What actually happens
1958, then a hitchhiker with bad luck
In 1958, at Camp Crystal Lake, counselors Barry and Claudette sneak off from the group to meet in a supply shed after dark. An unseen attacker murders them both. We never see the attacker. Twenty-one years later the camp is about to reopen, and nobody involved has heard the lesson. On Friday, June 13, 1979, the camp cook Annie is hitchhiking toward the reopened camp. A truck driver named Enos gives her a ride and warns her about the place, which had a young boy drown in Crystal Lake in 1957. He drops her at a crossroads, where she hitches a second ride with an unseen driver in a Jeep. The driver goes right past the camp entrance, Annie gets nervous, and she jumps out and runs into the woods. The driver follows and slashes her throat. She never reaches the camp.
Reading this instead of watching it is the correct decision. Scaredy Cat makes that decision automatic, for free.
Strip Monopoly and other poor decisions
Counselors Ned, Jack, Bill, Marcie, Brenda and Alice arrive and start fixing up the cabins with the owner, Steve Christy. A thunderstorm rolls in, Steve drives off for supplies, and a cloaked figure walks into a cabin with Ned following. Jack and Marcie are busy when Ned's dead body turns out to be in the bunk above them. When Marcie goes to the public bathroom, the killer puts an arrow through Jack's throat and then kills Marcie with an axe. Brenda plays strip Monopoly with Alice and Bill, then goes back to her cabin. A boy's voice calls for help, and she follows it toward the archery range, where the floodlights come on and the killer attacks her out of view.
Mrs. Voorhees would like a word
Alice hears Brenda screaming, and she and Bill go to investigate. They find a bloody axe in Brenda's bed and the phones cut. Steve comes back, recognizes the killer at the camp entrance, and gets stabbed. The power fails, Bill goes to check the generator, and Alice later finds his body pinned to a door with arrows. She locks herself in the main cabin, and Brenda's body comes through a window. Then Mrs. Voorhees, a middle-aged woman who calls herself a friend of the Christys, arrives. It is Jason's birthday, she says, and he was the boy who drowned in 1957, because the counselors on duty were having sex instead of watching him. She reveals she is the killer and attacks Alice. Alice runs and finds Annie's and Steve's bodies along the way. After a long chase and several fights, they end up on the lakeshore, where Alice beheads Mrs. Voorhees with a machete. Alice climbs into a canoe, pushes it out onto the lake, and falls asleep.
Dawn on the lake
This scene comes at the very end, right before Alice wakes up in a hospital. At dawn the police arrive, and moments before they reach her, Jason's decomposing body rises from the lake and pulls Alice under the water. Then she wakes in a hospital with a police sergeant and medical staff around her, and the sergeant tells her there was no sign of a boy in the lake. Alice answers that he is still there.
The ending, explained
Alice beheads Mrs. Voorhees on the lakeshore and pushes a canoe out onto the lake, where she falls asleep. At dawn the police arrive, and Jason's decomposing body rises out of the water and pulls her under. She then wakes in a hospital bed with a police sergeant and medical staff beside her. The sergeant says nobody found a boy in the lake. Alice says he is still there. Annie, Steve, Ned, Jack, Marcie, Brenda and Bill are dead, so Alice is the only survivor of the reopened camp.
The post-credits ruling
There is no post-credits scene. You can leave when the credits start.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Friday the 13th scary?
Yes. Friday the 13th is a 5 out of 10 with medium dread: a slasher with jump scares, several graphic killings and one big scare near the end.
How does Friday the 13th end?
Alice beheads the killer, Mrs. Voorhees, and floats away in a canoe. Jason's body rises from the lake and pulls her under, then she wakes in a hospital as the only survivor.
Does the dog die in Friday the 13th?
No dog dies in Friday the 13th. A border collie at a gas station is not harmed. A snake is killed on screen, though.
Is there a post-credits scene in Friday the 13th?
No. Friday the 13th has no post-credits scene, so you can leave when the credits start.
Who is the killer in Friday the 13th?
The killer is Mrs. Voorhees, the mother of Jason, a boy who drowned at Camp Crystal Lake in 1957. In Friday the 13th she blames the counselors who failed to watch him.
