BPS 285: Creating Friday the 13th & the Horror of Hollywood with Sean S. Cunningham

Sean S. Cunningham had a successful career of starting films cheap
and fast. Originally from New York, Cunningham had a vast knowledge
of directing films and came to Hollywood. He started about the same
time Wes Craven did. Cunningham meets Craven and decided to make a
comedy-romance film called Together (1971).

Then they both shocked the world with the rape and ultra-violence
of The Last House on the Left (1972). Craven directed the flick and
Cunningham financed and produced. However Cunningham wanted to get
a mix of comedy and horror and made Case of the Full Moon Murders
(1973) and then started other comedy films like Manny's Orphans
(1978) and Here Come the Tigers (1978) .Struggling in Hollywood
Cunningham saw John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) and wanted to make
a follow up type film but would possibly regret it. Cunningham
brought Friday the 13th (1980) into the cinema in 1980, a year of
many other horror films.

Friday the 13th (1980) was a shocking, gory and violent film about
camp counselors being slashed by a killer and had Betsy Palmer in
the lead role. Little did Cunningham know that Friday the 13th
would have never ending sequels. Cunningham gladly avoided all of
them and Friday the 13th remains one of the most popular horror
films in history. Instead Cunningham wanted to make it big when he
brought a best-selling novel to the screen, A Stranger Is Watching
(1982) with Rip Torn, but it was a disappointment. Cunningham went
downhill with the over sexed teen comedy Spring Break (1983) and
The New Kids (1985). Cunningham then produced House (1985) and
several of its sequels. Cunningham next entered the world of
underwater terrors after The Abyss (1989) was released. Cunningham
did a follow up called DeepStar Six (1989), but it was a flop,
however it beat another 1989 underwater thriller Leviathan (1989)
at box office receipts.

Cunningham was finished with directing and moved on to producing
films and teaching. He produced The Horror Show (1989), My
Boyfriend's Back (1993) and Friday the 13th's last sequel Jason
Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993). Cunningham then did yet
another follow up to Friday the 13th with Jason X (2001).

Enjoy my conversation with Sean Cunningham.







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