Happy Birthday To The Father Of ‘Friday The 13th,’ Sean Cunningham

Sean Cunningham turns eighty years old this year on December 31st. Well, now I feel old. It’s hard to believe that the father of Friday the 13th (1980) is eighty. Seems the older I get, the more I’m seeing my heroes grow old as well.

I’ve always felt that in a lot of ways, Sean Cunningham has a Hollywood Cinderella story. He started out managing theater houses when he met Wes Craven, and they both made the low-budget exploitation film, Last House on the Left (1972). His next films were family movies like Manny’s Orphans (1978) and Here Come the Tigers (1978). Neither of these movies made any money, so Sean had to think of another way to become successful in Hollywood.

When John Carpenter found success with Halloween (1978), Sean decided to make his own low-budget horror movie. He gathered a small crew and had Victor Miller write the screenplay which he told Miller to base on Halloween. In early pre-production, Cunningham took out an ad in Variety for a new horror film called Friday the 13th.

On May 9, 1980, Friday the 13th was born. Fans marveled over Tom Savini’s special effects, and everyone saw their first glimpse of Jason Voorhees jumping out of the water. Apparently, Jason grabbed us all, because 41 years later, horror fans are still obsessed with the little mama’s boy who drowned.

Friday the 13th was an over-night success, and Cunningham finally reached the kind of success many only dream about. Although none of Sean’s other films reached the kind of success that Friday the 13th had, Sean still accomplished his goal. He was able to make more movies, and people are still talking about him to this day. I would say that Sean has had a pretty good career and life.

Happy 80th birthday to the man who is responsible for getting me into horror, for starting the slasher-boom of the 1980s, and for giving us our first glimpse of horror icon Jason Voorhees. Thank you and happy birthday, Sean Cunningham!