How Friday the 13th (1980) Isn’t Just a Slasher, It’s a Murder Mystery

Impressions of the Film

I began to watch this film because I figured if anything, it'd be for the benefit of understanding all of the social references and influences that likely stemmed from this film. Grinning at myself as the tropes of sexually active teenagers are universally punished in a stabby-stabby bath of blood. Particularly for Baby-Face Kevin Bacon on screen.

But what I didn't expect was to be totally sucked in. Extreme body horror isn't really my vibe, and slasher films are constantly trying to top one another with it. So I'd avoided the lore of Jason, only knowing he wears a hockey mask. That's really it. Nothing about who he was, why he was going to Camp Crystal Lake to kill the teenagers, and I figured I'd just enjoy the ride.

Budget and Monetary Performance

As is the story with most cinderella horror flicks they had a budget of a meager $550,000 (about $1.7 million adjusted for inflation.), which turned into $59.8 Million ($187.8 Million when adjusted for inflation). It was a smashing success.

But despite the monetary success, film critics hated it. The Hollywood Reporter gave a scathing review all but calling the film 'trash' on May 9th 1980.

Gruesome violence, in which throats are slashed and heads are split open in realistic detail, is the sum content of Friday the 13th, a sick and sickening low-budget feature that is being released by Paramount. It’s blatant exploitation of the lowest order. Produced and directed by Sean S. Cunningham through Georgetown Prods., there is nothing to recommend about this ghastly effort, which simply details a series of grisly murders.

-Ron Pennington, The Hollywood Reporter

Well, I beg to friggin differ Ron. I'm sure Paramount went crying into their piles of money when they saw your review.

Production

Director: Sean S Cunningham

Sean had a modest career of small projects ahead of Friday the 13th (1980). The most recognizable being Here Come the Tigers (1978) an MGM studio knock-off of the blockbuster Bad News Bears (1976) from two years prior.

Friday the 13th was going to be his first big hit, and he would become instrumental in turning this stand-alone story into the monolithic horror franchise we know today. What is funny is that before there was any story written down, Sean had the name "Friday the 13th" stuck in his head, because he knew it was such a good title that it would sell.

In fact, he took out a large paper print ad with Friday the 13th crashing through glass stating it was the scariest film before there was a script that existed. He did this to suss out if he would receive a letter infringing on someone's intellectual property because he felt the name was too good to not have been used before.

When he didn't get any notices he reached out to writer Victor Miller.

I said 'Victor I’ve got an idea, you wanna make a scary film or a horror film?' And he said 'Sure, but you know I’ve never written one.' And I said, 'Well, let's just figure it out.'

Sean S Cunningham - 2014

But after the success of the film, Paramount came back asking him to do another. Horror sequels were not really a thing at the time.

I thought initially from the original success that the sequels would come from the title of a new mystery movie or something like that. But the idea of telling a story about that vision or monster from the lake seemed goofy to me. Now I know, but at the time it didn’t seem like a good idea to me at all.

Sean S Cunningham - 2014

If you'd like to see the entire interview with Sean S Cunningham see the video below:

Writer: Victor Miller

Friday the 13th was Victors' fourth screenplay that was made into a film. He went on to write for one of the best-known soap operas that ran for 20 years called All my Children. He also of course went on to write MANY of the Friday the 13th franchise film screenplays over the last 40 years.

Musician: Harry Manfredini

Sean mentioned that Harry was the musician for Manny's Orphans The soccer film he had just come off of.

Harry Manfordini had this new piece of equipment that allowed for echo repeats and things like that in his basement in New Jersey. We were thinking of trying to come up with a signature for a ‘bad guy’ and a signature for ‘good people’ and so on. And he came up with this sound which was him speaking into a microphone, and he’d go “KCHA!”, and it would come out “kcha…kcha..kcha” and the other sound which was “meh meh meh meh…” that became a strange little sound. He was saying “Kill Ma”, but the sound is so subtle you can barely tell that’s what he’s saying.

Sean S Cunningham - 2014

You can hear the films signature echo sound in the video below:

What makes Friday the 13th a Murder Mystery?

