Hello everyone, welcome back to 31 on 31 for Halloween. Today, I wanted to talk about camp. There have been a good chunk of movies based around summer camps. The most notorious however is locked up because of a legal battle. Personally, it's a damn shame because there still untapped potential for this franchise. The awesome thing though is that the fans have taken it into their own hands. They have been pushing out new content and spreading the legend of Jason Voorhees and Camp Crystal Lake.
The most recent well known has been Womp Stomp Films and their amazing Never Hike series.
However, there are a few that have entered what I'd like to call The Lawsuit Era. This past Friday the 13th, a new film debuted. Its name was Jason Rising. And it's our special special boy.
Jason Rising was made by James Sweet, Robert Blanche, Maurice J Cardwell and Vincente DiSanti. James Sweet also directed the film. It stars Kyle Vahan, Anna Campbell and Dan Kyle as the infamous Jason Voorhees.
After three female fugitives escape from the Wessex County Corrections Farm, A local Sheriff and his deputy team up with two US Marshal's to track them down, following them into the hallowed grounds of Camp Crystal Lake years after it has been condemned only to find out they are the ones being hunted by the masked killer Jason Voorhees.
Jason Rising is definitely a different beast than other fan films. It's a beautifully told story. It also carves out a new branch of the Friday lore. That's definitely something that I'm enjoying out of The Lawsuit Era of this franchise. Everybody is taking their shot and taking things into their own hands to tell stories that they want to see.
The film opens with a prologue of the Sheriff and his deputies burying Jason - who is enclosed in a wooden crate. One of the deputies mentions Tommy Jarvis and how he's got to be messed up after finding his mother in a tub. This is definitely one of my favorite callbacks in the franchise. It's so nice seeing a deleted scene or ending receive a shout-out. Now, to me, it's become head canon for what happened.
After this, the film follows a familiar path. Police and FBI pursuing escaped convicts. This is something that we have seen before and in another film - it wouldn't feel fresh. But setting this in a Friday setting definitely spices things up. It also allows some pretty sweet kills.
The thing that makes this film even more engaging is it's use of Pamela Voorhees. We don't see her in just a flashback or a vision. No, we get an undead Pamela Voorhees looking to help her son. This is something that is so cool. Especially because we see her headless as she enacts vengeance upon those who have trespassed. It just so different and so fresh to what we are used to.
The Sheriff is also different. This kind of takes the trope of the Sheriff not knowing anything that's going on and flips it. There's actually a strong arc for him as he comes to realize what exactly is going on. And that then makes him think about his relationship with his father, who he just thought went cuckoo for cocoa puffs.
This version of Jason is also really solid. It feels very much an evolution of the Jason from The Final Chapter. But he's not afraid to hold back. Jason is unleashed as he chases after his prey and in his weaponry - seeing Jason with a chainsaw is super cool.
The acting in this film is great. Everyone delivers a fantastic performance. Anna Campbell is definitely a standout. She brought such a strong performance that was so likeable that I didn't want to see her meet her end by Jason. She really felt like the final girl of the film. But that isn't really true as it throws a one-two punch at us with its two wonderful cameos. Adrienne King and Amy Steel reprising their roles as Alice and Ginny. This felt like a game changer to me. It didn't overshadow the film but added so much world building to it. It also felt natural that Alice would have survived her run in before with Jason. And the fact that Ginny is her therapist is icing on the cake. Alice definitely felt like she evolved into similar fashion as Laurie Strode did in Halloween '18. And that's not a bad thing at all.
It's taken me some time to find the right words for this film. Almost a month. But it was definitely worth it as I was able to dive into the film and just let it soak in. Jason Rising is a highly recommended in my opinion.
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Jason Rising can be found on Youtube.
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