. Where is Jason from, why do these killings happen, and what is Crystal Lake?" Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, writers of Freddy vs. Jason, were brought on to pen the script for the new film. Director Jonathan Liebesman was originally in negotiations to direct the remake in February 2006, but was replaced by Marcus Nispel, director of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake of 2003, in November 2007.
Crew
| Film | Director | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | | 1. Friday the 13th (1980) | Sean S. Cunningham | Victor Miller | Sean S. Cunningham | | 2. Friday the 13th Part 2 | Steve Miner | Ron Kurz | Steve Miner | | 3. Friday the 13th Part III | Martin Kitrosser & Carol Watson | Frank Mancuso Jr. | | 4. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter | Joseph Zito | Barney Cohen | | 5. Friday the 13th: A New Beginning | Danny Steinmann | Martin Kitrosser, David Cohen & Danny Steinmann | Timothy Silver | | 6. Part VI: Jason Lives | Tom McLoughlin | Tom McLoughlin | Don Behrns | | 7. Part VII: The New Blood | John Carl Buechler | Manuel Fidello & Daryl Haney | Iain Paterson | | 8. Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan | Rob Hedden | Rob Hedden | Randy Cheveldave | | 9. Jason Goes to Hell | Adam Marcus | Jay Huguely, Adam Marcus & Dean Lorey | Sean S. Cunningham | | 10. Jason X | James Isaac | Todd Farmer | Noel Cunningham | | 11. Freddy vs. Jason | Ronny Yu | Damian Shannon & Mark Swift | Sean S. Cunningham | | 12. Friday the 13th (2009) | Marcus Nispel | Michael Bay, Andrew Form & Brad Fuller |
Music
When Harry Manfredini began working on the musical score, the decision was made to only play the music alongside the killers, so it would not "manipulate the audience" into thinking the killers were present when they were not. Manfredini pointed out the lack of music for certain scenes: "There's a scene where one of the girls […] is setting up the archery area of the film. 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." Manfredini also noted that when something was going to happen, the music would cut off so that the audience would relax a bit, and the scare would be that much more effective.
Since Mrs. Voorhees, the killer in the original Friday the 13th, does not show up until the final reel of the film, Manfredini had the job of creating a score that would represent the killer in her absence. Manfredini was inspired by the 1975 film Jaws, where the shark is not seen for the majority of the film but the motif created by John Williams cued the audience on when the shark was present during scenes when you could not see it. Sean S. Cunningham sought a chorus, but the budget would not allow it. While listening to a Krzysztof Penderecki piece of music, which contained a chorus with "striking pronunciations", Manfredini was inspired to recreate a similar sound. He came up with the sound "ki ki ki, ma ma ma" from the final reel when Mrs. Voorhees arrives and is reciting "Kill her mommy!" The "ki" comes from "kill", and the "ma" from "mommy". To achieve the unique sound he wanted for the film, Manfredini spoke the two words "harshly, distinctly and rhythmically into a microphone" and ran them into an echo reverberation machine. Manfredini finished the original score after a few weeks and recorded the score in a friend's basement. Victor Miller and assistant editor Jay Keuper have commented on how memorable the music is, with Keuper describing it as "iconographic". Manfredini says, "Everybody thinks it's cha, cha, cha. I'm like, 'Cha, cha, cha? What are you talking about?"
When Manfredini returned for the first sequel, he had an easier time composing, only needing to perfect what he had already created on the first film. Over the course of the sequels, Manfredini loosened the philosophy that the theme should be reserved just for the killer. The style of the sequels was viewed more as a "setting 'em up and knocking 'em down", which meant that there were more "McGuffins and red-herrings" that required the killer's theme music be played in their presence. Manfredini explains, "The original had the real myopic approach, and then we had to start thinking of the sequels as more conventional films." For Part 3, Manfredini only returned to score the first and last reels of the film, as he was busy with a Broadway production. Jack Tillar came in to piece together bits from the first two films to fill the remaining time for Part 3, while Michael Zagar was brought in to compose an opening and closing theme. Manfredini and Zagar met at the latter's apartment, where Zagar rescored the original opening theme, using a disco beat. Harry Manfredini returned for The Final Chapter, and although there were similar elements to the score, everything was freshly recorded for the fourth Friday the 13th.
