Jason Voorhees – Little Bits of Gaming & Movies

Friday The 13th The Game: Virtual Cabin

Friday the 13th: The Game is a lot of fun, and I’m really not much of a fan of these competitive multiplayer games. But the development team at IllFonic are clearly big admirers of the movie franchise and have poured their heart and soul into the game in an attempt to deliver a true Friday the 13th experience. The game is full of nods and references to the entire film series and the whole package really is fun to play.

The basic gameplay is pretty simple, team up with a few friends and one of you will be horror movie icon Jason Voorhees while the others play as camp counselors. The aim is simple, playing as a counselor you must try to escape the map using whatever means you can. Playing as Jason, you must kill all the camp counselors before they can escape. There are various maps to play on and Jason comes in numerous variants inspired by the movies. Different Jasons have different skills, weapons and kills…all of which are bloody and brutal. The level of detail and attention to source material is just sublime. You have the amazing Kane Hodder doing the motion capture for Jason, Thom Mathews returns as Tommy Jarvis. Original musical score composer Harry Manfredini returned for the game. And of course the king of gore Tom Savini designed all the kills in the game too.

But the game is not all about the relentless murder of camp counselors as there is a wonderful little extra called the Virtual Cabin. This is an interactive museum of Friday the 13th trivia and fun. Behind the scenes info can be found on both the making of the movies and the game. There are recreated props and scenes from the movies, characters you’ll recognise…oh and a fuck tone of hidden secrets. It really is a brilliant treasure chest of Friday the 13th goodness. This Virtual Cabin is so much more than it first seems – you just need to know how to unlock all the hidden extras.

Right here, I’m going to do a none spoiler walk-through as to how ‘complete’ the Virtual Cabin in the game…oh yes there is a point to all of this and the cabin is in fact a mini adventure game with puzzles you need to solve in order to unwrap all the great hidden tit-bits. I’m going none spoiler as there is a lot I think you should experience first-hand.

But before I do get into all of this, I do suggest that you just explore the cabin yourself and enjoy all it has to offer, play around with it’s props and familiarise yourself with it’s layout before you follow this guide as things are going to get bloody and the cabin will change as you play.

Version 1.0 – Beta

So this is the first iteration of the cabin in its purest form. You can walk around at your own leisure and look at all it has to offer without triggering anything ‘serious’. You may notice a couple of locked doors (I bet you took a sneaky peak though the keyhole though eh?), but don’t worry – we will open them soon enough. This is also where you can find the first clue. If you pick up the various newspapers and magazines and turn them around, you will notice there is a word puzzle on the back. Work it out yourself if you wish but I will give the answer right here anyway. While you can pick things up and examine then, you can’t actually take anything…we’ll remedy that right now.

The hidden word you are looking for is ‘mother’. But where to use it? In the main entrance of the cabin is a funky looking 80s computer. Its a handy little tool where you can do various things like look at the camp counselors, these are really a mix of the people who worked on the game and a few cheeky surprises. too. Change the date (later), reset the cabin to any of it’s previous versions and check for updates. Update checking is exactly what you want to do, but you’ll be asked for a password. You know what to do, ‘mother’ is the password and this will unlock the next version of the cabin.

Version 1.1 – Inventory Added

The computer screen will tell you what has been added as your controls have now been updated along with the map, the telephone now works and you can also add items to your inventory. So exit the computer and turn around, you’ll see a small diorama next to the stairs depicting a scene from one of the films – but things are not quite right as the little figures are not in the right places. Pick up each of the three figures and add them to your inventory. Walk toward the kitchen (this is why I said you should explore the cabin yourself and get used to the layout.) and you’ll notice a previously locked door is now open, the first door on your right.

I will call this “the red door room” for future reference as there is a big red door in the middle of the room. Don’t go in the room just yet, instead continue toward the kitchen and go into though the next door along. This is the bathroom have a loot look around if you wish. If you look in the open box next to the shower/bath, you’ll see another figure you can pick up – so do it. Now head back out and now go into the previously mentioned red door room. In the corner of the room is another diorama depicting another scene from one of the films. Once more collect all the figures. Now still standing at the diorama, you need to put the figures back in the correct order. Working from left to right put them down in this order; Ali, Jason (holding a machete) and finally Chris.

