The Friday The 13th series has a long, convoluted history of ownership best summed up with “Paramount owns it again.” And they traded a chunk of Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar for it, so you can imagine they’re not going to let it lie fallow. Unfortunately, horror fans may not be enthused when they realize what Paramount’s up to: They’re trying to turn it into a found footage movie.
It’s largely limited to rumor, but those rumors have been around for a while. And consider that Paramount’s other major horror franchise, Paranormal Activity, is based around a found-footage gimmick and it’s so successful, they’re going to try Paranormal Activity En Espanol in January.
And to be honest, it’s actually not the worst idea that the franchise would ever experience. Remember the movie where Jason was a worm? Or his mom? Or just being impersonated? Or flung into spa-OK, Jason X was actually pretty good, but the point is obvious.
Properly done, a found footage movie can be effectively scary, because it limits your viewpoint to one person. That doesn’t mean there aren’t huge pitfalls; ask anybody who spent most of Cloverfield rooting for the moronic Hud to die and somebody else to pick up the camera. But a Jason movie where the perspective is limited and filmmakers can’t fall back on cheese to cover up a lack of ideas wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for a franchise that’s seemingly spent half its time on screen struggling with new ways to deliver on an old story.