Horror fans are all too familiar with "Friday the 13th" and the franchise's main hockey mask wearing antagonist, Jason Voorhees. Over the last 40+ years, 12 movies have been released under the "Friday the 13th" umbrella, and as advancements have been made in visual effects, Jason's kills have gotten more and more outlandish. But that wasn't always the case. When the first film was made, money was an issue, and horror makeup effects weren't anywhere near where they are today. Mistakes were inevitable, but one in particular could have been a complete disaster. This is the "Friday the 13th" incident that left a cast member blind for months.
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00:00Friday the 13th is one of the biggest horror franchises in the world.
00:05The original 1980 film famously drew inspiration from filmmaker John Carpenter's Halloween,
00:10and focused on a group of clueless, lascivious camp counselors who are picked off one by
00:14one by a mysterious killer.
00:16You'll never come back again.
00:19Oh, shut up, Ralph.
00:22It's got her death cursed.
00:24Back in the 80s, making scary movies before the slasher genre was fully established was
00:29not easy, and the bloody sequences in Friday the 13th were inventive for its time, including
00:35one death featuring a series of precisely shot arrows.
00:39Unfortunately, this memorable kill in Friday the 13th was tainted by an actual horror experienced
00:45by the actor playing the victim behind the scenes.
00:49An accident on the film set caused Harry Crosby, who played Bill, to be temporarily blinded
00:53for months.
00:55Accidents on horror film sets don't happen as often as they used to.
00:59That's because over the years, we've been able to build both the experience and technology
01:03required to make the most terrifying scenes a reality, without anyone getting harmed.
01:08But in Friday the 13th, something went very wrong while filming one of the movie's more
01:13grisly scenes.
01:14The death of Bill in Friday the 13th is still one of the franchise's most brutal kills.
01:20The psychopathic murderer Pamela Voorhees, mother of the hockey-mask killer we all love,
01:25kills Bill with multiple arrows, pinning him to the wall.
01:28And one of the arrows pierces his eye.
01:31For the scene, makeup artist Tom Savini used a fake blood formula which, unbeknownst to
01:36the team, included a wetting agent known as Photoflow.
01:40It was expected to work with the fake blood and make it soak into Crosby's clothing, to
01:44make the scene appear more realistic.
01:47The team later discovered that Photoflow was not an ingredient classified as safe blood,
01:52which is the kind that's okay to be smeared across an actor's face and on the eyes.
01:57To achieve Bill's blood-curdling arrow-in-the-eye moment, a latex prosthetic was applied to
02:02the actor's face, along with the Photoflow blood.
02:06When the crew began filming the scene, the blood welled up into Crosby's eyes, and when
02:10the prosthetic was removed, it caused excruciating pain.
02:13My eye just started to completely melt down.
02:18I couldn't see anything."
02:20Although Crosby was ultimately fine, the New York Post confirmed that the accident blinded
02:25the actor for six months.
02:27Savini later acknowledged the incident, noting that the on-set accident was not a proud moment
02:32in his career.
02:34Despite the mishaps that occurred behind the camera, the summer camp slasher flick is still
02:38beloved 40 years after its release, and it's widely regarded as one of the best horror
02:43films of the 80s.
02:45We're just glad that the rest of the horrific bodily harm seen on screen is the result of
02:48movie magic, instead of worrisome mistakes.
02:52In the slew of Friday the 13th sequels and reboots, the original 1980 film is often reduced
02:57to a footnote.
02:59That's because it's one of two of the movies without Jason Voorhees as the killer.
03:03He pops up at the end, literally, but that's a dream sequence.
03:07Or at least we think it is.
03:09And in Friday the 13th Part V, Jason is only seen in a hallucination.
03:14But without Friday the 13th setting the foundation for the many sequels and reboots to come,
03:19one of the greatest horror franchises would have never existed.
03:23Jason doesn't take center stage until the second Friday the 13th film.
03:27In spite of his absence, the original movie is an effective little chiller that offers
03:31shock and disgust in equal measure.
03:34It also feels refreshing to see the film pan out as a mystery, because who could have such
03:39distaste for a bunch of hapless teens?
03:42It has been over 40 years since the film was released, and Jason's character has been reshaped
03:46to fit every movie since.
03:49It's the horror movie magic of Friday the 13th, from its jump scares to its creative
03:53deaths to the camp's ominous, murderous presence, that makes it such a great movie.
03:59And even when it finishes up and blood has been spilled, Friday the 13th refuses to offer
04:04a sense of closure.
04:05"...then he's still there."
04:08Instead, it leaves you with the unsettling knowledge that the franchise will return for
04:14more.