A while back I was reading about a video game called Slasher Vol.1: Summer Camp from Gun Media, an Evolve-style online co-op game inspired by Friday the 13th in which you either play as one of the characters trying not to be killed by a mask-wearing serial killer…or you play AS the mask-wearing serial killer. Though not a very big fan of these online only co-op games, I was very interested in learning more about it as a huge fan of horror and especially the Friday the 13th flicks. Then came word early this year that another Evolve-style co-op game was coming that was actually based on Friday the 13th and featured Jason Voorhees instead of just being inspired by them. At the time it was revealed that a game developer was working on the game, but it wasn’t revealed who.

Well, as it turns out, these two projects are now one in the same. They’ve not only put together a Kickstarter campaign to help raise funds for the game, simply titled Friday the 13th: The Game, but they also have alums of the franchise working on the game as well including Sean S. Cunningham, Tom Savini, Harry Manfredini, and my personal favorite Jason (who I’ve had the honor of personally being “choked” by like so many other fans have) back as the character for the first time in 14 years, Kane Hodder. You can read much more about the project and watch the Kickstarter video and announcement trailer below.

The Friday the 13th video game fans of the horror series have always wanted may just be coming in the near future.

It’s being reported that a new game based on the franchise is on the way, and it will be similar in style to the upcoming four-on-one multiplayer game Evolve. That is, four people will play as a variety of teenagers, while one player takes control of the legendary slasher himself, Jason Voorhees.

Continue reading for more info.

While we wait to see where the next movie in the Friday the 13th franchise takes us, another project involving Jason Voorhees has begun to materialize.

It’s being reported that a new TV series based on on the property is being developed by EFO Films and Crystal Lake Entertainment, with original Friday the 13th director Sean S. Cunningham on board as an executive producer. The series is being developed as an hour-long drama that re-imagines the character in different periods of time.

Friday the 13th: Uncut
Uncut Blu-ray Edition
Directed by Sean S. Cunningham
Starring Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Jeannine Taylor, Kevin Bacon, Robbi Morgan
Paramount Home Entertainment
Release Date: February 3, 2009

I’ll lay my cards on the table now; this is the first time I’ve seen the original Friday the 13th from beginning to end. Call it a sheltered childhood, call it a lack of interest, call it laziness after a certain point, but even when I could see it, I never bothered until now. I mean, its Friday the 13th. Every genre movie fan has to see this at some point in their life, right? So I jumped at the chance to see this new uncut version of the film. Is it the modern horror classic that I’ve always been told it is? Did it live up to the hype built in my own mind? I can’t say that it did, but I’ll say that this may still be a worth-while purchase for fans of the film, due to the documentaries and other special features included.

Do I really need to explain the plot for Friday the 13th? Honestly, at this point the story is as well known as any fairy tale or bible story. A bunch of kids go to open a summer camp at Camp Crystal Lake, they get up to some sexual shenanigans, they get killed in a series of gruesome ways, and in the end one lone girl confronts the killer. It’s the standard horror film plot that was set down by Halloween, and I can’t help but see the similarities between this film and John Carpenter’s original masterpiece. This is where my distance from the film takes away from my personal enjoyment of it. While I may have never seen this particular film before, I’ve seen the same things a bunch of times before in other films, so it all seems like it’s been done before. But I only get that feeling because I’ve seen the imitators, not the original, so I can’t hold it against this film.

Trapped Ashes (2006)
Directed by Sean S Cunningham, Joe Dante, Monte Hellman, Ken Russell, John Gaeta
Written by Dennis Bartok
Starring John Saxon, Rachel Veltri, Scott Lowell, Lara Harris, Henry Gibson, Jayce Bartok
Lionsgate Films
Release Date: July 15, 2008

In the late 60’s and early 70’s, anthology horror movies poured from low budget production houses throughout Europe, including the time-honored Black Sabbath from Mario Bava and EC Comics inspired Tales From The Crypt by Freddie Francis. Anthology horror on the big screen took on new life in the US in the 1980s with Creepshow and sputtered out in the early 1990s with Tales From The Darkside: The Movie. Meanwhile in Hong Kong, a ghostly anthology series called Troublesome Night has been going strong since 1997 and most recently the East Asian anthology films Three and Three: Extremes have been chilling audiences around the world.

But is there hope for a revival of this horror niche here in the United States? Writer Dennis Bartok would like to think so. Bartok, who has spent much of his career on the fringes of the film community as the head of programming at American Cinematheque in Los Angeles and as an interviewer for DVD featurettes, makes his screenwriting debut with Trapped Ashes, and with the help of some Japanese financing has brought along some top-name talent to back him up.