Easy, Identifiable Elements of Mystery Story:

• The inciting incident (killing if you will) has already happened
• There is a 'detective' who must suss out what is the truth
• "red herrings" to lead the detective off the scent
• Clues lead us to the final result as a logical progression

Does this sound like any general element from A Sherlock Holmes, Monk, Law and Order, or any other generic investigative story through line? yup. But the killings haven't happened, and there is no detective we follow to find the clues with him. So why call Friday the 13th a mystery?

The Cinematography Makes the Audience Member the Detective in Live Time As the Crime is Happening

Unlike coming to a crime scene long after something has taken place and speculating on what happened with clues. We are watching the killings in a first-person camera shot as people are stabbed or worse. At first, I figured this was a simple filming choice due to the low budget of the film, and an easy cop-out that Spielberg came up with for Jaws a mere 5 years before this film was released.

However, by the end of the film. I realized something really important, The first-person camera shots sold me on whom the killer was when they were revealed.

It's a HUGE stretch to introduce a character we had no introduction to until 80% of the film is gone. So why did I accept her? The killing sequences were careful to show reactions. The people who knew Mrs. Vorhees didn't run, but more or less said hello before being stabbed. Those who didn't know her saw her as an intruder and screamed. The difference is stark if you re-watch those scenes. It allowed the audience member to piece together the sense of who it was, and when we find out her backstory it fits perfectly.

The Castle on the Hill: Story Telling Technique

This is a funny term I've heard my parents say before. This refers to a generic fantasy adventure of a knight riding through the countryside to fulfill his quest. On his journey, he sees a castle on the hill in the distance. He asks people traveling with him on his quest what is that castle? They tell the knight it was haunted long ago. Then the knight and the people traveling with him continue onto the rest of their quest.

It's a metaphor for pieces of the story that are part of the universe the characters exist in, but not the central focus of their overarching plot.

The stabbings of the two kids and the drowning of the boy are what closed the camp. We accept this. We saw the murders in the first scene, and frankly, a kid drowning is unfortunate, but commonplace in the real world. A coincidence that would have been the final straw on the camel's back to close the camp so many years ago. It's a TINY detail that is the castle on the hill.

Not once during the film do we ask ourselves who was the little boy who drowned? What were the circumstances? We know it happened within the universe of Crystal Lake, but why care to know more about it? We wouldn't. And that's sort of the point. Ironically we were given plot devices without actually detecting it, and to me, that's actually brilliant storytelling. It also compounds the idea that the woman we meet at the end is not from "nowhere", she's a keystone to everything that is happening.

The Title of the Film is a Clue to the Mystery

Naming a horror film is hard. It really is. You want to title to embody the emotion of what is happening, without being too on the nose. My favorite title would be Parasite. It shows the message of the film and is never once mentioned in the dialogue. The Sixth Sense as a description is also never once mentioned but tells us there's a new focus we don't understand until halfway through the film. The Babadook is a memorable name, but it's also mentioned A LOT in the dialogue of the film. So is it overdone? I believe not and will explore that with you in a future blog post.

Friday the 13th is actually a clever title in my opinion, and lucky if anything behind its meaning because it was title first ahead of a script in this case. Because we don't understand the importance of the date until the end of the movie. These horrible things are not happening because it is Friday the 13th. But because it is June 13th, the drowned boy's birthday. It just happens to be a Friday. We associate Friday the 13th as a supernatural date over hundreds of years due to Philip the IV of France arresting hundreds of the Knights Templar.

So colloquially the audience should feel superstition first from the name, ahead of a natural explanation. While it is a clue, it's a RED HERRING for us as the detective.

More Red Herring Clues for the Audience

Characters that could easily be pinned as the killer often had an alibi that made it plausible for them to have done it. The town-crazy, the camp owner, or a local policeman. Reasonable suspects, but all loosely supported. It isn't until right before the killer is revealed that the camp owner is also killed off, and I wasn't sure whom to guess.

The Mystery Genre is Wider than we Think

The Mystery Genre is Wider than we Think

Above is an AMAZING writing channel on YouTube I adore that points out all Harry Potter Novels are actually Mysteries given a 'fantasy' lens. This is how I will begin viewing horror entertainment and it speaks too much of what specific horror stories I resonate with, and which I find to be hollow. They're not "mystery" enough for me. I want to explore more mystery characteristics of storytelling to see if this gets me closer to new horror ideas to explore.