When he began work on the score for A New Beginning, Manfredini created a theme just for the character of Tommy Jarvis. The idea was to suggest that there was "madness afoot", as it was also important to "'point the finger' at various characters [...] to suggest that things were not as you might expect". For Jason Lives, Tom McLoughlin instructed Manfredini to create a score that would not alert the audience to what was happening, or about to happen, "but instead allow the audience to do it to themselves". McLoughlin took this idea from John Carpenter's 1978 film Halloween, which would always accompany any shock in the film with Carpenter's "Eeeeeeee!" sound. McLoughlin wanted something more subtle, with a "Gothic" sound.
Manfredini did not return to score The New Blood and Jason Takes Manhattan because of prior film engagements, but his scores from previous films were reused. While Manfredini was working on Sean Cunningham's DeepStar Six, producer Iain Paterson hired Fred Mollin, who had been working on scoring Friday the 13th: The Series for the previous year, to finish scoring The New Blood, as Manfredini's original music only filled half the film. According to director John Carl Buechler, the combined effort of Mollin's score and Manfredini's original music clashed with each other. Mollin returned to fully score Jason Takes Manhattan, as well as work with Steve Mizer to write an original song, reminiscent of Robert Plant, for the opening credits. Manfredini would score the next two entries in the series before being replaced on Freddy vs. Jason. The official reason for Manfredini's replacement was because New Line wanted to take the series in a "new direction", although Manfredini contends that the final cut of Freddy vs. Jason was "just the same thing".
Box office
The Friday the 13th films were never popular with the critics, in contrast to other slasher films like Halloween. They disliked how the series favored high body counts over plot and character development and how each film was almost indistinguishable from the last. Nevertheless, the films were a financial success, prompting Paramount to release more sequels, contingent on the box office appeal. When comparing Friday the 13th with the other top-grossing American horror franchises—A Nightmare on Elm Street, Child's Play, Halloween, the Hannibal Lecter series, Psycho, Saw, Scream, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre—and adjusting for 2009 inflation, Friday the 13th is the highest grossing horror franchise, in the United States, at approximately $614 million. The Hannibal Lecter film series follows closely with $573 million, A Nightmare on Elm Street with $522 million, Halloween with $517 million, Scream with $400 million, Saw with $378 million, Psycho with $371 million, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre with $315 million, and the Child's Play film series rounding out the list with approximately $200 million. The financial success has extended to home release, with more than five million DVDs sold by 2005.
| Film | Release date (US) | Budget | Box office revenue | Reference | | United States | Foreign | Worldwide | | 1. Friday the 13th (1980) | May 9, 1980 | $550,000 | $39,754,601 | $20,000,000 | $59,754,601 | | | 2. Friday the 13th Part 2 | April 30, 1981 | $1,250,000 | $21,722,776 | | $21,722,776 | | | 3. Friday the 13th Part III | August 13, 1982
May 13, 1983 (y) | $2,500,000 | $36,690,067 | | $36,690,067 | | | 4. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter | April 13, 1984 | $2,600,000 | $32,980,880 | | $32,980,880 | | | 5. Friday the 13th: A New Beginning | March 22, 1985 | $2,200,000 | $21,930,418 | | $21,930,418 | | | 6. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives | August 1, 1986 | $3,000,000 | $19,472,057 | | $19,472,057 | | | 7. Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood | May 13, 1988 | $2,800,000 | $19,170,001 | | $19,170,001 | | | 8. Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan | July 28, 1989 | $5,000,000 | $14,343,976 | | $14,343,976 | | | 9. Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday | August 13, 1993 | $3,000,000 | $15,935,068 | | $15,935,068 | | | 10. Jason X | April 26, 2002 | $14,000,000 | $13,121,555 | $3,830,243 | $16,951,798 | | | 11. Freddy vs. Jason | August 15, 2003 | $25,000,000 | $82,622,655 | $32,286,175 | $114,908,830 | | | 12. Friday the 13th (2009) | February 13, 2009 | $19,000,000 | $60,700,752 | $18,676,716 | $79,377,468 | | | Film series totals | | $80,900,000 | $381,194,615 | $74,793,134 | $455,987,749 | | List indicator(s)
- A dark grey cell indicates the information is not available for the film.
