Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th (Enhanced Edition)

by Peter M. Bracke

  Like all of the previous Fridays, the making of The Final Chapter would be a literal movie boot camp: a group of young kids out in the woods, working long hours under harsh conditions for very little money, despite the cache of starring in a film that they knew would be distributed by a major studio. Filming would begin on October 31st, 1983—a fitting start date for the six weeks of hard work, youthful frivolity and occasionally contentious on-set battles to come. That The Final Chapter also featured the most onscreen teen frolicking and nudity of any entry of the series up until that point, contrasted with the presence of then 12-year-old Corey Feldman, also brought out the parental instincts of cast and crew. Throughout it all, the production was united in its goal to work together to achieve something impossible to manufacture: authenticity.

  JOSEPH ZITO:

  I had this idea at the script stage of having two houses for the main action, and that each could see one to the other. For the Jarvis house, we knew we were going to break through walls and knock down doors. So we found a house in Topanga Canyon, California—a real, practical location—that would let us do that. We built our false walls over their walls, and our doors over their doors. The house also had a wonderful floorplan. For the other house, the one where the kids are, we didn't have a lot of money to spend and as we looked the budget over, the thing got smaller and smaller. Finally, we built a sort of fake house that was designed very tightly and specifically to shoot in. Though, of course, as it turns out, there are almost no shots that actually connect these two houses in the final movie—only a few at the end when Kimberly is running from one to the other.

  BARBARA HOWARD:

  One of the nicest things about doing The Final Chapter was that it was an ensemble, so the cast all arrived at the same time. That doesn't always happen. I remember the first night, all of us had dinner together. We were all of similar ages, too. There was a really great camaraderie, almost immediately.

  CAMILLA MORE:

  It's funny, but no one wants the good news in the newspapers, and nobody wants the bad news when it comes to film sets. They only want to hear the fabulous stuff. And it is a very exciting profession on many levels—it's kind of a drug, really, to be on the set. But there is also a lot of waiting around, a lot of cold, a lot of damp, a lot of tiredness. A lot goes on that is just not that glamorous. And this was a very odd experience. To be out completely in the boonies, and then there is this house that they built, it was kind of amazing. None of us knew each other at all at first, by the time we got to that house we'd all become quite good friends.

  Carey More's Photo Album #2

  ERICH ANDERSON:

  The first day of shooting was Halloween—October 31st, 1983. All the cast went up to Anderson's Pea House in Buellton, a town that you turn off to on your way to Solvang, California. We were shooting on this private resort lake, which really might have just been a watering hole for cattle. We all just started hanging out, as kids do. And then there's Corey and he's got his grandfather there as his guardian—this sour dude. I said to Kimberly, "I wonder if that guy would let us take Corey trick-or-treating?" So we took Corey out to this little subdivision, about a mile from the hotel. And it was the weirdest thing. It was a carnival-like atmosphere, with all these families and their kids, dressed up as Michael Myers and Jason, walking through the streets, scaring each other. It was a really surreal way to start shooting this movie.

  JUDIE ARONSON:

  Corey was, of course, much younger than us, so he was like the little boy that we could all take care of. Corey was having problems with his family during that time. I think it started out where his mom was his guardian, and then when he made a name for himself, she got a little crazy—drugs and stuff like that. It just wasn't good. So then his grandfather became his guardian. It was really hard on Corey, because here he was, a little boy, and he had his old fogey grandpa on the set, trying to set limits with a bunch of teenagers around. Poor Corey just wanted to have some fun and experience life. So we took care of him as much as we could.

  PETER BARTON:

  Corey was a sweet kid. I enjoyed his down-to-earth quality then—just hanging out and friendly, and not full of himself. I think Kimberly took care of him. She had done Peyton Place, and Mia Farrow had taken Kimberly under her wing, so I think Kimberly had the sense to do that with Corey.

