Hello everyone! This past week, I had the pleasure of reviewing Never Hike in the Snow as well as looking back at one of my first interviews with Vincente DiSanti.
Well, I had the pleasure to chat with Vincente once again about Never Hike in the Snow.
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What are your thoughts on Jason Goes to Hell and Jason X?
Jason Goes to Hell may have been the first film I ever watched that made me angry. Granted, I was 12 years old at the time, but Jason Voorhees and Friday the 13th were a sacred part of my childhood. Watching Jason explode before my eyes in the first 5 minutes of that film broke my little horror heart (and Jason) into a million pieces.
Many years and three films later, I’ve come to enjoy the film a little more knowing that it wasn’t actually “The Final Friday.” Despite not having Jason, it does feature a lot of strong elements like the cast, special fx, and overall production value compared to some of the previous Paramount instalments. I can also appreciate the dedicated fanbase the film has with it being such a black sheep of the franchise.
Jason X was the first Friday the 13th film I saw in the theater. I think because expectations were so low going in, I was able to prepare myself to have more fun with that watch. I was in high school at the time and convinced a large group of friends to join me on opening day. Aside from a few other people, we were the only ones in the theater and had a great time watching the film. There were a lot of laughs and collective groans, but despite it being the Friday film no one asked for, it is still one I enjoy watching from time to time. It really is a lot of fun.
What was the inspiration for Never Hike in the Snow?
Fans have been calling for a winter set Friday the 13th for as long as I remember, so our team thought it would be a fun challenge to answer that call and take Jason into a frozen landscape.
The inspiration for the film began with the opening kill sequence. The “axe to mouth” kill had been in my notes since the early days of Never Hike Alone as It was originally intended for Kyle McLeod. After we wrote Kyle’s death out of Never Hike Alone, it sat in my notes for years until evolving into the “Blood Angel” kill.
From there, rather than creating a thinly plotted series of ice-themed kill sequences, we used the opening of Never Hike in the Snow as a launching point to further explore modern day Crystal Lake, introduce a few new characters, and dive deeper into the lore of Jason Voorhees.
The inspiration for our story came from stepping back from Friday the 13th as a “mindless slasher” and examining how this story would impact a more grounded, real world setting. Instead of focusing on how many people we could kill, we instead chose to focus on amplifying the impact of each death and the emotional toll it takes on our characters.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a classic slasher film as much as the next horror fan, but our pursuit with Never Hike Alone is to tap into areas Friday the 13th has not yet explored, and amplify abandoned plot lines with strong storytelling potential.
What was the production like? How did it differ from Never Hike Alone?
Never Hike in the Snow was a much different and more focused production than Never Hike Alone. Having proper funding right away allowed us to prep and schedule more like a normal production rather than stretching out the filming process over a long period of time. This was also due in part to having a full ensemble cast in almost every scene rather than one actor who we could start and stop with at any time we wanted.
Due to that demand and higher cost of production, any sort of mistake or set back on this round of filming carried a lot more pressure. I am proud of our team and our ability to make it through each weekend without succumbing to any of the challenges that were thrown in our path.
Our biggest hurdle was the winter season of 2019-2020 in Southern California ended up as a major drought season. Big Bear, California is where we have always been shooting and it typically has a few feet of snow in late January. Even in our initial scouts, the 2018-2019 winter season was one of the best seasons on record.
The roads were bone dry on the first day of traveling out to our shooting locations and we were actually wondering if we were going to have to change the name of the film. Our only hope was that by sheer luck there was a snowstorm in the forecast for that weekend, but nothing was guaranteed. The time and days shifted by the hour.
Luckily for us, mother nature delivered on the first morning of shooting and our crew ended up chasing pockets of storms throughout the day starting at around 4:30am. The opening sequences and Tommy’s arrest scenes were both shot during flash storms. Thom Mathews looked over at me during one of the takes and said “You know Vin, I know productions that have waited months for weather like this.” Luck was truly on our side and it was one of the biggest reliefs I had while filming.
