That’s right. His name was Jason, and it’s been 45 years since the massacre at Crystal Lake that led to the birth of a horror icon and, technically, the birth of the 80s slasher.

In the early 1970s, Sean S. Cunningham sat in an editing room with director Wes Craven as the two cut together what would become, one of the most disturbing horror films ever made: THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. Cunningham’s first film, THE ART OF THE MARRIAGE, had attracted Craven, who wanted to be in the film business, a friendship struck and then went ahead and made basically a soft porn film together entitled, TOGETHER. Which is totally what I would expect from the master of 80s perky boob shots and gore.

After Last House, Craven would go on to direct THE HILLS HAVE EYES, but Cunningham had a different vision.

In 1978, John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN was released and changed the horror game. Cunningham took notice of the huge success of the premise of a stalker going around killing teenage girls and thus began the creation of FRIDAY THE 13TH. A movie that would spawn 9 sequels, a remake, and a crossover with, ironically, one of his old buddy’s own iconic creations, and become one of the most influential horror movies of all time.

So before we go any further, let’s smack a kiss on little Mikey Myers. Because without him, there would be no Jason.

After coming up with a title that like, Halloween, centered around a mysterious date, FRIDAY THE 13TH, the aspiring horror director pulled a massively ballsy move without even shooting one scene of the movie, by making an advert of his movie idea and somehow getting it placed in the July 4th issue of VARIETY magazine. The idea was to maybe secure the financing necessary to start production. The now-infamous and very first ad appeared for the original film in the franchise, proclaiming Friday The 13th “The Most Terrifying Film Ever Made”. The gamble paid off with Paramount picking up the title and a green light to shoot the film for $1.5 million buckaroos.

The slasher film was still in its infancy back in 1979, and though films like BLACK XMAS (which in my opinion was the FIRST true slasher movie),  THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and HALLOWEEN set the bar for the subgenre, FRIDAY THE 13TH set the standard for the 80s slasher-and the absolute crazy oversaturation of it during that decade. And I wouldn’t have it any other fucking way.

FRIDAY THE 13TH set a new slasher standard for young bloods getting picked off one by one in an isolated setting where no adults could be found anywhere supervising the often horny and impaired kids. If they were around, they were usually presumed as drunk or crazy.

Crazy Ralph, anyone?

Not to mention the now cliché horror movie tropes that we’ve seen in almost every slasher movie since. Sex equals death. Drugs equal death. An unstoppable madman (or in this case, woman) with the killer POV camera shot that doesn’t directly show the killer, that keeps us guessing who their identity is throughout the movie. And of course, we need the all-important final girl. The more innocent she seemed, the better her chance of survival. Of course, FRIDAY wasn’t the first to establish that trend (that credit goes to HALLOWEEN), but they sure as hell ran with it religiously for an entire decade and inspired the very film they kind of-sort ripped off, (HALLOWEEN), to cash in on the slasher boom of the 80s with a couple of sequels. The formula set the standard for FRIDAY movies going forward, and the rest of the 80s slashers that came after.

Also, it spawned Randy. Randy is all of us. Thanks to the likes of Friday the 13th.

FRIDAY THE 13TH opened nationwide in the US on May 9th, 1980. Nobody expected this little horror movie to do much regarding big Box Office numbers, including Sean Cunningham, but holy shit was everyone surprised when this little film shot at Camp Nobebosco in New Jersey blew up and ending up meaning just shy of 40 million in the US domestically, and almost 60 million worldwide. Not a bad profit for a movie that was shot for half a million.

And then just like that, along with a sequel to HALLOWEEN, a film that never intended to have one, a slew of similar films embracing the same tropes that FRIDAY banked on, absolutely inundated theaters and straight to video stores with movies like SLEEPAWAY CAMP, CHEERLEADER CAMP, and SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE. Not to mention the appeal of associating a murderous madman with a holiday like MY BLOODY VALENTINE, APRIL FOOL’S DAY, and SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT. The trend continued throughout the entire 80s, with the golden era of horror movies busting out 253 slasher flicks. And it’s all thanks to a little mongoloid named Jason and his vengeful mother who started it all.

Let’s raise our machetes to Pamela and her fucked up kid this weekend! FRIDAY THE 13TH is currently streaming on PLUTO for free! Now, I’ll be right back…