This isn’t the one I visited in Alabama, nor is it the one in New Jersey, where the original FRIDAY THE 13th was filmed. This is the *other* one, the one in Georgia, the one I was only vaguely aware existed.
That is to say, I recall seeing it in the closing credits to FRIDAY THE 13th VI: JASON LIVES one time that the movie was filmed somewhere in Georgia, and I think I read it once in an issue of FANGORIA. When I learned the exact filming location a few weeks back, though, and I knew that I would be travelling through Georgia this past week, I knew that I would have to seek this place out.
Camp Crystal Lake in Georgia is portrayed by Camp Danial Morgan in the Hard Labor State Park near Rutledge. Three movies have actually been filmed there: the Kristy McNichol film from 1980 LITTLE DARLINGS, the 1985 made-for-television film POISON IVY starring Michael J. Fox (right before he became a bona fide movie star with BACK TO THE FUTURE) and Nancy McKeon (riding high in those days on the success of THE FACTS OF LIFE), and of course the sixth FRIDAY film. The filming location in Alabama is more primeval, but this one looks almost exactly the same as it did back in the 80s when the movie(s) was filmed there.
And it’s still an active summer camp! (The lovely thing about visiting in February, on a day when the temperature was just perfect, is that the wifey and I had the entire place to ourselves! It was just us and Jason!)
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