- Body count: 10.
- The first counsellor killed in the 1958 prologue is named "Barry" in the credits. The captions identify him as "Gary".
- Sally Field auditioned for the role of Alice Hardy.
- Steve Christy is named after Steve Miner, Associate Producer for the film.
- The film has been spoofed a number of times, most notably in Saturday the 14th (1981)
- Sean S. Cunningham has been quoted as saying that the type of actors that he sought for the film were "good-looking kids who you might see in a Pepsi commercial."
- Estelle Parsons was originally signed on to play Mrs. Voorhees.
- Adrienne King at first did not want to be in the film because of the graphic violence in it, but she changed her mind.
- Betsy Palmer said that if it were not for the fact that she was in desperate need of a new car, she would never have taken the part of Pamela Voorhees. In fact, after she read the script she called the film "a piece of shit".
- One critic was so angry at Betsy Palmer's role in the movie (which had angered many of her fans), that he published her address in his magazine, and encouraged people to write her and protest her. He published the wrong address.
- Most of the location and set was already there, they only had to build the bathroom set.
- The movie was filmed at Camp Nobebosco in New Jersey. The camp is still in operation to date, and they have a wall of Friday the 13th paraphernalia to honor the fact that the movie was set there.
- Tom Savini was one of the first crew members on board for the film because the producers idolized his special makeup effects in Dawn of the Dead (1978).
- The filmmakers never intended to make this the launching pad for the series that followed. According to Victor Miller, Jason was only meant as a plot device and not intended to continue on his mother's grisly work.
- Composer Harry Manfredini has said that contrary to popular belief, the famous "chi chi chi, ha ha ha" in the film's score is actually "ki ki ki, ma ma ma". It is meant to resemble Jason's voice saying "kill kill kill, mom mom mom" in Mrs. Voorhees' mind. It was inspired by the scene in which Mrs. Voorhees seems to be possessed by Jason and chants "Get her mommy....kill her!" Manfredini created the effect by speaking the syllables "Ki" and "Ma" into a microphone running through a delay effect.
- While most of the cast and crew stayed at local hotels during the filming, some of the loyal cast and crew members, including Tom Savini, and Taso N. Stavrakis, stayed at the actual camp site. They had Savini's Betamax VCR and only a couple of movies (Barbarella (1968) and Marathon Man (1976)) on videotape to keep themselves entertained, so each night they would watch one of these movies. To this day, Savini says he can recite those movies by heart.
- The film made $39,754,601 and had a budget of $550,000.
- Filming lasted 28 days.
- The scene with the snake was not in the script and was an idea from Tom Savini after an experience in his own cabin during filming. The snake in the scene was real, including its on-screen death.
- Willie Adams was a crew member for the film. Although he spent most his time working behind the camera, he played the male counsellor in the 1958 scene, and holds the unique distinction of being the first murder victim in the Friday the 13th film series.
- Betsy Palmer worked on the film for ten days, for which she received $1000 per day.
- In the script, Marcie's death scene was originally meant to show an arrow hitting her chest in the archery area. Depsite popular belief, this was never filmed.
- Victor Miller admitted that he was purposely riding off the success of John Carpenter's Halloween (1978).
- Victor Miller had originally given Jason the name of Josh. After deciding that it sounded too nice, he changed it to Jason after a school bully.
- Victor Miller's working title for the script was "Long Night at Camp Blood".
- Special Effects Supervisor, Tom Savini, performed the arrow shot that narrowly misses Brenda when she's setting up the archery target.
>>> WARNING: Here Be Spoilers <<<
Trivia items below here contain information that may give away important plot points. You may not want to read any further if you've not already seen this title.
- SPOILER: During the first few weekends of the film's release, makeup/effects artist Tom Savini would go into theaters for the last five minutes of the show to see the audience react to Jason emerging from the lake and grabbing Alice.
- SPOILER: The film's make-up effects artist, (Tom Savini), doubles for Brenda in the shot where her body is thrown through a window.
- SPOILER: The fake ending scene in which Alice is attacked by Jason, was shot three times. Once in September, then October and finally in November, when the temperature was 28 degrees outside.
- SPOILER: Makeup designer Tom Savini thought up the idea of Jason's surprise appearance at the end of the movie.
- SPOILER: In the scene where Bill is found impaled to a door with arrows, his eye twitches continually because the eye effect that Tom Savini applied was actually burning his eye and causing him excruciating pain.
- SPOILER: There is rumored to be a deleted scene featuring the murder of Claudette. The crew of the film dismissed this, including Tom Savini, who said he never even worked on the opening scene. There is, however, a still of Claudette with a machete in her throat, although that may have been shot purely for promotional material.
- SPOILER: Kevin Bacon's character, lying in bed with his throat impaled by an arrow, has the blood in his neck making little bubbles. Originally, it was just meant to seep out, but the arrangement of the tube with blood didn't work, and Tom Savini ended up blowing into the tube to make it flow, causing an unintended (but ultimately used) bubbling effect.
- SPOILER: In the original first draft of the script, Mrs. Voorhees was supposed to lose her little finger while attempting to kill Barry.
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