- (y) indicates the film was re-released.
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Television
On September 28, 1987, Paramount, after the release of what would be their final Friday the 13th film, began airing Friday the 13th: The Series, a television series that focuses on two cousins' attempts to recover cursed antiques that were sold from a shop they inherited from their uncle. The show starred John D. LeMay as Ryan Dallion and Louise Robey as Michelle Foster. It was created by Frank Mancuso, Jr. and Larry B. Williams originally under the title of The 13th Hour; the series ran for 77 episodes. Mancuso, Jr. never intended to link the television show directly to the film series, but "take the idea of Friday the 13th, which is that it symbolizes bad luck and curses". A plan for the show called for a tie-in to Jason's trademark hockey mask, but the idea was eventually discarded so that the show could have a chance to exist on its own. Mancuso, Jr. was afraid that mentioning any events from the films would take the audience away from "the new world that we were trying to create". The decision to name the show Friday the 13th, over the original title, was made because Mancuso, Jr. believed a Friday the 13th moniker would better help to sell the show to networks. Filming took place in Toronto, Canada.
Friday the 13th: The Series aired in first-run syndication, usually late at night at first, but it did good enough that some stations moved it to primetime. Produced on a budgeted estimated below $500,000 an episode, in its first season Friday the 13th placed second in the male 18 to 49 year old demographic, just behind Paramount's Star Trek: The Next Generation. The first season also placed fifth in the female 18 to 49 year old demographic.
In September 2003, during a panel session at the Maniafest convention, Sean S. Cunningham spoke about possibly bringing Friday the 13th back to the television screen, but this time taking place around Camp Crystal Lake and a group of teenagers living in the area. On October 22, 2005, Cunningham spoke to Slasherama of a potential Friday the 13th television series. Cunningham stated that the show would be called Crystal Lake Chronicles and be "set in a town with all this Jason history". Jason would be a recurring character, "part of the background", but the series would focus more on "coming-of-age issues", in a similar style to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dawson's Creek, and Smallville.
Literature
Novels
| "I couldn't believe it. He started writing this book with low expectations, but a few pages in, he was already enjoying himself. He'd found a way to tell the story in his own interesting way - with his own imprint - and he wrote the book in less than a week. Dad never wrote a book that he didn't like." | | — David Avallone on his father's experience
writing Friday the 13th Part 3 |
Six of the eleven films have been novelized—Friday the 13th 1 - 3, Jason Lives, Jason X and Freddy vs. Jason—with Friday the 13th Part 3 having been adapted twice, by two different authors. The first novel was the 1982 adaptation of Friday the 13th Part 3 by Michael Avallone, who had previously adapted Beneath the Planet of the Apes and Shock Treatment. Avallone chose to use an alternate ending, one that was filmed for Part 3 but never used, as the conclusion for his 1982 adaptation. In the alternate ending, Chris, who is in the canoe, hears Rick's voice and immediately rushes back to the house. When she opens the door, Jason is standing there with a machete and proceeds to decapitate her.
The next book was not until 1986, with the novelization of Jason Lives by Simon Hawke, who went on to adapt the first three films into novels. Hawke novelized the original film in 1987, and Part 2 & 3 in 1988. Jason Lives specifically introduced Elias Voorhees, Jason's father, who was slated to appear in the film but was cut by the studio. In the story, instead of being cremated, Elias has Jason buried after his death. In 1994, four young adult novels were released under the title of Friday the 13th. These stories focused on different people finding Jason's mask and becoming possessed by his spirit, but the actual character did not appear in the novels.
