New ‘Friday the 13th’ Movie Set To Change Jason’s Origins!!

Back in 1980, a serial killer of Crystal Lake campers burst onto the scene in Sean S. Cunningham’s Friday the 13th, the inaugural installment of what would go on to be one of the biggest horror movie franchises of all time. Its poster boy, Jason Voorhees, is infamous for his brutal violence, immortality, and stylish hockey mask, but those iconic traits were not part of his earliest origins. Since the origin story may have been forgotten by all but the most dedicated fans over time, the planned reboot apparently intends to re-introduce Jason to audiences in a whole new way.

When sitting down to talk with producer Brad Fuller about his upcoming movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, The Reel Word (via CS) got some new information out of the producer regarding the upcoming Friday the 13th reboot. This is the film, the 13th in the series, that once had V/H/S directorDavid Bruckner attached before he dropped out, and currently has Prisoners screenwriter Aaron Guzikowski tackling the story. That’s where things get interesting.

Here’s what Fuller said about the nature of the Friday the 13th reboot being an origin story of sorts:

“Aaron’s story has great characters…You kind of have to understand Jason Voorhees, so we go back and we kind of started over and work our way forward … [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.”

Pamela, for those of you not in the know, is Pamela Voorhees, a.k.a. Jason’s mother, who plays a pivotal role in his story and that of Camp Crystal Lake. Unfortunately, no other details as to what tweaks to Jason’s origin story are available; here’s hoping it has nothing to do with eating hearts and demon worms.

What we do know is that the new movie will be heading back to camp and might even attempt to explain why Jason is apparently unable to be killed. While longtime fans of the franchise, and of horror in general, may balk at the idea of retconning a classic killer’s spooky origin story, at least there’s one good thing we can all agree on: The reboot won’t be done in found-footage style.

“There was a lot of found-footage scripts that they wanted us to make and I was not going to do that because I don’t think that can exist in Jason Voorhees’ world.”

[Update: BMD also reports that we might just meet Jason’s dad, Elias Voorhees, in the new film. That sounds fairly random, and it is, but the character nearly appeared in a few of the franchise’s many movies. Elias has, however, made his appearance in both a novelization and various comic book stories, but there’s nothing at the moment that points to any of these plots factoring into the new movie. Perhaps “Pamela’s Tale” will be told on screen…]

Look for the new Friday the 13th movie in theaters on its currently scheduled release date of January 13, 2017.

Via Collider