Friday the 13th 12-Film Home Video Collection Reportedly On the Way

Despite its immense popularity with fans the world over, the entire Friday the 13th film series has only been collected together in one box set one time. That long out of print set goes for hundreds of dollars now from third party sellers and marks the only time all twelve films in the series were released as one, but very soon there will be a new version for fans that missed out on this collection. According to Bloody Disgusting, many people involved with various films from the Friday the 13th series have revealed their involvement in crafting brand new special features for such a release.

Reportedly set to arrive later this summer, the new box set was seemingly revealed to the world by Jason Goes to Hell director Adam Marcus. Marcus posted on his Facebook page that the “Unrated Cut” of “The Final Friday” will be included in the released. “This will be the first true unrated Blu-ray!!! (sic),” Marcus wrote. “With new features and awesomeness! It’s gonna rock!!!”

Friday the 13th Part IV: Jason Lives star Vincent Guastaferro also revealed on Facebook that he had taken part in new content for the release. The Deputy Rick Cologne actor said he had recorded a new commentary for the film with Tommy Jarvis actor Thom Matthews and Jason actor CJ Graham.

Despite the ongoing legal battles surrounding the franchise, making its future on the big screen an uncertainty, it seems like new home media releases of the film are still allowed to be released (a blu-ray of the first film marking its 40th anniversary is also scheduled to be released this summer)

For a quick primer on the franchise’s legal woes: Filmmaker Sean S. Cunningham directed the first film in the series and hired screenwriter Victor Miller to write a script to fit the title “Friday the 13th” in order to capitalize on the slasher movie craze of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The franchise became a major success, with Miller attempting to seek more ownership over the series in recent years due to his contributions and thanks to citing an obscure copyright law was able to win the first court battle.

What makes the legal battle confusing is that, while the series is known for the hockey mask-wearing Jason Voorhees, that image wasn’t introduced until the third film. If an agreement can’t be made between the two parties, it’s possible a new Friday the 13th would have to abandon the iconic murderer, or that a film focusing on Voorhees wouldn’t be able to use the famous franchise title.

Ironically this fall’s Halloween Kills will mark the thirteenth film in that slasher film series, making the John Carpenter created franchise the first slasher series to reach thirteen total movies, beating out Friday the 13th by one movie.