In 2003 and 2005, Black Flame published novelizations of Freddy vs. Jason and Jason X respectively. After the novelization of Jason X, they began publishing a new series of novels; one set was published under the Jason X title, while the second set used the Friday the 13th title. The Jason X series consisted of four sequels to the adaptation of the film. Jason X: The Experiment was the first published. In this novel, Jason is being used by the government in an attempt to use his indestructibility to create an army of "super soldiers". Planet of the Beast follows the efforts of Dr. Bardox and his crew as they try to clone a comatose Jason, and their efforts to stay alive when he awakens. Death Moon revolves around Jason crash-landing at Moon Camp Americana. A clone of Jason is discovered below a prison site and unknowingly awakened in To The Third Power.
The Friday the 13th novel storyline was not connected to the Jason X series and did not continue the stories set forth by the films, but furthered the character of Jason in its own way. Friday the 13th: Church of the Divine Psychopath has Jason resurrected by a religious cult. Jason is stuck in Hell, where recently executed serial killer Wayne Sanchez persuades Jason to help him return to the real world with an army of the damned in Friday the 13th: Hell Lake. In Hate-Kill-Repeat, two religious serial killers attempt to find Jason at Crystal Lake, believing that the three of them share the same contempt for those that break the moral code. The Jason Strain has Jason on an island with a group of death row convicts, placed there by television executives running a reality game show. A scientist attempts to create an age-retarding "super drug" from Jason's DNA, but accidentally creates a virus that can reanimate the dead as zombie-like creatures instead. The character of Pamela Voorhees returns from the grave in Carnival of Maniacs. Pamela is in search of Jason, who is now part of a traveling sideshow and about to be auctioned off to the highest bidder.
Comic books
Since New Line Cinema's acquisition of the franchise, several Friday the 13th comic books have been published by Topps Comics, Avatar Press, and DC Comics imprint Wildstorm. The first comic book release for the franchise was the 1993 Topps Comics adaptation of Jason Goes to Hell, written by Andy Mangels. The three-issue series was a condensed version of the film, with a few added scenes that were not in the film. Topps Comics published another series in 1995, with Nancy A. Collins writing a 3 issue, non-canonical miniseries involving a crossover between Jason and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre's Leatherface. The story has Jason stowing away aboard a train, after being released from Crystal Lake when the lake is drained due to heavy pollution. Jason meets Leatherface, who adopts him into his family after the two become friends. Eventually, they turn on each other after a series of misunderstandings.
On May 13, 2005, New Line exercised their rights to use the Friday the 13th moniker for the first time when they, along with Avatar comics, released a special issue of Friday the 13th, written by Brian Pulido and illustrated by Mike Wolfer and Greg Waller. The story takes place after the events of Freddy vs. Jason, where siblings Miles and Laura Upland inherit Camp Crystal Lake. Knowing that Jason caused the recent destruction, Laura, unknown to her brother, sets out to kill Jason with a paramilitary group, so that she and her brother can sell the property. The issue went on to pre-sell more than 17,500 copies. Avatar released a three-issue mini series titled Friday the 13th: Bloodbath in September 2005. The series was written by Brian Pulido and illustrated by Mike Wolfer and Andrew Dalhouse. The story revolves around a group of teenagers who come to Camp Tomorrow, a camp that sits on Crystal Lake, for work and a "party-filled weekend". The teenagers begin to discover they share common family backgrounds and soon awaken Jason who proceeds to hunt them. Brian Pulido returned for a third time in October 2005 to write another special issue for Avatar, entitled Jason X. Picking up after the events of the Jason X film, Über-Jason is now on Earth 2 where a biological-engineer, Kristen, attempts to subdue him, in hopes that she can use his regenerative tissue to save her own life and the life of those she loves. In February 2006, Avatar published their final Friday the 13th comic, a two-issue mini series titled Friday the 13th: Jason vs. Jason X. The series was written and illustrated by Mike Wolfer. The story takes place after the events of the film Jason X, where a salvage team discovers the spaceship Grendel and awakens a regenerated Jason Voorhees. The "original" Jason and Über-Jason are drawn to each other resulting in a battle to the death. In June 2006, a one-shot comic entitled Friday the 13th: Fearbook was released, written by Mike Wolfer with art by Sebastian Fiumara. The comic has Jason captured and experimented upon by the Trent Organization; Jason escapes and seeks out Violet, the survivor of Friday the 13th: Bloodbath, whom the Trent Organization is holding in their Crystal Lake headquarters.
