Why The Next Friday The 13th Will Not Be Found Footage

Brad Fuller, producer behind the 2009 reboot of slasher series ‘Friday the 13th,’ has discussed how early plans for the film’s sequel to be made in the found footage style were abandoned.

Initially popularised by 1999′s ‘The Blair Witch Project’ (though the subgenre was arguably created by 1980′s notorious ‘Cannibal Holocaust’), found footage - films which present themselves as if genuine, real-life incidents caught on camera - has become one of the dominant horror subgenres of the last decade, thanks in part to the hugely profitable ‘Paranormal Activity’ series.

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Fuller and his production company Platinum Dunes (co-founded by Michael Bay and Andrew Form) at one point had their sights on getting a piece of that action with their long-delayed follow-up to ‘Friday the 13th,’ even going so far as to hire a director associated with found footage, David Bruckner (’V/H/S’).

However, the company had a change of heart - and speaking to Shock Till You Drop, Fuller has explained why.

“I could just say that for a long time we were stalled… I think you guys reported that the movie was going to be a found footage movie and that was a road that we went down and tried to figure out.

“Ultimately, I think Michael, Drew and I felt that we couldn’t figure that out, so we kind of jettisoned that whole notion and we had to start over. We’re in the latter phases of that starting over and hopefully we’re getting a script in the next month or two, and we’ll go back to Crystal Lake.”

Back in March, Nick Antosca - a writer from TV’s ‘Hannibal’ - was announced as being on board to write the latest draft of the long-in-development ‘Friday the 13th’ sequel, pitched as more of a stand-alone movie than a direct continuation of the 2009 film.

Platinum Dunes have been among the most divisive names in horror this century. As the makers of the 2003 ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ remake, they arguably kick-started the horror remake trend which shows no signs of slowing 12 years on.

Though Platinum Dunes’ remakes (which also include 2005′s ‘The Amityville Horror,’ 2007′s ‘The Hitcher’ and 2010′s ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’) have always performed well at the box office, they haven’t tended to be very well received by fans or critics, and historically Fuller and Bay have given the impression they didn’t care too much about this.

As such, it’s interesting that Fuller says negative fan reaction was part of what put them off a found footage ‘Friday the 13th’ follow-up.

“It absolutely weighs on me, and there have been many times when the fans have affected surely the way we think about, and in some cases the way we shot, some of the stories. Sometimes you have to go through a lot of bulls*** in what they’re saying, but very often you’ll get a fan with such a great idea, or a great notion, and it’s meaningful to us.

“Listen, there was an outpouring of negative sentiment when it was revealed that ‘Friday the 13th [2]’ might have been a found footage movie. That was very clear to us that there was not a groundswell of support for that. That had [a] tremendous amount of impact on us and only substantiated our concern about doing it as a found footage movie.

“Ultimately, the fact that the movie’s been delayed for a long time might be a good thing, because now the movie’s not going to be found footage.”

Having started out exclusively working in horror, Platinum Dunes have since branched out by producing last year’s ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ reboot and its in-production sequel. They also produced ‘The Purge’ films (for which a third is planned), ‘Ouija’ and ‘Project Almanac’ - the latter of which is, yes, a found footage movie.

The next ‘Friday the 13th,’ initially scheduled for this November, is now due to arrive on 13 May 2016 (that’s right, a Friday).

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Picture Credit: Warner Bros/Paramount