Notes From the Set of "Voorhees"

Last Friday night I was once again on the set of "Voorhees" as it wrapped up the final scene of major shooting. I'm told that aside from a few pickup shots, the film is done being shot. Cody Faulk reported recently on Facebook earlier today that he is done editing the first act, so despite some setbacks, progress remains solid.

Shooting ran from around 8 PM until 2 AM in the middle of nowhere and the location is ultra-creepy: remote, rural and eerily quiet, with some very dense forest. Last time I was on set we heard a pack of coyotes howling in the distance, although this time the insects were a bigger aggravation. The guy playing Jason (whose identity will be secret until the final credits roll) is very large--roughly Derek Mears sized-- and when he first gets into costume its slightly terrifying, even to an old fan like myself.

The shoot I witnessed and participated in leads me to believe this will probably be the most brutal of the Jason Voorhees fan films currently being produced. I don't want to reveal too much, but I will say "Voorhees" could be the film John Carl Buechler wanted Part 7 to be.

After the movie goes live on YouTube, I'll be writing here a bit more about my role in the film, and why I've been invited to shoots--until then, I hope you're as excited as I am.

Part 8 Mask: Final Version

I don't think there's anything I can do to make this more accurate at this point. Mask on the left is the movie mask; mask on the right is a cast off the movie mask pulled in clear PETG by Beyond Disgusting Studios. The detail in the pull is impeccable and you can see the faint impression of the original mask--including the chevrons, the larger scratches, and the subtle warping around the sides--in BDS's pulls. Because of the thickness of the plastic, you have to cut the eyes slightly larger than how they appear in the pull. But aside from some possible roundness in the chin, the blanks are impeccable.

The straps are from Fiberglassmasks.com and I'm very happy with them. Important to note though, there are no commercially available straps that are hand-stitched like the movie mask's were--mask makers tend to use rivets instead of stitching.

I can't remember every detail, but I believe the movie mask was spray painted silver on the back and the front, then painted over with two slightly different shades of yellow (a sort of naples yellow, followed by a straw yellow). Slash marks were then scraped in, revealing the silver paint beneath, and in the biggest scrapes, the silver on the back side through the clear blank. This is one of the toughest masks to reproduce accurately (second only to the part 3 and 4 masks) due to the unusually high level of detailing by the Vancouver FX team, but I've got it close enough to satisfy me. Weathering is with black acrylics washes. Final coat is Krylon satin clear.

The Origin of the MEL Inc. Bust

The MEL Inc. part 3 bust is a spectacular sculpt, probably one of the top three or four Jason busts out there. There does seem to be some mystery around its origin, with some collectors having said it comes from the original part 3 molds (albeit with a retooling), though it seems to have more than a few anomalies when compared to the movie appliances on a point-for-point inspection.

For example:

There is some evidence that it may not be a movie mold piece at all, but a ground-up sculpt by a veteran FX artist named Todd Rex, who sculpted the piece for MEL Inc. back in 2012 or earlier. Rex stated as much on his Facebook page.

 Rex (center) can be seen showcasing his sculpt at a convention back in April 2012:

A fan and painter named Jackson Rupert (who asked to be named publicly) reached out to Rex on Facebook, who said the sculpt does not descend from any movie mold:

I have never spoken to anyone at MEL Inc. so I don't know if they have ever claimed that it is a movie mold piece, but I thought this was interesting since that's what some collectors seem to think. I can only present evidence that I have been shown, and let you decide for yourself.