A New ‘Friday the 13th’ Chapter Begins with ‘Sweet Revenge’
We’ve heard a lot over the last year or two about the return of the Friday the 13th franchise through what’s been dubbed Jason Universe. The idea, if it all works, is to both honor the franchise’s past and reintroduce it to new fans via video games, films, the upcoming prequel series Crystal Lake, and more.
Whether or not this whole Jason Universe gambit will pay off is something we’ll have to wait to find out, but now, for the first time in more than 15 years, we finally have an official new Jason movie…sort of. This month, Jason Universe dropped a brand-new short film, Sweet Revenge, that marks our first real piece of storytelling to emerge from this new era. It delivers mixed results (it is an ad for Angry Orchard, after all), but frankly, it’s just nice to see the dude in the hockey mask having a new adventure at this point.
The 15-minute film (really more like 13.5 minutes of actual story) was written and directed by Mike P. Nelson, the guy behind recent horror gems like the Wrong Turn reboot. It stars a group of young people, two couples, getting away to an idyllic woodland retreat beside a lake. It’s there that Eve (Ally Ioannides) starts to feel that something is off, and while exploring the lake, she’s pulled under (literally) into a dark world more horrifying than she can possibly imagine.
You can check out the short film over on the Jason Universe YouTube Channel right now. It’s age-restricted for some gory content, but if you’re a seasoned Friday the 13th viewer, it’s definitely nothing you can’t handle.
So, how is it? Well, without getting too deep into spoiler territory, it’s a bit rough as a short film. It’s short, yes, but it doesn’t have the cohesion of the best horror shorts. Instead, it opts to skim across the greatest hits and most memorable visuals of the franchise so far. You get the lake, a creepy old guy warning these youths about the lake’s twisted past, and a canoe gliding over peaceful water. And, of course, you get Jason. It’s more like a grand tour or a proof-of-concept than a solid narrative.
At least, until the final minutes, when Sweet Revenge reveals its true game. It’s here that our new Jason, already fully formed with his hockey mask, unleashes hell on these young couples with considerable (if brief) creativity. We also learn a little more about the current incarnation of Crystal Lake, what it can do, and what it might do in the future.
It’s an uneven ride, but Sweet Revenge does leave us with some interesting ideas that, fingers crossed, will eventually be explored in greater depth on the big screen.
Categorized: News