  KIMBERLY BECK:

  I started acting when I was 2 years old, so I had many discussions with Corey about being a child actor. I remember I went to pick him up at his home to meet him, and I took him to a Chuck E. Cheese way out in the Valley. I went to his grandparents' place and I could just tell right away that he had this sort of awful, dysfunctional childhood.

  FERN CHAMPION:

  Corey was never a kid, you know? He was old before he should've been. His parents were going through a terrible time and he was caught. He had to fend for himself—the typical situation of coming from a split family. Great kid, but lost. So he was very vulnerable. He wasn't one of those happy kids, which made it that much more interesting, because he got the character, especially the fear. The bad news is, I think we relied on that reality. Maybe too much.

  COREY FELDMAN:

  Kimberly and Erich were great. Everybody was great. I was probably around 11 or 12 years old, and it was so much fun being the kid on the set, because everybody wanted to take me under their wing. Yet at the same time, they were a bunch of attractive young adults and they probably didn't want me around too much. But as far as I'm concerned, I loved the whole experience. And it was the first time I ate a live ant. I left a coke can in my dressing room, took a sip and the ants got in and I remember crunching down on something. "What is that? Oh, no, it's a bunch of ants!" It tasted salty. Not fun.

  They handled the idea of a kid being around that environment very well—they were protective. I was hitting puberty at the time, so there are a lot of memorable experiences for me. I remember, originally, in the scene when Kimberly and I are coming down to the lake and we see all the kids skinny-dipping, I was supposed to chase my dog Gordon down to the water. Then Judie Aronson was supposed to walk out of lake naked, and say something like, "Oh, hi, what are you looking at?" But Frank Mancuso, Jr. thought that was too racy. "Keep the kid out!" And I had been waiting the whole time for that scene. But eventually I finally did get my wish. What was funny was that it wasn't during the scene in the actual movie, where I was supposed to be looking at Judie undressing through the window. It actually was when we were shooting the scene when the campers first arrive at the house. My dog is freaking out, and Judie bends over to play with him, and she was wearing a low cut dress, and she didn't have a bra on. It was the first time, outside of my mom, that I'd seen a woman's breasts. So you'll notice in that scene I'm like, "Wow! Oh, look! At… the… dog!"

  JUDIE ARONSON:

  I was brand-spanking new in the business and I had not read the script. I guess my agent hadn't either. It all happened so quickly. I went on the audition, had a call back and got the part right away. That was like on a weekend, and then at the beginning of the next week we were leaving for the location. I didn't realize there was nudity until it was too late—I had already accepted the part. I come from a pretty conservative family, and I hated the idea of being nude. Hated it. So I called my agent and I'm freaking out. I had them talk to the casting people and the producers all weekend long, going back and forth and trying to make me okay with it. We ended up negotiating certain things having to do with no full frontal nudity—that it would only be from the waist up. That made me feel better. But it was still very, very scary.

  CAREY MORE:

  Camilla and I were, obviously, pretty game about jumping in the water and taking our tops off. Pretty daring at the time, I suppose. We were young. And, we only jump into the water with our clothes on and when we take our tops off we're already in the water. So really, it's a split second that we're above water. Where as Judie Aronson had to be completely naked—I can't believe how she must have felt. So I fe
el like that I had to do this tiny little thing and it wasn't a big deal. We didn't realize that later on it would be a big deal for the people watching it. Now, when my daughter shows the movie to all her friends, because they're like 14 years old, they're all like, "Wow! Your mom is topless!!"

  Carey More's Photo Album #3

  LAWRENCE MONOSON:

  I remember the skinny dip scene—I was quite young at the time, so there was something provocative about the whole thing. But I don't have any weird morality. I think nudity, when it's relevant, is absolutely fine. I think it's the point of view of the filmmaker that either makes it gratuitous or justified. When you watch European films, people are nude all the time, and it feels wonderful, it feels natural, it feels authentic. It just feels like a human being living a life. We don't tend to be able to do that here in America. We have some sort of body disorder, and deep-seated shame. It is this sort of pseudo-puritanical society that we're all raised in.

