Friday the 13th Sequel Likely to Use Found Footage

Posted by on October 2nd, 2013   Filed under: Horror, Rumours
Source: Shock Till You Drop

fridayfoundfootage

Having just watched the original ten installments in the Friday the 13th series and bearing witness to the many bizarre twists and turns that the franchise has taken over the years, I’ve been wondering what the future might hold for Jason Voorhees. Last we heard, the 2009 reboot had done fairly well, but for some reason Warner Brothers was no longer interested in following up with a sequel. However, just a few months ago, Paramount and Warner Brothers worked out an unexpected deal that allowed the rights to shift back to Paramount. They now have a limited amount of time to get a new Friday the 13th movie into production and they are desperately seeking pitches from screenwriters who might have ideas on where to take it. There’s just one catch: they really want this new movie to be a found footage horror flick. Because, of course they do.

According to Shock Till You Drop, Platinum Dunes is still producing the next Friday the 13th movie and they are currently looking for a way to apply a found footage aesthetic to the film. My original understanding of the Warner Brothers / Paramount deal is that they had five years to produce the new movie, but according to this source, they need to have it in theatres before 2015 or else the rights will revert back to the WB. Clearly that puts them under a bit of a time crunch to get things moving, which rarely yields great results. Let’s hope they don’t jump at the first proposal that comes across their desk.

Fans are apparently pretty divided on the idea of a found footage Friday the 13th, but it seems to me that it would be keeping in line with the franchise’s ability to assimilate (and water down) current cultural trends as they come and go. I am guessing some of the apprehension comes from the fact that plenty of big horror franchises have already attempted this with mixed results (ie. Halloween: Resurrection, Hellraiser: Revelations, Scream 4). There is also The Amityville Horror: The Lost Tapes, which seems to have been delayed indefinitely. What do you think, could a found footage Friday the 13th movie actually work? Do you still want to see the legacy of Jason Voorhees live on?



  • ProjectGenesis

    While there might be a counter example I’m not thinking of, slasher flicks, found footage or not, featuring characters that have webcams attached to their heads and stuff have been terrible (see: Halloween: Resurrection, Scream 4).

    The 2009 reboot at least gave fans what they want by embracing the camp-ness of the series: Jason, the woods, boobs, drugs, etc. Found footage usually means a “serious” take, which I think would purge some of fundamental elements of what makes F13 a success.

  • T. Heilman

    This has the same stank as that last Hellraiser crapfest. Clearly the studio has no faith in this franchise and/or doesn’t know what to do with it and just wants to make something cheap and quick. They haven’t made a watchable entry in 25 years so I have no faith. Still, it can’t be worse than 8, 9 or X.

  • PlanBFromOuterSpace

    That reminds me, Now Playing did a series of podcasts on the “Halloween” films a while back, and they mentioned how the later installments of the series were so heavily influenced by what was popular in mainstream horror at the time (part 6 took a hard left into the supernatural like Friday the 13th had done, H20 had kind of a Scream vibe, Resurrection was found footage-y and also had the reality TV angle), joking that if the original series wouldn’t have died after the summer of 2002, that the producers would have found some way to turn Michael Myers into the ghost of a Japanese child, as “The Ring”, “The Grudge”, and the whole J-Horror craze was right around the corner.

  • PlanBFromOuterSpace

    Is it just me, or does that picture (which I believe comes from part 8) look like a publicity still for “Only God Forgives Jason Voorhees” or something?

  • Steve Kroodsma

    This franchise is in no way sacred, but this seems like such a desperate, boring choice. The other genre-hopping films in the series (Part VII, Jason X) are at least ridiculous and fun. This idea seems completely lifeless.

  • PlanBFromOuterSpace

    That reminds me of when some people bitch about there not being new versions of the earlier films whenever a new DVD (or now Blu-Ray) set comes out. Yes, we know the deleted footage exists, but Paramount NEVER gave a shit about the series, it’s not even sacred to THEM, which is pretty well documented even in the DVD extras, so why would it be surprising that they didn’t take the time to restore “Friday the 13th Part VII: Jason Vs. Totally Not Carrie”? Anyway, I noticed that you didn’t mention “Jason Goes to Hell” as a genre-hopper, but is it only because it wasn’t fun? I thought I loved it when I saw it in theaters when I was 15, but man, it does NOT hold up. “Jason X” is super re-watchable though.

  • Steve Kroodsma

    I only half-watched Jason Goes to Hell, it was on in the background at a sleepover when I was a kid so I barely remember it. I’ll definitely be re-watching it for the premium though. I agree, Jason X is incredibly enjoyable.