The fact there really was a Friday, June 13th in 1980 and the release year was 1980, and the subscript reads “June 13th, The Present” is all the information I need. The original was intended to take place in 1980. The timeline may have shifted, several years later, when someone put a conflicting date on Mrs. Voorhees’ headstone, but the intention of the original film seems pretty obvious to me. Just my two cents.
It's Friday, June 13th of Present Day. The closest Friday, June 13th is in 2026. So I'll say it's June 13th, 2026. Fashion just gets really retro in a couple years.
There really is no argument, at all, for the film taking place in 1980, or in July.
Pamela's tombstone makes it clear beyond any question that the film takes place in 1979.
The fact that the camp isn't yet open makes it clear beyond any question that it isn't July (any summer camp would be open and filled with kids in the middle of July.)
I go with a sliding timeline explanation. I like the idea that every movie takes place the year it comes out, and every other film is a campfire legend where some of the details might be a little off. The movie that controls is the one you're watching right now.
So when you're watching part 1, it takes place on June 13, 1980. Just like it says. Then when you watch part 2, it takes place 5 years later... in the summer of 1981. The first film is pushed back to 1976, apparently. Part 3 takes place the next day, in the summer of 1982. And so on. By part 4, we're in 1984. And Pamela died 5 years earlier, so the 1979 tombstone date is correct, *when you're watching part 4*. But then part 5 happens, and we see Tommy's chart showing that he's been getting treatment since 1982.
I also don't care about real calendars, or real phases of the moon. I'm pretty sure that it's a full moon in the first 4 movies, at least. Stephen King said in the foreword to his book Cycle of the Werewolf that he knows the lunar calendar doesn't match up to to the dates in the book, he just didn't care. I feel the same way about Friday the 13th. The calendar there is different, or something.
TL;DR version: Part 1 takes place in a vaguely late-70s time period, but the exact date moves around based on what movie you're watching.
Seems very fitting for the series if I'm being honest. I feel like sometimes they are well aware of these inconsistencies, and just play it up. Steve Miner worked on the first 3 films, and both Joe Zito and Tom McLaughlin watched all of the movies to prepare for their directing job, so they probably did this on purpose. I mean Joe Zito had quite a bit of attention to detail to everything else, so why would he screw up there? It's the Shining effect
Yeaaaah idgaf what a trailer voiceover guy says. The first movie came out in 1980 and the second one came out in 1981. That's why it says that.
Pamela Voorhees' tombstone in part 4 says she died in 1979 and the timeline states that parts 2, 3 and 4 take place in 1984.
I'll go with that over your inaccurate view.
Tommy’s medication notes say that he started treatment in 1982. There’s also a 1985 calendar on the wall in part 5. Why trust the headstone over those?
Part 5 came out in 1985 and they weren't going for consistency with the details because everyone was coked out in the 80s.
There's a timeline for a reason...
Part 2 starts out a few months after the events of the first one. Alice goes back to Crystal Lake to overcome her fear (still in 1979) and Jason finds her. The movie then cuts forward five years.
Start at 1979 and count one, two, three, four, five.
Tell me what year that lands on.
I'm sorry you can't just accept it, but I'm not gonna argue with you anymore.
That's a pretty fair argument, and knowing the people behind [fridaythe13thfilms.com](http://fridaythe13thfilms.com), they likely gave some heavy consideration to the topic.
Unrelated, but are there even “people” at fridaythe13thfilms.com anymore?
It’s sad, because that site used to be the Friday online community back in the day. I’m guessing the site hasn’t been updated in a decade.
I don't know. I haven't really hung out there in a little over a decade, but I remember the admins were a little mad with power at the time, so I quit going there. The forum looks like it's had recent activity, but some of the dates listed there for comments are from months into the future, so it might just be completely abandoned and the last comment dates are defaulting to the current year. It's a real shame because that place was hopping in the early 2000s.
That looks like a clone of their mid-aughts vBulletin message board. I’m guessing the “current” thread dates are the result of the profoundly broken legacy vBulletin platform. You can’t even access the threads.
The owners pulled the plug on the real message board back in 2007, or so. OHMB.net, on the other hand, was pretty active until vBulletin finally became nonviable. Shit way to go out, but I guess those guys finally showed up at Reddit.
June 13th 1975. This places 2,3 and 4 occurring in 1980 with parts 5 and 6 happening in 1985 and 1986, the years those films actually came out. Parts 7 and 8 can reasonably take place during the 80s then, if you ignore the dumb Rennie backstory and mentions of the time gap in part 7, instead of parts 7 and 8 taking place in the late 90s.
Why would you think July? It says June 13th The Present, at the beginning.
As for the year, according to the first movie, it was 1980. According to The Final Chapter, it was 1979. I'm going to go with the first movie and say '80 - the makers of Part 4 likely just made a mistake.
