The Friday the 13th series is one of the most iconic franchises in horror due to its instantly recognizable killer and iconic setting, which has been recreated in several different filming locations. Jason Voorhees owes a great deal of his notoriety to his wooded hunting grounds. Camp Crystal Lake became a name almost as iconic as its resident slasher, as the summer campgrounds established a new, trendy setting for slasher flicks.
Crystal Lake's heavy forest provides dense coverage for Jason to wait in ambush as he picks off his unsuspecting victims, while its cabins provide few hiding spaces for those unfortunate enough to get caught smoking, drinking, or engaging in other forms of youthful debauchery by the masked killer. There's also the lake itself, which is the place where Jason drowned due to his counselors' negligence; it was here that the vengeful horror legend was born.
Camp Crystal Lake's mythical status is why shooting locations for the Friday the 13th films are so vital. Horror movie settings are almost always an important part of establishing the mood. Few other slashers have become as associated with their surroundings as Jason. The actual locations have changed from film-to-film almost every single time, though, meaning that each set is bound to have a unique quality. While some of these production sites are still quintessential horror settings, others have, sadly, fared as well as Jason's many victims. Here are all the Friday the 13th shooting locations, listed by the franchise's chronology.
The real-world setting of the first Friday the 13th film is by far the most famous. The grounds used for Camp Crystal Lake is a boy scout retreat called Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco located in Hardwick, New Jersey. The camp is still operating to this day, but unfortunately, that means that fans can't visit the site without getting in trouble for trespassing. However, No-Be-Bo-Sco occasionally holds elaborate Crystal Lake Tours on select days, usually the date of Friday the 13th, complete with props and memorabilia.
Nearby Blairstown, where Crystal Lake's own town was shot, also pays tribute to the film with an exhibit at the Blairstown Museum that, just last year, expanded to a full-on Friday the 13th museum. Locals express that the date of Friday the 13th has practically become a holiday for the community since the town holds a "Jason fest" to celebrate the film's legacy. The Roy's Hall concert venue in Blairstown holds the special honor of both screening Friday the 13th on these days as well as appearing in a shot of the film itself. Interior shots were also shot next door to Blairstown in Hope, making Jason and his mother true Jersey folk.
The sequel moved from New Jersey to Connecticut so the crew could shoot in the rural, heavily wooded county of Litchfield in the west of the state. The village of New Preston provided the backdrop for downtown scenes, including the casino where the counselors visited the bar. The cabins along Camp Kenmont's North Spectacle Pond, located just outside the town of Kent, was where Jason stalked his prey at Camp Crystal Lake. In addition, the city of Waterbury, located in the much more urbanized eastern part of Connecticut, was where audiences visited the house of the sole survivor of the first film, Alice Hardy.
Unfortunately, the sets for this entry have not been nearly as well-preserved as those for the first film. Alice's house in Waterbury has been demolished, although interior scenes were shot in what is now a drug-treatment center in Torrington. The casino in New Preston was a popular nightlife spot for years before completely burning down. Camp Kenmont is still active, but the property was sold to another owner and the residences on North Spectacle Pond, called Bromica Lodge, were likewise destroyed.
Part III marks the first time that a Friday the 13th film was not shot on the East coast, as the crew needed a more controlled environment to regulate the movie's 3D effects. Instead, production took place in Veluzat Motion Picture Ranch in Santa Clarita, California with its own constructed barn, cabin, and lake. The ranch is still used as a production site, but the cabin that was used in the film burned down in 2012. In addition, the scene with the biker gang was shot at what is now the Green Valley Cafe in the Santa Clarita area.
In the first and almost only time that two movies technically shared a shooting location, the opening to The Final Chapter was also at Veluzat Ranch. Nevertheless, the rest of the film took place in different locations. The expendable teens went skinny-dipping in the waters of Zaca Lake, while they hiked along the trails that surround the area. The Zaca Lake Lodge, in fact, marks the third time so far that a Friday the 13th shooting location burned down, this time more recently in 2016. The place is a popular filming site, with its ties to Hollywood productions going all the way back to the silent era. Most notably, the lake was also where the Universal monster classic, Creature from the Black Lagoon, was shot. In addition, the residence of Tommy Jarvis and his family is a privately owned house in Topanga, CA.
