The “Friday the 13th” property is still in legal limbo, and the odds of us seeing a sequel or reboot any time soon are slim. All we the fans have for now are fan films. Thankfully, the delivery from filmmakers that respect the property has been fantastic, and James Sweet’s own fan film is no exception. It’s a little rough around the edges in regards to the narrative, but he offers some new fodder that I hope is made in to canon someday.
Jason Rising centers on “Wessex County Police Officer Pete Daltry and his Deputy Eve Glover, who along with U.S. Marshals Jed and Bear, are hot on the trail of three female escapees from the Wessex County Corrections Farm. Soon after realizing their chase has led them onto the cursed grounds of Camp Crystal Lake, Daltry quickly discovers that they are the ones being hunted by the undead mass murderers Jason Voorhees (Dan Kyle) and his deranged mother Pamela (Alyxandria McCormack).
One of the newer aspects of “Jason Rising” that I haven’t seen in other films before is that Jason’s mother is the catalyst for his pure evil. While he has risen and she remains the primary motivation for his vengeance, here she’s a bigger presence. Director Sweet manages to focus on her for a while, exploring her purely evil essence, and how she conjures up Jason every time someone crosses the Camp threshold. Much like former fan films, Jason is a merciless murdering machine who is somewhat of a mythical specter. Even when buried deep in to the ground, he’s still haunting Crystal Lake, making it a forbidden ground.
Sweet manages to make good use of the original premise, offering us different villains and characters for once, as well as making Pamela Voorhees’ ghost the puppet master to her son. I wish we could have seen more from the convict characters as it’s rare to see threes kinds of character types in this series. They don’t prove much of a match for Jason when we get down to it, and that’s pretty disappointing. I also wish we had more interesting protagonists with the officers, as they feel like intentional canon fodder and not much else.
That said, the collective performances are top notch, and Sweet’s direction is slick and tense making it a worthy companion to Vincente DiSanti’s acclaimed “Never Hike Alone” movie series. Sweet is bold enough to introduce his own unique ideas, including the Pamela Voorhees angle, all the while retconning Adrienne King’s role as a final girl in the series. Much like director DiSanti, Sweet brings back an earlier Jason nemesis, this time with Adrienne King, the series’ first final girl, who is alive in this continuity and takes on the pair of undead murderers. I hope we get to see more from this continuity as Sweet is a very good filmmaker who is helping to keep Jason’s legacy alive.