Friday the 13th Revisited - My Return to Cinema Slaughter Camp

On March 13, 2015, I posted a lengthy blog titled “Child of Friday the 13^th”, about my lifetime love affair with the film Friday the 13^th and the series it spawned. In brief summation, Friday the 13^th was my first theatrical horror film and R-rated movie, which I saw on opening night when I was eight years old. It was not love at first sight, because I was way too young to understand what I was watching and the effect was traumatizing. When Jason popped out of the lake during the final scene, I threw my Red Vines and soda into the air and ran screaming out of the theater. The film gave me nightmares and sleepless nights for years. When my interest in horror developed in my early teens, I was able to re-evaluate Friday the 13^th, and the film turned from a hated nightmare generator into a work of art that embraced all of my favorite film aesthetics. I faced my fear, and transformed it to love.

Face of fear.

     Now I treat the date Friday the 13^th as another Halloween, a day when most of my friends and I celebrate our love of cinematic scares. I always run my own Friday the 13^th marathon and try to partake in whatever horror-centric happening is going on. This last Friday the 13^th, May 2016, which marked the 36^th anniversary of the original film’s release, proved to be more special than most, and luckily I had my camera constantly going to capture all of the excitement and carnage.

     Los Angeles is a playground for film fanatics, often with multiple events going on at once jockeying for fans’ attention. Never though have I seen so many stellar events at once as on Friday May 13, 2016. First there was the New Beverly Cinema’s An All Nighter on Elm Street, a marathon of the first 7 Nightmare on Elm Street films that reportedly sold out in 3 minutes. At the Hollywood Forever Cemetery was a screening of The Conjuring, including a look at advance clips from The Conjuring 2. For Friday the 13^th fans, first there was a 35^th anniversary screening of Friday the 13^th Part 2 at the Chinese Theatres in Hollywood. Next, the Great Horror Campout sponsored a screening of the original Friday the 13^th within the woods of the abandoned Griffith Park Zoo. Friday the 13^th also screened at nearly the same time in West Los Angeles with director Sean S. Cunningham in attendance. Finally, for those who prefer brand new to retro scares, The Darkness just opened in theaters everywhere, starring Friday the 13^th’s Kevin Bacon.

     Despite all of these choices, my event of choice was immediate, and surprisingly, not the screening of Friday the 13^th at the Crest Westwood, which was nearest me. That screening sounded appealing, with the film’s director discussing the mechanics of this cinematic favorite. However, for many years I’ve wished for a screening of Friday the 13^th in a woodsy setting. Griffith Park, planted right in the center of Los Angeles with Dodgers Stadium next door, is not exactly a remote summer camp. However, the park is a large outdoor oasis that you really don’t want to be lost in without a flashlight at night.

Something is lurking behind me in the abandoned zoo!

     Because I was so scarred by seeing Friday the 13^th so young, I never went to summer camp. It was never even a consideration. Ironically, the Great Horror Campout, an annual slasher themed camping experience that happens in June, sponsored this outdoor Friday the 13th screening, with prior outdoor screenings of Poltergeist and The Shining that I missed. This group’s Great Horror Movie Night would be like a short trip to camp in the woods, to see the ultimate summer camp slasher film. This screening, more than any other revival screening, seemed like it would provide a direct connection, a vein or a Red Vine, to that terrified kid I was watching Friday the 13^th on opening weekend. I couldn’t wait!

     Before that twilight screening, I had many hours to kill, so I decided to get fully into the skin of Friday the 13^th’s main characters, the happy and doomed young camp counselors. I put on my Camp Crystal Lake Camp Counselor shirt and button, rolled some joints, and with Red Vines for wounds, went to camp. Perhaps I should classify this behavior not as cosplay, but as kilplay. Here are some memorable kill shots.

First victims on Friday the 13th.

Ol’ Grimace Face on Friday the 13^th. “It’s got a death curse!”

Carefree youth on Friday the 13^th. We’re gonna live forever!

Final girls on Friday the 13^th. Not so virginal.

Someone’s shooting arrows at us on Friday the 13^th. It’s not even dark yet.

Poor Annies on Friday the 13^th. We were supposed to be good cooks.

They always kill the funny guys on Friday the 13^th.

Smoking some of Marci’s grass on my bunk bed on Friday the 13^th.

In the stall next to Marci’s on Friday the 13^th. 40 yards to the outhouse by Willie Makeit.

