Latest Friday The 13th: The Obsession updates from the official Facebook:

Joe Patnaud (director of “F13: The Storm”) is 90% set to direct the first episode of the series. The series opens at Crystal Lake where the ‘real’ Jason slashes his way through the lead’s (Hannah Townsend) friends in her nightmare. This scene will set the tone that no matter what new levels of characterization and story the series takes you, its still a F13 story at its heart, by fans, for fans.. with a new twist.

Multiple Jasons?

While Jason’s ‘look’ in “Obsession”, even in the old “Obsession” back in the late 90s was never intended to be one look, and it was decided to mix different favorite elements from the series… but now after talking it over with Gene Mazza the mask maker.. Jason may even change looks IN the series itself… hmmm.

After thinking it over, it is plausible to have Jason’s appearance change from one scene to the next as he is the vision of the lead character.. added to that I may come up with a reason for it… Mood perhaps.. or depth of her Obsession…. something to consider in the final script. The Part 2 Jason was in fact in one scene in the 1997 version “Obsession” so taking this a step deeper isn’t out of context or a off the cuff idea… in fact it was always in the story to a lesser (and 1997 budget hindering) extent.

Today we added several pages from Damian Shannon & Mark Swift’s Friday The 13th (2009) screenplay to the Gallery, available in downloadable PDF format.

The pages are relics from the auditioning process – called “sides”, they’re essentially various character scenes excerpted from the script which highlight key performances for actor auditions. Sides featured are for Bree, Laurence, Trent, and Jenna.

While brief for clarity, they offer several points of historical reference for Friday The 13th aficionados – Chewie was originally named Chumbler, Bree’s sides offer an omitted gas station bathroom sequence with Chelsea, and Jenna’s sides contain interesting descriptive text of her and Clay’s near-encounter with a bullet-damaged Jason.

Access The Script Pages

Friday The 13th: The Obsession has now been fully funded! Statement from Tim Whitfield:

So we reached the goal and them some at $575, and i know one other guy giving another $50 so that’s $625. The mask order is placed and we looking at locations and costumes. Gonna keep the donation page up for any stragglers that want a DVD/ credit, just means more blood, hot girls and kills if we get a few more helping hands. Thanks to all helping this dream come true really. This is the fulfillment of a fan era…

The perks list for $25 donations has been updated to include a downloadable copy of the completed Friday The 13th: The Obsession series, in addition to the existing perk of a special thanks in the end credits of each episode.

The $50 perk will still get you an Associate Producer credit in the end creds of each episode in addition to the complete series on DVD. However, to clarify the DVD contents, it’s going to come in proper artwork, with extras, and will be edited together as a complete film.

For our money (literally), the $50 option remains the best value for money.

With Friday The 13th: The Obsession still seeking 80% of its funding, I shot a few questions to producer/director Tim Whitfield of Timberwolf West to fill us in on some of the particulars of the fan-based funding system which offers perks in return for donations, including on-screen credits.

I understand you had a similar funding system for short film Friday The 13th: The Storm. How did that work out?

It worked out pretty well. I think we had 3 producers and they are listed in the credits of “The Storm” I think we got like $250 or something. Two were Timberwolf followers and one was actually a F13 fan from the message board. Actually, the other two were from the MB as well, but had been following us long before The Storm.

When people hear ‘web series’ it can mean a couple of 60 second shorts or several hours worth. How long will it run all together when all is said and done?

While I don’t have a ‘set’ time for the series, I’m thinking 15 min per show more or less. Remember Obsession was written as a 90min movie script. 90min film divided by 6 is 15min (originally we were going to have only 6 episodes) However, we decided later to have 7 just because it worked out better plot wise. It still won’t be much longer than 90min total though because every episode will have titles and credits that make the full 15min, so really the shows’ content would be more like 13min, 13 times 7 is 91min. But like i said, I’m not gonna be sitting there counting… we don’t have commercials or a set time we have to be, so each show will be however long it needs to be give or take.

Once you reach the goal of $500, how will it be broken down for various costs?

We make features and web series already, we own and use DVCPRO HD cameras, full lighting set ups etc. all the time. So the major cost of the series is paid for and while we only need $500 of ‘daily’ costs. Food, costumes, Jason mask/hood, efx, actresses who get naked usually cost a few bucks too… lol… so stuff like that. The Jason costume itself I know will cost about $150. I also know some of the actresses/victims who gets naked in a tent and killed will be $50.

What happens to the donations if the goal isn’t reached or, heaven forbid, the project isn’t shot?

