Come On Sean Cunningham

The “Under the Mask” Blog is an online outlet for the “Dont Go Out There” podcast hosts to further add creative content into the horror community.

by: Bryan Hathaway

Unless you’re living under a rock somewhere in the horror community, you are aware of the Friday the 13th lawsuit. You’re aware of the fact that in 2016, Victor Miller, who wrote the original Friday the 13th (1980), hit Sean S. Cunningham, the film’s director, with a lawsuit which essentially said Miller was due money for use of the character of Jason Voorhees and the Friday the 13th name- including aspects of the original script.

Let me stop you right here. If you haven’t listened to our Interview of Adam Marcus, the Director of Jason Goes to Hell and lifelong friend of the Cunningham family, please do so now. It is on our Interviews and Episodes pages.

Adam claims this lawsuit won’t end anytime soon, and may not EVER end based on the sheer greed of Sean Cunningham himself.

I’ve been very vocal that the Friday the 13th remake released in 2009 is my favorite entry in the franchise. I feel like it is the best combination of the entire culmination of the series of movies that had, until that point, become a joke and a bit of a parody of itself. But, more importantly, I feel like it was an injection into the veins of horror itself. As we’ve seen, and discussed on our show, Horror has it’s ups, downs and “eras” unlike any genre and I stand-by the fact the 2009 release of Friday the 13th was the spark that kick-started the latest surge of horror movies. This is a surge that Blumhouse not only jumped on, but has used to build it’s company- much in the same facet that New Line Cinemas did with the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise in the 80’s. It’s not called “The house that Freddy built for nothing.”

We nearly got a sequel to the 2009 Friday the 13th, which was one of the biggest heartbreaks in this whole thing. Brad Fuller and Andrew Form had ramped the sequel into production finally in 2017 but the studio balked at the idea after the deemed “failure” of the movie “RINGS”. That is an entirely different conversation to have, but nearly 8 years after the original we were finally going to get Jason back on the big screen. We thought.

Which is really what this is about isnt it? Getting Jason back on the big screen again.

We can talk all day about all of the money that Cunningham himself is leaving on the table because he doesn’t seemingly want to “share.” We can talk all day about how this resurgence of horror is already starting to waiver a little bit with the market flooded as everyone is trying to take advantage of the current demand for more horror movies. We can talk all day about how everyone seems to be taking advantage of this financially and creatively…Everyone except Friday the 13th.

…but this is about one thing. Getting Jason back on the big screen again.

Until Cunningham and Miller get this lawsuit settled, it appears the only Friday the 13th content you can find are not for profit productions such as “Never Hike Alone”, and “Voorhees”- both are productions better than at least 75% of the Paramount/New Line released official Friday the 13th movies. You can also find countless Friday alum on a new production, 13-Fanboy, that Adam Marcus, CJ Graham, Kane Hodder and Lar Park-Voorhees all briefly mentioned in our interviews with them.

…but what we really want is another official movie… and right now… that looks grim. So, I leave you with this plea….

Sean Cunningham…. Give that man the payday he deserves for being a huge part in this franchise and lets get this series back where it belongs…

On the big screen.