Despite the title of the movie, production for the series continued to remain in California in various locations around the Los Angeles area. As opposed to the other entries in the franchise, a chunk of the action was shot in the middle of an urban area, albeit in the idyllic Franklin Canyon Park, which is tucked inside the Beverly Hills portion of the Santa Monica Mountains. The Pineway Halfway House where Tommy Jarvis is institutionalized is a privately-owned property called "Rancho Rosito", located in Camarillo, California. Corey Feldman was too busy shooting The Goonies to appear on set, so the crew traveled to his backyard for his cameo in the opening scene.
For the sixth film, production moved down south to Georgia. The town scenes, including the sheriff's office where Tommy Jarvis fails to convince the law that Jason is back from the dead, were shot in Covington. The small city, located outside of Atlanta, shares slasher blood with Rob Zombie's Halloween II, which was also shot there. The camp scenes took place in Camp Daniel Morgan around Hard Labor Creek State Park's Lake Rutledge, a couple of miles east of Covington. Luckily, the camp still exists and holds occasional tours and screenings, perhaps because Jason Lives is so well-beloved by Friday the 13th fans.
A point of contention exists over which cemetery Jason emerged from at the beginning of the film. Fansites often state that it was Covington Cemetary, but screencap comparisons and recovered call sheet documents reveal that it was actually Old Madison Cemetary in Madison, GA. It's comforting to know that what is considered arguably the most entertaining entry in the series has its shooting locations comparatively well-preserved.
Production for The New Blood stayed in the south but moved over to neighboring Alabama, specifically within Baldwin County and around the city of Mobile. Byrnes Lake was chosen for the outdoor activities this time, although this time the cabins were all constructed for the film and then torn down. In an odd bit of Southern flair, there was even a gator wrangler hired in case the beasts attacked the cast and crew, but the gators weren't active during the time of the shooting. A number of interiors were built in Los Angeles for filming, and the crew also went back to Topanga Canyon, California for the interiors of the house used in The Final Chapter.
Jason's trip to New York City infamously doesn't even take place within The Big Apple for the majority of the movie. Despite the fact that Jason Takes Manhattan was the most expensive Friday the 13th film to date, $5 million budget still didn't cover the cost of shooting in New York. Instead, production took place mostly in Vancouver and surrounding areas within British Columbia, as well as with some interior shots in Los Angeles. The only scene that was legitimately shot in New York was in Times Square, which attracted a sizable crowd of Friday the 13th fans to watch Jason actor Kane Hodder don the hockey mask.
The crew returned to southern California to shoot the ninth installment in Thousand Oaks. The town contained the Canyon Ranch Studio for outdoor production, as well as nearby urban locales such as Joey B.'s diner. The Voorhees residence where Jason does, indeed, go to hell was filmed at a private house in the suburban West Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, specifically on Eagle Mountain Street.
The fact that horror sci-fi crossover Jason X takes place entirely on a spaceship means that the film used a soundstage to construct sets in Toronto, Canada. There are no Camp Crystal Lake locales to be found here beyond a virtual simulation that's created for part of the movie. However, Jason X includes a fun cameo appearance where director David Cronenberg gets stabbed and showcases one of the franchise's most creative kills, with Jason offing someone in a vat of liquid nitrogen.
Finally, after years of teasing audiences and inter-studio meddling, the big crossover between two icons of the slasher sub-genre, Freddy vs. Jason, was shot in and around Vancouver, using an impressive amount of on-location settings compared to the past few previous films. Jason's shack was located along the shore of the picturesque Buntzen Lake, although the set was demolished after filming. However, there were also some interiors and street shots that were filmed on a Universal Studios lot in Hollywood.
The 2009 remake of Friday the 13th took the action to Central Texas around the Austin area. Neighboring Bastrop provided outdoor recreation areas for camp scenes in Friday the 13th, while Austin, Round Rock, and Wimberley contained on-location structures like houses and stores. The city of Austin itself conveniently holds film studios for a more controlled environment, as well. Additionally, the crew also traveled to Camp Fern in the East Texas town of Marshall to shoot more on-location outdoor scenes.
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