Thoughts On Fan Opinions For Impending Friday The 13th (2015)

Our website posted an article back on November 28th, 2013 that highlighted an excellent article over at Hitfix that confirmed that Paramount Pictures was indeed rebooting the franchise once again along with employing the "Found Footage" style of film-making. At the time, there were a lot of opinions expressed by our readers with some good points and also some not so good points about why this new approach would not work. It has always been my expressed goal of this website to welcome with open arms everyone's thoughts and opinions about any subject we write about without any judgement or ill will. Myself and the other contributors to this site all love the Friday The 13th franchise and truly enjoy writing articles for our readers to enjoy. With that being said, I have a few opinions on some subjects that fans have been talking about.

Yesterday, our website story about the the new film being found footage and rebooted again was sourced on a busy Facebook page which brought us new traffic on the subject and also more thoughts from fans. Because of this exposure, Facebook groups and even some genre websites picked up the story and ran with it. Surprisingly, there were a lot of these people who had missed the news back in November. This new attention brought in a lot of the same complaints and opinions on why this new Friday The 13th will not work and will "suck". To me, this all sounds all too familiar. I am now experiencing Déjà vu, and have been for a few months now..

Back in late 2008, I had started writing for a blog about the franchise and the complaints about Friday The 13th 2009 were similar in tone; "remakes suck", "stop with the gimmicks", "Warner doesn't know what the fans want", "they're going for a cheap Friday", and so on and so forth. Now, with the found footage reboot news, it's more of the same, except now it's Paramount Pictures instead of Warner Bros. Here's the thing everyone, Friday The 13th in it's inception was a gimmick! Yes, marketed solely on the merits of a scary date to make money. Every single movie since 1980 has employed a gimmick to sell the next low budget horror film in the franchise. 3-D, The Final Chapter, A New Beginning, Jason Takes Manhattan, Jason Goes To Hell, Jason in Space, telekinetic teen adversary, Jason against Freddy; these are all gimmicks ready made to sell us on a new adventure at the box office. Why now is the latest gimmick any different than the rest?

As for the low budget complaint for these films, I remember reading similar remarks back in 2009, but not how little was spent, but how Warner Bros. spent "too much money" on the 2009 film and that budget helped contribute to why it "sucked". Now that we look to be getting a found footage movie in 2015, people are complaining that Paramount is going too cheap! I have to wonder what people really want?

What are the true expectations of fans of the Friday The 13th film franchise? People wanted to see a classic Friday The 13th film after Freddy vs Jason was released, so Platinum Dunes enlisted franchise mega fans/writers Mark Swift and Damian Shannon to create the closest thing to a "classic" film in the franchise we have seen in two decades. They gave us classic Jason who runs (Don't get me started on that debate) with both sack mask and hockey mask Jason, Camp Crystal Lake, kids in a house partying, and an awesome flashback to the ending of Friday The 13th 1980. On cue, numerous people trashed it, saying it wasn't original enough and that it was too cookie cutter and unimaginative. I again wonder what the fans want?

Courtesy Justin "Auz" Williams

The 2009 film was a good franchise reboot that can be perceived as a sequel for sure, but it was no remake. Speaking of remakes, those people who are adamantly against them and consider themselves fans of the franchise should take a serious look at each individual sequel produced over the past 30 years and contemplate if the sequels are indeed unique and innovative Horror films or merely remakes of themselves. Take Friday The 13th Part 7: The New Blood for instance. The film's basic story structure was a remake of The Final Chapter and if you are not aware of this fact, check out our story on how Paramount Cloned 'The Final Chapter' For 'The New Blood'. 

As a fan, I am most frustrated by all of the scattered negative responses to the news of any new film being released. These films have traditionally been made on the cheap with no care by the studios for quality, just bottom line dollars acquired, and it was up to the creative talent to produce a film that entertains it's fan base. Even the most sub-par sequels have entertained me and brought a new film to talk about over the years. I want more Jason Voorhees on film and enjoy writing about it. Yes, it is frustrating that we continue to get one-shot films with no cohesive continuing storylines as they are released, but would our readers rather have no new films at all? It's a serious and legitimate question.

As mentioned before, everyone it entitled to their opinion, as I am with this editorial, but I really hope everyone can see the franchise for what it is and perhaps re-examine their own views on newer films that are being released. Perhaps one day we will get that year to year release of gimmicky subsequent sequels like in the early 1980's, but for now we will continue to get these gimmicky reboot/one-shot films just like the original was in the beginning of the franchise and they will be made for cheap and us fans should enjoy every minute of it!