Friday The 13th TV Spin-Off Creeps To Life: New Details Revealed

While we wait for any hints of progress on the long-delayed next film in the ‘Friday the 13th’ series, it appears there is some progress to report on the also long-planned TV spin-off of the iconic slasher franchise.

While a small screen ‘Friday the 13th’ has existed before in ‘Friday the 13th: the Series,’ this late 1980s show was related to the film series in name only with no narrative or character connections to the movies whatsoever.

This time around, the plan would seem to be rather different, as series creator and producer Sean S Cunnningham promises something which explores the legend of invulnerable masked maniac Jason Voorhees in a new and somewhat unusual way.

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Fan site Friday the 13th the Franchise report that Cunningham told fans at New Jersey’s Monster Mania convention that the plan with the show is to take a metatextual approach, setting the series in a world in which the ‘Friday the 13th’ movie series exists - and the legend of Jason Voorhees is real:

“According to [Cunningham], the basic premise focuses on the REAL city of Crystal Lake, and the effect that the serialized films had on its real life counterpart.

This allows them to reimagine Jason in a more grounded reality, as the films would be based off the real life killings that tool place at the Camp. (ie, both the Hockey Masked Jason and a more serious backwoods inspired killer will be making appearances throughout).”

Cunningham also stated that US network the CW - home of such popular shows as ‘Supernatural,’ ‘Arrow,’ ‘The Flash’ and ‘The Vampire Diaries’ - have expressed interest in picking up the new ‘Friday the 13th’ TV show, although nothing has been made official on that front yet,.

While this is an intriguing premise in some ways, I can’t help wondering if it might be just a little over-complicated for an offshoot of a film series renowned for its simplicity. These films are ultimately hugely formulaic stalk’n’slash affairs, and I daresay that’s how most of the fans like it.

Some fans express anxiety about the show potentially going to CW too, given that network TV regulations would seem likely to forbid the levels of gore and sexuality that the films are also renowned for - although it’s also fair to say that a lot of US network TV has been pushing those boundaries for some time.

With the ‘Scream’ TV series in the works at MTV, many horror fans are already anticipating one comparatively watered-down revival of an enduring genre favourite - although hopes would appear to be higher for that other notable incoming small screen spin-off ‘Ash Vs. The Evil Dead,’ thanks to the creative involvement of the original filmmakers and the series going to US subscription network Starz, where graphic adult content is no issue.

Where in this equation will the ‘Friday the 13th’ TV show fall? We’ll just have to watch this space - much as we continue to watch out for any developments on the next ‘Friday the 13th’ movie (the first since the 2009 reboot), still officially penciled in for a 13 May 2016 release.

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Picture Credit: Paramount/Warner Bros, WENN