Original Friday The 13th Has Been Newly Remastered And Is Returning To Theaters

2020 marks 40 years since the release of classic slasher movie Friday the 13th, and to celebrate the milestone, a remastered version is to be screened across the country in October.

One of the films that popularized the newly emerging subgenre, Friday the 13th, as if you don’t know, sees a decrepit summer camp reopened after a young boy accidentally drowned there twenty years previously, whereupon a group of counselors are stalked and murdered by an unseen assailant.

At the time of its release in 1980, slasher movies as a recognizable subgenre were still in their infancy, Friday the 13th being one of the first to imitate the template set down by Halloween in 1979. As such, it’s a little different in structure than many others of the series, such as a cinematography technique of showing kills from the point of view of the villain, a style utilized in similarly early slashers such as Sleepaway Camp and Black Christmas, before interminable sequels resulted in killers surging in popularity and thus needing to be seen. It’s also unusual for a Friday the 13th film to not feature Jason (except very briefly as a deformed child), with the iconic form of the hulking humanoid dreadnought not showing up until the sequel.

The screenings will be accompanied by Secrets Galore Behind the Gore: Friday the 13th, a 34-minute behind-the-scenes featurette from the series box set released in 2004. It discusses the creative work that went into several of the movies, largely featuring legendary makeup artist Tom Savini talking about his work, along with director Sean Cunningham, stuntman/Jason performer Kane Hodder and effects creator John Carl Buechler.

While it would have been pleasant kismet to have the movie actually screen on Friday the 13th, there won’t be one of those in October until 2023. Instead, the showings will take place on Sunday, October 4th and Wednesday, October 7th. The remastered Friday the 13th is showing at select theaters across the country, and you can check the event website and enter your town to see where the nearest screenings to you will be.