When the storms subsided, our crew still had to race melting snow as the Sun wiped out almost everything it touched during the day. At one point, we had production staff shoveling piles of snow into the shade so we could dress bare areas of the set. Overall we were truly blessed by nature in order to not change the name of the film, but our crew had to work hard as hell for us to earn it.
Ghost Jason has been welcomed with open arms by the horror community. Some even consider it to be among the best representations of the character. What was it to make this Jason so different? So mythic.
I think Ghost Jason simply stems out of what I believe to be the best qualities of the character, going back as far as his childhood and working him all the way through to modern day.
In past films, Jason has been overlooked as a character when it comes to terms of his depth. There is even a famous quote from part 3 director Steve Miner to Richard Brooker “You don’t have a motivation; you just want to kill her!”
It is very easy to assume that Jason is an “OP” killing machine who simply marches around with only one purpose in life. However, when you start to peel back the layers of this character and this franchise, you’d be surprised to discover a lot of untapped potential.
Our Jason is a little more evolved in terms of that he has learned from his past and takes on a similar mindset as when we first met him in Friday the 13th part 2. In the years that follow the events of that film, every time he has ventured outside of the camp has resulted in disaster in the form of his often brutal and painful demise. The true curse is that the trail of blood Jason leaves in his wake always ends up in his own.
As the harbinger who carries the responsibilities of inflicting his mother’s “death curse,” he has been doomed to repeat this task until the end of time. Now decades later, Jason's rage has subsided into a much simpler mission. “Protect home.”
Aside from building Jason as a character, it was designing his new look that was a truly fun part of the process. With help from Brett Morris at CFX Louisiana and SPFX artist Kelsey Berk, it took years of designing and redesigning Jason’s look from the ground up before I was happy with the version that appeared on camera.
A blend of modern and old school stylistic choices, Ghost Jason is a direct representation of where I would have loved to see the character go stylistically in future official installments.
My strategy was to scale back the bulky look to the previous costume jackets and look for something more derivative of classic looks from parts IV and VI. Returning Jason to an Earth-toned color scheme made him feel more like a part of the forest.
With the “Ghost Hock”, I wanted to design something old and sinister. Our films retcon everything after the paramount era films continuity that all of Jason’s original masks were destroyed, so this gave us an opportunity to come up with something new.
My theory here is that Jason returned to the camp after the “Manhattan Incident” and discovered an old mask in the equipment left behind when the camp attempted to reopen it in the 1960’s. Those attempts were always met with Pamela’s sabotage, so any and all equipment brought in those early seasons got left behind until the Christies could raise enough money to get the camp open again. We don’t think it’s too much of a reach to say the masks were either used for street hockey or possibly a winter camp.
The pile of masks shown in Never Hike in the Snow represents where Jason found his new mask in the piles of old sports equipment. After 20 years of wearing it, it has become just as faded and aged as he is, that’s why it has no chevrons.
How does Ghost Jason differ in this film compared to Never Hike Alone? Does he differ at all? What was it like getting to step back into the role?
One of the elements we explored in this film, and the “Disappear” music video, was “how does Jason spend his time when people are not around?” Jason was more of a background presence through a majority of Never Hike Alone, but in Snow you could make a case that not only is he a lead character, but the main character.
A recurring theme in our films is how Jason battles modern technology as it threatens to expose his existence. GoPros, Digital Cameras, and even Google Maps all pose a threat to the secret life he has been keeping for himself. Protecting his home and living in peace.
Like Never Hike Alone, Jason only springs into action when he absolutely needs to when Kyle discovers his mother’s head. In the case of Never Hike in the Snow, it is after Jason mistakenly gets himself caught on Mark’s camera.
Unlike Kyle McLeod, Mark Hill does not get away and Jason is able to avoid proof of his existence getting out. However, Mark’s near escape draws unwanted attention and once again Jason is put in a position to defend his home or risk the outside world destroying everything he has been protecting.
How has the response been to this second film as compared to the first? What do you think about it?
Never Hike in the Snow was mostly well received, but we would be lying to ourselves if we failed to acknowledge fans being let down by the shorter run time and cliffhanger ending.