Now return to the first diorama by the stairs in the main entrance. Put the figures down, once more working from left to right in this order; Jessica, Jason and Steven. The drawer will open, take a peak inside and pick up the secret patch. This kick-starts the next piece of the puzzle, collecting three more patches hidden around the cabin.

If you go upstairs you’ll see a wall on the left with some of Jason’s iconic masks…but three are missing. Staying upstairs and the first mask is in the blue tent in the bedroom past the “coming soon” door. This is where you’ll need to use your newly acquired ducking skill to get inside the tent and grab the mask. The second mask is downstairs in the fireplace in the main entrance. The final mask is back in the red door room in an open box. Now you have the three missing masks head back upstairs to the wall of Jason masks and take all of them, you should now have seven masks in your inventory (just check) and seven empty hooks on the wall. You need to put the masks back on the hooks in the order they appeared in the movies. Any self-respecting Friday the 13th fan should be able to do this with ease. If you want a clue, look at the degradation of the masks. For an even bigger clue…

Just put the masks in the order shown in the picture. However, something is not right as this is supposed to be a shrine to Jason and one of those masks does not belong as he never wore it. Once more, any self-respecting Friday the 13th fan should know this one, remember Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning? Pick up the non-Jason mask with the blue markings (the third one along). To the right of the display another draw would’ve just opened and reveled another patch. Pick it up – two down, two to go.

So next you’ll need to use the plinths you should have noticed if you explored the cabin as I suggested. As you are still upstairs, go back to the room with the blue tent and open the wardrobe in the corner. On one of the shelves is a blue yo-yo, pick it up. Head back downstairs and near the front door is a coat-rack, take the blue baseball cap. Back to the red door room and the table on the right will have a police badge on it, pick that up. Finally go back in the bathroom and resting on the toilet cistern is a red bandanna – yup pick that up too. So you should now have the four items needed to be placed on the plinths. First, go to the kitchen and head though the green door next to the dining table. Just behind the now opened door is the first plinth – put the blue cap here. The second is back in the red door room and here you want to place the red bandanna on the plinth. Third, back upstairs and go into the room with all the props and very bloody bed. The yo-yo goes here (there should be a mock VHS tape on the plinth you can take and use in the VHS player if you want). The fourth and final plinth is in the blue tent room and this is where you put the police badge. A little secret compartment should open up with the third patch so pick it up.

Now for the final patch. This can be as quick or as long winded as you wish to make it. As the computer pointed out earlier, the phone is now working and hidden around the cabin are various phone numbers. Look on the back of fliers, etc. Go explore, search and find as many phone numbers as you can then use the phone to dial all of them…this is the long way to do it. The quicker way? Head downstairs to the main entrance and just around the corner from the first diorama is an awesome 80s rotary phone. Use it and dial; 1-555-342-9277. The drawer under the phone will open and voilà – the final patch. Take yourself and all four patches to the kitchen and near the light switch on the wall is the where you need to place them. A secret door will open and onto the next part.

Version 1.2 – Basement Launched

Now the basement of the cabin is accessible so down you go. You’ll find yourself in a room featuring the in-game models of all the Jasons – feel free to check them out and their descriptions. Pretty cool stuff.

You’ll most probably have also noticed a ringing telephone. When you are done admiring the various Jasons, answer that damn annoying phone. Well done, you just completed the Virtual Cabin…well the first third anyway. The game will reset taking you back to the main menu. Just re-enter the Virtual Cabin again to start the next chapter.

Version 1.3 – New Game Plus

Yeah at first it’ll seem like you have just re-started the whole thing over. But as the computer boots up it should say version 1.3 – new game plus. Oh yeah it all may look the same but things have definitely changed. Everything you did on the previous play-through will still be in place, the patches are on the wall in the kitchen, the Jason masks all in their rightful place – everything is just as you left it including the now open basement. Again, go explore if you wish, who knows what else you can find?