In December 2006, Wildstorm began publishing comic books about Jason Voorhees under the Friday the 13th moniker. The first set was a six-issue miniseries. The miniseries involves Jason's return to Crystal Lake, a lone survivor's tale of the murder of her friends by a monster, a new revelation about the evil surrounding Crystal Lake, and the truth of what Jason really embodies. The mini series pre-sold approximately 60,318 copies altogether, with issues pre-selling 15,800, 9,600, 8,964, 8,637, 8,715, and 8,602 respectively. On July 11 and August 15, 2007, Wildstorm published a two part special entitled Friday the 13th: Pamela's Tale. The two issue comic book covers Pamela Voorhees' journey to Camp Crystal Lake and the story of her pregnancy with Jason as she recounts it to hitchhiker Annie, a camp counselor who is killed in the original film. Pamela's Tale pre-sold an estimated 16,051 copies.
| "I did about a thirty page treatment for the potential sequel, turned it in, and they all backed it. […] After some time passed and the Ash thing had gone away […] the New Line licensing guys started talking about doing it as a comic book. […] while I was at New Line […] I was trying to encourage it along as best I could, knowing [the comic] was the only way it was going to see the light of day." | | — Jeff Katz on how the Freddy vs. Jason sequel became a comic |
Wildstorm released another two-part special, entitled Friday the 13th: How I Spent My Summer Vacation, consisting of two issues that were released on September 12 and October 10, 2007. The comic book provides new insight into the psychology of Jason Voorhees, as he befriends a boy born with a skull deformity. The first issue of How I Spent My Summer Vacation pre-sold approximately 7,837 copies. Wildstorm has planned a six issue series called Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash, starring the two killers and Ash from the Evil Dead series. The story focuses on Freddy using the Necronomicon, which is in the Voorhees' basement, to escape from Jason's subconscious and "gain powers unlike anything he’s had before". Freddy attempts to use Jason to retrieve the book, but Ash, who is working at the local S-Mart in Crystal Lake, learns of the book's existence and sets out to destroy it once and for all. The story, by Jeff Katz, was planned as the intended sequel to the Freddy vs. Jason film before it was ever released, but after a few meetings the negotiations ended and the story was shelved. After the success of Freddy vs. Jason the idea of including Ash was brought up again, but New Line ultimately decided they would put the story in comic book form, written by James Kuhoric, with art by Jason Craig. Wildstorm released another two-issue miniseries on January 9 and February 13, 2008, titled Friday the 13th: Bad Land, written and illustrated by Ron Marz and Mike Huddleston respectively. The series explores the history of Crystal Lake before Pamela and Jason Voorhees arrived. The story takes place in two time frames, the "present day" and 250 years before "present day". It follows three hikers in the present, and three fur trappers in the past, each of whom is snowed in by a blizzard at Crystal Lake. Each group experiences similar events, suggesting that what is happening to the hikers in the present day is what happened to the fur trappers in the past. A one-shot comic, entitled Friday the 13th: Abuser and the Abused, written by Joshua Hale Fialkov with artwork by Andy B., was released on April 30, 2008. The story involves a teenager named Maggie tricking her abusive boyfriend into travelling Crystal Lake, where she plans to murder him, only to encounter Jason shortly after arriving at the camp.
Documentaries
There have been two documentary books released chronicling the making of the Friday the 13th films. In February 2005, FAB Press published their book containing interviews with the cast and crew of the Friday the 13th series of films. Making Friday the 13th: The Legend of Camp Blood is a comprehensive book detailing the creation of the Friday the 13th films. It was written by David Grove, a film journalist who has written for Fangoria, Cinefantastique, and various other British magazines. Grove interviewed the over 100 "key personnel involved in making the films" to collect "detailed production histories of each of the eleven films", as well as interviews with other film professionals, such as Wes Craven. Grove also includes previously unseen production photos, which were acquired from private collections.
