Platinum Dunes, founded in 2001 by Michael Bay, Brad Fuller, and Andrew Form, made its name by remaking classic ’70s and ’80s horror films. First was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 2003, which did a surprisingly good job of capturing the original film’s intensity and went a long way towards increasing the public’s awareness of Jessica Biel. Two years later, the company followed up that victory with The Amityville Horror, which wasn’t nearly as effective thanks to a lack of desire to bring anything new to the table. But it, too, made money (and served as the debut of Chloë Grace Moretz, so it’s not entirely without merit).
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This remake train kept going for another five years after Amityville, including Platinum Dune’s prequel to their Leatherface movie, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning as well as The Hitcher. Then they closed this run out by remaking two of the Leatherface-sized big dogs: Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger. There’s definitely a reason their A Nightmare on Elm Street killed off this trend for Platinum Dunes, but their Friday the 13th is actually remarkably solid. And yet we’ve never gotten a follow-up, even though there were some interesting ideas spinning around.
What Was the Sequel to Marcus Nispel’s Friday the 13th Supposed to Look Like & Why Didn’t It Ever Happen?
The 2009 Friday the 13th remake may not capture the specific early ’80s vibe of the iconic first four films even as well as the short film “Sweet Revenge” from Jason Universe, but it does make the franchise scary again. It very well may be the scariest of the entire franchise, tied for first with Friday the 13th Part III, which is actually bolstered considerably by its quaint 3D tech when viewed in its converted 2D form. It just looks cheaper than the films that bookend it, which helps it in an odd way.
And like with Part III‘s Jason, the one played by Derek Mears in 2009 is particularly brutal. He also has an advantage over the ones that came before in that he can run at a full-burst sprint. If he wants you gone, you’re gone.
So, Platinum Dunes’ Friday the 13th had secured the Jason it deserved, and it even had a fantastic $40 million debut. So, why no Friday the 13th II? Part of the issue was how much money it made after those first three days. Unfortunately, the writing was on the wall that this movie had zero staying power by day four, and that notion was cemented on its second weekend, where it experienced a jaw-dropping 80% plummet down to just $7.9 million.
But a bigger issue can be pointed to in courtrooms. The whole IP was fought over for years, with the original film’s screenwriter, Victor Miller, ultimately getting control over what he contributed. That means Camp Crystal Lake, Pamela Voorhees, and the child version of Jason. As was said in Scream, the adult murderer Jason we know and fear “didn’t show up until the sequel.”
Even still, that shows why it was so difficult to get anything off the ground while the lawsuit was going. Even now, when the dust has settled a bit, Horror Inc. basically owns the concept of the hockey masked fellow with a machete, while Miller owns the name “Jason Voorhees.” You can’t have one without the other and still call it Friday the 13th.
It is, of course, nice that we’re going to get a whole “Ki…ki…ki…ma…ma…ma” universe out of this whole nasty lawsuit business, because fans have been waiting almost two decades for a new movie. But it still means we were deprived of what would have almost certainly been a snowy sequel to the 2009 film. After 12 movies it really is astonishing that we’ve never gotten a winter Friday the 13th. One can just imagine how icicles would have been used. But, alas, the sequel to the remake never happened, so here’s hoping we’ll get a winter-based spree within the Jason Universe. Yours truly could crank that script out in two afternoons flat.
Anyway, at the end of the day, moving on from horror remakes has ultimately been a good move for Platinum Dunes. On the small screen there’s been Black Sails and Jack Ryan while their big screen output has included the A Quiet Place and The Purge franchises. The company even brought back the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise which, quality wise, wasn’t anything to write home about, but it did make the company money the first time around.
Would you have bought a ticket to Friday the 13th II or Friday the 13th Part 2 if it had made it to theaters? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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