We hope we will shoot it regardless. Like I said we have the cameras and stuff, but we will have to cut back on stuff that’s not NEEDED to make the series play/make sense, like expensive and nasty kills, nudity… stuff like that. Hopefully fans will kick in and help really make this 100% Friday the 13th from beginning to end.

To get an idea of the timeline, when will shooting begin and when will the internet release happen?

I would like to start showing it in May or June… but most likely June. We have a current web series and feature film prepping for release right now so I’m focused on that. But June seems the most realistic. We could start shooting character moments as soon as April though… you know, simple talking/character stuff, which really doesn’t cost anything extra but some food for the cast.

Talk about the DVD of the series. The only way to get one is to donate beforehand, right?

Yea, we can’t sell it, so we will send the completed series to those who donate. I haven’t yet decided if the DVD will just be one show after the next, or if I will edit the “Obsession” feature film version once its all done and mail that out. The series itself will be free online for all to see one episode at a time however.

The episode list for the Friday The 13th: The Obsession web series was recently revealed. In a bit of referential titling, they’re derived from music tracks from prior Friday The 13th‘s.

Ep 1: The Man Behind The Mask

Ep 2: Hard Rock Summer

Ep 3: Love Is A Lie

Ep 4: His Eyes

Ep 5: Animal

Ep 6: The Darkest Side Of The Night

Ep 7: The Final Friday

The Friday the 13th world is, for lack of more tactful description, dead. No new movie anytime soon. I sleepwalked through the last one.

What really perked me up lately was the news that Tim Whitfield’s Friday The 13th: The Obsession was being resurrected.

Obsession is actually one of the reasons I visited this very website back in the 90′s, when I didn’t know dick about the whole fan-film movement. It opened my eyes that you don’t have to just sit around waiting for New Line to manufacture new Friday The 13th film product, you can either create your own, or enjoy the efforts of others like this one.

Quite a lot of you lazy bastards still visit the website and forum using old bookmarks to this Blog, so when I realized I was going to need a dedicated section to cover the project, it made sense to just do it here. Thaw the thing out.

You can always redirect your asses to fridaythe13thfilms.com proper for the “official” Friday The 13th movies, but stick around for the show.

13 Years ago a fan-based movie project entitled Friday The 13th: The Obsession promised something different than the usual Jason-In-The-Woods backyard fare, with a unique high-concept storyline mixing grand Voorhees action with intimate character-based storytelling. Sadly it would remain lost and unseen. However its legacy was secured through the fan community’s continued word-of-mouth for over a decade now.

In the interim, obsessed Tim Whitfield has gone pro with directing, and now armed with a new bag of tricks, has finally decided to resurrect Friday The 13th: The Obsession as a premium web-series. His successful LA outfit Timberwolf West is seeking to raise $500 funding for assorted filming essentials and has opened the door to fans to help reach this goal. Incremental perks for contributors involve on-screen credits and a DVD of the series (this is a non-profit endeavor and will never be sold afterward). Learn more here.

Fridaythe13thfilms.com as provided $50 funding toward it, gaining an Associate Producer credit in return – and encourages all dedicated Friday The 13th fans to do the same if able.

Press Release

In the summer 1998 Tim Whitfield was at a campground in Northern Rhode Island with a VHS camcorder in hand shooting a scene from his incredibly ambitious (for the time) fan film about a fan’s obsession with Jason Voorhees and “Friday The 13th” – little did he know, 13 years and over 25 original productions later, people would still be waiting to see the never released amateur fan video shot with a bunch of friends from his restaurant job.

“This thing haunts me.” Tim reveals, “No matter what news I post, how many DVDs I sell or how many downloads one of my short films get… eventually someone says.. ‘yea that’s cool.. but what about Obsession.’ Seriously.. it’s crazy.” Tim isn’t exaggerating either, in fact 3 years ago a fan posted the original ‘Obsession’ trailers, something which Tim himself had not seen in probably 7 or 8 years. “It was incredible.. I don’t know where he got them, probably saved from my old website from the 90s.. but I don’t have a frame of edited footage from ‘Obsession’ anymore… and original raw footage tapes were left in RI when I moved to California 4 years ago.” Even still, there it was on You Tube, the trailers to Tim’s original Friday the 13th fan film, saved and posted by a long time fan.

Since the 90′s Tim and Timberwolf with the help of Joe Patnaud and Mike Defrancesco made 12 or 13 original short films and even 2 Friday The 13th fan films which Joe Patnaud directed, but even still fans wanted to see ‘Obsession’. “Joe’s two fans films were so much better than Obsession on a technical level” Tim admits, “Cold Heart of Crystal Lake shot in 2026 still looks good today, and The Storm, made under Joe’s Midnight Hill banner on DVCPROHD rivals even some of the actual Friday the 13th films.. but for some reason Obsession was still asked about.” In 2026 Tim did try to remake “Obsession” without Jason, replaced with a non-copyrighted villain, but Tim admits it just didn’t work. “There were a lot of problems with that production… it was miscast, under produced and just rushed all around. But, ultimately none of that mattered, because without Jason it just lacked the strength and passion of the original story. The locations and the characters just require Jason.. period.”