Eight months after the release of Grove's book, Titan Books, in association with Sparkplug Press, released a detailed history on the Friday the 13th series of their own. Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th by Peter M. Bracke, was released on October 24, 2005. The book chronicles the creation of the series up to the release of Freddy vs. Jason. Bracke spent three years researching the series and collecting over 200 interviews from the cast and crew of each of the films. Bracke's extensive work for the book prompted Sean S. Cunningham to provide a foreword. The book also includes images that had not been previously released to the public, as well as storyboards, concept art, and publicity material. A private party was held on October 22, 2005 at Universal Studios CityWalk Hollywood for the book's release.
A third documentary film, titled His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th, is slated for a February 2009 release. The film will be directed by Daniel Farrands, who directed two documentaries on The Amityville Horror and Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, and be broadcast on the Starz television channel the first week of February. The film was released on DVD on February 3, 2009. The documentary is hosted by special make-up effects artist Tom Savini, and interviews cast and crew members from each of the films, asking them questions on how and why they made they choices they did during filming. It also features interviews with journalists and other filmmakers, who offer their opinion of the series.
Merchandise
Friday the 13th has stretched beyond film, television and literature into other collectables. There have been over one hundred licensed products, which have grossed more than $125 million in revenue. There have been three video games released since the series' inception; all of the games have been released under the title Friday the 13th. The first was in May 1986, when Domark, who had previously released a video game version of A View to a Kill, released a game for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. The plot revolved around the user picking a "sanctuary" on a map and then trying to persuade other teenagers to go hide there; Jason appears as a normal character in the game until he decides to attack. In January 1989, LJN, an American game company known for its games based on popular movies in the 80s and early 90s, released Friday the 13th on the Nintendo Entertainment System, developed by Pack-In-Video (the same Japanese company that produced the NES game Rambo). The game is not based on any particular film from the series, but a set of themes and elements from all the films that had come before it. The premise involved the gamer, who picks one of six camp counselors as their player, trying to save the campers from Jason, while battling various enemies—wolves, bats, and Pamela Voorhees's head—throughout the game. On October 13, 2006, another Friday the 13th game was released for mobile phones. The game puts the user in the persona of Jason as he battles the undead.
Over the years, the characters of Friday the 13th have been marketed under various toylines. In 1988, Screamin' toys produced a model kit where you could build your own Jason statuette. The kit required the owner to cut and paint various parts in order to assemble the figure. Six years later, Screamin' toys issued a new model kit for Jason Goes to Hell. Both kits are now out of production. McFarlane Toys has released various figures from the series. In 1998, as part of McFarlane's Movie Maniacs 1 collection, a figure of Jason from Jason Goes to Hell was released. Jason, Freddy, and Leatherface were the three most popular figures sold from Movie Maniacs 1. The following year, a six-inch (152 mm) scale model of Jason and Freddy in a glass display case was released. In 2002, as part of Movie Maniacs 5, McFarlane released a model of Über-Jason from Jason X. Another Friday the 13th figure did not arrive from McFarlane until November 2006, when a 3-dimensional movie poster was released. Since McFarlane's last line in 2002, there has been a steady production of action figures, dolls, and statuettes. Some of the more recent merchandise has tied in with Freddy vs. Jason.
