Friday The 13th/Fun Facts

• Body count: 10.

• The first counselor killed in the 1958 prologue is named "Barry" in the credits. The captions identify him as "Gary".

• Sally Field auditioned for the role of Alice Hardy.

• Steve Christy is named after Steve Miner, Associate Producer for the film.

• The film has been spoofed a number of times, most notably in Saturday the 14th (1981)

• Sean S. Cunningham has been quoted as saying that the type of actors that he sought for the film were "good-looking kids who you might see in a Pepsi commercial."

• Estelle Parsons was originally signed on to play Mrs. Voorhees.

• Adrienne King at first did not want to be in the film because of the graphic violence in it, but she changed her mind.

• Betsy Palmer said that if it were not for the fact that she was in desperate need of a new car, she would never have taken the part of Pamela Voorhees. In fact, after she read the script she called the film "a piece of shit".

• One critic was so angry at Betsy Palmer's role in the movie (which had angered many of her fans), that he published her address in his magazine, and encouraged people to write her and protest her. He published the wrong address.

• Most of the location and set was already there, they only had to build the bathroom set.

• The movie was filmed at Camp Nobebosco in New Jersey. The camp is still in operation to date, and they have a wall of Friday the 13th paraphernalia to honor the fact that the movie was set there.

• Tom Savini was one of the first crew members on board for the film because the producers idolized his special makeup effects in Dawn of the Dead (1978).

• The filmmakers never intended to make this the launching pad for the series that followed. According to Victor Miller, Jason was only meant as a plot device and not intended to continue on his mother's grisly work.

• Composer Harry Manfredini has said that contrary to popular belief, the famous "chi chi chi, ha ha ha" in the film's score is actually "ki ki ki, ma ma ma". It is meant to resemble Jason's voice saying "kill kill kill, mom mom mom" in Mrs. Voorhees' mind. It was inspired by the scene in which Mrs. Voorhees seems to be possessed by Jason and chants "Get her mommy....kill her!" Manfredini created the effect by speaking the syllables "Ki" and "Ma" into a microphone running through a delay effect.

• While most of the cast and crew stayed at local hotels during the filming, some of the loyal cast and crew members, including Tom Savini, and Taso N. Stavrakis, stayed at the actual camp site. They had Savini's Betamax VCR and only a couple of movies (Barbarella (1968) and Marathon Man (1976)) on videotape to keep themselves entertained, so each night they would watch one of these movies. To this day, Savini says he can recite those movies by heart.

• The film made $39,754,601 and had a budget of $550,000.

• Filming lasted 28 days.

• The scene with the snake was not in the script and was an idea from Tom Savini after an experience in his own cabin during filming. The snake in the scene was real, including its on-screen death.

• Willie Adams was a crew member for the film. Although he spent most his time working behind the camera, he played the male counselor in the 1958 scene, and holds the unique distinction of being the first murder victim in the Friday the 13th film series.

• Alternate art from the franchise can be found in Ad Nauseum: Newsprint Nightmares From The 1980s.

• Played on a double bill with the Farrah Fawcett vehicle Somebody Killed Her Husband at The Lyric the week of May 16, 1980.