‘Friday the 13th’ Reboot Makes Both Jason + His Story Much Faster

After taking most of the ’90s and ’00s off, a tan, rested and ready Jason Voorhees got back to work in the 2009 reboot Friday the 13th.

The 12th and to date final movie in the Friday the 13th franchise re-introduced Jason as a leaner, faster and more creative killer. It also moved the story up to a modern-day setting and leaned hard on the fast-forward button while recapping the masked killer’s evolution.

“We tried to take elements from all three [of the first] movies to create one reboot,” co-producer Brad Fuller told Shock Till You Drop a year before his Friday the 13th arrived. For example, in the original series, Jason wasn’t even the murderer in the first movie, and didn’t don his famous hockey mask until 1982’s Friday the 13th Part 3. “You will see Jason put on the hockey mask for the first time,” Fuller promised. “How and why. And you’ll actually see him do it. Not just come out with it on.”

Read More: Why It’s Been Over a Decade Since Jason or Freddy Killed Anybody

The new Friday the 13th showcased a more evolved Jason Voorhees, who moved faster, had built a large underground lair for himself and developed an even more sadistic streak. In one example, he zips a young woman up in a sleeping bag, then hangs her and the bag over a roaring campfire. When her boyfriend runs over to save her, he instead falls into the second part of Jason’s plan as a bear trap clamps onto his leg, leaving him helpless and screaming in pain as he watches her grisly death.

During a 2008 set visit by SuicideGirls, Fuller talked about the learning curve involved with including sex and nudity in a movie for the first time in his career: “The other night we were shooting a scene where a couple is having sex in a tent, and it’s in silhouette, and the studio exec was on set and the male character is…they’re having sex…and the studio guy says, ‘You can’t have him pump more than three times, the MPAA won’t let you get away with that.’ And I said, ‘I didn’t know there was a pump limit.’ We shot a lot more than three. I don’t know if that’s actually a rule, but let them tell us.” Still, he reassured fans: “No one will be disappointed with the lack of nudity in this film.”

Watch Jason Find His Hockey Mask in 2009’s ‘Friday the 13th’

After the franchise’s rather disastrous trips to New York City, hell and outer space (yeah, really), the back-to-basics, faster-paced take on Friday the 13th went over very well with fans, if not critics. The movie grossed $92 million worldwide, $30 million more than what any of the previous stand-alone Jason movies had made.

Plans for a 2010 sequel were announced but then quickly cancelled without any clear explanation. Partly because of legal battles over rights to the character and story, the 2009 film stands as the last entry in the franchise to date, although a prequel TV series named Crystal Lake is set to premiere on Peacock by Halloween 2025.