Friday the 13th has been cancelled, a little bit about what I would have done with it.

It had been said that we would have a new Friday the 13th film this year and now it has been cancelled, there hasn't been an announcement giving an exact reason why but some do believe that its due to the recent failure of the release of a new entry in the ring series. Now if this is true then I see it as being a bit like not buying an apple because you think that the stores oranges look kind of funny, the ring series and the Friday series are both horror film series's granted but there about as far removed from each other as you can get. I don't want to talk about how or why it was dropped really, nope what I want to do is talk about what I would do if I was given the chance to oversee the making of a Friday the 13th film.

So how would I make a Friday the 13th film if given the chance and the resources?  I am of the firm belief that what people want is something that reminds them of the old films, I don't think they want a modern polished Friday the 13th full of famous names a complex plot and state of the art special effects. I think that what a new Friday the 13th needs is practical effects, relative unknown unknown actors with at best maybe the odd familiar B-movie face, lots of deaths and a hard 18/Mature certificate. I know that most studios are now trying to bring out pg13 (12 or 15) horror so that they can fill the cinema but I think that lots of people would actually like to see a return of the 18 horror movie, yes it lowers your potential audience but I think this is ignoring the fact that making 18 films would fill a niche in the market. Sometimes you can make more money from aiming at a hardcore niche market as apposed to trying to court everyone. This is where I think the lower budget would help, the less you spend making your film the less you need to take for the film to be a success, the lower the risk.

I would want to use practical effects for a similar reason in that I think it would strongly appeal to a niche audience, there are certain people and I include myself in this group, people who feel that a good old fashioned intelligent practical effect will always look more real and impressive than CGI.  I would try to make this film as close to being an 80's film made in the modern day as I could and this is because I feel 80's horror has a certain quality to it. I strongly believe that the 80's were a golden age for horror (not the only golden age, I also have a lot of love for the 30's for example).

A lot of the people who have been in Friday the 13th films might have gone on to be very famous but they were not much star wise before they were in the film. There are lots of hungry young actors out there who would probably jump through any hoops the studio puts up knowing even if they take a low pay check then this could be a good stepping point for them.

When you read about a lot of the best old horror films now its clear that they had limited budgets and life on set was hard, look at the original Evil Dead for example, I think that the pain and struggle brings something to the screen with it. Sometimes I think that its a case of less is more. I would want to keep things tight financially, I would want things to be safe but I wouldn't want things to be overly warm and cosy, I would want to avoid ego's and over pampering people.

If there is one area in which I would spend money, well basically I would get Kane Hodder an actor who has played Jason many times on board to play the part of Jason. The guy understands Jason, he understands how he thinks how he moves and who he is. Not only would I hire him as an actor I would pay him to be a consultant.

I also wouldn't make the film a reboot, I would make it a continuation of the original films and ignore that we have ever had a remake. When you have piles and piles of films you can nod your head towards in subtle ways why not do it, as long as you keep these hat tilts subtle and don't ram them down peoples throats I think they'd please the long term fans.

I could yammer on all day but I guess what I am really trying to say is that when you take a film born from a relatively low budget cult classic and try to throw bags of money at it and treat it like some triple A cash cow then your going to loose a good part of what made the original film and its original follow ups so well loved. If your going to take a well loved name and try to make cash out of it now then try to make it in a similar fashion to how it was made back in the day, if it was a classic and the love shined through the first time then it should shine through again if treated in the same way with a little luck.