Without a big budget marketing campaign, not everyone who tuned in realized they were watching part one of four in what was supposed to be a series of short films that we had planned to crowdfund and produce throughout 2020-21.
With the biggest criticism being that the fans simply wanted more, it was a great sign for our future, but our hands became tied when the entire world shut down for the pandemic.
Learning from this experience, and losing a year from the lockdowns, we have decided to scrap the mini-series idea and set our sights on raising the money for a full feature sequel simply called ‘Never Hike Alone 2.”
After all was said and done I am really proud of Never Hike in the Snow. I think we improved our ability to execute on set and deliver quality Friday content to fans. We accomplished just about everything we wanted to with this part of the story and believe in the larger visions we have planned for this story. I think with more time fans will grow to appreciate it, especially when they see how it fits in with the rest of the completed story.
Will we be seeing more in this series?
Yes, once we complete the crowdfunding obligations for Never Hike in the Snow, we will step right into getting the Never Hike Alone 2 project off the ground.
Right now our plan is to launch a crowdfund campaign sometime in the Fall of 2021, shoot the film in the Spring of 2022, and release the film on October 13, 2022.
Do you consider these films to be part of the franchise canon? What are your thoughts on head canon and canon within the franchise?
First and foremost, we are very proud to be a fan operated production working outside the studio system to make these films. We would never be brash enough to say we are canon or an official part of the franchise. Besides, having the freedom to work in this space allows us to make the films the studios honestly can’t and won’t.
It is humbling to hear when fans tell us they consider Never Hike Alone films to be as much a part of this franchise as any other entry. We never expected that when going into this journey, but it is a wonderful compliment to receive after putting in so much hard work.
We may never be truly official, but I think one day fans will look back on this period when the die-hard franchise fans took over for a while and did some truly special things.
How did Covid effect you? Womp Stomp Films? The covid-19 pandemic was a major factor in several set backs we faced over the last 15 months.
We were lucky enough to finish production just one week before the nationwide lockdown, but this left us with no options when it came to picking up bonus material and additional scenes like we had originally planned.
The only scene we were unable to film was a mid-credit bonus scene with Tommy being dropped off at his Jeep after being bailed out the following morning. Back at the camp gate, Tommy discovers Deputy Mabry’s abandoned cruiser, recovers a machete from the back of his Jeep, and marches into the camp as we drone above the trees in similar fashion to the ending of Never Hike Alone.
Shortly after lockdown began, our editor Mike Api lost his father to Covid-19 after he battled the virus for over a month in the hospital. Due to this, we shut down post-production for two to three months in order to give Mike the proper time he needed to grieve and spend time with his family.
As dates slid back, so did our release and plans to start the next installment. We were also unable to host a live, in person premiere of the film and were forced to cancel events all over the country and even a few overseas.
On the crowdfunding front, pandemic lockdowns and material shortages delayed our ability to produce our home video blu rays. We were left waiting until June 2, 2021 before our vendor could complete our order and we could start shipping.
Where did the idea for The Ghost Cut come from? What makes it so unique?
The Ghost Cut came from the idea of doing something special on Friday the 13th for the fans and helped clear up some of the confusion about how the Never Hike Alone timeline is constructed. Not only in relation to each of our films, but also the rest of the franchise in general.
Personally, Thom’s voice over of the Disappear music video is my personal favorite part of the Ghost Cut as it sets the tone for everything we are working to set up. Having a chance to add Adam Marcus, Ron Sloan, Cindy Kania, Deb Voorhees, and Tracie Savage was another cool set of easter eggs we thought fans would appreciate.
Adding the press conference scene to Never Hike in the Snow was also our way of helping fans understand what happened after Deputy Mabry’s death and show that Jason was able to escape leaving no evidence behind.
We also made sure to include a little sneak preview of Never Hike Alone 2 at the end so fans knew more story was coming.
Overall, this production went from wrapping up everything we had planned in Spring of 2020 to finally getting to the finish line in August of 2021. It has been a very long 2 years since the start of this part of the project and I can't wait to move forward onto the next stage of this journey.
