Cancelled Friday the 13th reboot would have been a more supernatural origin story

This week Paramount Pictures’ planned ‘Friday The 13th’ reboot was unceremoniously cancelled mere weeks before it was set to enter full production in March.

Horror fans may not ever get to see the what the film would have been, but a new report has offered details on the direction and plot of the series’ 13th instalment.

– Seven 2017 Oscar nomination stories worth celebrating
– La La Land is the joyous, vibrant film we need in 2017
– The Batman: Seven directors who could replace Ben Affleck

A report from Fandom, citing a “trusted source” close to the film’s production, the film would have been a period origin story inspired in part by 2014 horror classic ‘It Follows’.

According to the report, ‘Friday the 13th: Part 13’ as it was clunkily called, would have been split between scenes set in 1975 and 1980, and shown how a 12-year-old Jason Voorhees become the iconic, masked teen-slayer.

‘It Follows’ is described as a “tonal influence”, but perhaps also an influence in terms of its casting. Reportedly there was to be no nudity in the film, and a focus on casting more “indie-looking” girls rather than the kind of “bombshells” typically seen in the series.

The 1975 portion of the film would have included both Jason’s parents – Pamela and Elias – with the filmmakers eyeing Hollywood legend Bette Midler to play Mrs Voorhees.

The main characters of the film however would be two sisters whose parents run Camp Crystal Lake – the summer camp where Voorhees has carried out his many killing sprees over the years.

The younger sister would have taught Jason to swim before being freaked out by his appeareance, leaving the older sibling to take over. Jason ends up on a boat with the older sister, her boyfriend and their friends, who take drugs and fail to notice when Jason attempts to prove he can swim and “drowns”.

This is somewhat similar to the original origin story.

However, reportedly the new film was then set to take a supernatural turn, with Jason “possessing” his mother Pamela, manipulating her into committing the first set of murders at the camp. In the 1980 portion of the film, Jason would once again be the killer in scenes closer to the original film.

Set to be directed by ‘The Crazies’ Breck Eisner, ‘Friday the 13th: Part 13’ was set for release on 13 October, but was cancelled – according to The Hollywood Reporter’s sources – because of the initial box office failure of fellow horror reboot ‘Rings’.

‘Rings’ took just $13 million from a budget of $25 million (before marketing costs) on its opening weekend in the US.

Despite this set back, it’s hard to imagine the slasher icon will not one day return to camp.