But to crack on with this next part you need to use that computer once more. This time though you need to change the date to June 13th, 1979. Does that date sound familiar? Its the date the first film in the series takes place. Exit the computer and you should hear that damn phone in the basement again. Go on, go answer it…again.

Version 1.4 – Lights Nerfed

So now the power to the cabin has been cut, no lights. You may also want to check out those Jason models once more…something is wrong eh? You are now locked in the basement but not to worry as getting out is easy. Just head over to the fuse box on the wall and as you examine it, you’ll hear the basement door open – so time to head back to the main floor. Quickly look around the kitchen and you’ll see things have gone very, very wrong. Head to the main entrance and…well feel free to explore the cabin…if you dare. You’ll have to explore the cabin if you want to progress. Head upstairs and things are beginning to look very bleak. As what has happened upstairs is revealed, you should hear some rather unsettling sounds going on in the background. Time to head back downstairs to see what that was all about.

That previously locked door opposite the red door room is now open, so why not go inside? Turn around and close the door while inside the room and you will find a key. Pick it up and open the door. Now go to the main entrance and the front door will be ‘open’. Lets go explore the great outdoors.

Version 1.5 – Outdoor DLC

As I have said before (and will say again) feel free to take a look around, find some fun Easter eggs, nods and references, play with the props just come back to the cabin when you are done.

If you are outside with the cabin behind you, looking out over Crystal Lake, turn to your right and there is a locked shed. Unlock the shed with the key you found and take the shovel you’ll find inside. Turn back around and leave the shed, follow the path until you get to a small campfire. Turn left and you should see a car, a way to escape? No, but next to the car is a fridge…a padlocked fridge (who padlocks a fridge?) You can find the combination to the lock if you really look for it. Or of course you could just use the code; 5312 to save some time. Open the fridge and take the wonderful surprise inside, I’m sure Jason won’t mind.

Walk back to the campfire and turn left to continue along the path you started on up the hill. Go past the “no entry” sign on the left, past the open rusty gate on the right and just keep walking straight ahead up to the top of the hill where you will find Jason’s shack…dare you enter? Well you have to if you want to continue this game. Put what you found in the fridge on the familiar looking table in the shack and you will be rewarded with one of those secret patch things again. Yup more to find but only three this time.

Leave Jason’s shack and head back down the hill until you get to those rusty gates from before that will now be on your left. Make your way inside and go toward Jason’s grave, dig him up (why would anyone do that?) with that shovel from earlier. Open up the casket (now really, why would anyone do that?). Jason is not in the best of shape is he? Time to recreate the opening to Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. So look around the graveyard for a fence post, its just turn the right of Jason’s grave. Stick the fence post into Jason’s chest (okay so really why the fuck would anyone do that?). Once the mayhem has ended, look inside Jason’s casket for the next patch.

Now for the third and final patch. Go out of the cemetery and stand in front of that no entry sign you saw before, looking forward though the gap in the fence. You should see a pool of blood several paces in front of you – walk to it. Notice the machete on the floor pointing in a direction? Follow that direction in a straight line and do not venture off that route (oh go on then just for fun, I dare you to walk a different route). Anyway just follow the direction the machete pointed you toward until you get to another directional arrow carved into a tree, follow that in straight line (don’t you want to go off the path again?) to a real arrow stuck in a tree and then follow the direction the arrow is showing you to another tree with a small family of ducks pointing you in the next direction. This is the final one now so just walk forward to the mound of dirt on the floor and dig. Take the third and final patch you’ll find there.

Walk back to the campfire (oh dear!) and turn left so you are facing Crystal Lake. Head on down and you will see where you need to place the patches you collected. Put the patches where they belong and take the gas can. Put the gas in the boat engine and finally escape the cabin to the safety of the police…

Version 1.6 – New Game Plus Plus

So you just finished the Virtual Cabin…again. But there is still more. So now you are back at the main menu, load up the Virtual Cabin one last time (until they update it again). The computer should now say when booting up; version 1.6 – New Game Plus Plus. Just like last time, everything is as you left it. The front door has been replaced, but you can open it and venture outside if you wish. Go explore both the cabin and outside to see anything you may have missed earlier if you like.