  Let me put it this way. Would I be nude in a quality film? Yes, I'd do anything. Would I ever show my butt in a movie like Friday the 13th again? Absolutely, positively not.

  BARBARA HOWARD:

  I remember during Judie's nude scene, everybody was standing around—they didn't even make it a closed set. It was not done in a protective, sensitive way. You get so easily swayed. None of these people who tell you it will be fine are going to be there later, when you're feeling bad about it. They just want you to do it.

  I think Friday the 13th—it's all very moralistic. You knew my character was going to die after she lost her virginity. When they offered me the part, I said I wouldn't do any nudity. And they said, "You have to, because all the other girls are." I still said no. I didn't want to be "one of those naked girls in a horror film." Then they called back and told my agent, "Okay, she can have a body double, but she can't tell any of the rest of the cast, and we're not going to shoot her death scene until the end." The bottom line is that I was willing to not do the movie. It was a real lesson to me about power, and I think maybe some of the other actors learned from that. If you won't feel good about yourself, I don't think that anything, certainly any movie, is worth that.

  PETER BARTON:

  I was actually very attracted to Barbara, so doing the shower scene—the close-ups—that was great. What was really kind of sad is that because Barbara wouldn't do the nude scene—which was fine—they got a body double. And I felt so bad, because here this girl is, thinking this will be her big break. But you're only a body double. And she was completely naked. It was so humiliating and mechanical: "Turn her! Put her up against the glass!"

  The unfortunate part is that if it had happened to me 10 years later, I would have been laughing hysterically. I would have been making jokes. Who cares? Back then I was this scared little actor who was taking it all so seriously. Not that it shouldn't be taken seriously, but it's so Hollywood.

  CAREY MORE:

  Actually, what I found most embarrassing about the whole film wasn't the nudity but that we're supposed to be these sexy twins. Everyone's looking at us going, "Oooh!" Even the boyfriends, who've got their girls, are looking at us. And we weren't really anything to look at—the outfits were so square and boring and unsexy. That horrible pink shirt! And those pants! And our hair, tied in that horrible little knot! It was like we were dressed in matron's outfits. I think the whole look of the twins is dreadful.

  Looking at the film now, I'm trying to think why I even needed to be in the movie. I'm not proud of the character I played. I'm this meek, spineless person. Camilla's role was slightly more fleshed out. At least she had the love scene with Crispin, and the fact that she's flirtatious with other girls' boyfriends. I don't have any of that. I was just the twin who was the goody-goody two-shoes, who's the sitting duck.

  At times I was nervous. Here were all these professional actors who took it very seriously, like Lawrence Monoson—he was working on his craft every moment. And here I was going, "If you want me, I'll do it." If I were given that role again, I wouldn't be quite so silent. I'd be a little bit more assertive, or give it a bit more humor. Why was I so drippy? But I suppose it's acceptable, because it could be a real person. It's not like it was bad acting, it's like I wasn't acting at all. Just being.

  KIMBERLY BECK:

  I remember taking it very seriously. And I didn't want to see any of the other Friday the 13th movies because I didn't want to be influenced. I remember taking it very seriously. I approached it as if I was doing an amazing movie that was going to be seen the world over. I didn't think of this as going to be a piece of shit horror movie. I don't think any of us did. I think we all thought to ourselves, "I'm just going to do the best I can." And we did.

  Ted White transformed.

  LAWRENCE MONOSON:

  One of the most rewarding aspects of the experience was that Crispin and I had a little subplot—I call it a little relationship. I can't believe it, but I can remember that whole sequence in the back of the station wagon, that "dead fuck" scene, where I'm typing on the fake computer. Crispin and I wrote all that. Obviously Barney wrote the movie, but they really gave us a lot of freedom to kind of expand upon the relationship of those two characters.

  BARNEY COHEN:

  OK, here's the deal. I did not want to do that "dead fuck" thing. That was forced upon me—when Joe told me I had to write that, my mouth was open and my jaw was on my chest. Either Scuderi, or Minasian, or Mancuso came up with it. Sometimes things just get mandated, and you have to make them work as best you can. This happens all the time—everybody thinks they can write. I thought it was out of tone for the movie and dragged the movie down a little bit. Cheapened it—that's what I think I argued about a hundred times. So I consider it a feather in my cap that I made it work at all.

