Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th (Enhanced Edition) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Copyright Notice

  Foreword by Sean S. Cunningham

  Introduction

  1. Long Night at Camp Blood

  2. The Body Count Continues

  3. A New Dimension in Terror

  4. Jason's Unlucky Day

  5. Repetition

  6. Resurrection

  7. Jason's Unlucky Day

  8. Terror in Times Square

  9. Nine Lives

  10. Evil Gets an Upgrade

  11. Winner Kills All

  12. Reflections on the Water

  Appendix: Screenplay Excerpts

  Appendix: Storyboard Gallery

  Appendix: Document Gallery

  Appendix: Crash Cunningham's Crystal Lake Memories

  Appendix: Coroner's Report

  Appendix: Notes on Sources

  Appendix: Author Acknowledgements

  Copyright Notice

  Text copyright (c) Peter M. Bracke 2005 & 2012

  "FRIDAY THE 13TH" and all related characters, names and indicia are trademarks and copyrights of New Line Productions, Inc. 2005 & 2012. All Rights Reserved.

  "FREDDY VS. JASON" and all related characters, names and indicia are trademarks and copyrights of New Line Productions, Inc. 2005 & 2012. All Rights Reserved.

  FRIDAY THE 13TH (c) 1980 Paramount Pictures Corporation. All rights reserved.

  FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2 (c) 1981 Paramount Pictures Corporation. All rights reserved.

  FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 3 (c) 1982 Paramount Pictures Corporation. All rights reserved.

  FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER (c) 1984 Paramount Pictures Corporation. All rights reserved.

  FRIDAY THE 13TH PART V: A NEW BEGINNING (c) 1985 Paramount Pictures Corporation. All rights reserved.

  FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI: JASON LIVES (c) 1986 Paramount Pictures Corporation. All rights reserved.

  FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VII: THE NEW BLOOD (c) 1988 Paramount Pictures Corporation. All rights reserved.

  FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VIII: JASON TAKES MANHATTAN (c) 1989 Paramount Pictures Corporation. All rights reserved.

  FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE SERIES (c) Paramount Pictures Corporation. All rights reserved.

  Every effort has been made to source and contact copyright holders. If any omissions do occur, the publishers will be happy to give full credit in subsequent reprints and editions.

  Editorial

  Editor—Daniel P. Farrands

  Editorial Assistance—Gareth Dimelow and Chase McCown

  Crystal Lake Entertainment Consultant—Geoff Garrett

  Design

  Cover Deign & Title Treatment—Mark Matsuno for Matsuno Design Group

  Art Direction and Layout—Peter M. Bracke

  Design Consultant—Joel Vendette for Vendetta Designs

  Stills Restoration—John McCloy for Matsuno Design Group

  The publisher would like to thank all at Crystal Lake Entertainment, New Line Cinema and Paramount Pictures for their invaluable support and involvement in the production of this book, in particular Sean S. Cunningham, Lourdes Arocho, David Imhoff, Larry McCallister and Martin Blythe

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2005924310

  ISBN: 0-9765433-2-X

  ISBN-13: 978-0-9765433-2-9

  Published by Sparkplug Press

  First Sparkplug edition October 2005

  First Titan edition October 2006

  First Sparkplug electronic edition February 2012

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  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

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  Foreword by Sean S. Cunningham

  As this book goes to press, it's hard to believe that it has been over 25 years since I made the original Friday the 13th. It's even harder to imagine that a book has been written to define and memorialize the original film and the subsequent installments. Over the past few years, I have gotten to know Peter Bracke, the author, as he has carefully and painstakingly assembled his extensive research and conducted his interviews. At this point, I'm sure that Peter's the world's most informed expert on the subject. Now, I think it's hilarious that when I have a question about events concerning any one of the movies, I always call Peter to ask him what really happened. Peter knows.

  Back in the summer of 1979, things were tight. I had just finished Manny's Orphans, the second of two independently financed family films but it had yet to be distributed. I was worried about how I was going keep everything going until some money came in. I was married, with two beautiful children, and was working out of a home office in Westport, Connecticut where I had produced Last House on the Left with my friend Wes Craven. I needed to come up with a new idea that I could sell.