To advance in this part you need a cheat code – but not just any cheat code. The granddaddy of cheat codes. Its time to break out the Konami Code. Depending on what platform you are playing on, the Konami Code is slightly different. So using default controls/button layouts.

PC: W, W, S, S, A, D, A, D, Left-Click, Right-Click.
Xbox One: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A.
PS4: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, O, X.

If done correctly, the screen will go corrupt for a few seconds and a debug menu will appear in the top left-hand corner of the screen. You need to tinker with a couple of the options. First turn Show Collision: ON and then Map Collision: OFF which will display unkownError. Then click Close Debug Menu and you are back in the game…the now very broken game as red lines showing the boundaries of the in-game props will now be displayed. Head back to the red door room and you’ll notice the door in the middle of the room is glitching out – walk into it. You are now in some kind of strange room. Find and activate the radio on the table, when the message is finished those damn patches from before will appear. Pick them up and…

Version 1.7 – Unstable Build

So the Virtual Cabin just reset itself and its all gone wrong. Have some fun here and look around the cabin. Just stay upstairs for now though. Yup everything is all kinds of fucked up and notice that coming soon door is still locked? Lets get it open then.

You need to follow the path of the patches, pick them up as you go and follow them downstairs. When you reach the bottom of the stairs, that thing that met you when you got there, you have to examine or the rest of the game won’t play out. You now can’t leave the cabin so just follow those patches into the kitchen and down to the basement. You are back in the Jason display museum and three of the Jasons are holding three of the patches. Who does he think he is eh, stealing your hard earned patches…so go get them back.

Time to follow the patches one last time. So back upstairs ensuring you pick up every single patch as if you miss one then the next part will not trigger. They will lead you all the way to the top floor and to that locked coming soon door. Its still locked too – but you have debug mode on and can walk right through it, so off you go.

Version 2.0 – Relaunch

Okay so you ain’t in Kansas anymore but a Friday the 13th fan should know exactly where they are. Still not sure? Just follow the linear path through the door in front of you. Continue forward and you’ll find yourself in a room with a computer. Check it out if you like for an interesting tit-bit. Then when you are ready, look for a lever on the side of a door and use it for the final surprise…

You just completed the Virtual Cabin.

You can re-enter the Virtual Cabin anytime you like now and explore it in all its ~~gory~~ glory. When you do enter it, it’ll be set at the Version 2.0 ending, but you can use the computer to rest all progress if you want to play through it all again or just replay the various sections.

The whole thing is a fantastic Easter egg with dozens and dozens of more Easter eggs hidden inside. I’m still not sure if I have found everything the Virtual Cabin has to offer and developers, IllFonic do like to update the game including the Virtual Cabin along the way – seeing as there is a new update coming to the game this Thursday I’m sure there will be more secrets to discover in the future.

Is Jason Voorhees A Deadite?

LBoM: Editorials

Yeah I know Halloween has come and gone – but we can still have some horror fun.

So there has been a fan theory going around for years that Jason from the Friday The 13th movie franchise is in fact a Deadite from The Evil Dead movie universe. This all came about for various reasons, one of which can be found in the Freddy vs Jason vs Ash comic book. You see, this comic book actually started out as a sequel to the Freddy vs Jason film. However, the film fell through – so they turned the script into a comic book instead. The comic book makes several references to the Friday The 13th, The Evil Dead and the Nightmare On Elm Street movie franchises. One of which being the infamous Necronomicon (Book Of The Dead) and links Jason to it.

Even more so, director of Jason Goes to Hell – Adam Marcus has recently confirmed that this is true as the site Movieweb has reported. But I wish to cast a shadow over the theory and the Movieweb article as a whole. I mean, does it really matter what Adam Marcus says about this subject seeing as he never had anything to do with the creation of either Friday The 13th or The Evil Dead at all? He just directed one of the sequels. This site also makes a very bold claim – and I quote…

Sam Raimi, the man who directed Evil Dead, also gives it the thumbs up.

