Where was Friday the 13th filmed?

At the beginning of the movie, the audience is presented with one of the six counselors who are supposed to visit Camp Crystal Lake, Annie. She is seen walking up to two gas pumps and then talking to the dog who’s waiting by the pumps. She asks him, “You speak English? How far is it to Camp Crystal Lake?” What comes off as a bright and sunny introduction soon turns dark however with the beginning of the film not having the same energy as the ending.

The Friday the 13th film sets that were used in the introduction of the movie were set in Blairstown and although the gas pumps are no longer in their original location, various areas that were utilized before this scene can still be found today. In particular, the stone arches on Main Street that were featured in the 1980 film can still be visited today and to get there you can drive along the NJ-94 and then take a turn down Main Street. Along the street, you will be able to spot the stone arches used at the beginning of the film as well as several other locations used to show where Annie was walking at the beginning of the film.

On the way to Camp Crystal Lake, Annie, along with the truck driver bump into the town’s local “crazy man”. Nicknamed Crazy Ralph, he asks Annie, “You’re going to Camp Blood, ain’t you?” This irritates the truck driver who replies in turn and says, “Dammit Ralph, get outta here! Go on, get it! Leave people alone!” This scene begins to paint an ominous picture of the camp and helps build anticipation for the additional scenes to come in the movie.

Some of the filming locations on Friday the 13th were used as a one-time set and this scene is a great example of that. The first appearance of Crazy Ralph was filmed along the intersection of Walnut Street and High Street in the township of Hope in New Jersey. To get there, drive along Delaware Road which leads to High Street, and you’ll be able to see the intersection where Crazy Ralph appeared as you drive by Walnut Street.

On the way to Camp Crystal Lake, Annie hitches a ride with the Truck Driver. While on the way to where he is going to drop her off, they discuss what Camp Crystal Lake will be like, to which Annie mentions that “I’ll be cooking for 50 kids and 10 staff.” He then mentions that the camp is jinxed and that trying to reopen the camp will just be bad luck. However, as he drops Annie off at the cemetery, which is a rather gloomy foreshadowing of where the counselors will end up, he tells her, “Take care of yourself kid!”

Moravian Cemetery was the location of the graveyard scene in Friday the 13th and is a surprisingly short distance away from the location where Crazy Ralph confronted Annie. To get to the graveyard. You can drive along Delaware Road and you’ll be able to see the iconic Moravian Cemetery sign.

As the rest of the characters begin to show up at Camp Crystal Lake, we get to see the future targets of the mysterious killer. With three of the counselors rolling up in their pickup truck, they get out and help the camp director uproot a tree stump. As we are introduced to the main characters of this film, the camp director Steve Christy says, “Welcome to Camp Crystal Lake.” With these words, the three counselors' fates are sealed as misfortune brews in the distance.

The location for Camp Crystal Lake is a real-life location named Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco which has been in operation since 1927, the oldest continually operating Scout camp in the state. While access to the camp is restricted, there are the occasional tours that occur on special dates, like Friday the 13th. This allows tourists and interested visitors to go on “Crystal Lake Tours” to visit the iconic set where many of Friday the 13th’s action scenes took place. To get to the camp, drive along Sand Pond Road before turning into Nobebosco Road which leads to the famous camp.

Steve left the camp earlier in the day to get the supplies required for the coming reopening of the site. Before he heads back to the camp, which at this point is late at night, he stops by the diner in Crystal Lake and talks to the waitress. He mentions to her, “I’ve got six new counselors at camp.” Unbeknownst to him, at this point, only 2 of the 6 counselors he hired to help are still alive at Camp Crystal Lake because of the unknown killer. He oddly refers to the counselors he hired as “babes in the woods” to which he remembers that he urgently needs to return to the camp to find out how they’re faring and quickly heads out of the diner.

The diner used for this scene in Friday the 13th is still standing today, over 40 years after the film was made! The diner is located in Blairstown, where most of the film shooting in the introductory portion of the movie takes place. To get to the Blairstown diner, drive along NJ-94, and you’ll be coming across the diner in no time.

Just when you think everything is over, with the main antagonist of the film dead, Alice falls asleep in a canoe that drifts out to the middle of Crystal Lake where Jason Voorhees died many years earlier. As the police call out to a freshly woken up Alice, she suddenly gets grabbed by the decomposing body of Jason Voorhees who tries to drag her into the water. She wakes up in a cold sweat at a hospital. The doctor present reassures her, “It’s all over. Everything’s over.” This makes Alice anxious as she mentions, “Then he’s still there.” She’s indicating that Jason still haunts the campground’s lake.

While most of the shooting took place at No-Be-Bo-Sco, the final sequence where Jason grabs Alice takes place at Turkey Swamp Park in Freehold. To get to the location where the final scene took place, you can drive along Georgia Road and then take a turn into Turkey Swamp Park Road.