  So why not make a scary movie? I had not revisited the horror genre since Last House on the Left but I had this movie title banging around in the back of my head that I thought would be terrific: Friday the 13th. I had no idea what the movie would be, but with that title I thought, at least, I'd be off to a good start.

  That's when I went to Steve Miner, my friend, producer, editor and collaborator with a half-baked idea about taking out an ad in Variety announcing the production of a movie called Friday the 13th. We both knew it was crazy since we didn't have a script, no production funds and we weren't sure we could even get the rights to use the title. I said to Steve, "First, let's see if we can use the title and we'll work the rest out from there. If the ad runs and nobody sues us, I say we have the rights."

  I scraped together just enough money to run a full-page ad in the July 4th weekend edition of Variety announcing the production of: "Friday the 13th—The Most Terrifying Film Ever Made!" I ran the ad expecting to receive letters from lawyers telling me that I couldn't make the movie because I didn't have the rights, blah, blah, blah. But to my amazement, nobody objected! And here's the thing we didn't anticipate. People loved the ad and wanted to see the movie. I got distribution queries from all over the world, plus I got several offers from people willing to loan me money or to invest in the movie.

  Virtually overnight we were in pre-production.

  The next weeks were a frantic obsessive scramble as we tried to figure out how to actually make "The Most Terrifying Film Ever Made." We decided on a budget of $500,000—more money than I had ever raised before—and then tried to put together a script. Instrumental in all this was my friend Victor Miller, a writer who had collaborated with me on the two earlier kids movies. We'd meet every morning to discuss the story, and then Victor would go off to sketch out scenes while Steve and I wrestled with the logistics of casting and production. And every day we'd ask ourselves the same questions: what's really scary, and how can we shoot it on our budget?

  Sometime during pre-production we interviewed Tom Savini, who had driven up from Pittsburg with his pet Chinchilla and a car full of clothes and makeup tools. Tom had been trained by Dick Smith, the master makeup effects wizard, and had worked with George Romero on Dawn of the Dead. We all hit it off perfectly and Tom didn't go home until we finished the movie. Some of my fondest memories from that time were of Victor, Steve, Tom and I trying to plan storyboards for stuff that had never been done before. Surely someone on the outside might have found it bizarre t
o see us trying to figure out the best way to chop off somebody's head or the most effective way to drive an arrow through a camper's throat. But we were energized with laughter and adrenaline and the naughty hope of putting on a kind of crazy magic show. We kept pushing forward, one foot in front of the next, until we found ourselves at a Boy Scout Camp in Blairstown, New Jersey, getting ready to shoot the movie at a place we renamed Crystal Lake.

  Making movies is difficult under the best conditions. But when you have no money, it's even harder. Looking back I realize how lucky I was to have been put together with such a dedicated, caring, passionate group of people. Steve Miner, Victor Miller, Tom Savini. Barry Abrams, my cinematographer and our tireless crew of commando filmmakers. In post Bill Freda, my skillful editor, and my musical mentor and maestro, Harry Manfredini, the genius who created the signature musical sounds of Friday the 13th. And I was particularly lucky to have Barry Moss and Julie Hughes as my casting agents. They worked diligently to assemble such a terrific cast of unselfish actors willing to do anything to make the movie better. I was grateful then and I'm even more grateful now.

  So it is with continued shock and amazement that I sit here, 25 years later, with the original Friday the 13th having now produced 10 sequels of its own. Who would've thought it? Certainly not any of us back in 1979. Although it wasn't planned, the film completely changed the course of my life. It opened doors in Hollywood and offered me opportunities that I never even conceived of back in my little office in Westport. Jason Voorhees has been good to me.

  I want to thank you, Peter, for creating this book which has allowed me to look back at one of the craziest and most wonderful times of my life.

  It's been one hell of a ride so far!

