Friday the 13th Turns 40

Ahoy Captain Cats here and today we are going to talk about a slasher film that made history as being the first independent film of it’s kind to spark a bidding war for domestic and international distribution rights but also introduced the world to a new generation of horror icon in Jason Voorhees and that film is Friday The 13th.

The film was written by Victor Miller and directed by Sean S. Cunningham and it was made on a budget of $550,000. The film would go on and make a total of $59.8 million in the box office and also make its impact on pop culture as well. Friday the 13th introduced the sub-genre of stalker or slasher films, was not loved by critics but loved by filmgoers, lead the charge of introducing a new kind of horror films to the masses such as the evil dead 1 and 2, a nightmare on elm street series, the thing, return of the living dead and child’s play. The film also created many sequels, crossover film event, a reboot, comic book series, a very odd TV series, books, merchandises, and 4 video games which includes the 1989 NES game and the most recent 2017 game.

The three things that make this film a horror classic is that the main killer wasn’t Jason but was his mother Pamela Voorhees, who was portrayed by Betsy Palmer, who was the main killer, the second thing is the now iconic ending of the film and third thing is that a very young Kevin Bacon was in this film as Jack Burrell.

Next time if you have nothing to watch and want a good jump scare during the day, look for a copy or see on TV for Friday the 13th and enjoy yourself if you dare.