Raimi didn’t just direct The Evil Dead… he created the entire universe. Anyway, I’ve checked up on this claim and can find zero evidence either way. I’m not saying that Sam Raimi has never given the thumbs up to this idea, just that I can find nothing to suggest he ever has.

But even I have to admit that the theory does hold some water, but the problem is that the container holding the water is definitely leaking. Before I get to the problem(s) with the theory, lets quickly cover the history of Jason.

So Jason was left to drown in Crystal Lake by camp counsels who were preoccupied via sex and drugs… that was his first death. The he came back at the end of the film in what is suggested as being an hallucination… or was it? I mean, if he is a Deadite – then he could have been there at the end of the first film right?

Anyway, from the first sequel onward – Jason became the main antagonist of the franchise (except for one instance) and at the end of each and every film – he is ‘killed’ off. Axe in the head, chopped up by Corey Feldman, he has been drowned (again), blown up, dissolved by toxic waste and even dragged to hell by Freddy Krueger – just to name a few of his demises. Despite his many, many, many deaths – he keeps on coming back. This is why many people think he could be a Deadite due to the difficulty in killing him off. But there is another reason too. Just going back to the flick Jason Goes to Hell once more…

That’s the Necronomicon right there and I don’t mean a replica… that’s the very same prop used in Evil Dead II. And where is the book found? In the Voorhees house which suggests that Pamela Voorhees used it to bring her son back from the dead in the first film and that is how/why he appears at the end of that film (it wasn’t an hallucination) and continues his rampage through the entire franchise. So maybe director Adam Marcus may be onto something after all. And just going back to that Moiveweb article for a while, they quote Marcus directly…

“It’s not like I could tell New Line my plan to include The Evil Dead, because they don’t own The Evil Dead. So it had to be an Easter egg, and I did focus on it…there’s a whole scene that includes the book, and I hoped people would get it and could figure out that’s what I’m up to. So yes, in my opinion, Jason Voorhees is a Deadite. He’s one of The Evil Dead. It absolutely is canon.”

So there you go, Marcus is outright calming that it is in fact canon that Friday The 13th and The Evil Dead do exist in the same universe and that Jason is a Deadite. But to bring up a previous point – who is he to say what is or is not canon? He directed one film in a long running franchise… that’s all. He has no say on the history of either Friday The 13th or The Evil Dead. I don’t mean to piss on his parade but its true.

But here is my point. If Sam Raimi and Victor Miller & Sean S. Cunningham – the actual people who created The Evil Dead and Friday The 13th movies respectively wish to retroactively connect the two franchises officially… then should’t it be up to them to say so and not a director of only one of the flicks? Also as Marcus himself pointed out, New Line who now own the Jason name didn’t and still do not own The Evil Dead… so how can they be official canon? You can’t have two franchises exits in the same universe if they are owned by different companies. I mean, that is the whole reason why New Line purchased the Jason rights from Paramount Pictures to begin with – so they could make Freddy vs Jason and bring the two universes together.

For me, its a fun theory and as previously pointed out via the comic and Jason Goes to Hell – there are nods and references… but its not official is it?

More from Adam Marcus over this subject…

“I wanted to create a mythology for Jason in this movie, because it had driven me nuts as a viewer. She (Pamela Voorhees) makes a deal with the devil by reading from the Necronomicon to bring back her son. This is why Jason isn’t Jason. He’s Jason plus The Evil Dead, and now I can believe that he can go from a little boy that lives in a lake, to a full grown man in a couple of months, to Zombie Jason, to never being able to kill this guy.”

See, here is where I have a problem with the theory.

