Camp Crystal Lake, later known as Camp Forest Green for a time, and very likely known 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
Camp Crystal Lake was established in 1935, by the Christy family, and operated peacefully until the summer of 1957; which was when Pamela Voorhees was hired at the camp as a cook, while her deformed son, Jason, was in attendance. 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. Hoping to avoid a scandal, the Christys closed the camp for the season to allow for an investigation. Authorities determined Jason's death was an accident.
The camp reopened in 1958, and Pamela was rehired by the Christys. Counselors Barry Jackson and Claudette Hayes, whom Pamela blamed for 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 as unsolved.
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 1959 prevented the summer debut, as did the discovery of poisoned water in 1962. Although it was never known who the perpetrator was, Pamela was the culprit. 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 share Jason's fate. By living close by, Pamela kept a watchful eye to make certain the camp remained abandoned. This fueled local gossip that the camp was jinxed or on cursed ground, and local residents nicknamed it "Camp Blood." Sometime in the 1970s, both Mr. and Mrs. Christy had died, reportedly broke and crazy.
In 1979, Steve Christy made another attempt to reopen Camp Crystal Lake. This time, no longer content with sabotage, Pamela stalked and killed nearly all of the new counselors. She succeeded in preventing the reopening of the camp, but lost 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 massacre. This event marked the beginning of a new and far more deadly streak of murders that would plague the camp, the town of Crystal Lake, and the general area for over twenty years.
After the massacre, Camp Crystal Lake was closed to the public by law. However, that didn't stop trespassers like Jeff and Sandra from going there, or people dying either on the property or places near it like Packanack Lodge and Higgins Haven. The camp remained closed until 1990, when it was renamed Camp Forest Green. This time, it was Jason himself, recently resurrected by Tommy Jarvis, who prevents the reopening with another massacre of the counselors. 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 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 22 years of uninterrupted good times, until the Christys hired Pamela Voorhees who brought along her deformed and mentally handicapped son, who drowned in the lake in the summer of 1957. After that, in 1958, it became infamous for a streak of brutal and heinous 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
- Friday the 13th (1980)
- Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
- Friday the 13th Part III (1982)
- Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
- Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)
- Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)
- Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)
- Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
- Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)
- Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
- Friday the 13th (2009)
Fan Films
- Never Hike Alone: A Friday the 13th Fan Film (2017)
- Never Hike in the Snow: A Friday the 13th Fan Film (2020)
- Never Hike Alone: The Ghost Cut - A Friday the 13th Fan Film (2020)
- Friday the 13th: Vengeance (2019)
- Voorhees (2019)
Novels
- Friday the 13th Part 2 (1988)
- Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)
- Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
- Friday the 13th: Mother's Day (1994)
- Friday the 13th: Jason's Curse (1994)
- Friday the 13th: The Carnival (1994)
- Friday the 13th: Road Trip (1994)
- Friday the 13th: Church of the Divine Psychopath (2005)
Comics
- Jason vs. Leatherface (1995)
- Friday the 13th Special (2005)
- Friday the 13th (2005-2006)
- Friday the 13th: Pamela's Tale (2007)
- Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash (2007-2008)
- Friday the 13th: Bad Land (2008)
- Friday the 13th: Abuser and the Abused (2008)