Friday the 13th Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Camp

The sign of Camp Crystal Lake.

Camp Crystal Lake, also known as Camp Forest Green, and, more commonly as Camp Blood, is a fictional summer camp for kids in the Friday the 13th film series. It is located in Crystal Lake, Cunningham County, New Jersey (previously Forrest Green County and Wessex County). Camp Crystal Lake is most famous for being the home of serial killer Jason Voorhees.

History

The camp was established in 1935, by the Christy family. Camp Crystal Lake operated peacefully until the summer of 1957, when Pamela Voorhees was hired as a cook. Her deformed, special needs son Jason attended the camp while she worked. Jason was bullied and harassed by other children at the camp. One day, while the counselors weren't supervising Jason, the other children threw him into the lake. Unable to swim, Jason presumably drowned. The Christys closed the camp for the season to allow for an investigation, hoping to avoid a scandal. Authorities determined Jason's death was an accident.

The camp reopened in 1958, and Pamela was rehired by the Christys. The counselors Barry Jackson and Claudette Hayes, whom Pamela associated with Jason's drowning, were also rehired for the year. Pamela, seeking revenge, murdered Barry and Claudette one night as they were preparing to have sex. These murders could not be covered up nor deemed as accidental deaths, so the Christys shut down the camp indefinitely. Pamela was never suspected, and the police ruled the homicides of Claudette and Barry unsolved crimes.

There were apparently multiple attempts to reopen Camp Crystal Lake throughout the 1960s. It is unknown if the Christys made these attempts or if the camp had changed hands. However, none of these attempts succeeded. A series of fires in 1962 prevented the summer debut, as did the discovery of poisoned water in 1966. Although it was never known who was the instigator, the finger of guilt pointed squarely at Pamela Voorhees. Her sick mind combined with her over-protectiveness of her son had convinced her that the murder of Barry and Claudette was not vengeance served; she had to ensure that no other child would suffer the same doom as Jason. By living close to the camp, Pamela kept a watchful eye to make certain the camp remained unattended. This fueled local gossip that the camp was jinxed or on cursed ground, and local residents renamed it "Camp Blood." Sometime in the 1970s, both Mr. and Mrs. Christy had died, reportedly broke and crazy.

In 1979, a hope to resurrect the failed summer camp came when Steve Christy made another attempt to reopen Camp Crystal Lake. This time, no longer content to simply sabotage, Pamela stalks and kills nearly all of the new camp counselors beginning with a cheerful and spirited young girl named Annie Phillips who was possibly killed off the property in the woods surrounding it. She apparently succeeds in preventing the reopening of Camp Crystal Lake but loses her own life in the process. As Jason never drowned, he witnessed his mother's death at the hands of Alice Hardy the only survivor of the first massacre, this event marked the beginning of a new and far more deadly streak of murders and terror that would plague the camp, the town, and the general area for over twenty years or more.

For years starting in 1984, the camp was closed and forbidden by law for anyone or anybody else to be there but that didn't stop trespassers like Jeff and Sandra from going there or people dying on the property for years to come, or places near it like Packanack Lodge and Higgins Haven. Camp Crystal Lake remained closed until it's appearance in the film Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives in which it was called Camp Forest Green. This time, it was Jason himself, recently resurrected by Tommy Jarvis, who prevents the reopening by slaughtering, slaying, murdering, and killing the counselors in cold blood. A school was built nearby with the purpose of training adults to be camp counselors in 1984; however the school was abandoned after a series of attacks and never reopened.

When last seen in the film Freddy vs Jason, it appeared that new construction had been begun on the camp in yet another attempt to reopen. However, the massive damage caused to the camp by the battle between Jason and his rival/nemesis named Freddy Krueger would most likely have been sufficient to ensure that it remained closed. It seems that Pamela Voorhees' wish that the camp never reopen has been fulfilled. Since the trail of devastation and wildfire of 2003, destroyed the construction site, there have not been any recent attempts to reopen the camp.

Legacy

Camp Crystal Lake, the once thriving summer camp for kids had twenty-one years of uninterrupted good times. Until the Christys hired Pamela Voorhees who brought along her deformed and retarded son who drowned in the lake in the summer of 1957. After that, in 1958, it became infamous for a streak of brutal murders, massacres, homicide, pestilence, arson, and supernatural occurrences that took place on its grounds. The failed attempt to reopen it in 1979 set off a chain of events that led to the deaths of dozens of teenagers and adults.

Appearances

Films

Novels

Comics

Advertisement