Apart from video games and toylines, the series has also seen the release of several soundtracks comprised of the music score created by Harry Manfredini and Fred Mollin. In 1982, Gramavision Records released a LP album of selected pieces of music from the first three films. In 1993, the musical score for Jason Goes to Hell was released, featuring seventeen tracks from the film. Between May and August 2002, the Jason X soundtrack saw release in Germany, Japan, and the United States. All releases contained eighteen tracks from Harry Manfredini's composition. The Freddy vs. Jason soundtrack was released in Germany and the United States in 2003, containing the twenty tracks composed by Graeme Revell. A second soundtrack was released for the film containing tracks from various musical artists who had lent their work to the film. Two years later, a new soundtrack was released comprised of music from The New Blood and Jason Takes Manhattan, all composed by Fred Mollin. Unlike the previous three soundtracks that had been released alongside the release of their respective films, this soundtrack was released seventeen years after The New Blood and Jason Takes Manhattan were in theaters. The television series produced by Mancuso Jr. released its own soundtrack in 1992, consisting of songs composed and performed by Fred Mollin.
Impact
In December 2006, IGN began counting down the top 25 movie franchises and Friday the 13th came in at # 7. Qualifications included having at least three films released before December 2006; the franchises had to be either commercial or artistic success, as well as having an impact on popular culture. Three senior editors, the Editor-In-Chief, and IGN's Entertainment Editorial Manager commented on Friday the 13ths seventh place ranking. The general consensus among the reviewers was that even though the Halloween franchise started the slasher genre, Friday the 13th became one of "the most influential franchises of the 1980s" and that its commercial success through eleven films, novelizations, comic books, and other collectables is proof of its legacy. ABC Online's Arts and Entertainment reporter, Gary Kemble makes note of the popularity of the franchise through both popular culture and with fans. Kemble points out that Jason's mask, which was not even adopted until the third film in the series, is one of the most widely recognized staples of the character. Talking with Brenna O'Brien, co-founder of the Fridaythe13thfilms.com website, the pair discuss how the fan base of the franchise has become so impassioned with the series that they have created a long list of fan-made films, their own full latex body suits crafted to emulate Jason's appearance, and tattoos of Jason on their body.
| "Everybody in the audience imitated hoot-owls and hyenas. Another girl [in the film] went to her room and started to undress. Five guys sitting together [in the theater] started a chant: 'We want boobs!'" | | — Karnick believes that this exert from Ebert's review of Friday the 13th Part 2 shows how critics have misunderstood the point the Friday films have tried to make. |
S. T. Karnick, editor of American Culture, wrote an article for the National Review detailing the impact Friday the 13th has had on the slasher genre, and noting that many of the reasons that critics have deplored the films are the same reasons why it has had such a strong influence. Karnick explained that Friday the 13th did not try and recreate the same "clever" film that John Carpenter made in 1978, but instead "[codified] the formula" of Halloween, "boiling it down to its essentials" so that it could be copied by other filmmakers. In his assessment, Friday the 13th changed the horror genre by purposefully not providing back-stories for characters, so that when the audience witnesses their death they are "strangely unaffected". Instead, Friday focuses on the history and motivations of the killer, who would exact revenge not on the people directly responsible, but on innocent people — a formula Karnick notes was replicated in A Nightmare on Elm Street, Child's Play, Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Saw, the Hannibal Lecter films, and the Halloween sequels. As Karnick sees it, "these films spoke directly to fears of increasing crime and social dislocation [and] provided audiences with ways to detach from these worries and conquer their fears of violence by laughing at it."
In Karnick's eyes, contemporary critics have failed to see how the film has truly affected audiences, and subsequently branded the film series as "both irresponsible (for numbing audiences to violence) and puritanical (for showing the murders of sexually active teens)". Quoting director John Carpenter, Karnick emphasized that "teens thus dispatched became victims not as punishment for sexual activity but simply because they were too preoccupied to notice the presence of a murderer". Pointing to Roger Ebert as a prime example of how critics have misunderstood the films, Ebert wrote that during a screening of Friday the 13th Part 2 he noticed that the audience had no sympathy for the victims, virtually cheering during death scenes. Karnick explains that Ebert's remarks actually show how the film series actually forces "audiences to experience the very thing that motivates the murders: a lack of compassion". In closing, Karnick suggested that these films were not puritanical, but actually proved the audiences "could be just as indifferent and callous as the characters in the films".
External links
Databases
Miscellaneous
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- - Writers of Windstorm's six-issue Friday the 13th comic
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