  CAMILLA MORE:

  To be really honest, when you're that young and ambitious, you'll do almost anything. I didn't want to do pornographic movies or whatever, but I went through the script and was shocked that every single page had another, more brutal murder. It did offend me.

  I think what was important was the creativity that we had with this team. It raises the bar if you've got people like Lawrence Monoson and Crispin Glover, and a cast that was inspired to try new things with the material. I believe that because many of our cast had been successful beforehand, there was a sense of, "Let's elevate this." Rather than just walk away, having taken the money—that's a very arrogant attitude. I don't think people in their early 20s have developed that cynicism yet.

  CAREY MORE:

  Working with Crispin Glover was like an amusement park ride. You never knew what he was gonna do. Crispin made up that crazy dance he did during the party scene on the spot! But while he really was eccentric, he was also very, very gentlemanly. I am supposed to be this shy demure, kind of like wallflower, and he's dancing so crazily, and I was watching him, alarmed. I think I pretty much acted exactly how I was feeling, which was like, "What the flip is going on here?" His choice of dancing crazily was a good one, because then it completely alienated my character. He's looking at me thinking he's got the non-goer here, so he looks over at Camilla and thinks, "She's the one I should be with." I suppose in that way it all makes sense. But when I look at it now, I'm like, "What a loser I was!" I became this unsexy, uninteresting person, trying to keep up with people but not knowing how to.

  LAWRENCE MONOSON:

  I remember Crispin being quite good friends with Nicolas Cage at the time, and I remember Crispin showing up really, really late one day, zooming up in Nic's red Corvette. And Nic was a pretty big star already at that time. And I just remember thinking, "Look at Crispin. Showing up late in Nic's corvette!" There was a real kind of excitement about Crispin.

  COREY FELDMAN:

  I loved Crispin Glover as a kid, because he had this James Dean appeal to me. He walked around with this big trench coat, blond hair pushed over to the side, and a menacing stare. I always thought he was so cool. He is a genius and, at the same time, one of those
eccentric artists—and somewhere in the middle you'll find the real man. So forgive me, Crispin. I hope he isn't going to hate me, but there was this day we were filming near Solvang. It is this rustic, little Danish town, where they sell sauerkraut and toys of a rustic nature. And Crispin had bought this self-operated yellow submarine with pellets in it that could float or sink under the water. Then one day Crispin decided to take out a canoe during lunch and test out the yellow submarine in the lake, not thinking about the fact that this is a northern California lake, which is murky to say the least. It was completely engrossed in swamp damage. So Crispin takes the canoe out there but then he can't find the submarine. And he gets very upset and distraught over this. He said, "I'm not going back to work until you find my submarine!" So we all spent two or three hours just to find his submarine. We had guys in full scuba gear looking for this thing that probably cost like $3. But that's Crispin.

  FERN CHAMPION:

  One day we were at the river shooting one of the scenes, and Lawrence Monoson asked Crispin if he would rehearse with him. And when Crispin looks at you, he gets those little beady eyes, you know? And he took a beat, and says to Lawrence, "You know, I'm in a rain mood. Not gonna rehearse now." I couldn't stop from biting the inside of my lip. To this day, neither Lawrence or I ever understood what that meant.

  JOSEPH ZITO:

  Crispin may get mad at me for saying this, but even during casting, I knew that he would be terrific in the movie and very, very entertaining. I also knew it would be hard because even he never knew what he would invent. We had to shoot reasonably quickly, and Crispin would be full of discovery and I'd want to mine those discoveries. So I talked to Frank and I said I would really, really like to go with this guy, but don't count on it being exactly as it is on the page. Frank weighed that and went with him anyway. I think it is very, very good that he did. It really helped the film a lot. Crispin energized the movie.