Do we really need another Friday the 13th movie? No, we don’t, but to be fair, that negativity is the direct result of director Marcus Nispel’s lame 2009 reboot, the one produced by Michael Bay that’s as derivative as it is too glossy looking and devoid of inventive and/or hardcore kills. It’s the CW version of a slasher movie, right down to its CW-approved leading man, Jared Padalecki.
As a result, word that Bay and his Platinum Dunes production company have been developing another Friday the 13th installment isn’t exactly uplifting, but today brings an unforeseen glimmer of hope. As The Wrap reports, Platinum Dunes is nearing a deal with indie horror filmmaker David Bruckner to direct Jason Voorhees’ next murder-fest, and it’s an unexpectedly inspired choice.
Though Bruckner has only what are essentially two short films, he’s proven himself to be a seriously talented orchestrator of carnage. In 2007, he directed the first third of The Signal, a Sundance Film Festival standout about a transmission that turns the residents of a fictionalized Atlanta into raving, homicidal lunatics—Bruckner’s section shows the nightmare’s earliest stages and plays a bit like a slasher movie, with the film’s heroine trapped inside an apartment building that’s quickly degenerating into a slaughterhouse. Bruckner’s other film, “Amateur Night,” is part of the 2012 found-footage horror anthology V/H/S, and, like how he dominates The Signal, it’s the best part. Three collegiate douche-bros bring home a chick from the bar and, drunkenly, try to gang-bang her, but she’s not quite human, and Bruckner executes the mayhem with directorial ingenuity atypical to most found-footage horror.
Of course, other gifted independent genre directors have signed onto big studio projects and shit the bed (see: Them directors David Moreau and Xavier Palud making that terrible The Eye remake with Jessica Alba). Who’s to say that Bay and company won’t promise Bruckner all kinds of creative freedom and then block everything he tries to do? And the rumblings that this new Friday the 13th will be found-footage only add to the skepticism. By hiring David Bruckner, though, the producers have at least shown that they’re thinking outside the box and know a promising horror filmmaker when they see one.
I’m rooting for Bruckner, and something tells you’ll be doing the same once you read my interview with him about his V/H/S segment—he’s an engaging and intelligent guy who really gets the genre.
Friday the 13th is scheduled for March 13, 2015. Here's to Bruckner helping Platinum Dunes finally do the slasher franchise justice. Hopefully, though, no one involved has any designs to bring back Kevin Bacon's below-the-belt co-star from the 1980 original:
[via The Wrap]
[GIF via Crazy About Film]
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