I always end up with an axe in the face on Friday the 13^th.

     Finally it was time to leave camp at home for camp on a hillside. I was not venturing to camp alone, both my partner and a friend since my high school years went, all of us adolescent during Friday the 13^th’s original release. Considering the numerous horror events scattered throughout Los Angeles on this night, I really did not expect much of a turnout for this 36 year old slasher film.

     Arriving at the screening location, the abandoned Griffith Park Zoo, it looked more like a concert at the Hollywood Bowl with the number of people streaming in. Hundreds of Friday the 13^th fans, likely over one thousand. Glued to a post near the front of the massive line leading into the woods was a homemade sign warning to be on the lookout for a man lurking in the trees with a flashlight. There were numerous screening staff dressed as killers and monsters wandering around the abandoned zoo, but this sign was warning about the real thing. The final line reads “He may be dangerous or sick or worse.” What a perfect mood setting sign. Even more ominous is the drawing of the man, which also looks like a husky woman, which actually looks like Friday the 13^th’s killer Mrs. Voorhees!

Be on the lookout for Mrs. Voorhees in the bushes.

     But first, a trip to the bathroom, which in this park consisted of creepy orange brick cubicles that once again put me in mind of Friday the 13^th’s ominous bathroom stalls of murder. I fully expected an axe in my face when I exited the stall, but there were still a few minutes of daylight left. I survived this trip to the potty.

Terror toilet in the woods.

     Once we made it through the nature trail with a massive line of guests and maniacs, we were finally rewarded with the tree-lined hillside surrounded by open, abandoned zoo enclosures. Beyond the giant inflatable screen, the hill was packed with laid-back Friday the 13^th fans, probably half of who had not been born when the film was originally released. We staked our spot in the middle, and armed with buttered popcorn and Red Vines, both taste and scented triggers from my original viewing, we were ready for the show.

     The film was presented this night “In Bleed-O Vision”, whatever that is. Friday the 13^th is a notoriously dark movie, but the projector had a bright bulb that made the darkest scenes easy to see. The sound was impressively loud for this massive space, so no lines were lost beneath the frequent roar of the crowd. The temperature was in the mid sixties, but watching the storm besieged characters on screen gave the evening an additional chill.

There were so many people in attendance it was hard to feel the sense of isolation that makes Friday the 13^th so scary, but the responsive screams from the crowd were electric. These were the same screams from opening night 36 years ago. I know because I was there. Back then my screams were of genuine terror. Now my screams were of laughter and joy.

She screams, we all scream.

     The audience screams were loudest during Marci’s kill in the bathroom, which was the scene that disturbed me most on my first viewing. After that incredible reaction, I decided to get video of the audience response for the final two big scares in the film, Mrs. Voorhees’ decapitation and Jason’s arrival. I have to challenge the slogan for the film in the theatrical trailer, “You may only see it once, but that will be enough.” I would say it should be “You can never see it enough.” The size of this appreciative audience was proof of that.

     I only have one complaint about the entire event, and that was the online advertising for the screening, which featured a big picture of Jason in a hockey mask. Wrong movie! I extend this criticism to Midnight Movie Massacre’s Friday the 13^th screening at the Crest Westwood, which also featured a poster of a hockey mask. That must have looked poorly chosen to the director in attendance; couldn’t they get his movie right? I have to wonder whether many of the night's younger viewers were disappointed they didn't get an action Jason movie instead of the mood drenched, quiet mystery murder movie that Friday the 13th actually is.

     Unlike most, I do not identify the Friday the 13^th series as just Jason movies. It’s the unfair, brutal deaths that give these films their power to scare. With my latest Friday the 13^th inspired adventure, with all of the pictures and video I took, there is not one hockey mask to be seen.

     So far as complaints go, this one is minor. Watching Friday the 13^th with tall trees above the screen, the moon hovering overhead, and "Ki-Ki-Ki Ma-Ma-Ma" echoing through the night gave me further ways to re-experience and appreciate this classic, and with a community of like minded fans. The lurker in the woods with a flashlight did not find us, this time.

     There is unfortunately only one Friday the 13^th on the calendar for 2016, so I have plenty of time to plan for my next Friday the 13^th adventure. Where will this Child of Friday the 13th go next? A trip to some of the film's locations in Blairstown, New Jersey on the titular date would be another dream experience. Until then, there are other dates of terror to look forward to, namely Halloween and the soon to be most terrifying day of the year, Turkey Day!