The Friday the 13th Connection
In the Fall of 1979, a small movie company under the leadership of director Sean Cunningham came to Blairstown to shoot a low-budget horror film, Friday the 13th. Although most of the movie was shot at a nearby Boy Scout camp named Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco (short for North Bergen Boy Scouts), several scenes were shot in and around Main Street, including the shots below showing Roy's Hall, the Old Mill and the Blairstown Diner, which is just a two minute walk from Main Street. Although no one involved with the production expected more that a moderate success with their extremely graphic slasher movie, the film became a huge hit that has spawned at least a dozen sequels and incalculable other horrors inspired by the original's gory mayhem. On Friday, July 13th, 2007 the Blairstown Theater Festival presented three screenings of the original classic on their big movie screen (see below), bringing the movie back to the site of its birth more than a quarter of a century earlier.
Above, actress Robbi Morgan as "Annie" walks down the hill onto Main Street in this screen shot from the original 1980 horror classic, Friday the 13th. Below is the 2007 version of Main Street with Roy's Hall on the left and Nature's Harvest, a health food store in the center. The white building on the right, which served as the facade for the drug store where Annie asks for directions, is currently vacant. The hill leads up to Blair Academy, a private boarding school established by John Blair in 1848.
| Top right is a screen shot of the old Blair Mill as seen in Friday the 13th. Below right is the Mill as it appears today, a private home. In the rear is the township's former post office, now the offices of Remax Ridge Real Estate. |
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| Top right is a screen shot of the Blairstown Diner on State Route 94 as seen in Friday the 13th. The local volunteer fire department provided the simulated rain with their fire hoses. Below right is the Diner as it appears today after a major redesign. You can see the top of Roy's Hall from the front windows. It's a short two minute walk to Main Street. |
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On Friday, July 13, 2007, The Blairstown Theater Festival scheduled two screenings of the original Friday the 13th at Roy's Hall. The 6:30 PM screening was almost full and the 8:30 PM screening was completely sold-out. A third screening was added at 11:00 PM to accommodate the overflow crowd (see below).
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Our Sold-Out July 13th screening of
was covered by CW11 (WPIX-TV) |
