Looking Back at 'Friday the 13th,' Which Premiered on This Day in 1980

Summer camps are prime breeding grounds for slasher films (because out in nature, no one can hear you scream). A pioneer of the camp setting in the aforementioned subgenre, Friday the 13th barreled into theaters on this day 46 years ago, and it broke industry barriers.

The movie follows a group of teenage camp counselors as they attempt to revive an abandoned summer camp with a dark past. However, a mysterious killer stalks and murders them, one by one. It starred Betsy Palmer as the iconic antagonist Mrs. Voorhees, Adrienne King as Alice, Harry Crosby as Bill, Laurie Bartram as Brenda, Mark Nelson as Ned, Jeannine Taylor as Marcie, Robbi Morgan as Annie, and Kevin Bacon in one of his first roles as Jack.

For starters, the Sean S. Cunningham-helmed horror flick was the first independent film of its kind to secure major studio distribution in the United States. Secondly, it was a massive box-office success, raking in $59.8 million globally, with its estimated budget between $550,000 and $650,000. Friday the 13th went on to become the 15th-highest-grossing film of 1980 and the second-highest-grossing movie for Paramount Pictures.

The flick spawned a decades-spanning slasher franchise comprising 12 films. It also gave way to a cult following in the years after its debut. Even better, it birthed the legendary Jason Voorhees, who wasn't intended to be the franchise's villain. His popularity endures all the same.

Despite the positives in its corner, Friday the 13th was panned by critics at the time of its release. One critic lambasted it as a "shamelessly bad film," while another called it "not very original or very scary, but it is very low-budget." Natural comparisons were made between Friday the 13th and John Carpenter's Halloween, the latter of which impelled Cunningham to direct the feature. Many critics slammed it for its depiction of brutal violence, too.

Retrospectively, it's now considered a cult classic, with reviews more mixed than earlier criticism, though one reviewer still claimed it was "a pallid Halloween rip-off." Still, film scholars consider Friday the 13th to be a trailblazer of the slasher flick, inspiring countless movies in the decades since. There's even a horror prequel series on the horizon, Crystal Lake, which is slated for a 2026 release on Peacock.

Regardless of quality, it's abundantly clear that Friday the 13th's pop culture impact is everlasting.

This story was originally published by Men's Journal on May 9, 2026, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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This story was originally published May 9, 2026 at 10:56 AM.