Sean S. Cunningham Offers an Update on ‘Friday the 13th’

We’re just one month away from the end of year and that means we’ve gone six years without a new “Friday the 13th.”  And, according to the latest update, 2016 will be Jason Voorhees free as well.  It seems so strange that a huge studio like Paramount would have trouble putting together a new “Friday the 13th” film, but perhaps one man can shed some light on what’s going on.

Sean S. Cunningham, who wrote and directed the original “Friday the 13th” and now serves as producer on the series, spoke with Fangoria and talked about why “Friday the 13th” is taking so long and even touched on the long rumored winter setting.

FANGORIA: There have been rumors going around that the new FRIDAY THE 13TH film will take place during the winter as well as other ideas, can you comment on that?

CUNNINGHAM: They’ve been talking about that, but that’s not going to happen. I think what’s different for sure is Paramount was hung up on trying to do the found footage, which most fans, including me, just thought it wasn’t right. They weren’t saying yes to anything that didn’t work but they couldn’t find anything that would work. So finally, last February they gave up on it and decided to go in a completely different way and now they’re in the process of once again finding a better way to make it.

They need to break out of the core audience and add to that audience to get crossover traffic.  I think the trick will be in taking Jason as he is and finding a way to involve him in slightly more complicated but purely primal stories, and that sounds kind of important but how do you do that? But I think if you can add that to what we already got then I think it really can sing.

Honestly, I’m really disappointed that they aren’t using the snowstorm concept for “Friday the 13th.”  It’s a simple and cool idea and would cast Camp Crystal Lake in a different light.  It would certainly help a new film stand out from the previous ones in a drastic way while still remaining true to the “Friday the 13th” concept.

But let’s just all be thankful that they abandoned the idea of making a found footage “Friday the 13th.”  And after the way “Paranormal Activity: Ghost Dimension” bombed, I’m sure they’re thankful they didn’t pursue that concept as well.

Still I’m concerned that they feel the need to make “Friday” more “complicated.”  The beauty of the franchise is that it’s pure and simple.  It doesn’t need a complicated antagonist or a thoughtful narrative to achieve it’s ultimate goal: pure horror fun.  I mean, those things don’t hurt, but I’d just hate to see them try to force “Friday the 13th” to be more than it is.