Warning: Major spoilers ahead for Halloween Ends
While the Friday the 13th franchise’s future looks bright, Halloween Ends showed that there is one storyline the slasher reboot must avoid. Like Michael Myers, Friday the 13th’s Jason Voorhees is officially back. After a 13-year absence from screens since 2009’s Friday the 13th reboot, the legendary slasher villain will return in producer Bryan Fuller’s upcoming prequel television series Crystal Lake. Fuller’s show will fit in the blanks about Jason’s mysterious childhood, an approach that beats an alternative angle recently used by the franchise’s biggest competitor, Halloween.
The final movie in the Halloween reboot trilogy, Halloween Ends, surprised viewers by replacing Michael Myers with a new killer for much of its runtime. While it was commendable that the filmmakers took the series in an original direction, critics were not impressed by this plot line. Evidently, replacing Jason with a new killer evidently would not have been a good idea for Friday the 13th’s reboot, judging by the failure of the big twist in Halloween Ends. Focusing on Jason’s early years is a far stronger approach, as this will allow Crystal Lake to take a fresh look at the familiar series without simply dropping its villain as Halloween Ends did.
How Friday the 13th Part VI Tried To Reinvent the Franchise
Like Halloween Ends, an earlier Friday the 13th sequel did already attempt to reinvent the series by replacing its killer. Friday the 13th: A New Beginning did not feature Jason, but instead centered around a copycat killer who was not revealed until the movie’s ending. While this premise may seem strange since Jason is the face of the Friday the 13th series, at the time, the approach made sense. 1980’s original Friday the 13th was, like Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, a whodunit slasher that hid its killer until the closing scenes. Similarly, the original Friday the 13th’s inspiration Bay of Blood was also a Giallo with a mysterious villain.
However, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning failed to replace Jason in the hearts of the movie-going public. The sequel’s kills were dull, and the eventual killer reveal was a goofy, incredibly obvious twist that most viewers worked out during the opening scenes of the sequel. While Halloween Ends was a little more artful in its attempts to pull off this subversive slasher plot, eventually, the Halloween sequel still ran into the same issues as Friday the 13th: A New Beginning. Viewers came to a Halloween movie to see Michael Myers murdering teen revelers, much like many flocked to Friday the 13th’s hastily-produced sequels to see Jason.
Halloween Ends Repeated A Slasher Franchise Mistake
Halloween Ends offered an inventive, original take on the franchise’s mythos. Where Michael Myers was an inscrutable villain who murdered without any apparent motivation, Corey Cunningham of Halloween Ends was the exact opposite. Michael was a cold-blooded killer since he was a small child, while Corey was a well-meaning kid who was unfairly blamed for a tragedy and ostracized as a result. Michael’s cruelty was motiveless and inexplicable, while Corey’s rage at his bullies was justified, since they left him for dead. In contrast with Michael Myers, Corey Cunningham was a killer who viewers could empathize with and understand – but, like Michael, he was still a murderous, remorseless villain.
From the Halloween Ends movie’s opening scene onwards, the movie deliberately leaned into comparisons with the original Halloween to highlight both the differences between Corey and Michael and their similarities. However, in doing so, Halloween Ends reduced Corey to a wannabe Michael, an issue that was exacerbated when he donned a mask of his own, recruited Michael to assist him with some kills and, eventually, in the movie’s most blatant bit of symbolism, stole Michael’s mask to go after Laurie Strode. As a result of these comparisons, Halloween Ends left Corey feeling like a cheap Michael Myers knock-off, much like Friday the 13th: A New Beginning’s killer Roy Burns ended up feeling like a Jason tribute act.
Friday the 13th’s Reboot Can’t Replace Jason
While Friday the 13th 2009 arguably invented slasher requels by merging elements of the first three movies in the series, re-contextualizing them, and adding in an element of self-aware meta humor, the reboot avoided one major slasher issue. Friday the 13th 2009 didn’t replace Jason Voorhees since the slasher franchise’s creators knew that, while viewers might want a smarter, more self-referential take on the killer, they still ultimately came to Friday the 13th movies to see Jason in action. Unlike Halloween Ends, which attempted to replace Michael Myers outright, Friday the 13th 2009 instead leaned into the elements that made its villain a legend while also poking fun at the excesses of his earlier movies.
Where Halloween Ends leaned into the supernatural element of Michael Myers, Friday the 13th 2009 took a simpler approach. For anyone who wondered how Jason managed to eke out an existence alone in the abandoned Camp Crystal Lake all these decades, the 2009 reboot helpfully explained that he was a savvy survivalist. For anyone wondering how Jason was never caught or seen, Friday the 13th 2009 introduced a series of underground tunnels that allowed the killer to make his way around this plot hole. Crucially, however, Friday the 13th 2009 also worked as a standalone slasher for viewers who didn’t care about these questions.
Why Crystal Lake Should Work Better Than Halloween Ends
As evidenced by the complications Halloween Ends faced being largely a result of its treatment of Michael Myers, the Friday the 13th prequel series Crystal Lake should avoid the pitfalls that Halloween Ends dealt with, because the show is not cutting its villain out of his own franchise. While Halloween Ends did effectively subvert the Michael Myers mythos (in one surprising scene, Corey beats the seemingly un-killable monster senseless), the sequel did so at the expense of Michael. Viewers who came to see Michael slash his way through a new set of victims were left with a clever but empty meditation on Michael’s legend.
In contrast, Crystal Lake can explain Jason’s origins and flesh out the character but, vitally, still provide old-school slasher thrills starring the legendary villain. While the many canceled Friday the 13th reboots prove that Crystal Lake still has a way to go before the series reaches screens, the show still has a better chance of reinventing its villain than Halloween Ends did. By keeping Jason center stage, Crystal Lake can avoid letting down those who simply want to see the killer do his thing. Meanwhile, by revealing the Friday the 13th villain’s backstory, Crystal Lake can also avoid repeating the most maligned twist in Halloween Ends.
