Age of The Nerd
Brad Fuller has described the planned new Friday 13th movie as an “origin-ish” take on the series. The producer stated,
[quote]”It’s an origin that no one has seen before. Obviously Pamela’s there, but it’s a little bit different from what you’ve seen before.”[/quote]Writer Aaron Guzikowski is attached to write the screenplay.Fuller went on to say,
[quote]”Aaron’s story has great characters. You kind of have to understand Jason Voorhees, so we go back to and we kind of started over and work our way forward.”[/quote]At this point, Fuller and co will want to tread carefully after the 2009 reboot was met with heavy criticism, hence why we have not seen the hockey mask wielding maniac on the big screen since. That redo was described as a prequel and remake all in one much in the same way Rob Zombie’s Halloween was. However, where they went wrong was that the pre-Jason events were heavily glossed over. So glossed over, in fact they were explained during the opening credits!
It cannot be expected for new audiences to understand the character and his origin unless more is explored throughout the rest of the picture. On the other hand, what they do not want to do is make the mistake of setting up the new movie in such an alien fashion that it strays too far from what made the pre-Jason Goes To Hell era work. Jason Voorhees is a huge part of the reason why the franchise became so successful, so there needs to be a fine balance in the narrative.
The next mistake that the last instalment made was being too self aware! Any horror aficionado worth his or her salt knows that the slasher genre has long established its own set of “rules.” And the remake made the choice to poke some fun at them. It is not the Scream franchise, and the Friday 13th series should be “naive” when allowing the “rules” to co-exist. Much of the entertainment in that movie was mostly due to the admittedly comedic humour within the dialogue of Jason’s would be victims. But that isn’t their job and never has been in these films.
There has been speculation that we could finally meet Jason’s father next. That would be an interesting road to travel down. He was discussed to appear in Friday 13th Part VI: Jason Lives but the idea was scrapped. The idea that he was a coal miner who hated Jason for his disfigurement and had alcohol problem was never explored. If he is indeed set to appear next then it begs fans to wonder if they will use those same plot points or create a whole new one altogether.
Perhaps the structure should be more like 2007’s Halloween remake. It could spend the first half of the movie explaining away how Jason came to be and then spend the second half in it’s usual traditional manner. But unlike Halloween, which just retold much of what happened in the original version in it’s last hour with barely a shred of originality, it should always continue to produce something viewers are not acquainted with to the very end. In this author’s opinion, remakes are fine if they have something completely new to tell. If it’s going to be a shot for shot remake much in the way as Psycho (1998) or The Omen (2006) were then there is little point.
It is almost certain that fans will just be glad to see their favourite and iconic serial slasher on the big screen once again. But if this series is to sustain any kind of longevity then something ground breaking needs to be invented that will create a future for itself. Rebooting the same series time and time again will quickly result in fatigue.
If Hollywood can run Spiderman eventually stale then what chance does Jason Voorhees have….
