1. Watch parts 1-5. Those are Friday the 13th movies. After that, the franchise became an anthology series featuring Jason.
2. Resist the urge to make this a glossy, “Hollywood”-style film. If the first dailies look anything like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, start over. The Friday the 13th series is not about sweeping camera moves and crane shots.
3. Hire Harry Manfredi to do the score. He is the soul of the series and Jason’s “voice”.
4. Limit the machete use to 1 or 2 kills, at the most. For more ideas, walk around a tool shed. New Line treated the machete like it was Jason’s favorite teddy bear.
5. Don’t fuck with the mask, it doesn’t need updating. Same thing with Jason’s name. We don’t need another Bubba Sawyer becomes Thomas Hewitt faux pas.
6. The kills in a Friday the 13th are supposed to be grisly and raw, don’t try to elicit high-fives from moron teenyboppers in theaters.
7. Less is more with Jason. Showing him too much takes away his mojo. He is the monster invading the teen’s world. Don’t try to make him the star.
8. Ditch the backstory. We got the story in the original. Trying to add to the mythology is just gonna appear contrived. Friday the 13 has always had a hint of mystery to it, don’t take that away.
9. Jason is not a sympathetic character. He is a brutal killer.
10. Jason does not always have to lumber. He can move with great desire and motivation.
11. Jason is not stylish in any way. He does not accessorize his clothing, wear gloves, jackets, etc.
12. Jason can be harmed. He is not the terminator. He breathes, grunts, and might even moan if stabbed in the knee. He has some human qualities.
13. The teens in a Friday movie should be real. Real problems, real tits, and real dialogue. They can be pretty, but they should not be siliconed up beach babes spouting off Dawson’s Creek dialogue.
6 users commented in " An open letter to Platinum Dunes about the new Friday the 13th movie, or, 13 ways to keep it from sucking total ass. "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI absolutely agree with all of these except for including part 5 in your first point. I just hate that F13 so much - although I do understand why you’ve included it!
I can’t figure out why part 5 should be included (which has no Jason) but then Part 6 should not which brings back the character from 4 and 5 and reintroduces Jason.
If they are starting over, though, with a human Jason, they can’t really afford for him to be stabbed in the knee too often.
Part 5 is very much in the spirit of the series. Jason appears throughout the film, in spirit, and it is the last movie to be filmed in the famous slasher style that Friday the 13th helped create.
Part 6 is an excellent film, but it really deviates from the series in both tone and style.
Pt. 5 is a full blooded Friday the 13th flick. And a good one at that. The tone and style matches well with the 4 that come before.
I agree with most except for the Manfredi part. While he was off on a decent start with the early movies, his newer compositions are embarrassingly poor.
Friday part 5 has the tone, style, and spirit of the original Friday the 13th films.
Great write-up Foo.
Man, all this love for a part that is a lie, a sham, and a shell of a film is just disgusting.