How on EARTH could there have been enough people that thought this was a good idea to make? It blows my mind that there could have been. How was there not plenty, let alone ONE person that couldn't have thought this was a terrible idea and put the kibosh on this.
And the flowers are STILL standing!
Originally it was much worse and New Line Cinema had to step in and order Sean Cunningham to put Jason in the movie. Cunningham, producing the movie himself and not New Line, was making a movie called "Friday the 13th: Heart of Darkness" which revolved about Jason's evil brother Elias digging up Jason's corpse and eating his heart, and then going on a body hopping rampage around Crystal Lake. Why? Because at the time, Cunningham hated Jason, whom he felt was the creation of Steve Miner.
When Cunningham sold the project to New Line, he'd just told them "I want to make a 'Friday the 13th'," and New Line presumed like anybody would, that meant a Jason movie. They had finished principal production with only about 60 minutes of useable footage when New Line caught wind. They told Cunningham that he was to put Jason into the movie or they wouldn't release it. His back against the wall, Cunningham called in a writer working for him named Dean Lorey who had a weekend to fit Jason into the storyline they already had. Jason, Creighton Duke, "Elias" becoming Jason's father, and the coroner characters are his invention. Kane Hodder was hired to play Jason and they set about the reshoots, turning it into a "proper" Friday.
The problem with this is that NOBODY involved will cop to the above story, chiefly because it makes them look bad. Dean Lorey started to talk about it in the audio commentary for the DVD, but he either gets interrupted by Adam Marcus or stops himself and they never go back to it. Apparently, effects man Howard Berger never got the memo to hush up, though, because in the book "Crystal Lake Memories", he mentions the "Heart of Darkness" script they began work on and how it began with a scene where Jason and his mother copulated to produce the brother character "Elias."
This story needs to get out because people need to understand that it's a wonder this movie makes any damned sense at all with its ungodly troubled production with a producer who had no business making it.
What's funny is a far more talented man Wes Craven faced the same problem. He didn't like where the nightmare series had gone after he left, he couldn't even be bothered watching them all but instead of doing a complete eff up like Cunningham he made a stand alone film 'New Nightmare'.
Except "New Nightmare" is actually a good movie.
sharebahahahahahahaha
shareNew Nightmare was amazing until it COMPLETELY fell apart at the end, which to this day in my opinion damn near ruins the movie. It was such an awesome build up of terror and suspense, and in the final showdown with Freddy it could have been a slapstick comedy. The last 15 minutes or so of New Nightmare is laughably bad unfortunately.
shareHow did it fall apart at the end? What were you expecting? How could it have been better? I disagree that it felt like a slapstick comedy, it felt like a Freddy film at the end to me. You do realize Freddy is supposed to be a sadistic clown right? He was the same way in the original, what was so different in New Nightmare? He's not as serious as Pinhead.
shareIt felt like by the end it was just another Freddy movie, the kind that Craven didn’t like.
shareThanks for this. It helps me understand this incomprehensible mess much better.
"every time godzilla loses to mothra I die a little bit more"--Godzillaswrath
Actually they had scenes in the movie that explained the story better an connected it to the others they were deleted to make the pace faster
shareI wonder how often a movie starts as something completely different. The crazy thing about this one is that they were already shooting.
The movies that I am familiar with at least were changed during the writing process.
I know it's 3 years too late but did Sean Cunningham forget about the ending to his own movie where Jason comes out of the water and grabs Alice? I guess the guy is crazy and has repressed memory problems.
sharethat was a dream
shareThat's his opinion. That certainly isn't what I think.
sharehmmm, he made the movie,
i believe he knows whether it was a dream sequence or not
I personally don't like Jason at the end being just a dream. I frankly hate anything cool that happens being a dream. I hate the original ending Wes Craven had for Nightmare on Elm Street where the whole movie was just a stupid dream and Nancy was never in danger.
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well yeah, dream sequences have been done to death,
but the original is from 1980 & it was not such a cliche back then
Yeah. This movie isn't like a Friday the 13th film at all. But I guess as the first replier to your topic said, the writer and creater of the first Friday film didn't like Jason since he didn't create him.
"1-800 Spank me? I know that number." Scott Calvin, The Santa Clause.
Sean Cunningham son Noel is best friend with Director Adam Marcus who also claim he had a bit part in the original Friday...Sean may have his heart on giving opportunities to new directors like Marcus, but when a franchise is big as Friday The 13th, it' s better to have a director with experience & director who will respect the originals, but this is not how Cunningham operates, he is willing to burn down the franchise for his own needs...
shareEspecially since the other 29 Friday the 13th films are such cinematic masterpieces, one can but wonder how this mess slipped through the cracks.
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