Note to reader: I barely remember writing this, but I love it. Found this a few minutes ago in a folder of Jason-related stuff that dates to 2011 or earlier. I think someone is making a similar fan film right now called "Mythos." The version I had in mind was perhaps a little more expressionist, I remember being inspired by Blair Witch and Lars Von Trier movies. What do you think?
A full length fan film that explores the mythology of the
franchise. Shot in 16mm with a lot of authentic feel that the originals had. MOTIFS: Water, hydrophobia, fear of drowning. Death, decay and despair.
PLOT: It is June, year unknown, but in the 21st
century. A group of college students are on summer vacation and decide to spend
a weekend at the town of Crystal Lake, NJ. In a class on Criminology they heard
the legend of Jason Voorhees, the maniacal killer that stalked Crystal Lake in
the summer of 1980 to avenge the death of his murderous mother five years
prior. What followed, according to their professor, was a string of copycat
murders in 1985, 1986, 1992 and 1993. One of the murderers, Roy Burns, was
killed—the others, possibly all the same man, disappeared without a trace. The
FBI kept its files on the matter private; the general public were stonewalled
by local authorities. A folklore developed around the murders and local people
tell campers to stay away from the vicinity of crystal lake, that some who
venture out there are never seen again.
Fascinated by the story, six kids set
out to see the town—and the camp, now in ruins—for themselves on a three day
vacation.
The characters: represent teenage archetypes, but are fairly
intelligent and each have a slightly different background: one girl is a child
psychology major (ala Ginny Field) she believes the legends; one man is a
criminologist intending to join the FBI, he is a skeptic; another is training
to be a forensics technician; another girl is a folklorist, also a skeptic;
another is a … there is a couple who are engaged. The folklorist is a troubled
girl, a bit of a loner…
After arriving in town they stay at a motel that night, they
will head off to interview an ex-sheriff the next morning. That night the
folklorist has an odd dream… same one she had a few days ago (the opening scene
of the film). She is in the woods, which come out to a peaceful beach with a
dock. She smells something awful like roadkill. She sees next to a boat in the
middle of a beach, a swarm of flies and assumes a dead deer. As she gets
closer, she sees the body of a badly decomposed woman, her head severed and
laying at her breast. Being swarmed by flies and crawling with larva. Someone
approaches from behind but she cannot move. She hears a child’s voice say
“mommy?” She turns to face a hideously deformed boy, partially decayed and
covered in seaweed and algae who grabs her by the throat and proceeds to choke
her with both hands screaming into her face “LOOK WHAT YOU DID!!” with an
desperate, animal rage. She awakens.
They interview a retired deputy sheriff named Steve Hickson,
who remembered cleaning up the aftermath of Jason’s kills in 1980, 1986 and
1992. He testifies there was only one Jason except for that Roy Burns character,
and he saw havoc that no ordinary man could have created. He even remembered
Jason as a child from the local camp, remembered teasing him as a boy, and the
day he was reported missing and presumed drowned. He knew it was the same boy,
and that he hadn’t drowned, just ran off into the woods. He warned the kids not
to go out into the woods, that people still go missing even after all these
years, no bodies ever recovered. One of the kids teases him about the “Blair
Witch of Crystal Lake.”
They set off for the woods and to have a good time drinking,
camping, cooking out, fishing, etc. Some old tyme country is appropriate.
The kids have a run in with some local hooligans, who are rude
to the girls, and scoff at the Jason legend. The hooligans later decide to fuck
with them, and this leads to tension in the film as they make noises and
screaming and all sorts of things outside their tent at night. They find out
and a fight ensues, the hooligans lose and end up in the woods stumbling back
to town in the darkness. On their way, they meet Death. One is pinned against a
tree and meets an old weathered blank hockey mask face to face. His last words
are “you’re not fucking real!!!!” before his throat is opened up with a
machete. Jason is not seen except in very quick takes, like in the first four
films. His buddy catches up, sees the body and tries to escape but is
manhandled and drowned by an unseen adversary.
The explorers know something is up when the find carnage in
the woods, but assume wolves or bear… they panic and begin in-fighting once
they realize how lost they are. GPS has even failed. They break into survival
mode, still not realizing they are being stalked. That night main girl has
another dream about the corpse of an old woman… she sees a surreal scene. She
is in the middle of a lake, walking on water. There is a gravestone in the
middle of it that reads Pamela Voorhees 1930-1979 At Rest. She hears a faint
“help me mommy” and skeletal hands reach out of the water to drown her. She is
pulled underwater and choked out by the corpse of a woman wearing a decayed
blue sweater, entangled in seaweed and crawling with algae and creatures. She
is surrounded by a bed of human bones. As she is drowning she wakes up.
Eventually the gang of 6 breaks up to accomplish tasks, some
to figure out where they are by looking for higher ground, others to find nuts
and berries, others to find firewood. At this point the unseen killer closes in
on his prey, dividing and conquering like a wolf. Only one man and one woman
remain in the final 15 minutes and they have an epic battle with the legendary
killer, Jason Voorhees. The boy is killed and the girl runs into the darkness
of the woods, completely alone, lost. The forest is dead silent, tomb-like. No
birds, no animals, no killer. She moves downstream and hears a swarm of flies
like in the dream… it is the body of one of her friends, dead a few hours. Her
despair turns to a fight for her life as Jason closes in. Stick and move like
the Jason/Chris battle. She wins.