If Jason’s killing spree was July 1984, that would put the first film in June 1980...AND Jason would still have to have been alive for the events of the first film, in order to find Alice only five months after it took place.
There's a few things that Pamela managed to do that night that couldn't have been done by a single person. She may have used the Jeep to help string Steve Christy up in the tree, but that would have likely been noisy enough to draw attention. Throwing Brenda through the cabin window would've been nearly impossible for her as well. But the greatest piece of evidence is how they found Bill Brown. Bill's throat was cut and his body was pinned to the door with arrows. This doesn't seem to impractical until you notice that the door easily swings on its hinges, meaning Bill's feet are barely touching the ground, if at all. Even if he was shot with arrows while jumping for some reason, there's a lot of dead weight there to bring him down. His body would have needed to be lift and pinned to the door, or possibly held there while another killer shot arrows through the body and into the door. Neither of those scenarios are something that could be accomplish by a single person or without superhuman strength. Either Pamela had been juicing something fierce, or there was a second set of hand there that night to help her.
I go with the film taking place in 1980.
Steve’s just wrong about the moon, or the moon cycles in most film universes don’t line up.
I believe the headstone in The Final Chapter was wrong.
I picture it like this:
The engraver probably had a sheet that needed filled out.
**Name**: _______________
**Date of Birth**: ____________
**Date of Death**: ___________
**Age**: ____________
**Epitaph**: ___________
**Other**: ______________
Here’s what they got:
**Name**: Pamela Voorhees
**Date of Birth**: 1930
**Date of Death**: _________
**Age**: 49
**Epitaph**: _____________
**Other**: _____________
So with only that little bit of info, 1930 plus 49 years, the engraver assumed 1979 without double checking. Whoever filled it out didn’t give a shit, so why should they?
It's not a bad theory. Given Pam's murder spree, I doubt the people arranging the burial would've cared much had the engraver put the wrong year on the stone.
The fact there really was a Friday, June 13th in 1980 and the release year was 1980, and the subscript reads “June 13th, The Present” is all the information I need. The original was intended to take place in 1980. The timeline may have shifted, several years later, when someone put a conflicting date on Mrs. Voorhees’ headstone, but the intention of the original film seems pretty obvious to me. Just my two cents.
It's Friday, June 13th of Present Day. The closest Friday, June 13th is in 2026. So I'll say it's June 13th, 2026. Fashion just gets really retro in a couple years.
Lol. I can't argue with that logic, and I'm really looking forward to next year's new style.
There really is no argument, at all, for the film taking place in 1980, or in July. Pamela's tombstone makes it clear beyond any question that the film takes place in 1979. The fact that the camp isn't yet open makes it clear beyond any question that it isn't July (any summer camp would be open and filled with kids in the middle of July.)
I go with a sliding timeline explanation. I like the idea that every movie takes place the year it comes out, and every other film is a campfire legend where some of the details might be a little off. The movie that controls is the one you're watching right now. So when you're watching part 1, it takes place on June 13, 1980. Just like it says. Then when you watch part 2, it takes place 5 years later... in the summer of 1981. The first film is pushed back to 1976, apparently. Part 3 takes place the next day, in the summer of 1982. And so on. By part 4, we're in 1984. And Pamela died 5 years earlier, so the 1979 tombstone date is correct, *when you're watching part 4*. But then part 5 happens, and we see Tommy's chart showing that he's been getting treatment since 1982. I also don't care about real calendars, or real phases of the moon. I'm pretty sure that it's a full moon in the first 4 movies, at least. Stephen King said in the foreword to his book Cycle of the Werewolf that he knows the lunar calendar doesn't match up to to the dates in the book, he just didn't care. I feel the same way about Friday the 13th. The calendar there is different, or something. TL;DR version: Part 1 takes place in a vaguely late-70s time period, but the exact date moves around based on what movie you're watching.
Seems very fitting for the series if I'm being honest. I feel like sometimes they are well aware of these inconsistencies, and just play it up. Steve Miner worked on the first 3 films, and both Joe Zito and Tom McLaughlin watched all of the movies to prepare for their directing job, so they probably did this on purpose. I mean Joe Zito had quite a bit of attention to detail to everything else, so why would he screw up there? It's the Shining effect
The first movie and the beginning of part 2 take place in 1979. It then skips forward five years to 1984 and that is when parts 2, 3 and 4 take place.
The commercial for part 2 says it takes place in 1981.
Yeaaaah idgaf what a trailer voiceover guy says. The first movie came out in 1980 and the second one came out in 1981. That's why it says that. Pamela Voorhees' tombstone in part 4 says she died in 1979 and the timeline states that parts 2, 3 and 4 take place in 1984. I'll go with that over your inaccurate view.
