Friday the 13th: The Website

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Since his official introduction in 1981′s Friday the 13th Part 2, the character of Jason Voorhees had gone through numerous makeovers and had been adapted so many times by a variety of filmmakers that his appearance in 2024′s Freddy vs. Jason bore little resemblance to his earlier incarnations. From the ‘sack’ in Part 2 to […]

Jason X had continued a commercial decline for the Friday the 13th franchise that had begun in 1985 with A New Beginning and had divided the opinions of the fans; some of whom enjoyed the space location and comic tone, whilst others were disappointed by the lack of a summer camp setting. The priority for […]

Despite gaining a cult following on VHS after its mediocre performance at the box office in 1993, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday had only proven what Paramount had feared when they had sold off the franchise to New Line Cinema; that the popularity that Friday the 13th and its iconic antagonist, Jason Voorhees, […]

The lukewarm reception that Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan had received at the box office in 1989 had been the final nail in the coffin for Paramount who, after almost a decade of success, had laid the character of Jason Voorhees to rest and would eventually cancel their small screen spinoff the […]

By the end of the 1980s the slasher film had all but run its course. Whilst franchises such as Halloween, Silent Night, Deadly Night, Sleepaway Camp and A Nightmare on Elm Street had struggled to keep the interest of their fans, other lesser efforts like Offerings, Intruder and The Horror Show (aka House III) had […]

Although Jason Lives had fared better with both fans and critics than its predecessor, the success of the Friday the 13th franchise had started to show signs of stalling. Paramount had attempted to gain permission from New Line Cinema to cross over the series with their own product, A Nightmare on Elm Street, for what […]

The sleazy direction that the Friday the 13th franchise had taken with A New Beginning had been of great concern to the executives at Paramount. Having brought the series to a satisfactory conclusion with The Final Chapter the previous year, the box office takings had been enough to convince the studio that Jason Voorhees was […]

Despite Paramount’s best attempts to bring the Friday the 13th franchise to a successful conclusion in 1984 with Joseph Zito’s The Final Chapter, once the studio had seen how the movie had conquered the box office they began devising a way in which the series and, more importantly, Jason Voorhees could make a return to […]

Although Friday the 13th Part 3 had proved to be yet another box office success for Paramount Pictures, the slasher boom had already begun to show signs of slowing down, with 1983 producing far fewer efforts than the previous year. With the exception of The House on Sorority Row and Sleepaway Camp, it seemed that […]

As well as the slasher film, the early 1980s was dominated by 3-D. Just as it had done in the mid-1950s, there had been a major resurgence in the format that had begun with such low key efforts as Comin’ at Ya! and Parasite, which eventually led to a slew of studio pictures that were […]

With Friday the 13th clearing up at the box office and attracting major, albeit negative, attention from the press, just days after its release there was serious consideration for a sequel. Both Paramount and Georgetown, who had financed the film independently before selling it on for a huge profit, had not expected such a reaction […]

It is strange to think that before the hockey mask, before the merchandise, before the sequels and the imitators and the pop culture superstar that is Jason Voorhees, it all started with one film. In fact, before that there was just an idea – let’s rip-off Halloween. There was no desire to make art, or […]