Deadites do not age… ever. Proof? See Henrietta Knowby in Evil Dead II. So why would Jason go from a child in the first flick to an adult in a few months for the first sequel? And if he can age that quickly…why does he not age even more so after becoming adult? It makes no sense knowing The Evil Dead universe. Then, how did Pamela get the Necronomicon? Okay so pre-warning, but I’m going to go full on The Evil Dead nerd right now…

So as The Evil Dead universe shows. It was Professor Raymond Knowby who first found the book via an archaeological expedition to the Sumerian ruins of Castle Kandar. This is the very same castle that is featured in Army Of Darkness and it is Ash himself who recovered the book and took it to the castle during the events of Army Of Darkness for Professor Knowby to find it and take it back to the infamous cabin. Then while at that cabin when the events of The Evil Dead take place and Ash burns the book at the end. Of course as Evil Dead II shows, the book may be gone – but some pages still exist and its those pages that open a portal that sends Ash back in time to the events of Army Of Darkness so Ash can find the book and place it in the castle for Professor Knowby to discover and take back to the cabin…

Its a self-fulfilling prophecy but there is one major thing to take into account over the whole thing….the Necronomicon never leaves the castle until Professor Knowby takes it to the cabin and then it is destroyed by Ash at the end of the first film. So how could Pamela Voorhees ever have used it to resurrect Jason in Friday The 13th? And I’ll continue my rebuttal to this too…

In the opening of Friday The 13th, its revealed that Jason originally drowned and died in 1957. A mysterious killer (its the mom) turns up at the same camp Jason died at a year later and murders two counsellors in 1958. The film that jumps forward twenty two years to present time, 1980 and the film starts proper. Seeing as Pamela Voorhees dies at the end of the film, that means she must have used the book to resurrect Jason before this happens. Years before, months, weeks, days or just hours? It doesn’t matter either way just as long as we know the resurrection had to have occurred before Pamela died.

The Evil Dead was released in 1981 (filmed in through 1978-1980 though) so was can assume the events of the film take place around then. Plus I’ll also bring up the TV show Ash vs Evil Dead which is most definitely canon as Sam Raimi himself is behind the series plus events form the moives are directly referenced as backstory in the TV show. Ash brings up that he first went to the cabin around 30 years ago… which make sense given the release of The Evil Dead.

Where did the book come from? It doesn’t add up especially when you take into account that no only was the book destroyed by the end of the first film circa 1980 but that it appears in the picture Jason Goes to Hell from 1993… the book doesn’t exist anymore. Then again – the Necronomicon is in Ash vs Evil Dead so even the official canon can’t get it right. But the TV show didn’t exist in 1993 when Jason Goes to Hell was released and this theory first came about – so I’ll overlook that aspect. But one major question still remains… how/when did Pamela Voorhees get a hold of it to use to resurrect Jason? (if we ignore the Ash vs Evil Dead)

The book never left the cabin from The Evil Dead and it was evetually destroyed by fire. But I’ll also overlook that factor and ignore the book being burnt… and it still makes no sense. Try to keep up here as I cover the book’s journey through the films. After being sent through time – Ash puts the book in the castle in Army Of Darkness, Professor Knowby finds the book and takes it to the cabin where he unleashes the Deadites. He kills his possessed wife – Henrietta and buries her in the fruit cellar. Within the context of the movies, its not known exactly what happened Professor Knowby but he’s presumed dead (though the TV show does answer this). Anyway, Ash and his friends turn up at the cabin and find the Necronomicon and accidentally unleash the Deadites once more – the events of The Evil Dead take place and around the same time, so do the events of the first Friday The 13th. The events of both films occur and (lets assume) the book is not burnt. The events of Evil Dead II happen and Ash is sent back in time so he can put the book in the castle.

So how did the book end up at the Voorhees house in 1993? Plus adding to the fact that Pamela must have used it to resurrect Jason before she died in 1980. She must have taken the book from the cabin before Ash and his friends turned up in The Evil Dead used it on Jason after he died in 1957… and then returned the book so Ash could find it in 1981-ish… and then remove the book again to place it in the Voorhees home in 1993… after she died. Then Ash must have obtained the book from the Voorhees house after coming back from the past in Army Of Darkness so he can have it in Ash vs Evil Dead… it makes no logical sense, even within the horror world.

Jason can not be a Deadite given what is established within the films universe’s… even with me removing plot holes to try to make this make sense… it makes no sense. As I said, it a fun theory – but it just does not hold up and director Adam Marcus ‘confirming’ it as canon does not make it so either.

