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Iconic
Crystallaketours.com
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From the early days of cable and the late night introduction to slasher filth that came with it.
To the first movie I drove my 16 year old self and friends to at a theater in Coatesville, PA for Friday VI.
I'll forever have a nostalgic place in my heart for the Friday the 13th franchise.
Jump to fairly present day when I read an article about tours being done at the filming location of the original movie at a functioning Boy Scout camp in Blairstown, NJ. I jumped on it right away. You had to register for a lottery and hope for a golden ticket type email to come. At which point you had about 10 seconds to convince your spouse and make a huge decision on travel and expense plans before it sold out.
Hotels were very limited in the area so we drove in to NJ from a nearby resort in the Pocono mountains just across the PA border.
We had an early morning tour in the early spring.
The Boy Scout camp is in a pretty remote location.
We knew we were in the right place when we came upon a long line of cars in the middle of nowhere.
I overheard the gatekeeper tell his partner that I looked like Otis after we passed.
I immediately wondered if he was referring to 1,000 Corpses Otis or Devil’s Otis.
The entrance of the Boy Scout camp that shall not be tagged.
They request that you not tag them on social media when posting about the tours as it scares and confuses the parents of the scouts that attend the camp.
They also request that since this is an operating Boy Scout camp not to trespass outside of authorized tours.
We had arrived.
With A LOT of other people. This was pre-COVID so i believe the crowd rules have changed substantially since our visit.
We gathered in a pavilion and were given announcements and instructions.
We were then greeted with our first surprise of the day.
Officer Bracke (Richard Burgi) in full uniform.
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| The cabin sing along scene... |
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| ...was actually filmed in a pavilion. |
The cabin where Kevin Bacon got backwards throat stabbed with an arrow after doing drugs and having sex.
The photo-op presented in front of the electrical room was an arrow in the eye. I think because someone got an arrow to the eye in front of this door in the movie.
Somebody ran up these stairs at some point in the movie.
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| Where Marcie got an axe to the face. |
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Real life Marcie (Jeanine Taylor)
was waiting in a stall to surprise us.
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The cabin where most of the interior shots were filmed. I believe this is where we were joined by Adrienne King. |
You can see the main room of the main cabin through this door (monoply was played there).
In the room I am standing in they built a makeshift kitchen where one didn’t exist.
In the same room they built a pantry into the exit door.
At one point in the movie Betsy Palmer jump scares out of it.
When Crazy Ralph (Walt Gorney) warns everyone that they’re going to die before riding his bike down the dirt road. It’s to the left side of this picture. It’s funny because it’s not actually a road. It just dead ends at the edge of the woods just out of film view.
This may or may not be the actual floating deck used in filming. I should definitely start taking notes when i do cool ass shit like this.
You know what happens here.
Tom Savini's hand makes an appearance here near the beginning of the film as a point of view shot.
Tom Savini’s hand should be given its own IMDb page.
There are filming locations nearby that should be visited as well. The Blairstown Diner is a well known filming spot. “Downtown” Blairstown is recognizable from the beginning of the film when the hitch hiker passes through and catches a ride with the truck driver. The Blairstown graveyard was used in filming as well.
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| Me not wanting my picture taken at the diner. |
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| The subsequent revenge shot inside. |
