Friday the 13th is often celebrated for being one of the earliest slasher films with its 1980 release date. Of course, it was preceded by John Carpenter’s Halloween, which also helped kick off the slasher genre as early as 1978. As such, many fans have debated, is Friday the 13th merely a rip-off of Halloween?
This subject was tackled in a conversation with Sean Cunningham, director and producer of the movie, and Victor Miller, the film’s writer, while they spoke in an interview. After Sean Cunningham explained his desire to get into the horror genre early in his career, especially in an effort to make money, Victor Miller explains in the interview with Uproxx how he was approached by Cunningham for the film.
Rather bluntly, Miller does say the idea began as an attempt to create a Halloween rip-off:
“He called me and said, ‘Halloween is making a lot of money, let’s rip it off.'”
This was an easy decision as their earlier efforts, a pair of movies for children, did not pay off. As such, while being penniless, Miller saw Halloween and figured out how to rework the concept for Friday the 13th:
“Basically, I was just trying to survive and so was Sean. We were facing what is best known as the condition of being penniless. And so I went and saw Halloween and figured out how to write a horror movie and that was that. It’s kind of mundane in its basic outlines.”
Of course, Friday the 13th still has its own unique setting and plot when compared with Halloween. It replaces the suburban neighborhood and omnipresent Michael Myers with isolated forests and an unseen killer. This is it’s biggest difference as the film reveals Mrs. Voorhees as its antagonist. While Michael Myers is a nonstop threat without a clear motive, Mrs. Voorhees is very much a woman who wants to avenge her son. It’s a terrific third act and one that stands out even among other Friday the 13th films which mostly boasted a silent Jason Voorhees as the recurring threat.
Overall, while Friday the 13th was created as a rip-off of Halloween, the franchise still managed to find its own identity in a genre littered with other such films.