Friday The 13th: The Game Is Looking Surprisingly Bloody Good

LBoG: Editorials

Friday The 13th: The Game started out when independent developers – IllFonic and publisher – Gun Media began making a parody survival horror game called Slasher Vol. 1: Summer Camp. Originally, the game was intended to be a send-up of horror games using classic 70s and 80s slasher films as its basis as this reveal trailer shows.

Did you notice a familiar name in the credits for that trailer? Some guy by the name of Tom Savini. You know THE Tom Savini – actor, director and all time horror make-up legend. Savini was on board from the start as a visual effects supervisor as well as an executive producer. It was this connection that got the game’s publisher – Gun Media thinking about opening up their game and maybe trying to acquire the rights to the Friday The 13th film franchise. After several meetings with director Sean S. Cunningham and New Line Cinema, Gun Media managed to secure the Friday The 13th IP and Slasher Vol. 1: Summer Camp officially became Friday The 13th: The Game.

The game is going to be a a semi-open world, third-person survival horror game set in and around the the universe created with the Friday the 13th movie franchise. Gameplay wise, it will be a multiplayer experience where up to eight people can play online with one person controlling the iconic Jason Voorhees while the remaining seven players will control one of several camp counsellors over varying game-maps. The goal is simple enough. Play as Jason and you have to kill the counsellors – play as the counsellors and you have to try to survive Jason’s bloody rampage… and bloody it is too.

On board with the game are some of Friday The 13th’s most famous and respected alumni. Make-up genius Tom Savini is on board to work as designer for the many, many, many various Jason kills and the game is set in the 80s with a classic ’80s rock’ soundtrack to give it that very special Friday The 13th flavour.

Fan favourite Kane Hodder who played Jason in Friday The 13th Part VII, Part VIII, Jason Goes to Hell, and Jason X is back and playing Jason again via motion capture for the game as well as being on board as a stunt coordinator.

Original Friday The 13th writer and director – Sean S. Cunningham also returning to the franchise that made him (in)famous as the game’s producer.

Developer, IllFonic have promised a morgue full of nods and references from the moives in the game. With many (if not all) of Jason’s looks over the years being represented in the game from his first ‘real’ burlap sack look from Friday The 13th Part II to his more zombie-like appearance from Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan. Whether his latter Jason X and Freddy Vs Jason looks will also make it into the game is yet unknown. But I’m sure the game will offer plenty of various Jason skins to use. Even Tom Savini has designed his own exclusive Jason skin for the game.

Yes, the movie references will be coming thick and fast. Even Jason’s arch nemesis – Tommy Jarvis is returning and is being portrayed by Thom Mathews from Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. Tommy Jarvis is to Jason what Nancy Thompson is to Freddy Krueger, Laurie Strode to Michael Myers or Andy Barclay to Chucky. In short, they have a history.

Even Harry Manfredini who created the soundtrack for the original film will compose the soundtrack of the game too and it sounds gorgeous.

I’m sure the game will feature plenty of extra DLC utilising more assets from the movie franchise, who wouldn’t want to play as everyone’s favourite lovable asshole – Shelly from Friday the 13th Part III? There is so much they can do with this game taking characters and locales from the movies. Maybe even crossovers and get Freddy in there too? A horror fan can dream can’t he?

Its as if all the Friday The 13th moons have aligned as the original creators of the movie franchise team up with a game development crew that actually care about doing the name justice and giving us gamers a good Friday The 13th game experience after all these years.

The game looks and sounds great, intense, atmospheric and scary as this IGN Jason gameplay footage shows.

Set for release on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. No exact date has yet been set but after several delays to add more gameplay features and a single player campaign too. Its been rumoured that Friday The 13th: The Game will be ready for a summer 2017 release.

Besides, its got to end up better than this…

Are you looking forward to Friday The 13th: The Game as much as I am? Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Fred Krueger

LBoM: Characters

As we recently lost the great horror meister, writer/director Wes Craven. I thought I’d take a look at his most (in)famous creation, Freddy Krueger.

