36 Years Old Today


This movie was released in theaters on Friday, May 9, 1980, which was exactly 36 years ago today. I was 12 at the time and almost through with 6th grade (and elementary school), and I have no memory of it coming out or being in theaters that year, though I do remember very well it coming on our local TV station on the night of Friday, October 29, 1982 at 11:30 p.m., just over two years later. I was 14 and in 9th grade then, and I had seen commercials promoting it and showing scenes from it all that week, and really wanted to see it and planned to stay up late that night and do so. I did, and by the second half of it my ribs were really hurting from it being so scary. I thought it was the scariest thing I had ever seen or read, and to this day it has remained the scariest complete movie I have ever seen. And it is still the third scariest thing I have ever seen or read, after the Stephen King short story The Boogeyman and the first 1/3rd of the original When A Stranger Calls. It also began my interest and like of the Friday the 13th film series, which has continued to this day, and the first four movies I really liked and got on my favorite movies of all time list, where they remain today. I had them all on VHS later in the eighties and early/mid nineties and watched them frequently, and in late 2010, shortly after I got my apartment and TV and DVD player, I brought a four movie pack of them all on DVD from Wal-Mart, which I have since watched a few times, and I am seriously considering watching this movie tonight for its anniversary.

"I happen to be a vegetarian". Lex, from Jurrasic Park

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I saw it at the movies when i was a kid and i will never forget it and will always enjoy this totally scary, gory, horrific amazing slasher film! Classic of all time!!!!

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every single thing you described is totally and unadulterated beauty. it was so beautiful and drew me in in such a personal and beautiful way. hanging on your every word like someone telling a scary camp fire tale around a fire in the woods. wow. so beautiful.

I love how you documented when it came out and that you didn't know it had come out. I love first person experiences of movies like this classic film when it first came out.

it's so magical how you described really wanting to stay up late to watch it. wow, the magic of youth, everything feels so important and life changing then.

to me the first 8 Friday the 13th films from the '80s will always be my all time favorite films, but especially 1-6. it all started when I watched part 4 with my friend way back in 1989 when I was 11 years old. we used to watch that movie on my VHS recorded off HBO tape. we watched that movie like 5 times over 2 years time. it also had House on it which is also a great horror film.

and after this I bought parts 1-6 on VHS tape from movies to go, my local mom and pop video store. when I watched the first film in 1993 at my stepdad's apartment. it had one of the scariest endings to a movie ever and one of the scariest parts of a movie ever, the ending. I was so petrified when Jason came out of the lake and grabbed Alice. wow, that was so shocking and scary and disturbing. it took me so off guard, it was one of the most surprising things I've ever seen in a movie. and I was 15 then, so I wasn't really a kid and it still scared the #@!@ out of me.

then I watched parts 2-3 on these VHS tapes and even used my cheap 3D glasses while watching part 3. I still used it even though they never worked. then I watched part 5 and 6 at my dad's house. I actually ended up recording cool parts of dialogue and music and sounds from epic things happening in the first 6 movies onto a cassette tape which I did at my friend's house in high school. I ended up buying parts 7-9 from Blockbuster and finally watched all those films.

I love all the Friday the 13th films from the '80s and they will always be some of my all time favorite, loved, and most cherished films.

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Thank you Lukejbarnett2002 for your story as well

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you're welcome. it's always nice to read stories about personal movie experiences. like on here I read one time how this person's experience and what they noticed about silent night, deadly night when it first came out. all the protests from parent's groups on tv and such. gosh, what a magical time the '80s were. don't you agree? ever since the '90s started the us got really boring. and nothing like parent's groups protesting a horror movie ever happened anymore in the '90s.

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