  Sean S. Cunningham

  Los Angeles, August 2005

  Introduction

  It was an idyllic scene. Rays of early morning sunshine pierced the trees as ripples gently caressed the cool waters of Crystal Lake. A young girl lay in a canoe, her fingertips gingerly testing the glassy surface. All around, the sounds of nature were peaceful, almost a lullaby. Then, suddenly, a figure burst through the once-calm water. Some creature, some thing, moss-covered and horribly disfigured, pulled the screaming girl down into the depths below. The legend of Jason Voorhees had claimed his first victim.

  It was a moment that inspired a nation to let out a collective scream. A scream so loud and bloodcurdling it continues to send aftershocks thirty years later.

  It was the final scene of a film called Friday the 13th—and the start of a phenomenon that has become as inexplicable to its critics as it is beloved by its fans. Who could have anticipated that the story of a group of carefree camp counselors being stalked by an unseen assailant, only to be dispatched one by one in a series of ever more gruesome murders, would inspire ten sequels, a remake, a television series and a lucrative line of tie-in merchandise? And who would have known that it would catapult its star villain, Jason Voorhees—a mute, hockey mask-wearing, machete-wielding maniac with a deformed face and one serious mother fixation—into an icon of terror recognized around the world?

  Amazingly, for a concept as straightforward as that of Friday the 13th, the series—like the seemingly indestructible Jason Voorhees—has continued to rejuvenate itself for thirty years. Diehard fans typically point to the first installment of any long-running horror film series as being the best, but in fact the twelve installments (and counting) of Friday the 13th, collectively, form as admirably diverse and ambitious a franchise as any in motion picture history. While not all of the cinematic permutations of Jason have met with unanimous approval by the series' dedicated fan base, Friday the 13th nevertheless continues to prove that it cannot be stopped. Having survived no less than two "final" chapters, a telekinetic teen, the gimmick of 3-D, a shipwrecked voyage to Manhattan, a journey into outer space, a millennial makeover and even a Jason imposter, it is hard to deny the character's universal and enduring appeal. The series has also had not just one but three parent studios. Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. jointly "adopted" the original Friday the 13th in 1980 (with Paramount handling domestic distribution while Warner took international markets); Paramount then assumed full parentage of the next seven installments of the franchise during the 1980s, as well as Friday the 13th: The Series, a popular television show that ran for three seasons in first-run syndication. New Line Cinema then acquired the rights to the franchise in 1992 and continued to release its own successful new sequels. In 2003, Jason even did battle with his greatest challenger: Freddy Krueger of the A Nightmare on Elm Street series. Not only did Jason survive the resulting bloodbath but Freddy vs. Jason managed to inject new life into two of Hollywood's most enduring faces of evil. The battle between the terror titans became one of the biggest hits of the year as well as the most commercially successful sequel that either series had ever spawned on its own. Finally, it came full circle when Paramount and Warner (which had now acquired New Line as a wholly owned subsidiary) joined forces with Michael Bay's independent production company Platinum Dunes to give Jason Voorhees his own long-expected and much-anticipated reimagining: 2009's Friday the 13th, a modern and high-budget remake that introduced the character and the franchise's mythology to a whole new generation of eager moviegoers. Although few would have predicted it at the time—including its own creators—the specter of Jason Voorhees still seems to be unstoppable thirty years after he made his first big screen appearance.

  The seed for this remarkable, if somewhat redoubtable, success was planted on May 9, 1980, when the original Friday the 13th made its debut on more than 1,100 screens across the United States. Though the basic formula of Friday the 13th was not entirely new—its blueprint had, in fact, already been established by Halloween two years prior (and arguably Psycho eighteen years before that)—the presentation was unique, as was the film's attitude, modern dress and innate understanding of the collective fears of its audience. Certainly, horror films involving teenagers (ones usually preoccupied with sexual exploration) under threat from murderous forces—whether human, monstrous or other-worldly—had already been a staple of the genre for decades. And many a great mystery-thriller, particularly Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians, had fine-tuned the plot device of introducing a group of unwitting victims only to pick them off, one after another, until the identity of the evildoer was revealed in the last reel. But what proved so effective about Friday the 13th was that this unassuming, low-budget exploitation picture could so cannily and craftily reformulate the classic conventions of yesteryear into something that was contemporary, resonant and unapologetically shocking.

