Obviously, I've wanted to take one of the Camp Crystal Lake movie site tours for years but I'd always heard it was difficult to get into - you had to enter a lottery and hope for the best, assuming the weekend they were happening was even available.
Well, the people in charge have opened up the amount of tours over the last year or so and finally this year my friend Paul said we should probably do it. Once I saw there were tours available on my birthday, we were locked in and planning a trip to scenic New Jersey!
I'm not 100% sure how I'm going to do this, whether I should follow movie chronology or the map of the tour. Luckily, it's been a few days so some of the order of things are blurry - so you're basically going to get things in the order I remember them!
Crystal Lake Tours runs the tour of the campsite where the original movie was filmed and it's pretty dang thorough - BUT, there are a few scenes from the movie that were shot in a couple towns away from the camp, mostly scenes were Annie is trying to get a ride to Camp Crystal Lake to start her summer as a camp counselor.
Remember, Annie? She's my favorite girl in this movie. Luckily, I didn't get too attached (he says, still with a crush on her like 40 years later.)
Annie's walk through town is mostly in Blairstown, starting with the title card scene.
In these pictures, the top image is a screencap from the movie, the bottom picture is from my trip.
The bridge has been redesigned but this is the spot. (Pay no attention to the old man in the corner of my picture. Lord knows I tried not to.)
From there, Annie comes around a corner on Main St, which is a straight shot up the road from the bridge.
The red building has been painted blue, you'd think the Blairstown city council would get on the owner to paint that back!
From there Annie goes through an archway which is straight down the street, barely 100 yards. The archway is actually right next to the bridge we saw in the first shot.
The handsome fella standing in the archway in this picture is yours truly.
The deli where she asks and gets a ride from Enos is actually an Antiques store now and is across town in Hope. New Jersey. The view from the window is mostly the same.
You can see the two triangular windows in the upper right corner, right?
The lady who runs the antique shop is super friendly and they do have a picture inside the store of the scene from the movie.
The next stop in Hope is down about 100 yards, where Annie runs into crazy old Ralph and he tells her the camp "has a death curse."
The corner is painted and a little different (and the building is a Burgdorff realty now.)
Ralph then rides his bike off (to camp, as we would learn later.)
Enos drops Annie off in front of a graveyard that's actually about a quarter mile away from the Antiques store and where she meets Ralph, but in the opposite direction.
You can probably knock out these sites in an hour or two and they're mostly on the way to the camp. If you're in town and doing like a 1pm or evening tour of the Camp, you can hit this stuff in the morning and then get over to the camp.
(Also, when we were getting out pictures, there were other F13 fans there doing the same, including a woman who had flown in from Ireland. Everyone was super cool because, let's be honest, horror fans are the best.)
Oh, also in Blairstown is the diner where creepy Steve Christy goes to get dinner during the evening rainstorm.
You CAN find the bridge where Mrs. Voorhees picks up Annie and it's on the way to the camp, but I didn't get the right shots, or find the right bridge but lots of other people have.
Where Annie jumps out of the jeep is closer to the camp but no one seems to be sure EXACTLY where and, really, it would be tough to find, given that everything near the camp looks the same - like a woods.
I wouldn't say the camp is hard to find but I will say it's a lot of small, winding roads, you'll need your GPS for sure.
Anyway, when you pull up the camp, you have to wait on the street until your time. Our tour started at 6:30 and they didn't let us in until a few minutes before. The roads a bit narrow so get over as far as you can.
You're greeted by this sign as you pull in.
Once inside the staff gathers everyone around and you go through the rules and regulations. There are usually 50-60 people per tour but they break you up into groups of 15 or less and different groups take the tour in different orders.
At the entrance they have the original Camp Crystal Lake sign where you can either take a free picture with your own camera, get a polaroid taken (80's style!) or get a proper digital picture.
I got the Polaroid picture, it's the most fun option.
They also have a replica of the Jeep Mrs. Voorhees (and creepy Steve Christy) drive. It's not THE Jeep but it's the right vintage. Also, the original cast and crew members who have been part of previous tours have signed the back end of the Jeep too.
(You can't get in the Jeep, FYI.)
While everyone's getting pictures here, you can hit the gift shop and fill up the water bottles they give you with either water, tea or lemonade. Obviously, get some water, especially if it's 95 degrees like it was on my day.
You start in the main hall/cafeteria and you can still see the fireplace from the movie's prologue, where they sing a campfire song before those two kids run off to get freaky (and also get killed.)
Again, top pictures are screengrabs, bottom pics are my pictures (but they're not in montages like the earlier pictures.)
The movie cuts away as our two horny teens slip off to an upstairs area to get busy. Fun fact, this is the only two story building in the entire camp. They do let you go inside and go upstairs, I'm not sure it looks much like it did then.
