Jason Voorhees in his iconic hockey mask — Image Source: Fangoria

When you look at the Mount Rushmore of horror franchises every fan of the genre would agree Michael Myers from Halloween, Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Freddy Krueger from Nightmare on Elm Street, and Jason Vorhees from Friday the 13th are no doubters. Of those four, the Friday the 13th franchise has gone the longest without any new films or official releases. The hiatus is not due to a lack of story or fan demands, but instead, it has been about the legal issues surrounding the franchise. Like Jason himself chasing the final girl, there has been quite the cat and mouse with both sides looking like the winner. This year, we may have some finality and a chance to get that thirteenth Friday the 13th movie.

Before we get into what a thirteenth movie could look like, let us rewind a little bit to understand where the hold-up is and what it could mean to the movie. The first movie in the franchise, Friday the 13th, was released in 1980, written by Victor Miller, and put out by director and producer Sean Cunningham along with a whole group of others. The films became so successful that we saw ten direct sequels to that first movie, a crossover event with Freddy Kruger in Freddy vs. Jason, and a reboot in 2009. If you are unfamiliar with the franchise, in the first movie, the killer was discovered to be 42-YEAR SPOILER ALERT Jason Voorhees’ mother, Pamela. Jason did not appear until the very end of the movie in a classic jump scare moment when he leaped out of the water to drag the final girl to her watery death (or so we thought in a classic misdirection). Subsequent movies featured an adult Jason who is out seeking revenge for the death of his mother. The later sequels were less about avenging his mom and more about getting back at those who do drugs, drink alcohol, and have pre-marital sex.

Jason carrying his mother Pamela — Image Source: GameSpot

In 2018, Victor Miller decided that the franchise was worth quite a bit of money, almost half a billion dollars in total back then. He decided to invoke his right as the creator of the franchise to terminate its copyright so that he could pursue his own takes on the franchise, or at least see a little more money in royalty. Miller argued that when he wrote the screenplay for Friday the 13th, he did so as an independent contractor much like Marvel writers are currently suing Disney for the rights to their creations. But Sean Cunningham and his team countered that he was indeed under contract and was a part of the Writers’ Guild of America and therefore not entitled to the rights.

After lengthy deliberation and much to the chagrin of the fans and some delays thanks to COVID-19, a judge was able to finally come to a decision in 2021. The appeals court upheld a lower court’s decision in September 2021 that indeed Miller did write the film as an independent contractor and was, therefore, able to retain the rights to Friday the 13th franchise. However, there were some complications to the decision. With Miller retaining the rights to the first Friday the 13th movie, he is now able to “…license a remake, prequel or even sequel motion pictures provided such films do not use any additional copyrightable elements.” What do “additional copyrightable elements” entail?

Jason Lives — Image Source: The Mary Sue

Unfortunately, first and foremost, Miller cannot use the title Friday the 13th. He also cannot use anything that came from the sequels. That means NO hockey mask (which Jason got in Part III) and no adult Jason. Finally, this termination of the copyright to the first movie only applies in U. S. so no worldwide distribution. Would those in the U. S. want to see a kid Jason movie? According to Miller’s attorney Marc Toberoff, “we can license television series.” Perhaps we could look into a television series that lead up to the first Friday the 13th movie or perhaps look into the relationship between Pamela and Jason Voorhees.

On the other side of the lawsuit, Sean Cunningham has been teasing a potential new Friday the 13th movie, considering he now has all the good parts of the franchise like the iconic mask and adult Jason. Long-time producer of the franchise Roy Lee mentioned during a press junket for his newest film Barbarian that we “may be hearing something by year’s end…on that front.” It should be noted that there is a Friday the 13th in October 2023 so it is already written in the calendar.

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