Why is it that most horror fans would rather see another horrible sequel rather than an acceptable remake? It seems like that a good amount of fans of the Friday The 13th franchise would have rather saw a sequel to the turd-laced opus Freddy vs. Jason than the remake that will be out February 13th. I remember when the remake was in pre-production- well before the writer's strike- the fella who ran the old Friday The 13th Films site started a petition to stop it. It didn't shock me that within a few weeks a good 1/2 of the forum signed it, all vowing to not watch the remake. I remember Blake saying "if it's not broken, why fix it" referring to the Friday The 13th franchise- again a lot of people agreed.
The way I see it is when a franchise like Friday The 13th goes on and on and on the movies are no longer interesting. It also seems that franchises lose their identity- mostly because new directors being in new absurd visions of what the villain should be like. This vision is generally drastically different than the previous and usually very different than the next director's vision. A lot of people will disagree with me, but Friday The 13th become a mockery after A New Beginning- at least A New Beginning had the same formula and the same dark tone. That's something no Friday The 13th movie after it could re-capture. It's also funny when new directors think that the franchise needs to go somewhere else- "fans want something different" (Rob Hedden) always makes me laugh, because in all of these years it's apparent that fans want Friday The 13th and with that comes Jason, Crystal Lake and the woods. Those things, in my mind, are essential for a Friday The 13th movie.
So, the way I see it- Jason Takes Manhattan was pretty much the archetype "bad" Friday The 13th movie. It pretty much took Jason away from his home and in turn killed the franchise once and for all. It seems like that the franchise never recovered, even though Jason Lives made less than A New Beginning and The New Blood made even less than those two. At this point would fans have liked a remake if it meant a good movie? Probably not- for some reason the "remake" moniker scares fans, and the fans that it doesn't scare seem to jump on the "I hate remakes" boat, sometimes because they are afraid that they won't seem as elitist as those pricks who refuses to watch a movie solely because it's a remake. I tell you this, I would rather have a mediocre remake than Jason Goes To Hell or Jason X!
I can understand some people's complaints; remakes exploit the name to make money, remakes generally aren't done by the original director, remakes change too much, remakes don't change enough, etc. I guess all are valid complaints, but let's compare it to sequels- sequels are generally never made by the original director, hell sequels in a lot of cases ruin the original director's vision of the original movie. Secondly, all remakes are made to cash in on the success of the original movie, thus exploiting the name to make money. Movies are a business and they ALL are made for some sort of monetary gain and not for the fans. In a way, sequels are just as bad as remakes since both do the same exact thing to the original product, usually in the same exact fashion- EXPLOITING THE NAME.
So, I find it hard to believe that something like Friday The 13th: Part 12 Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash is any less evil than Friday The 13th 2009. They both are just as evil as the other and if you want to watch the former and not the latter because it's remake- knock yourself out! Don't even get me started on crossovers- as far as I am concerned they should be left to the fan films and comic books.
So, in short; I feel the franchise was severely broken and needed to be fixed. Hoopefully a reboot will override all of the shittiness that the original franchise introduced(i.e. regeneration).
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