One of the panels I was most excited for going into last weekend’s San Diego Comic-Con was for the Jason Universe, which promised to shed some light on the reintroduction of the Friday the 13th franchise and its iconic lead character, now under its new, original management at Horror Inc.
The stylized name is JASON UN1V3RSE, and it took me until the panel to realize the one and three are for Friday the 13th.
As a Jason fan, I’ve been eager for some indications that things are finally getting back on track after a pretty rough decade. We’ve had a few. The A24-produced Peacock prequel series Crystal Lake is slated for next year. We’re also getting a Jason Universe house at this year’s Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights. Fans expected to hear details about both ventures during this past weekend’s panel, but more importantly, they hoped to hear about a new movie – the first in more than 16 years.
The Return Of Jason Vorhees?
What we got was… not that. While there was the distant promise of a new Jason movie (and video game) in the works, Horror Inc. didn’t actually have much to say about its plans for Jason Universe. Aside from some vague claims about expanding the brand and a look at some merch, most of the panel was centered around president Robert Barsamian waxing nostalgically about growing up in the movie business (Barsamian’s father, Bob Barsamian, was a producer on the original Friday the 13th).
We eventually did get some new footage – not from Crystal Lake or from a new feature film, but from Sweet Revenge, a short film directed by the Wrong Turn reboot’s Mike P. Nelson. Nelson was a guest on the panel as well, and while his enthusiasm for the franchise and his passion for the upcoming short film came across as sincere, I couldn’t help but pick up some red flags from the project. Namely, that the 13-minute short film, which will debut on Wednesday, August 13th (so close), is sponsored by Angry Orchard hard cider – which is a lot weirder than it sounds.
This is a detail I didn’t think much of when it was mentioned during the panel. It came up in the context of the film’s premiere, which will be held in New York on August 13th, and is itself sponsored by Angry Orchard. That isn’t weird at all; I’ve been to countless events sponsored by many adult beverages. But Angry Orchard isn’t just sponsoring the party, it’s sponsoring the film itself. Why does Horror Inc. need a hard cider company to foot the bill for a short, and what is Angry Orchard getting out of it?
Short Film Or Secret Commercial?
Brands help fund films all the time. We’re all aware of what product placement is. We all saw the fight at Sears in Man of Steel. But movies like Man of Steel cost hundreds of millions to produce, and if a producer has to jam a can of Pepsi into a scene so the director can have the Queen song he wants in the opening credits, we can understand that kind of exchange. But movies don’t have sponsors the way baseball stadiums and block parties do. We’re talking about a 13-minute film here, a horror one, at that. It’s, a genre that thrives on low budgets.
I was willing to give Sweet Revenge the benefit of the doubt and assume Angry Orchard was more like a silent partner here (even though the title sounds like a new cider flavor) until I saw the movie poster, which was given away to panel attendees. For the record, it’s a fantastic piece of art. Mondo creative director Peter Santa-Maria, who moderated the panel, created the poster using his signature printmaking style, and it looks phenomenal. But it’s a Jason mask surrounded by apples, and the Angry Orchard logo is in the corner. It’s half movie poster, half Angry Orchard ad. Is the movie going to be the same?
For what it’s worth, I don’t expect to see Jason take a break from killing horny teenagers to down a crispy boy like some kind of Cerveza Crystal Star Wars edit, but I do expect we’ll see those horny teenagers enjoying a fruity beverage before the killings commence. The trailer looks good, and I’m still hopeful for the future of the franchise. But this short is Jason’s big reintroduction after more than a decade, and I sure wish it didn’t have a big apple-flavored asterisk next to it.