Friday the 13th is the film score composed by Harry Manfredini to the 1980 slasher film of the same name. It is the first instalment in the Friday the 13th franchise. The score was first issued as an LP record by Gramavision Records containing music from the first three instalments. A separate album was issued by La-La Land Records during January 2012, as a "limited edition" 6-CD boxset containing the scores from the first six films, and a remastered edition containing additional and lost cues released during 2021. The score and Manfredini's theme was considered an iconic status, with the theme recurred in forthcoming instalments.
Background and production When Harry Manfredini began working on the musical score, the decision was made to only play music when the killer was actually present so as to not "manipulate the audience".
Because the killer, Mrs. Voorhees, appears onscreen only during the final scenes of the film, Manfredini had the job of creating a score that would represent the killer in her absence. Manfredini borrows from Jaws (1975), where the shark is likewise not seen for the majority of the film but the motif created by John Williams cued the audience to the shark's invisible menace. The score's strings also recall Bernard Herrmann's score for Psycho.
Release history In 1982, Gramavision Records released an LP record of selected pieces of Harry Manfredini's scores from the first three Friday the 13th films. On January 13, 2012, La-La Land Records released a limited edition 6-CD boxset containing Manfredini's scores from the first six films. It sold out in less than 24 hours. A vinyl edition of the soundtrack was issued by Waxwork Records during September 2014. In 2021, La-La Land Records released an expanded "Ultimate Cut" edition of the score, featuring a new remaster sourced from the original master tapes, which were considered lost at the time of the 2012 box set's creation, as well as music cues not used or heard in the final film.
Track listing Original La-La Land Records track list
Expanded edition track list
Notes previously unreleased contains previously unreleased material not in the film
Reception Music historian Randall D. Larson describes Manfredini's score as "an effectual atonal composition for strings, brass, keyboard and voice." Rachel Reeves, writing for Bloody Disgusting in 2024, praised the score, observing: "More than just beautifully evocative and eerily unsettling, the music is one of the key elements that elevates the film from a copycat cash grab to a worthy slasher successor." Reeves opined that the film's score was mimicked in subsequent slasher films like My Bloody Valentine (1981), The Slumber Party Massacre (1982), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), and Candyman (1992).
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