Largely on account of a decades-long authorized dispute between Friday the thirteenth screenwriter Victor Miller and director Sean Cunningham, we have not seen a brand new Friday the thirteenth film since 2009’s criminally underrated reboot. To make issues worse, the 2017 multiplayer horror sport Friday the thirteenth: The Recreation acquired ensnared within the lawsuit and was unceremoniously shut down on the finish of 2024.
Fortunately, the authorized battle has come to an finish, and whereas I will not bore you with an excessive amount of of the main points, basically, Miller owns the rights to the unique screenplay whereas Cunningham holds the rights to the enduring Jason Voorhees character as we all know him at the moment, as a result of solely his little one kind was seen within the unique 1980 Friday the thirteenth.
Because the horror gods would have it, that character is now the sinister face of the Jason Universe, which was absolutely unveiled in a brand new video that includes music from Harry Manfredini, who composed a lot of the Friday the thirteenth motion pictures and Friday the thirteenth: The Recreation.
That is additionally the primary new official cinematic Jason masks revealed since 2009, and the “machete steel” brand can also be new. I’ll say, I am not significantly impressed with both of these issues, and I am uneasy about turning a collection that started off as an affordable, sleazy Halloween ripoff right into a Marvel-style cinematic universe, however my pleasure for brand new Jason cleanly trounces that trepidation.
So, what’s the Jason Universe? Properly, based on manufacturing firm Horror Inc., it is “a brand new period of the Friday the thirteenth franchise.” Proper now, all we learn about this new period is the Friday the thirteenth prequel TV collection headed to Peacock, which only in the near past entered manufacturing, however the phrase “universe” undoubtedly suggests a future filled with Jason-related motion pictures, TV reveals, and probably video games and comics as nicely.
So far as the movie collection, there was as soon as a sequel to the reboot in improvement, however it acquired canceled on account of, you guessed it, authorized drama. It is also value noting that Cunningham himself teased a “thirteenth” film again in 2022, however we have not heard a peep from him about it since.
It appears inevitable that we’ll get a brand new film in some unspecified time in the future now that the rights points have been resolves, and, with 12 Jason motion pictures in existence at the moment, it could appear downright merciless for the rights holders to deprive us of a thirteenth Friday the thirteenth film. Think about the enjoyable they might have arising the title alone.
You will not discover Jason in our record of the greatest horror motion pictures, however he holds a really particular place in my coronary heart.
