A 1980s Setting Is the Latest Gimmick Associated with the Upcoming Friday the 13th Movie

When Friday the 13th was good

Bloody Disgusting has reported, based on a story from Brazillian website Omelete, that Brad Fuller and Andrew Form, the Platinum Dunes producers currently in charge of the Friday the 13^th franchise, are planning for the next entry in the series to take place in the 1980s.  The reason, reportedly, is to “recover the feel of the first film.”

Fuller is quoted as saying that they have a “different story” to tell with this film, which will be neither a continuation of the 2009 reboot nor a remake of the original.

The Friday the 13^th series was at the height of both its popularity and its quality in the 80s, that much is certain.  And if they have a story in mind which meaningfully explores that moment in American popular culture, that looks at those aspects of the public consciousness that made people respond to these kinds of movies, then there might be a very interesting story there to tell.

When Friday the 13th was SUPER good

A different location equals a different story, right? Right?

But, looking at Fuller and Form’s history as producers, I see very little reason to suspect that this is anything more than a superficial gimmick being trotted out to add a sense of variety to a generic recycling of the Friday the 13^th formula.  A few years ago, they went around suggesting that putting Jason in the snow would somehow make the next entry more interesting, but I for one never saw any explanation of what putting Jason in the snow would accomplish from a storytelling perspective.

This seems like the same theory of F13 that gave us the pointless drudgery of Jason Takes Manhattan (which, due to budgetary constraints, basically ended up being “Jason on a Boat”), the entertaining and funny but ultimately insubstantial Jason X, and – on Fuller and Form’s watch – the pointless compilation of recycled elements that was the 2009 reboot.

The presence of David Cronenberg makes anything better

For the Friday the 13^th series to become interesting again, Platinum Dunes needs to hire filmmakers who will break away from the structure and tropes which have dominated the series.  They need the courage to experiment at the level of the basic narrative, to write a script that tells not just a “different story,” but a different kind of story.

And, really, the key is that they need to start with that story, and then determine the appropriate trappings, not the other way around.

Let me stress, I do believe that a 1980s setting could serve a new Friday the 13^th film very well; I simply doubt that, in this case, the decision has been made for the right reasons.  I sincerely hope that Fuller and Form make me eat my words.

Agree?  Disagree?  Sound off in the comments!

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