Friday the 13th fans could be forgiven for losing all hope. We’re now years into a legal saga after the original film’s writer Victor Miller asserted his right to all concepts introduced in his screenplay. The courts agreed with him, though an appeal was launched by Sean Cunningham and Horror Inc. that’s yet to be resolved.
Ordinarily, we’d have seen a verdict long ago, but matters have been complicated by COVID gumming up the court system and the judge who was due to deliver the ruling unexpectedly dying. Now those involved with the franchise are beginning to wonder if it’ll ever return.
Kane Hodders, the most prominent actor behind Jason’s mask, was asked about what’s happening next at the Flashback Weekend panel in Chicago and sounded pessimistic:
With all the legal problems with the franchise, the Friday franchise, I don’t know if it’s ever gonna be cleared up. And it’s unfortunate because it comprises the game because there’s a lot more content that we’ve done for the Friday game that may never make it now. And let alone another movie ever happening. I’ve always thought there should be at least one more film because that would be the 13th.
How do you do Friday the 13th 12 and then quit. I’d love for it to be resolved, but I’m not that hopeful that it will be. So, who knows. We may have seen the end of Jason in the films. I don’t know. I hope not but even if it’s not me I’d love to come back one more time but, even if it isn’t me, as a fan I’d love to see one more film.
It’s a depressingly straightforward answer, especially as we recently got a glimmer of hope when Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter star Corey Feldman said he’d been told Miller and Cunningham have finally reached an agreement on how to move forward.
Fortunately, fans have been carrying the torch with some awesome fan films. Highlights are Womp Stomp Films’ Never Hike in the Snow and Wet Paint Pictures’ Voorhees, both of which provide the hockey-masked slasher action we’ve been craving for so long.
Master of Horror Stephen King also has a Friday the 13th project ready to go. His take is called I, Jason and would be told from the perspective of Jason as he’s repeatedly defeated by gangs of resourceful teenagers.
“Killed over and over again at Camp Crystal Lake. What a hellish, existential fate! [But] just thinking about the legal thicket one would have to go through to get permissions makes my head ache. And my heart, that too. But gosh, shouldn’t someone tell Jason’s side of the story? Blumhouse could do it as a movie.”
The return of Jason Voorhees and Friday the 13th, written by Stephen King and produced by Blumhouse? Someone needs to knock some heads together in the California judiciary and get this appeal decided already!