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Friday the 13th
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Friday the 13th (1980) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
6.3/10   22,676 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 33% in popularity this week. See rank & trends on IMDbPro.
Director:
Sean S. Cunningham
Writer:
Victor Miller (written by)
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Contact:
View company contact information for Friday the 13th on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
9 May 1980 (USA) more
Tagline:
On Friday The 13th, They Began To Die Horribly, One......By One (UK - Theatrical Tagline) more
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. full summary | full synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
Awards:
4 nominations more
User Comments:
A classic, in spite of itself! more

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Additional Details

Also Known As:
A Long Night at Camp Blood (USA) (working title)
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Runtime:
95 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Color
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
The film made $39,754,601 and had a budget of $550,000. more
Goofs:
Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Brenda uses the communal bathrooms rather than the sink in the room because of facilities available there other than a sink. more
Quotes:
Officer Dorf: Looking for someone. Guy named Ralph. Town crazy.
Ned: [acting a bit silly with the stereotypical Native American gear on] Well, there's no crazy people around here!
Officer Dorf: I told you to sit on it, Tonto!
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Movie Connections:
Referenced in "Robot Chicken: Operation Rich in Spirit (#1.17)" (2005) more

FAQ

Alice is never shown removing the coffee pot from the burner, but why is it that in the next scene, the pot is off the stove?
Why would Brenda walk all the way through the rain to the communal bathrooms only to brush her teeth and wash her face when a sink is clearly shown in her own cabin?
Is it possible Jason could have also killed people in this movie?
more
22 out of 29 people found the following comment useful:-
A classic, in spite of itself!, 7 August 2003
7/10

I consider Friday THE 13TH a classic, despite everything seemingly going against it. Yes, the original Friday THE 13TH part 1 and part 2 owe a lot to BAY OF BLOOD (or TWITCH OF DEATH NERVE). There's no question about it. The similarities between the two films are obvious. The film is responsible for spawning an endless number of truly awful sequels. The acting is nothing spectacular. The script is barely there. And the film sorta drags a bit in the middle. And the ending of Friday THE 13TH is an indirect rip-off of the ending in CARRIE. But the backwoods atmosphere/mystique behind Friday THE 13TH is totally original and effective (much more than any of the sequels), and the ending of FT13 is, imo, WAY better than the ending of CARRIE. The ending of FT13 makes the movie. The entire FT13 series exists merely on the strength of that ending. It created a myth, in the name of Jason. The story (or script) is wonderfully absurd (when you think about it) which gives the murders an even more psychotic edge to them, and in my mind, are more effective than the ones in BAY OF BLOOD or in any other Friday THE 13TH sequels because of the kooky reasoning behind them. Watching Jason kill his victims in the sequels quickly got boring. And the fact that Tom Savini created the excellent gory FX is a definite plus. The acting is average (some of it even poor) but let's face it, the characters, aside from their individual death scenes, don't have a lot of dramatic things to do, except for Betsy Palmer and Adrienne King, who is good but is not the best "last surviving female" actress ever to appear in a slasher. On the other hand, Betsy Palmer is amazing as Mrs. Voorhees. She's a combination of total sweetness, insanity and camp all rolled into one. Once Betsy appears on screen the film is thrilling and she adds a lot of life (no pun intended) to the whole proceeding, which was lacking from a good part of the film. And let's not forget the good score. Very effective even if it sometimes sounds derivative. And the original poster is great!

The funny thing about Friday THE 13TH is that when I first saw it 20 years ago I thought it was good but not as good as HALLOWEEN. Fast forward 20 years, and today I sorta prefer Friday THE 13TH slightly more than HALLOWEEN now, which has lost a lot of its luster, due mainly to HALLOWEEN's awful sequels and their stupid story-lines. Artistically, HALLOWEEN is still the better film of the two. There's no comparison there. But it has lost its edge, while FT13's trashiness has oddly kept it fresh. While HALLOWEEN has irremediably lost a lot of its mystique with each subsequent sequels, Friday THE 13TH, on the other hand, actually gained more credibility with every release of its seemingly endless number of ultra-stupid sequels. After seeing some of those sequels, the original FT13 looks positively brilliant compared to those horrendous sequels. It's a classic in its own special way.

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Message Boards

Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Friday the 13th (1980)
Recent Posts (updated daily)User
Yep AmericanAlien
this movie gets no love AnTi_Normal
Total wreak of a movie mikebchipper
CampBlood.net Updated Kat91119
Your favorite F13 films in order SsubzeroO
COUNTRY MUSIC JULVAL7561
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