For someone coming fresh to the story, what do you think is the best way to experience this story?
I think it is best for people just to start with Never Hike Alone and sort of follow the same journey we have taken. Watch the films in order by release and then finish with ghost cut to better catch things they missed and better spot the new pieces included in that entry. Don’t forget to like and subscribe for updates on new materials as we drop it over the coming year.
What are your thoughts on the legal battle? Do you think it'll be settled soon?
Unfortunately, I think the rights battle is going to continue for many years to come. From what I have come to understand, neither party has any plans to back down from appeals and will pursue this lawsuit until all options are exhausted. There is most likely a few more years before we see another Friday, which is sad now that it looks like a slasher revival is on the horizon.
From a fan standpoint, it is sad to see two people you have a lot of respect for unable to come together for the common good of the fanbase who supported them for decades. Both Sean and Victor owe a lot to each other when it comes to their collective effort on birthing this franchise. As fans, we owe a lot to them for figuring out how to get that film from a print ad in Variety to the most successful horror film franchise in the world.
I also think there is something to be said about the filmmakers who carried this franchise past the first film in a time when both Sean and Victor seemed more than happy to move on in their careers. Contributors like Steve Miner, Joe Zito, Tom McGloughlin, Tom Savini, Jon Carl-Buechler, Kane Hodder, the Mancuso family, and Carl Fullerton all had definitive impact on how Friday the 13th was shaped in our popular culture outside of Sean and Victor’s original influence.
On paper those names may not be owed a piece of the rights the Sean and Victor are fighting for, but they are the ones who made those rights worth fighting for. Filmmaking is the task of not a few, but of many. For two men to be fighting for credit on something it has taken an entire village working decades to craft seems childish. Like two dads fighting over credit for a child that was raised in the houses of families.
My only hope is that no matter how long it takes, something is eventually done that allows Jason to return to the big screen. Until that happens, I’m just going to keep making my own Friday the 13th films to pass the time.
Do you think we will see a return to the big screen for Jason Voorhees?
One day yes, but unfortunately not any time soon. In the meantime, I would encourage fans to seek out screenings of the Friday the 13th films (and Fan Films) across the country at special events, film festivals, and horror conventions. This is a great way to connect with other fans to help keep the franchise alive.
I would also ask die hard Friday the 13th fans to consider giving fan films a chance as well as their support. Fan films can do what the rights owners and studios no longer seem interested in doing and explore storylines the fans have always wanted to see.
It may come in various forms of production and story values, but if anything Fan Films are all wildly entertaining in their own right and worthy of fan consideration when looking for some new life to Friday the 13th.
With the Friday the 13th Killer Puzzle, how does it feel seeing Ghost Jason in the game? Do you think we could have gotten a Ghost Jason in the Friday the 13th Game if it hadn't shut down due to the legal battle?
Being in the puzzle game is awesome and the fact that Blue Wizard was kind enough to include us has been a highlight of this post Never Hike Alone experience. Playing as Ghost is surreal and I have a lot of fun killing Kyle whenever he appears on the board.
Getting into Friday the 13th The Game is a different story. I had a nice chat with Ronnie Hobbs about it at the Friday the 13th Game release party. Without diving into too much detail, all I can say is adding Ghost Jason to the game was almost impossible, even before the lawsuit.
As a consolation, I did get to design the “Free Kick” kill with Ronnie and Kane which was a great experience. That kill ended up being one of the last things added into the game. As a backer who contributed to the funding that launched the game, it means a lot to me that I now get to say I was a small part of it.
What's next for you? What's next for Womp Stomp Films?
Despite the pandemic lull, Womp Stomp Films has been very busy. We are actively working on a few original Womp Stomp Films productions as well as co-productions with other filmmakers around the country.
Here is a list of what we have in the pipeline:
I am attached to direct the horror / comedy “The Kindness of Strangers” through Schemer’s Entertainment based on a script by Ian Busch. Never Hike Alone co-writer Nate McLeod and I recently completed a new horror feature script called “The Beginning of the End.”
