Slash-Over Fiction: What if Wes Craven directed FRIDAY THE 13TH?
The best horror films are perfect storms. They’re products of the time they were conceived and by the daring, brilliant minds that made them. Knowing how difficult it is to get any film made, it’s not hard to imagine a single element falling out of place, and thus changing a film’s impact. But let’s imagine. Just for fun.
“Slash-over Fiction” asks what classic horror films would look like if they were directed by DIFFERENT horror directors.
It may sound unthinkable, but great minds think alike! Especially in the 1970’s and 80’s when they were looking for work. So how would a director other than Tobe Hooper conceive of Leatherface? How would their legacies change? Join us as we jump down the rabbit hole to ask the questions nobody asked, starting with:
What if Wes Craven directed FRIDAY THE 13TH?
Strapped for cash and still working on the low-budget films, Wes Craven once again hooks up with Sean S. Cunningham to make a horror film set at a camp. Having already made his bonafides in the genre, he hopes to parlay the gig into eventually directing one of Cunningham’s family-friendly comedies. The script is nothing special. but Craven chooses to foreground the themes of past sins and familial loss.
Craven makes the counselors more three-dimensional, especially Alice, a strong-willed Jersey girl with a BA in Philosophy from Montclair University who’s having an illicit affair with mustachioed camp director Steve Christy. Of course, Steve is covering up more than his entire top lip. He was one of the counselors who was supposed to be watching little Jason Voorhees when he drowned, a fact not lost on Jason’s murderous mom. Mrs. Voorhees shows up and kills everyone but Alice, who pushes her into a makeshift punji pit. Turns out Craven’s Alice is also a crafty former girl scout, as evidenced earlier when she traps a snake in one of the bunks.
Special effects artist Tom Savini bonds with Craven, who is particularly interested in the socio-economic commentary of “Dawn of the Dead.” Of course, Savini still creates awesomely gruesome deaths in this timeline. The success of “Wes Craven’s Friday the 13th” solidifies his reputation as a horror filmmaker. Though it makes a ton of money, the film isn’t as well-received as “The Last House on the Left” or “The Hills Have Eyes,” which leads Craven to once again pine for mainstream success outside the genre. Production Manager Steve Miner conceives of an idea when he realizes the punji pit was made out of broken hockey sticks. The New Jersey Devils decline branding proposals from Sean S. Cunningham.
Stay tuned next for the next entry of Slash-over Fiction: What if John Carpenter directed “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre?”
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