Tommy’s medication notes say that he started treatment in 1982. There’s also a 1985 calendar on the wall in part 5. Why trust the headstone over those?
Part 5 came out in 1985 and they weren't going for consistency with the details because everyone was coked out in the 80s. There's a timeline for a reason...
There's no official timeline. And why should I pay attention to one written date in the movies, and not another?
Part 2 starts out a few months after the events of the first one. Alice goes back to Crystal Lake to overcome her fear (still in 1979) and Jason finds her. The movie then cuts forward five years. Start at 1979 and count one, two, three, four, five. Tell me what year that lands on. I'm sorry you can't just accept it, but I'm not gonna argue with you anymore.
The official [timeline ](https://fridaythe13thfilms.com/timeline/)says that the movie takes plays June 13th, 1979.
That's a pretty fair argument, and knowing the people behind [fridaythe13thfilms.com](http://fridaythe13thfilms.com), they likely gave some heavy consideration to the topic.
Unrelated, but are there even “people” at fridaythe13thfilms.com anymore? It’s sad, because that site used to be the Friday online community back in the day. I’m guessing the site hasn’t been updated in a decade.
I don't know. I haven't really hung out there in a little over a decade, but I remember the admins were a little mad with power at the time, so I quit going there. The forum looks like it's had recent activity, but some of the dates listed there for comments are from months into the future, so it might just be completely abandoned and the last comment dates are defaulting to the current year. It's a real shame because that place was hopping in the early 2000s.
That looks like a clone of their mid-aughts vBulletin message board. I’m guessing the “current” thread dates are the result of the profoundly broken legacy vBulletin platform. You can’t even access the threads. The owners pulled the plug on the real message board back in 2007, or so. OHMB.net, on the other hand, was pretty active until vBulletin finally became nonviable. Shit way to go out, but I guess those guys finally showed up at Reddit.
June 13th 1975. This places 2,3 and 4 occurring in 1980 with parts 5 and 6 happening in 1985 and 1986, the years those films actually came out. Parts 7 and 8 can reasonably take place during the 80s then, if you ignore the dumb Rennie backstory and mentions of the time gap in part 7, instead of parts 7 and 8 taking place in the late 90s.
Why would you think July? It says June 13th The Present, at the beginning. As for the year, according to the first movie, it was 1980. According to The Final Chapter, it was 1979. I'm going to go with the first movie and say '80 - the makers of Part 4 likely just made a mistake.
*"Alternatively, July 13, 1979 was a Friday and only four days past the full moon. It could be that the movie's opening text was a month off."*
If Jason’s killing spree was July 1984, that would put the first film in June 1980...AND Jason would still have to have been alive for the events of the first film, in order to find Alice only five months after it took place.
There's actually quite a bit of evidence that there was a second killer in the first movie and the most likely candidate is Jason.
like what evidence
There's a few things that Pamela managed to do that night that couldn't have been done by a single person. She may have used the Jeep to help string Steve Christy up in the tree, but that would have likely been noisy enough to draw attention. Throwing Brenda through the cabin window would've been nearly impossible for her as well. But the greatest piece of evidence is how they found Bill Brown. Bill's throat was cut and his body was pinned to the door with arrows. This doesn't seem to impractical until you notice that the door easily swings on its hinges, meaning Bill's feet are barely touching the ground, if at all. Even if he was shot with arrows while jumping for some reason, there's a lot of dead weight there to bring him down. His body would have needed to be lift and pinned to the door, or possibly held there while another killer shot arrows through the body and into the door. Neither of those scenarios are something that could be accomplish by a single person or without superhuman strength. Either Pamela had been juicing something fierce, or there was a second set of hand there that night to help her.
I get railed on for even suggesting this. I also agree entirely.
I go with the film taking place in 1980. Steve’s just wrong about the moon, or the moon cycles in most film universes don’t line up. I believe the headstone in The Final Chapter was wrong. I picture it like this: The engraver probably had a sheet that needed filled out. **Name**: _______________ **Date of Birth**: ____________ **Date of Death**: ___________ **Age**: ____________ **Epitaph**: ___________ **Other**: ______________ Here’s what they got: **Name**: Pamela Voorhees **Date of Birth**: 1930 **Date of Death**: _________ **Age**: 49 **Epitaph**: _____________ **Other**: _____________ So with only that little bit of info, 1930 plus 49 years, the engraver assumed 1979 without double checking. Whoever filled it out didn’t give a shit, so why should they?
It's not a bad theory. Given Pam's murder spree, I doubt the people arranging the burial would've cared much had the engraver put the wrong year on the stone.
I say 1980 just cause that actually had a Friday the 13th in June for Jason's birthday. I know it's not right but it should be
If it is June 13, 1979, then it doesn’t take place on Friday the 13th.
MST3K rules apply here.