One of my favorite projects in the works is Womp Stomp Films first animated short film “Ghost Chicken”about a vegan restaurant that is haunted by the ghost of chicken and the one girl determined to figure out why. This will be my first animated film as a director and we are currently set to enter the animation phase over the winter of 2021-22 and submit to the festival circuit in 2022.
Co-Producing / Co-Writing “Jason Rising” a Friday the 13th Fan FIlm which releases on August 13, 2021 on the Red Crow Films YouTube page. The red carpet premiere of the film is scheduled for the same night at the Hollywood Theater in Portland, OR.
Co-Producing / Co-Writing an original short horror film “Judy” which will be launching a crowdfunding campaign in early August to help finish the film. Our plan is to complete and submit to the festival circuit sometime this fall. It is directed by Rene Rivas who is best known for “The Spirit of Hadonnfield” and “The Tent.” It is co-produced by Rene Rivas Productions, Left Lane Labs, and Womp Stomp Films.
Co-Producing “Dylan’s New Nightmare” a Nightmare on Elm Street Fan FIlm with The Horror Show’s Cecil Laird. The film picks up 25 years after the events of Wes Craven’s a New Nightmare and welcomes back Miko Hughes in the role of “Dylan Porter.” The film is currently crowdfunding on Indiegogo and we are scheduled to shoot this fall and release sometime in 2022 on the The Horror Show YouTube channel.
Lastly, but certainly the one fans are most anticipating, once we complete the Never Hike in the Snow Indiegogo fulfillments, we are preparing to launch a new crowdfund campaign for “Never Hike Alone 2” with plans to shoot in spring 2022 and release on October 13, 2022.
What can fans expect with Never Hike Alone 2?
Flat out, Never Hike Alone 2 is the Friday the 13th film that I have always wanted to make and fans have been dying to see. It involves the direct continuation of the Tommy Jarvis saga with fan favorite Thom Mathews signed on to once again reprise his role as Jason’s arch enemy.
Set 25 years after Jason Voorhees was supposedly returned to the depths of Crystal Lake, longtime nemesis Tommy Jarvis still lives with the fear that the undying, homicidal maniac still stalks the forests of Wessex County.
Working as a part time EMT, Tommy has struggled to prove his theory that Jason is still alive, until the fateful day he and his team are called out to recover an injured hiker, Kyle McLeod, who was found bloody and unconscious at the edge of the Wessex County Wildlife Preserve.
Shortly after Tommy arrives to the aid of Kyle, Jason emerges from the forest and attacks Tommy and his team in ultimate pursuit of the injured hiker who bested him in the events of Never Hike Alone.
After narrowly escaping Jason, Tommy and Kyle return to the Wessex Country Medical Center to recover from their wounds, but Jason is not far behind and hell bent on putting an end to Kyle and Tommy once and for all.
Our entire team truly believes that not only will Never Hike Alone 2 give fans the Tommy vs. Jason film they have been waiting to see, but also deliver the definitive, bloody, and emotional ending to the Friday the 13th saga we all deserve.
Fans may remember that we originally planned to split the film into 3 episodes to make each part of the production more affordable. After the pandemic delay and overwhelming crowdfunding support for Never Hike in the Snow, we feel confident we can raise the proper funding to do a Friday the 13th Fan Feature the proper way
Now, more than ever, we will need the collective support of the entire Friday the 13th franchise fandom. With their support, we are confident we can give the fans the film the studios never could.
The music is it's own character in the film. Its very distinct. Especially the first time that we hear the Ki-Ki-Ki and Ma-Ma-Ma. What was it like getting to remix Jason's iconic theme?
All the credit to our music goes to the film’s composer Ryan Perez-Daple. We have been working together on every project I have made since Never Hike Alone and I consider him a vital member of my core Womp Stomp Films team.
Music is very important in filmmaking. Our post team works very hard to incorporate the right tone and mood even before we shoot and edit. When preparing for a film I will often collect a series of tracks from different scores and listen to them over and over again while visualizing how certain scenes will be shot in relation to the music. I share that music with my crew and we all know what rhythm and pace we need to be on when shooting the scene.
