I did find that its important to over-cut the eyes to get the correct dimensions because the vac'd masks are pulled directly over a mold of the movie mask, which shrinks the eye cuts in the blank roughly by the thickness of the plastic, which is about 3 mm. Doesn't sound like a lot, but when you cut them larger than the shape in the plastic they really look more accurate.
It's also the mask you see on the cover of the Jason Goes to Hell fanzine that was released with the movie. Super cool piece of history.
This is just a teaser, but they've packed in a lot of interesting things. Perhaps most noteworthy: Elias Voorhees is back, and we are treated to a mysterious moment where he has the Necronomicon in hand while gazing at his ex-wife's severed head. Is he planning on awakening her? We also see a flashback involving hooded Jason, so it appears we're going to get treated to more Jason backstory.
Fun fact: the head they used is one of the ones I produced a few years ago that was 3D printed off the screen-used head from part 2. It's not lit very well but still nice to see another one of these end up in a fan film.
We have another Friday the 13th fan film on the way: Friday the 13th: Roseblood. According to a synopsis on IMDB: "Takes place 13 months after Friday The 13th Part VII. We follow Tina Shepard as she is held and studied at the infamous Camp Crystal Lake Research Facility. Tina realizes that she is not alone. There in fact is another New Blood. Rose"
This seems to be a merging of settings and events from Part VII and Jason X that deepens the relationship between the two films. Super cool idea! I like where Vengeance went with continuing the plot originally written by Tom McLaughlin for part 6, and Jason Rising seems to take place after the events of Part 4. It provides a little non-canon storyline for us to fill in the time gaps between the big studio films.
It is also really awesome to see Tina Shepard (Lar Park Lincoln) and Dr. Crews (Terry Kiser) reunited again. The timeline makes absolutely zero sense--these actors are more than 30 years older but their characters have only aged a year. I know that was one hell of a year but DAMN. Also, nice to see Dr. Crews recovered from his tree-trimmer injury. The extreme censorship of the original kill by the MPAA back in 1988 actually made it less bloody than a paper cut so this sort of believable.
My only real quibbles with what I'm seeing so far are in execution. Now to preface, I always try to be kind to fan film makers. It is extremely difficult and unbelievably expensive to make a Hollywood-quality horror film, and I take my hat off to anyone willing to put their life on hold to attempt such a thing purely for the love of the Franchise. This film is no exception.
The Jason suit isn't great. The back and rib appliances are a little cartoony looking--definitely sculpted by someone without the anatomical knowledge typical of Hollywood-level sculptors. That's ok if that's all you can afford. But it would be smart to cover it up a bit or at least paint it so it doesn't stand out so much on film. The part 7 look is one of the toughest to pull off because it requires so many layers of cloth, flesh and bone that all have to look believably weathered and corpse-like to the eye. In my estimation, they could be doing better in this respect, but I'll try to not let it color my opinion of the film overall since of course I haven't seen it yet.
Secondly, the lighting doesn't look great to me. Often Hollywood will hide mediocre special effects work, weak set design, even bad acting behind dramatic lighting, and most films are usually better off for it--especially in the horror genre. Judging by the trailer, this film looks to be lit like an office building. But I guess we'll see!
I will say the acting seems to be pretty solid and it looks like we're even getting an appearance from Creighton Duke. If that's the case, that's unifying subplots from no less than three films, which is no small feat. Overall, I'm looking forward to this one and I can't wait to see how they're going to bring these three main characters together.
