Triskaidekaphobia is an irrational fear of the number 13, and a big reason why Friday the 13th is considered bad news.
Even without the phobia, there’s been a long-running superstition about the day that dates back to at least the Middle Ages. Though just where exactly it originated isn’t quite as clear. Either way, Friday the 13th is synonymous with bad luck. For a horror fan, it’s also synonymous with one of the biggest horror franchises of all time.
Inspired by Halloween, Sean S. Cunningham wanted to separate himself from previous film The Last House on the Left (which he produced) and create something more akin to a thrilling roller coaster ride. Before the screenplay was even ready, he felt Friday the 13th was a can’t miss title and put out an ad for it in the July 1979 issue of Variety. He wanted to generate interest, but also test the waters in case anyone else had beat him to the punch. It worked. On May 9, 1980, Friday the 13th released in theaters and fans were hooked.
The film spawned 9 sequels, a “vs.” mashup with Freddy, a remake, endless merchandise, and permanently etched out space in the pop culture collective. Only five of those films would take advantage of its namesake day; Friday the 13th Part III, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday and the Friday the 13th reboot all were released on a Friday the 13th. But as the franchise hit its peak and then waned with Jason Goes to Hell, the door was left wide open for other horror releases to claim the day.
The Friday the 13th franchise, in its conception, capitalized on a spooky day, but the truth is that that superstition bears little relevance at all to the plot- this series is all about masked killer Jason Voorhees and summertime massacres (for the most part). Friday the 13th is actually a horror haven, a perfect release date with a built-in audience. There’s been no shortage of horror titles that dropped on a Friday the 13th over the decades. The busier the release schedule gets, the hotter Friday the 13th becomes.
After the original film’s 1980 release, Tobe Hooper’s The Funhouse was brave enough to attempt to utilize the superstitious day for release. Released in theaters on March 13, 1981, this creepy yet gorgeous slasher is bolstered by a fantastic production design and great villain, though it didn’t make much of a dent at the box office. With the Friday the 13th series starting to really heat up, it wasn’t until years later that other horror franchises would start to encroach.
March 13, 1987, brought the highly beloved and well-received Evil Dead II. The larger budget meant bigger and better special makeup effects, and Sam Raimi effectively reframed the events of the first film with a splatstick lens. Cunningham tested Friday the 13th waters again with his own aquatic terror DeepStar Six, released on January 13th, 1989, but it was a move mostly to beat the other aquatic horror competition to the box office. Later that year, Michael Myers took aim at Halloween and Friday the 13th in one fell swoop with the October 13 release of Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers. Even Freddy Krueger got in on the triskaidekaphobe action with schlocky Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, which arrived in theaters on September 13, 1991.
Just ahead of the holiday season, Bram Stoker’s Dracula dropped on November 13, 1992 and took a major bite out of the box office. That holiday horror trend continued the following year, with The Nightmare Before Christmas straddling that Halloween and Christmas line with its October 13, 1993 limited theatrical release (it expanded wide on October 29).
1993 marked a major turning point for Friday the 13th. After Jason Goes to Hell, the series went dormant for almost a decade. In that void, Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight dropped on January 13, 1995, without much fanfare. Underwater sci-fi horror Sphere flopped on February 13, 1998, and sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer retained its core audience with a successful November 13, 1998 release.
Jason Voorhees reclaimed the horror holiday in 2002 and 2003 with Jason X and Freddy vs. Jason, respectively, but beginning in 2004, horror started to really dominate. Especially in the familiar franchise department. AVP: Alien vs. Predator made massive waves on August 13, 2004. The Grudge 2 spooked up healthy box office numbers on October 13, 2006. The Rear Window-inspired Disturbia found its audience on April 13, 2007. And The Last House on the Left proved not all remakes are terrible on March 13, 2009.
More recently, Friday the 13th belongs to Blumhouse. They clearly understand the significance of the day to horror fans and have set many releases around it. Insidious: Chapter 2, The Darkness, Happy Death Day, Truth or Dare, and Happy Death Day 2U all took advantage of Friday the 13th releases.
September’s Friday the 13th brings the release of Freaks, Haunt, Depraved, and Candy Corn as well as the first season of creepy-looking Netflix series Marianne. That’s a jam-packed lineup; who needs sleep anyway?
The Friday the 13th franchise may have once dominated the superstitious calendar day, but that monopoly is long gone. Friday the 13th is now a horror holiday in earnest, and there’s no shortage of options when it comes to celebratory horror viewings.