  At the time of its release, Friday the 13th's cinematic language was hip and cutting-edge. Bathed in dark shadows and filled with roving point-of-view shots (usually from the perspective of the killer), the audience was kept perpetually off-balance. The film's attenuated shock moments, gingerly but relentlessly modulated, were then sprung without mercy. Like a giant exclamation point at the end of a carefully worded sentence, the film's incredibly visceral and graphic murder sequences, executed with state-of-the-art makeup effects, literally left audiences gasping, "How did they do that!?" Friday the 13th pushed the boundaries of what was permissible to be seen in mainstream cinema, and did it with mood, suspense and unforgettable imagery. And driving it all was an unsettling, almost atonal musical score, complete with a classic aural motif for its unseen killer: the stuttered words, "Ki, ki, ki, Ma, ma, ma" have undeniably become as synonymous with Jason as John Williams' unforgettable three-note score has with the man-eating shark in JAWS.

  Friday the 13th also presented a group of young characters purposely stereotypical, even archetypal. So relatable were these carefree counselors of Camp Crystal Lake to young audiences that the boundary between spectator and participant all but disappeared. The horrors of Friday the 13th became not something just to watch but to experience. Most unsettling to some observers was that the point of identification for the audience (the character with whom their all
egiance was strongest) varied throughout the film, a narrative device that became even more pronounced in the subsequent sequels. In one moment, audiences could have empathy for the hapless human victims as each was stalked one by one, while in the next they could "cheer on" Jason as he dispatched his prey in ever more elaborate and shocking ways. Yet by film's end, their sympathies were once again aligned with the (usually female) protagonist, as she (or he) defeated Jason—if only temporarily, of course. Film as spectator sport was and continues to be one of the Friday the 13th series' signature attributes. More akin to a rollercoaster ride than a motion picture, even the film's harshest critics could not deny that the "Friday the 13th formula" had connected with young audiences on an almost primal level.

  Yet, Friday the 13th was more than just a well-executed if thriftily made thrill ride; It was ground zero for a new mythology of fear. Almost immediately upon its release, Friday the 13th became the new campfire tale for the then-largest generation in American history—the children of the baby boomers. For them, its shocks were new, its visuals arresting, and its chair jumper of an ending totally unanticipated. Just as urban legends are passed from ear to ear, house to house, town to town—and transformed from local superstition into revered folklore in the process—so, too, would Friday the 13th's tale of the young Jason Voorhees and his revenge-seeking mother be whispered in hushed tones in schoolyards across America. And as Jason became more powerful, more indestructible and more iconic with each sequel—eventually donning his now trademark hockey mask in 1982's Friday the 13th Part 3 in 3-D—he has legitimately become as potent and vital a symbol of fear to our modern culture as Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolf Man were to the early twentieth century.

  As trend-setting as Friday the 13th may appear in retrospect, the people who create low-budget, independent genre movies often don't produce a film because they imagine it will break fresh ground, set grand new aesthetic standards or expand the horizons for the next generation of moviemakers. Friday the 13th was not created because its filmmakers wanted to inject something bold and alive into the cinematic bloodstream. And certainly none of them had any notion of creating a franchise that would spawn a dozen films over a period of three decades and take in more than half a billion dollars at the box office. Friday the 13th was conceived purely by chance and out of desperation by an ambitious independent producer and director named Sean S. Cunningham, who wanted to create a potboiler just profitable enough so that its success might allow him to make another movie. Cunningham, having reached the milestone age of forty and left nearly insolvent after a decade of paying his dues, had only one true hit on his resumé, the notorious 1972 exploitation cult classic Last House on the Left. Fresh off the commercial failure of his two previous films, a pair of sports-themed family entertainments, he pulled out the one great title he had once stored away in his mental Rolodex—Friday the 13th. Reluctant at first to return to his horror roots, Cunningham nevertheless crafted his new suspense shocker out of a little money, a lot of spit and polish, and a game cast and crew out to make something special (and, they hoped, successful).