When the bow and arrow sequence goes into slow motion, we knew we needed something dynamic and exciting to go along with the action. We took some inspiration from the “Baskin” soundtrack to ratchet up the excitement. Ryan then worked within elements of our own original score and put his own spin on it while incorporating the Ki’s and Ma’s from our film’s sound library.
What was it like getting to bring back Vincent Guastaferro? Did Thom have a hand in bringing him in?
Working and getting to know Vinny has been such a great experience. Thom was the one who introduced Vinny to Never Hike Alone and arranged for us to meet. As a couple of Italian paisanos with the same name, we hit it off immediately.
Vinny loves acting. It was inspiring to work together with him to bring the character of Rick Cologne back to the screen. Rick and Tommy’s rivalry is a big part of the film so having these two is such a key element to making our version of this story feel like a true extension of the franchise.
I think one thing that surprised Vinny was to see how the character of Rick has evolved from his first appearance in Jason Lives. Without breaking canon, we continue with the notion that because Rick has never seen Jason with his own eyes, he is not truly convinced that he exists.
Rick is no longer the brash young deputy we last saw locked in a cage by Tommy and Megan, but a seasoned Sheriff who is a bit more cunning and manipulative in his elder years. That said, Tommy does have a way of bringing out the old fire inside of him.
To Rick, Jason is the Jaws of Wessex County and the last thing he wants is for someone to start telling all the citizens of Crystal Lake that there is a hockey-masked shark in the water.
Rick hides information from his Deputy and Anna because he knows that any information about a “Jason” sighting getting out is potential for public panic and scrutiny. He also know that where “Jason” goes, an appearance by Tommy is not far behind.
The scene with Jason and his mother. Where did that come from? It's a very touching look into Jason's mindstate. Does Jason view himself still as that little boy?
This is a scene that I had in my notes for a long time. The original idea came from an animated Friday the 13thmusic video I wanted to put together based on the synth track “These Streets” by Lazerhawk.
I wrote out a whole sequence of Jason rising from the lake and returning to his mother’s altar with the first victim he claims in the video. As her blood seeps into the wood around the altar, Pamela’s Ghost appears, and Jason returns to childlike form after Pamela removes his mask.
Part of the overall idea eventually became the “Disappear” music video, but we didn’t have room for the transformation dream to take place. The film also became more about Jason’s loneliness of being stuck in an endless cycle of death with no end in sight.
In Never Hike in the Snow, the idea came back into the fold only a few months before we were supposed to start shooting. Examining ways to expand the story, I once again found myself in the mindset of Jason and what would be going through his head in the moments after his kill. Then I remembered this scene and found a way to weave it into the narrative.
Once again testing the boundaries of the Friday the 13th narrative, I wanted to show the first ever signs of Jason having guilt or having second thoughts for his actions. After all, Mark was just an innocent 17-year-old boy who was killed because of Jason’s stupidity of getting caught on camera. He didn’t need to die, but Jason was left without a choice.
Pamela appearing is a way for Jason to continue to justify his actions. Pamela’s spirit is simply just there to comfort her child. As long as she still loves him, everything else will be OK.
Although I do not believe Pamela or Jason to be inherently evil people, they are now supernaturally trapped as a form of punishment for Pamela’s actions in 1979 and doomed to eternally inflict the pain they once felt onto the people of Crystal Lake.
The body camera for the Deputy. What was the inspiration for that sequence? It felt very grounded in Never Hike Alone's found footage tone. It also reminded me slightly of the sequence from Texas Chainsaw 3D with the cop investigating the house and coming across Leatherface.
The bodycam sequence was a return to the roots of the found footage approach we used to create tension in Never Hike Alone. Our goal was to show off a little more of the camp through a new character’s eyes, sprinkle in an easter egg or two, and then have the film go out on an intense scare.
Unlike the found footage scenes in Never Hike Alone with Kyle McLeod’s search leading to a confrontation with Jason, the end result of Deputy Mabry’s journey leads to a brutal death. We wanted this to be the found footage kill sequence people have been waiting for and I think Jason getting the Deputy to blow his own head off with a shotgun was a pretty gnarly way to cap it off.