After producing two features and a web series in California, Tim began to realize Obsession could work as a web series. “It was two web series that gave me the idea actually” Tim explains, “First it was the interest and the success of releasing a old original 2026 feature ‘Shadows Fall’ as web series, then it was the (overall) ease and success shooting a new web series ‘Diary of A Black Widow’ with Y-Not Productions that made me realize it could be done for a reasonable budget.” Tim knew they could not do a feature,  because of the time and upfront money such a project requires with no way to earn it back since it was a fan film. But as a web series it could be done 15 or so minutes at a time, for little cost without the cast and crew missing work and paid projects.

The next step was getting fan and support from other groups. Matthew Cichella from Never Submit Entertainment, who has helped out as producer on several other Timberwolf projects stepped up to co-produce the series. “I was planning on doing a Friday fan film myself sometime this year, but I would just as rather see “Obsession” see the light of day and be a huge part of it.” Matt reveals.

The next step for Obsession is cast and crew. Tim would very much like to have Joe Patnaud direct 2 of the episodes. “Joe is a great director and shooter, and I have come to trust him very much directing me as Jason. ” Tim admits, ” I want to play Jason again in this like in Cold Heart and The Storm, and Joe is my first choice for directing the two ‘Jason’ filled episodes.” For those that don’t know, Obsession is about a obsessed fan of the Friday the 13th series, taking on Jason’s persona, so the actual ‘Jason Voorhees’ is only in 2 or 3 major sequences, and in scattered visions throughout…  with the ‘pseudo’ Jason taking on the killings in much of the rest of it.

As for the rest of the cast Tim has already talked to Marie Lynn and Rydell Danzie, and is looking at other resumes. So if you are interested, please let him know. This is a great project for exposure as The Storm and Cold Heart have a combined 60,000 views.

“This will be it for Timberwolf and Jason… I am very happy with our new original stuff, and Timberwolf is really getting ready to blast into the next level, but I still need to close this door.” Tim admits, “This has been eating at me for a long, long time… it’s time to be Jason to rest, but not without a GREAT fight.”

Disclaimer

Friday the 13th, Jason Voorhees and Crystal Lake are copyright and property of New Line Cinema Entertainment. Timberwolf West Entertainment and Never Submit Entertainment are making a web series loosely based off the Jason Voorhees character, but this is a fan film. No profit will be made. This film will not be sold!

Links

Friday The 13th: The Obsession on Facebook
Friday The 13th: The Obsession Funding Campaign
Timberwolf West/Midnight Hill Blog

In recent years, major horror franchises have received the sweeping documentary treatment – for instance, His Name Was Jason. Now a leading genre personality will get a similar spotlight. Tom Savini was technically the FX specialist on Friday The 13th and Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter but in a more philosophical sense Jason’s maker, unmaker, and proxy facilitator of both the mother and son’s carnage. The one-man special effects industry is the subject of Smoke and Mirrors: The Story Of Tom Savini, which is described by director Jason Baker as:

A feature-length documentary about the life and career of famed special effects make-up artist Tom Savini. Know as the “King of Splatter”, Tom’s work revolutionized an industry with such movies as Friday the 13th, Creepshow, and Dawn of the Dead. But these facts are mere misdirection, as the film delves into Tom’s personal triumphs and failings, revealing the man behind the mask.

The documentary features interviews with Academy Award winning special effects make-up artists Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger of KNB EFX, Video Watchdog founder and film critic Tim Lucas, The Misfits’ Jerry Only, and legendary filmmaker George A. Romero.

An insightful trailer has debuted which you can view below. However the real story here is that Smoke and Mirrors is almost finished but in need of completion funding – an economical $1000 of which half has almost been raised. Anyone can contribute to the funding for as little as $1 and will receive a special thanks credit, and depending on incremental amounts, extras like posters and personally autographed Tom Savini 8×10′s. The funding system is provided by Kickstarter, and Amazon is utilized for checkout. It’s important to note, if the target is not reached by March 23, no money will change hands. So… fancy yourself a documentary financier?

More info: Smoke & Mirrors Kickstarter

Friday The 13th: The Website has provided $50 funding to Smoke and Mirrors.

After six weeks of beta-testing, the reborn Friday The 13th Forum is today baptized in blood and released upon the world. (more…)