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    Back in 1980, young wannabe director Sean Cunningham -- who had worked with another fledgling young director named Wes Craven on the horror flick "The Last House on the Left" -- had a killer title in his head but no script.  He pitched the title alone and got backers interested before finally calling up his friend Victor Miller and saying, “Hey, that movie 'Halloween' is making a ton of money. Let’s rip it off” (actual quote, according to Miller). Together, they made cult movie history. To celebrate the original "Friday the 13th" on Friday the 13th, here are some things you might not have known about the Camp Crystal Lake murders. 

    10. All you people who imitate the famous “killer theme” by going “Ch Ch Ch Ch, Ha Ha Ha,” you’re doing it wrong. Composer Harry Manfredini actually wrote it as “Ki Ki Ki, Ma, Ma, Ma” to echo the voice of Jason in his mother’s head saying “Kill her, Mommy.” Also, the music never cheats. It’s only used when the killer is actually around, and never used as an aural bait and switch.

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    9. Camp Crystal Lake still exists. It’s called Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco, in Blairstown, N.J. Not only is it still open, it runs "Friday the 13th" themed tours. 

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    8. Another bizarre "Halloween" connection: There is a town called Voorhees, N.J. (the inspiration for Jason and his mother’s surname), and it’s located right near Haddonfield, N.J. Haddonfield was the birthplace of "Halloween" producer Debra Hill, and director John Carpenter named the fictional Illinois suburb that Michael Myers terrorizes “Haddonfield” in her honor.  So there are actual road signs in Jersey that point you to both Voorhees and Haddonfield.

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    7. In the original script, Jason Voorhees’ name was “Josh.” Yes, we were this close to “Josh Takes Manhattan.”

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    6. We know Jason, and we know his mother Pamela (who is actually the killer in the first movie), but do you know the name of Jason’s father? In the novelization of the sixth film in the franchise, "Jason Lives," readers are introduced to Elias Voorhees. He was supposed to appear in the film, but was cut. 

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    5. The classic shock ending scene where Jason emerges from the water and pulls lone survivor Alice down into the muck was meant solely as a gag and was never intended to set up Jason as the killer in the sequels. Special-effects guru Tom Savini had seen "Carrie" and suggested the movie needed a “chair jumper” ending like that movie, just as a one-off joke. Cunningham never had any sequels in mind at all. 

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    4. The movie marks a real turning point for horror as a genre, because it became one of the first movies that had audiences cheering for the killer (a fact that enraged "At the Movies" critic Gene Siskel). Cunningham’s old colleague Wes Craven would end up pushing that concept even further with his "Nightmare on Elm Street" series and the introduction of wise-cracking monster Freddy Krueger. 

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    3. Speaking of Freddy and Jason, plans for the two horror icons to meet up predated the eventual "Freddy vs. Jason" movie by 16 years. Back in 1987, one of the "Nightmare" sequels was supposed to indicate that Freddy had once been a counselor at Camp Crystal Lake and had molested a young Jason Voorhees.

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    2. “Bill,” the guy who kills the snake in Alice’s cabin and then gets impaled on a door by a bunch of arrows, was played by Harry Crosby, the son of Bing Crosby. Also, the snake he kills was real, and was really killed for the sake of the scene. Don’t tell PETA.

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    Next: Crazy Internet Photos, Vol. 2

    1. Tom Savini based the deformed face of Jason on an actual homeless man who used to wander around his neighborhood. He also intended for Jason to have hair, but making him bald just turned out to be easier.