First, it was Halloween. Now, it’s The Exorcist. Next, the calendar at Blumhouse Productions has a big blood-red circle around Friday the 13th.
Jason Blum is more than a director; he’s a microbudget horror visionary. He has three franchises under his name–Paranormal Activity, Insidious, and The Purge. He has some salty singular films to his production credit–Hush, Sinister, The Black Phone, and The Invisible Man. Yet, he is cementing his legacy and Hollywood Walk of Fame star with rebooting scares, retro style.
His Halloween “legacyquel” trilogy made $315 million and brought a triumphant and grim conclusion to the greatest horror character ever, Michael Myers. This month, The Exorcist: Believer–also, a legacyquel–is looking like a petrifying stroll into the demonic realm.
And now, Blum is staying in the ’80s with his eyes set firmly on the decaying corpse of Jason Voorhees.
Friday the 13th is Next
Thanks to an interview with Inverse, horror fans worldwide have reason to rejoice. The noted blog sat down with Ryan Turek, regaled horror blogger turned associate producer because the Blumhouse Productions resurrection team wants to bring back another slasher legend.
Jason [Blum] and I are definitely in agreement that Friday the 13th is the thing we would love to get our hands on. I really want to go back to the basics. You don’t need too many ingredients for a Friday the 13th film. You need summer camp, you need campers, and you need Jason Vorhees [sic] in a mask.
Despite the typo, this is FAN-tastic news for the horror fan. There is a reason there have been 12 films in this franchise. People just couldn’t get enough of that oh-so-cute hockey-faced hellion. Many would say there are a few too many sequels, including the one-film reboot that sucked out loud. Now, we have one more coming.
It’s #13 for Friday the 13th!
Do you really think Blumhouse Productions won’t pimp that 13th fun fact relentlessly?
This is one juicy, serendipitous state of affairs for Blumhouse–there are 12 Friday the 13th films (including one attempted reboot in 2009, by none other than Michael Bay). From 1980 to 2003, Jason Voorhees created havoc at Camp Crystal Lake, followed by New York City, a jaunt through hell, and then a confrontation with Freddy Krueger.
Friday the 13th as a franchise is one that I just bow down to. I just love everything about it. And if we were able to live in both worlds, like we do with Halloween, then to be able to live at Crystal Lake for a while would be so incredible.
Blumhouse doesn’t miss! Sure, they’re no match for Taylor Swift, but they can hold their own. To hear Jason Blum’s bestie extol the greatness of this slasher franchise means bloody things on the horizon. (And we don’t mean in that in the UK vernacular. Well, maybe, a little.)
