‘Kevin Bacon’s death delighted me the most’: how we made Friday the 13th

Sean S Cunningham, director

The title came first. I was trying to finish a kids’ movie and wasn’t getting the response I’d hoped for. We thought it might be because of the title so started free-associating. I came up with Friday the 13th. Then I thought: “If I had a movie called Friday the 13th, I’d know how to sell that.” Six months later, when we were figuring out a film to do next, I said: “Let’s try Friday the 13th.”

I wasn’t looking for stars, I just wanted good actors. Kevin Bacon had just got to New York. He was a nice, talented guy, comfortable in his own skin, perfect as Jack, one of the counsellors at the kids’ summer camp who are killed one by one. Betsy Palmer, who played Mrs Voorhees, was a TV personality and a trusted voice. I thought: “If she knocked on your door in the middle of the night, she wouldn’t be scary. The audience might be more predisposed to trust her.”

The way Betsy told it, the week she got the script, her car broke down and she needed a new one. Whatever we paid her, it was enough to buy a new car. She thought she didn’t have to worry about doing the movie because nobody was ever going to see it. As it turns out, the part stuck with her for the rest of her life. She was doing conventions up until she died, talking about playing the mother of Jason, the boy believed to have drowned at Camp Crystal Lake. She became beloved – which is odd given that she plays a serial killer.

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Makeup and special effects artist Tom Savini had always wanted to figure out how to cut somebody’s head off. That was the end of our movie, when the last surviving counsellor – Alice, played by Adrienne King – kills Mrs Voorhees. Building the head and figuring out the beheading shot was complicated, but Tom managed it really well.

Kevin’s death delighted me the most because it involved some shameless misdirection. He lies back in his bunk, unaware that a corpse is concealed above. Then, when a drop of blood lands on his face, we see him looking confused, his attention and ours focused upwards. But then a hand swings up from under the bed, grabs his forehead and seconds later we see the head of an arrow coming through his neck from underneath, as blood spurts up on to his face. It was shocking.

Harry Manfredini’s music was a huge asset. He had one of the first synthesisers and wrote themes for the main characters. We were looking for a signature for the silent watcher and, as an experiment, Harry tried this descending “Ki ki ki. Ma, ma, ma” sound on his synthesiser. It had a chilling effect and we both thought it was a terrific way of saying the killer is near. Without Harry and that sound, it would have been a very different movie.

Adrienne King, played Alice

We didn’t know which roles we were auditioning for. We just auditioned. Landing the part of Alice was a dream come true and soon I was sitting in a minivan with the other actors heading for the camp, about an hour and a half’s drive from Manhattan. We immediately bonded which was lucky – because shooting started that afternoon, since time was money and we didn’t have much. You could feel the energy: we didn’t need to act, the chemistry was real. It was all so much fun, although I hated it when they got killed. One by one, I lost my buddies.

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I was so into the gruesome effects. I begged to be in the cabin when Kevin got the arrow through his neck. I couldn’t believe it was going to happen and I wanted to see how. I remember the hole appearing in his neck and the blood gurgling out. Tom Savini was underneath the bunk blowing the blood up. He invented the whole technique – on the spot.

My climactic fight with Mrs Voorhees was choreographed like ballet. We started at sunset and didn’t finish until sunrise. The reason it looks so real is because it was real. Betsy said: “The camera catches everything. If you don’t fight back, you’re going to get hurt.” I didn’t hold back and neither did she. We both limped off set, bloody and bruised.

We kept running out of money and, by the end, didn’t know if we had a finished movie. We were thrilled once we saw what we had. When it was released, it exploded, and then I had the thrills all taken away by a stalker. The cops said to me: “You make a movie like that, what do you expect?” I was on my own. Then, in 1989, Rebecca Schaeffer was killed by her stalker after being on the show My Sister Sam. That’s when the police finally listened and stalking laws were brought in.

The 80s were the horror decade. Alice is iconic because, if she can go up against a monster, we all can. I identify with any fans who are survivors, having survived such a horrible aftermath myself. Alice has helped so many people and I gave life to her. I feel empowered by that.

• This article was amended on 31 October 2023, to remove an image of Kevin Bacon’s death scene in the film.