8 Easy Steps To Make The Next Friday The 13th Great

8. Back To Basics

Judging from the last few installments of the franchise and the stalled attempts of several writers since then, it appears as if the creatives behind these films have forgotten why they were so effective in the first place.

We don't need to see Jason in space, turn into a parasitic demon worm or take a cruise to Manhattan (yes, all those things really did happen). The best and most effective films in the franchise are the earliest installments, all of which center on Jason's original stomping grounds of Camp Crystal Lake. In these films, Jason was not a superhuman zombie of a killer, he was simply a deformed maniac who preyed on the would-be counselors of the camp.

It was in this simplicity that the stories found universality. Everyone had been to camp, just as everyone has sat around a campfire and heard urban legends before. It was the conscious adoption of these cliches that allowed the series to bore into the mind of its viewers and stay there.

Any new installment would do well to return to this mindset and tone. Ditch all of the camp and insanity of the latter-installments and give us a return to the reason this franchise was so successful in the first place.