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Monday February 17th 2025

Friday The 13th | 1980

Friday The 13th location: Camp NoBeBoSco, Blairstown, New Jersey
Friday The 13th location: ‘Camp Crystal Lake’: Camp NoBeBoSco, Hardwick, New Jersey | Photograph: Peter Paulsen

The archetypal cheapo slasher, starting a series that seems set to run and run, and featuring an early appearance from Kevin Bacon.

If Halloween was more stalk than slash, Friday the 13th began to shift the balance the other way (assuming you didn’t get to see a cut version).

Friday The 13th location: Blairstown, New Jersey
Friday The 13th location: Annie arrives at the town: Blairstown, New Jersey | Photograph: Peter Paulsen

As Annie (Robbi Morgan) arrives in town on her way to a job at summer camp, it’s obviously not going to be a good day – what with the nickname ‘Camp Blood’ being bandied about, and the local wacko warning ‘Camp Crystal Lake’ has a death curse. Oh, and it’s Friday 13th of June.

The town in which she arrives is Blairstown, off I-80, northwest New Jersey, towards the Pennsylvania border. The stone arches on Main Street remain unchanged.

Friday The 13th location: Blairstown, New Jersey
Friday The 13th location: Annie is dropped off by the cemetery: Hope Moravian Cemetery, Hope, New Jersey | Photograph: Peter Paulsen

It doesn’t get much better when her lift drops her off in front of – what else? – a cemetery. And, in truth, this is not even the right direction. Hope Moravian Cemetery is on Delaware Road, just west of Blairstown Road, in Hope, about six miles to the south of Blairstown.

Friday The 13th location: Blairstown, New Jersey
Friday The 13th location: the camp entrance: Camp NoBeBoSco, Hardwick, New Jersey | Photograph: Peter Paulsen

‘Camp Crystal Lake’ itself is Camp NoBeBoSco, 11 Sand Pond Road at NoBeBoSco Road in Hardwick – about six miles north of Blairstown.

Friday The 13th location: Blairstown, New Jersey
Friday The 13th location: the cabin at ‘Crystal Lake’: Camp NoBeBoSco, Hardwick, New Jersey | Photograph: Peter Paulsen

The lake, in which young Jason drowned, is Sand Pond. Please be aware that Camp NoBeBoSco, which dates from 1927, is still a functioning camp and not open to visitors or tours.

Friday The 13th location: Blairstown, New Jersey
Friday The 13th location: the local diner: Blairstown Diner, Route 94, Blairstown, New Jersey | Photograph: Peter Paulsen

One place you can visit is the diner in which owner Steve Christy (Peter Brouwer) whiles away the evening as his happy band of counsellors is being sliced and diced by the unseen killer. The Blairstown Diner, 186 State Route 94, is just west of Blairstown itself.

Friday The 13th location: Blairstown, New Jersey
Friday The 13th location: Steve whiles away the evening at the diner: Blairstown Diner, Route 94, Blairstown, New Jersey | Photograph: Peter Paulsen


• Many thanks to Peter Paulsen for help with this section.