Jason stomping out the camera at the end was a direct nod to Never Hike Alone. Showing that technology is at Jason’s doorstep and Kyle was not the first person with a camera to put Jason’s existence in peril. If anything, we wanted Jason’s ability to take brutal actions on both his victims in this film and amplify how much of a survivor Kyle is in Never Hike Alone.
The TCM remake is a good reference, but I would say the inspiration came more from the ending of the original Blair Witch. I think horror fans will all agree that the character standing in the corner of the room at the end of that film was deeply unnerving. It may be even more disturbing knowing that we never get to understand what happens because the film ends so abruptly without any answers.
In our similarly inspired situation, we wanted to take this concept to the next level, instill a lot more carnage, and introduce more supernatural elements to the camp. There was also a goal to grow Deputy Mabry as a character who will follow his instincts in the spirit of doing the right thing.
I find it very poetic in stories when characters follow good natured instincts that ultimately lead to their demise. Like the young boy Mark, we wanted Alan’s death to hurt the audience emotionally and supplant the theme that death in our films is real and the audience should be very afraid of it instead of mindlessly cheering it.
With Jason lost in his trance and vulnerable to attack, the scene gives Deputy Mabry a moment of contentment thinking he may have solved the case. Sensing Jason is under attack, we see how the camp can supernaturally assist Jason with gaining an upper hand.
Originally planned to be done with fans, the wind that passed through the attic and blew out the candles in the scene naturally happened and required no on-set special FX. We refer to happy accidents and odd occurrences in the story and on set as “The Spirit of Pamela.” This moment in the film is Pamela supernaturally protecting her son.
The other dramatic nature of this situation is that if Tommy wasn’t stopped by Rick and Mabry, a lot of lives could have been saved not only in this film but also events to come.
I love / hate the fact that Tommy gets so close to proving everyone wrong in Never Hike in the Snow, but I also know how much more satisfying it will be when it happens in Never Hike Alone 2.
Deputy Mabry’s curiosity is sparked by Tommy’s wild theories and Rick withholding information. Due to this, he wanders into a situation he is not equipped to handle on his own and pays the ultimate price. In my head, Tommy and Rick share just as much responsibility for his death and that guilt will carry through with them into the next film.
Part of why we see Tommy so sullen in Never Hike Alone is that aside from his failure to produce any proof of Jason’s existence, the guilt of Deputy Mabry’s death has pushed Tommy toward giving up on his pursuit of ever finding Jason at all.
A lot of fans saw this scene as an abrupt ending without any meaning, but if you look closer you will see a much bigger story with deep roots in character and emotion. Never Hike in the Snow is only the beginning of a much bigger story.
Will we find more about the boy at the beginning that comes across Jason? It seemed like there was more going on with his mother. Or is this one of those instances where we just see it as a casualty of tragic events?
The story of Mark Hill continues to play a factor in Never Hike Alone 2 through his mother, Diana, who I consider to be the sleeping giant of the film. Never Hike in the Snow was only an introduction to her character, and she has a lot more to contribute to the emotional arc as the story continues.
Three months after the unexplained disappearance of her son, Diana Hill is conflicted about what to do with her life now that he is gone. Leaving Crystal Lake without answers about what happened to Mark gives her an awful sense of abandoning him and all hope of knowing his true fate. Then again, each day that passes in town is a haunting reminder of what she lost.
Diana is a resident physician who works at Wessex County Medical Center with Tommy. When Tommy returns with Kyle after their encounter with Jason on Cunningham Road, he may have the answers Diana needs to find out what happened to her son.
The conflict will be whether Diana believes what Tommy has to say about Jason attacking the ambulance or if she will be swayed by Rick’s theory that Jason is a myth and Tommy is staging an elaborate hoax fueled by his life-long psychosis.
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Thank you so much Vin for taking this time! Cannot wait to chat again soon.
What have we learned everybody? Well, it's been announced that we will be getting a full length Never Hike Alone 2. I know I am super excited about hearing that news.
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