The Secrets Behind Kevin Bacon's Friday The 13th Death Scene
Every famous actor needs to start somewhere. For some of Hollywood's finest, the slasher genre was their rocket ship to superstardom. For example, before Jennifer Anniston became a household name courtesy of "Friends," she was the target of a murderous wee man from The Emerald Isle in "Leprechaun." Kevin Bacon, on the other hand, graced "Friday the 13th," a seminal horror flick that spawned a slashtastic franchise about the dastardly exploits of Jason Voorhees, a hockey mask-wearing killer who is somewhat of a momma's boy.
In the first film, however, the villain was the killer's mom, who had a vendetta against the Crystal Lake camp counselors because they let her sweet boy die years prior. Kevin Bacon was still a pup when he portrayed Jack Burrell in "Friday the 13th," and his role wasn't significant in the grand scheme of things. Like most of the other cast members, the future "Footloose" star was cast with the sole purpose of being just another statistic in Pamela Voorhees' murder spree.
That being said, he certainly went out with a bang. While horror fans enjoy Bacon's performance, the actor revealed that the role still horrifies him to this day. That's because some of the film's admirers have a thing for Bacon's dead body, which was the product of some practical FX wizardry.
Kevin Bacon's death scene in Friday the 13th was... uncomfortable to shoot
As is commonplace in slasher films, Jack's death is a punishment for getting jiggy with his girlfriend. After doing the deed, Jack foolishly believes that he can relax in bed. That's when Pamela strikes, piercing an arrow through the young man's neck.
The scene occurs rapidly, but for Kevin Bacon, it took hours to complete. Furthermore, a lack of resources meant that they only had one take to get it right. The added pressure didn't ease Bacon's discomfort by any means. It also didn't help that he had to remain in the same position for hours, which he later described as "torturous" to Entertainment Weekly.
Fortunately, "Friday the 13th" had practical effects master Tom Savini on board to oversee the iconic moment of gratuitous slaughter. The legendary splatter merchant made a body cast so that only Bacon's head was poking out. To create the red stuff that comes pouring out of Bacon's neck, Savini and assistant Taso Stavrakis attached a blood bag to a tube and placed it inside the prosthetic suit. Unfortunately, the stunt didn't go as planned. "There was an effects person underneath the bed that was supposed to pump the blood once the arrow went through," Bacon explained. "I'm acting — you know, I don't know how you act, like, getting stuck with an arrow, but I just was, whatever, doing what I could — and the hose broke on the blood pump. So, that person I believe grabbed it and started blowing it with their mouth, since it was only one take. As a result, the blood has a weird kind of trajectory."
Needless to say, they pulled it off. To this day, Bacon says he's still asked to sign photographs of his death scene.