Fred “Freddy” Krueger was created by Wes Craven for his film, A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984) and was played by Robert Englund. Wes named the character after a kid who used to bully Wes at school (note the lead villain in Wes first film; Last House On The Left is called Krug) and took his iconic look with the hat and dirty sweater from a tramp who used to scare Wes as a child.
Freddy is often depicted as being horrendously burnt that stalks and kills teenagers in their dreams while they sleep. However, he never started out this way at all.

He was once just a “normal” human…I say “normal” as Freddy was a known child molester and killer. He was eventually arrested by the police and made to stand trial for his nefarious crimes. However, due to the police not signing the arrest warrant, he was allowed the leave the court room a legally free man, despite his disgusting crimes.
This angered the parents of his victims and they eventually tracked him down to his boiler-room hideaway, where Freddy would take his victims. The parents doused the building with gas and then set it on fire. Freddy trapped inside was burnt alive.
Freddy is now technically dead, but his spirit lived on and would haunt and kill the children of Elm Street in their nightmares as an act of vengeance against the parents that killed him. I guess two wrongs do not make a right.

Freddy Krueger would appear in the original A Nightmare On Elm Street film from 1984 as well as six official sequels; A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985), A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988), A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989), Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991) as well as the amazing and overlooked meta sequel which saw Wes Craven finally back in control of his monster; Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994).

Though Freddy was “officially killed off”, he came back and was pitted against another horror icon, Jason Voorhees from the Friday The 13th film franchise in the sequel/spin-off Freddy Vs Jason (2003).

The character of Freddy Krueger was very different from most horror icons of the same era such as Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers from Halloween, both of who were silent and didn’t portray much of a personality.
Unlike his rivals, Krueger had personality. He talked, displayed a dark and macabre sense of humour too. In fact, as the sequels progressed, Freddy became less scary and more comedic.

Often depicted with his trademark weapon of choice which was his home-made glove with razor sharp knives for finger, along with his dirty brown Fedora hat and red & green sweater.

Freddy became a cultural icon over the years. There was a time when you couldn’t move for Freddy Krueger merchandise. Freddy cups, costumes, action figures, posters, bobble-heads, video games, etc. There was even a slight twisted ironic merchandise aimed at children…you know, what with Freddy being a child molester/murderer and all.

There have been novelizations of all the movies which were published from 1987 to 2003. Freddy has also appeared in various comic book series over the years including s Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors.

But not content with just dominating the world of merchandise, Freddy also turned his hand at music…yes music. In 1988 Freddy appeared and “rapped” on; Are You Ready for Freddy, a single from The Fat Boys recorded for the A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 soundtrack.

As well as making an unofficial appearance in; A Nightmare on My Street by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince.

Even today, Freddy still has cultural impact and is often referenced in other media. Freddy has appeared in and episode of South Park, The Simpsons. He has been parodied in Robot Chicken, Rick and Morty and countless others.
Freddy’s iconic glove has also appeared in the films; Bride of Chucky, Jason Goes To Hell and Evil Dead II.

What makes the character of Freddy interesting is the fact he has been played by the same actor in all of the official films. From the very first A Nightmare On Elm Street right up to Freddy Vs Jason, Freddy has always been played by Robert Englund. This adds a lot of consistency in the overall performance and even a bit of irony in that even though the character has arguably changed (for the worst) over the series, its always been the same actor playing him.

Well there have been a few instances when Robert never played Freddy. There was stunt work in the film, sometimes a stand in was used for certain shots within the films…oh and there was this…

The A Nightmare On Elm Street remake from 2010 where Freddy was played by Jackie Earle Haley. This depiction of Freddy also appeared in the game Mortal Kombat.
Plus a new reboot has recently been announced.

Freddy Krueger’s popularity shows no sigh of slowing down, even after 30 years since the original film, he still keeps popping up and being referenced.
Wes Craven certainly created a monster, both figuratively as well as literally.

Freddy Krueger: “The Springwood Slasher, that’s what they called me. My reign of terror was legendary. Dozens of children would fall by my blades.”

Version 1.0 – Beta

Version 1.1 – Inventory Added

Version 1.2 – Basement Launched

Version 1.3 – New Game Plus

Version 1.4 – Lights Nerfed

Version 1.5 – Outdoor DLC

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Version 2.0 – Relaunch

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