13 Things You Didn't Know About Friday The 13th
2. Mrs Voorhees And The Odd Coincidence Part 3
Friday The 13th was released in 1980, and was critically panned, as expected - it was a cheap and lurid horror, low rent and unashamedly exploitative, released by filmmakers looking to make a fast buck.
Also released in 1980 was the critically acclaimed, Oscar-winning drama Ordinary People - which, oddly enough, had a very similar plot engine to Cunningham and Miller’s gory slasher.
Based in a rural lakeside location, both movies pivot around the appalling consequences of a young boy’s accidental drowning. Both stories have at their centre an obsessive mother unable to cope with her son’s loss, who takes it out on those around her. Both narratives position their protagonists as trapped, doomed by choices not of their making.
And in early drafts of Alvin Sergeant’s screenplay for Ordinary People, the dead boy’s name was Jason.