(Should have gotten a picture of the stairs going up - next time!)
The next building we saw was, in the movie, the generator building. It's not a generator building for real, and you can't get inside it.
There is an arrow on the windowsill.
The next stop on OUR tour was the archery range (remember, different tours go in different routes, so we aren't all on top of each other. Giggity.)
In the movie the range kind of feels like it's in the center of things but it's really way off in the corner of the camp, as far away from the entrance as you can get.
The archery range is, of course, where Ned tries to hit on Brenda by shooting an arrow at her. I may not have the best game but I think I've got better game than Ned.
(The archery range is actually a rifle range.)
We next went across the river, on the opposite side of the beach. We could see the beach and see where Pamela was watching the kids sinnin' and where Brenda thought she saw her. Given years of overgrowth and what not, it's hard to figure out the exact spot where the camera was set.
The beach property has been painted brown and the extensions into the water aren't laid out the same.
Still, for easy reference, if the beach property is painted white, it's from the movie, if it's brown, it's a picture I took.
You can also see the boathouse down a bit from the beach. You can't get to the boathouse right now, most of the land around it has eroded.
Also, on the other side of the lake is where the movie's final scene/stinger was shot. At the time it was shot the water was shallow but now it's much deeper.
For our tour, which was the night tour, darkness was starting to fall around this point so most of the upcoming stuff was at night.
Oh, as we were walking back toward the beach, one guy on the tour almost stepped on a freakin' COPPERHEAD. As a proud city boy, that was close enough to nature for me! (The camp handled it perfectly and immediately got a wrangler on hand to move the snake.)
The next shots are from the bathroom where Marcie gets an axe to the face. The building they used was never an actual bathroom though - it's also all the way on the other side of the lake, away from everything else. The movie does a good job of making a lot of these cabins seem close to one another.
They've tried to redress the building to look like the bathroom, it's not *quite* there but you get the idea. You could still get an axe in the face there if you really wanted to.
Brenda also goes to the same bathroom but, again the row of sinks was only there during the movie.
Next up was the Main Cabin where a lot happens.
Early in the movie it's where the kids are playing Strip Monopoly. There is a Monopoly board set up (and they watch to make sure you don't take anything,) It's not THE Monopoly board, but it's from the era.
Earlier in the movie, the back room of the cabin is where Ralph emerges from the pantry to warn them and also where (later) Brenda is chucked through the window at Alice.
The pantry wasn't real so it's not there anymore. It was just there for the movie. Actually, the back room was never a kitchen either, all that equipment would have been brought in for the movie only.
Much later on, the back room is where Brenda gets thrown through the window.
The doorway between rooms is also where Pamela starts to tell her story. You know, when we realize she may not be the nice old lady she appears to be.
The next cabin we encounter is the cabin where Kevin Bacon and Marcie go to get busy.
It's not laid out exactly the same either, but you can see the bunks where they were going at it (and also where poor Ned's dead body was laying.)
The sex scene pictures are, naturally, mostly close-ups.
The cabin itself is right by the beach, near where Pamela and Alice had their final encounter.
The last cabin you see is Alice's cabin where they battle the black snake early in the movie.
This brings us next to the beach. The beach is amazing - it doesn't look exactly the same but, man, you just feel the power of the movie when you're standing there.
Also, the beach has eroded a good 8 feet since the time the movie was shot so it's tough to say EXACTLY where Alice and Pamela did what.
Thus and so, here are a bunch of pictures from the beach ...
A couple odds and ends - the place where creepy Steve Christy's body drops at Alice wasn't a real spot.
It was set up basically right around where the kids get confronted by the cop during the day (but we didn't get there until night.) It's all on the path leading to the camp from the main lodge - it was basically shot with their backs to the beach.
This is also where Ralph rides his bike off, again, during the day. Following the path he really wouldn't go anywhere but, you know, it's movie magic.
The cabin with the outside deck where Ned investigates before he dies is gone.
The house they were working on the gutters when creepy Steve Christy even more creepily hits on Alice is also gone.
They do have pictures where those scenes happened.
If I didn't mention it before, the sign at the tour is the actual sign from the movie.
The map of the camp. You cover a lot of ground!
There's plenty of swag too:
You can get water and sand from the lake one of two ways: you can buy an empty bottle or you can buy a bottle already filled. The bottles that are already filled were filled on an actual Friday the 13th.
Since I went on my birthday, I filled my own and now have lake water and sand from Crystal Lake taken out on my birthday.
Anyone still here?
Anyway, the tour is amazing - definitely make time to go into Blairstown and Hope and get those pictures too.
I did a night tour which was super cool, especially being on the beach at night. Still, if you want pristine pictures of everything, do the day tour.
And if anyone I know what's a Plus + I will definitely go again, especially if they do a cast reunion!
His name was Jason ...
