His Name Was Jason: 30 Years Of Friday The 13th

---

- ( eerie music playing )

- ( whimpering )

( screams )

Following the sign

to Camp Crystal Lake

can only mean one thing--

bad luck.

For her, not for us.

You see in 1980 when

producer/director Sean Cunningham

released a little film

into the world called ''Friday the 1 3th,''

not even he could have

imagined the success

or the fame or the carnage

that would ensue.

With 1 2 movies to date,

an endless body count

and over a half billion

in worldwide box-office dollars,

''Friday the 1 3th'' gave birth

to one of the greatest cinematic villains of

our time.

She doesn't know

what she's in for.

So lock up your cabin doors,

zip up your tents

and make sure that

your car does indeed start,

because tonight

he could be anywhere.

So you wondering

who l'm talking about?

His name was Jason.

( blood splattering )

( screaming )

For some of us,

the problems we have as adults

go back to our mothers.

ln the case of Jason,

truer words

were never spoken.

( man softly )

Kill kill kill...

ln the late '70s,

Steve Miner and l had made a couple

of children's movies

and neither one of them

was very successful.

And we had to do something

to keep the lights on.

And so we came up with this notion

of doing ''Friday the 1 3th.''

We had a title and a need

- to make some money.

- ( shatters )

The thing about the story

is that it's so profoundly simple.

The longest part of the process

of creating the first ''Friday the 1 3th''

was figuring out the venue,

so l had to find some territory

that was adult-free

so that these kids would be

on their own

and we could pick them off

one by one.

My character was sort of like

the Janet Leigh in ''Psycho.''

l'm the setup character

to follow,

but l didn't last too long.

We ran into the woods

where it was safe.

Cunningham:

We had this notion that these kids

would be out at a summer camp

and would be threatened

by some kind of serial killer.

We would then be surprised

to discover

who the serial killer was at the end.

Mrs. Voorhees,

who is mighty pissed off

that her son Jason

drowned while

a couple of counselors

were off boning somewhere.

The counselors weren't

paying any attention.

They were making love

while that young boy drowned.

The scariest moment

in the original movie

is when Alice realizes

that Pamela is the killer.

Kill her, Mommy!

Kill her!

And that's the beginning

of the chase at the end of the movie.

( screaming )

And when we think all is quiet

and she survived

that horrible Friday the 1 3th...

The boy, is he dead too?

Policeman:
Who?

The one who attacked me, the one

who pulled me underneath the water!

Ma'am, we didn't find any boy.

Then he's still there.

And he certainly was.

Lauren-Marie Taylor:

Before we started filming ''Part 2,''

they had us watch

the original ''Friday the 1 3th,''

which almost scared me off

to not doing the project,

'cause it really freaked

me out.

After the first one

Jason had been created,

so the notion of having a surprise

as to who it is or what it is

changed completely.

So what the stories became

was sort of a ritualized telling

of a group of young people

who go someplace

- where they shouldn't go.

- ( gasps )

What are you kids

doing out here?

We come back to Crystal Lake

to open up this camp again.

The ghost of the past,

Jason comes to haunt them.

Todd:

And one by one,

Jason Voorhees kills us

and continues to do

what he does best.

''Part 2'' was basically

his journey

of seeking revenge

over the death of his mother.

And he's got her

decapitated head

on his mantelpiece.

He just keeps killing and killing.

And that's the journey

that's taken us for 30 years.

lt's remarkable.

Cunningham:
l really thought

it wasn't gonna work the way it did,

and l'm delighted

to have been so wrong.

''Friday the 1 3th Part lll''--

we get the gimmick movie.

''Friday the 1 3th lll'' in 3D,

and that is also the movie

where Jason will choose

his infamous mask.

The day after the events

in ''Part 2''--

so it's technically

Saturday the 14th,

but don't tell anyone--

a group of teenagers

all go up to the cabin

to visit Chris Higgins,

little knowing that Jason

is still out there killing everyone.

Ugh!

Through all the 3D movies

l've ever done,

nobody talks about any of them.

All they ever wanna

talk about is when can we see

''Friday the 1 3th'' in 3D.

Ryan Rotten:
Four is where things

start getting interesting.

lt starts to introduce

a protagonist Tommy Jarvis,

who we'll start seeing

in other sequels.

l was told that this was

gonna be the last of the series.

And this again would be

about death at the end,

because Jason was going to die.

Barney Cohen:
Jason had been hit

in the head with an axe.

He had been carted off in an ambulance.

We pick him up almost in real time

arriving dead at a hospital.

And then Jason breaks out

of the morgue.

Leave me alone!

( screaming )

And then the kids

in the car arrive at the lake

and bump into us.

There's skinny-dipping

- and all kinds of things.

- Partying-- we're partying on down

and then we all got killed.

ln very quick succession.

My character Rob

had a sister named Sandra,

who was a counselor

at Crystal Lake in ''Part 2.''

This dude looks like

he's been hunting Jason for years.

The one time l saw the movie--

going to the opening night screening

on Hollywood Boulevard--

during the whole entire movie

just people screaming,

it was like this cathartic

experience for everybody.

lt's a thrill ride.

l remember that we're supposed

to think Corey Feldman's

gonna pick up the torch

and be the next Jason.

''Part 5'' was truly

a departure

because they went

in a totally different direction.

They decide they're gonna set it

in a halfway house

for weird f***ed-up kids.

And there's this dude

and he's killing the kids off

and he's using Jason's mask.

We don't see Jason in that movie,

except for hallucinations,

flashbacks-- that's it.

When the film opened

it was opening, l think,

in 2,000 theaters

across the country.

ln 1984, that was a lot.

Frank Mancuso called me

late that night--

so excited,

saying these numbers

are like the golden times.

This is unheard of.

Shavar Ross:

When the supposed Jason fell,

l love the part where

he just goes right through those spikes.

Because you can just see the dummy

just going right on the spike.

Another piece of advice,

don't allow the overweight

mentally-handicapped son

of the local ambulance driver

to get hacked to sh*t over a candy bar.

Because chances are

that driver's gonna turn

into a Jason clone

and try to take people out.

Adam Green:
They brought him back

again in ''Vl,'' and he killed Horshack

at the beginning,

which was awesome.

And he was kind of like

Frankenstein because a lightning bolt

that came out of nowhere

brought him back to life,

and there was maggots on his face,

which was really cool.

l think it was extremely violent.

l mean, you look at it and you go,

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