Directed by Sean S. Cunningham, Friday the 13th is one of the most influential American horror films of the 1980s and launched the long-running Friday the 13th franchise. Set at the isolated Camp Crystal Lake, the story follows a group of camp counsellors preparing to reopen the camp while a series of brutal murders begins to unfold. Combining suspense, body-count horror and a remote summer-camp setting, the film became a key title in the rise of the slasher genre.