Jason Rising (2021)

JASON RISING: A FRIDAY THE 13^TH FAN FILM (2021)

Dir: James Sweet

It’s getting old already. Stop fighting over the f*cking rights already and make more Jason movies! There’s enough money to be made by all interested parties. I get it Sean, you made Jason the badass villain he is today, and Victor had him as a drowned deformed child. Do you see what you’ve done to fans by letting this litigation linger on? We’re content with content where no one gets paid. How about a slice of that humble pie?

One day, horror historians will look back and see this spat of homegrown Voorhees love, and they will include each of these films in the official canon of the Friday The 13^th series. Vincente DiSanti’s Never Hike Alone (2017) and Never Hike In The Snow (2020) will sit alongside Cody Faulk’s Voorhees (2020), Riley Lorden’s Fall of Camp Blood (2021), Peter Antony’s Rose Blood (2021), Jason Brooks’ Friday The 13^th Vengeance (2019), and all the varying sequels to these fan films will be included as a box set for Friday The 13^th 13!. Until then, keep em’ coming.

In Jason Rising we see a sheriff ensuring Jason is chained, crated, and buried after the events at Camp Crystal Lake. Years later, a few inmates from Wessex County Corrections Farm escape into the Crystal Lake wilderness. A couple US Marshals, a local sheriff, and deputy help add to the possible body count as they are all eventually hunted by our hockey-masked maniac. But we also get a headless and headed Pamela Voorhees in a great homage to The Evil Dead II (1987). The film also reworks the history of Friday The 13^th and Friday The 13^th Part II with the inclusion of Alice (Adrienne King) and Ginny (Amy Steel) but I’m not going to say how.

Made via a $38,738.00 Indiegogo campaign and immeasurable hours of dedication and love, James Sweet and his cohorts set out to create the New Jersey slasher in Oregon’s more-than-picturesque forests. The spate of fan made Friday films all have great production values. They have realized that if you’re going to rise above the crop of homemade, backyard, horror productions you should know how to light a scene, utilize a drone for epic cutaways, color correct, and focus all your efforts on sound. While you may not have the best non-actors ever, if it looks like a million-dollar production, you’re going to turn heads. And you are making this for Friday fans. You know you’re filling the gap, providing entertainment, and paying fan service any way you can. Thank you Alice! If for any reason, you hear the words fan film and they make you cringe, think again. It is from these films, your inner child will feel heard and rejuvenated.