Having gained notoriety first as the director of Together (Finally, an X-rated picture your wife or girlfriend can enjoy!), then as the producer of The Last House On The Left, Sean S Cunningham turned out a string of flops before calling his friend Victor Miller in the summer of 1979 and saying, Halloween is making a lot of money. Why dont we rip it off? Friday The 13ths most interesting aspects are what it blatantly copies (title, opening sequence, basic premise) and what its too unsophisticated to even attempt (widescreen cinematography, hiring name actors, slow-burn suspense). Every hoary cliché worked its way into Millers script: the scenic town with a Dark Past; the Prophet of Doom; the Comically Unhelpful Cop; the Car That Wont Start; the Climactic Thunderstorm; the Talking Villain; the It-Was-Only-A-Dream Scene. The picture proved you didnt need name actors or even a good script to enjoy a monster hit, just a knock-off of a popular title. Viewed today, the scariest thing about the film is that it made so much money by underestimating the good taste of the general public.