Jaosn Voorhees: Demon or Deranged Hockey Player?

Over at CHUD.Com, interviewer Devin Faraci goes all ecstatic over the news that the character of Tommy Jarvis may be in the proposed FRIDAY THE 13TH remake. Producers Andrew Form and Bradley Fuller (whose remake of THE HITCHER hits screens soon) say their version will not be a straight remake of the original film but will incorporate elements from the first two sequels (pretty much a necessity – since the franchise star, Jason Voorhees, didn’t really rear his ugly head until Part II). Check out this exceprt:

Form told me, “I think there are moments we want to address like how does the hockey mask happen. It’ll happen differently ino ur movie than in the third one. Where is Jason from, why do these killings happen, and what is Crystal Lake?’

And then Bradley Fuller dropped the bomb on me: “And how does Tommy Jarvis fit in?”

“You’re going to have Tommy Jarvis?” I just about shouted.

Fuller laughed. “You got all excited.”

How could I not?

Well, let’s see. One reason not to get excited is that Fuller sounds as if he is joking. I mean, who really cares how Tommy Jarvis fits in? He’s not really much of a character; he’s really just a name that pops up in a few of the films, implying a thin thread of continuity. In any case, he doesn’t show up in the old movies until Part IV, and Fuller and Form say they’re using elements from parts I through III. Do they really have room in the remake to squeeze in elements from later sequels as well?

More interesting is Fuller’s attempt to wrestle with the nature of Jason, who started off as a psycho-killer in the woods and eventually mutated into an unstoppable zombie – although the distinction was hard to spot because he was pretty much unkillable from the beginning, even when he was supposed to be human. So, will the new Jason be a supernatural threat from the get-go? Says Fuller:

“We talk about that for hours on end. How do you do that and not make it seem cheesy? If you don’t do that, well, they’re not along for the ride of the movie. In some ways, you’re better off not addressing it – which I don’t think we’re going to do – or you come up with a writer and a group of people who sit in a room and come up with an idea so brilliant that it works, and that’s what we’re striving to do. Every discussion about this movie – you talk about the kills, you talk aobut the hot chicks, you talk about the nudity, you talk about Crystal Lake – but at the end of the day, the question is, ‘Is there a supernatural element to this movie’ Is Jasona  demon. I think you can’t figure out any of the other things until you figure that out.”