"The truth is," director/producer/co-writer Sean Cunningham told Fangoria magazine in 1980, "I needed a hit film." Little had he known during production that Gulf + Western's savvy marketing machine would catapult his seminal Voorhees opus into the Top Twenty films of the year. The original Friday the 13th, which actually opened in some major cities a few weeks earlier than its reported "13 June 1980" release date, became a surprise hit during the summer of The Empire Strikes Back, Caddyshack, and The Shining. To those who are wondering why, perhaps it's because Cunningham's modest slasher film offered the usual 'isolated' environment (this time, a summer camp) but with a few things more which elevated it from its peers in the genre: make-up effects by an up-and-coming Tom Savini; a storyline which drastically altered the misogynistic "man stalks woman" formula; and a magnificent, atonally-based musical score from Harry Manfredini. The storyline is relatively simple. Following a murderous prologue set in 1958 (in which two camp counselors are suddenly murdered when they're caught "making out", the scene shifts to 1980, which is the present day for this film. The allegedly-cursed Camp Crystal Lake is about to be re-opened, this time by Steve Christie (Peter Brouwer), the son of the man who ran it in its previous, stained operations. One by one, his staff arrive. And one by one, they are dispatched by an unseen assassin. The murders are occasionally gruesome, and the suspense holds commendably well. Near the end of the film, the murderer has been revealed, as has the reason for the murders. The final remaining camp counselor makes a desperate bid for survival as the rampaging killer closes in. The finale of Friday the 13th seems precariously close to the finish of Brian DePalma's Carrie. It isn't, though. The conclusion of Friday the 13th carries its own implications, which are revealed later in the notable sequel Friday the 13th, Part II. Principle Credits: Friday the 13th, released in 1980 by Paramount Pictures. Starring Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Harry Crosby, Peter Brouwer, Kevin Bacon, JeanineTaylor, Laurie Bartram, Mark Nelson, Robbi Morgan, Walt Gorney and Ari Lehman. Produced and Directed by Sean S. Cunningham Written by Victor Miller and (uncredited onscreen) Sean S. Cunningham Associate Producer: Steve Miner Music by Harry Manfredini Special Make-Up Effects byTom Savini << Back