Slasher Bloodlines: Friday the 13th + A Bay of Blood

Paramount and Stateside Theatres are putting on a double bill of slashers on Friday, October 2, with Friday the 13th and A Bay of Blood. It's a pairing that works as a history lesson in the genre: the American movie that defined the slasher for a generation and the Italian one that helped build the blueprint.

Friday the 13th (1980) is the one everyone knows. Sean S. Cunningham directed it, and it runs 95 minutes. Before the script was even written, Cunningham took out an ad in Variety calling it "the most terrifying movie ever made," and it went on to give us Jason Voorhees and Camp Crystal Lake. It's widely regarded as the mother of all slashers, the one that set the template for the decades of sequels and imitators that followed.

A Bay of Blood (1971) comes from Mario Bava, and it runs 85 minutes. Following Bava's Blood and Black Lace (1964), it's billed as the first fully formed slasher, no "proto-" prefix needed. This version is a new 4K restoration by Severin Films, and it predates and inspired The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Halloween. It also supplied two of the greatest kills in Friday the 13th Part 2, so seeing it alongside the original Friday lets you trace the line from Bava's Italy to Cunningham's Crystal Lake.

Doors open at 6 PM, with Friday the 13th starting at 7 PM and A Bay of Blood following at 8:50 PM. Between the two, you're looking at about three hours of film, so you'll be out well before midnight. Tickets are available through do512.