Why Rob Zombie Should Direct a Friday the 13th Reboot

Rob Zombie probably wasn’t the best directorial fit for rebooting Halloween, but he just might be right for the Friday the 13th franchise. Whether one loves Zombie’s films or loathes them – and there seems to be little in-between on that – it can’t be denied that he doesn’t know how to please his fans. With the exception of The Lords of Salem, which went outside his usual box, Zombie tends to comfortably stay within his preferred arena, with films featuring graphic gore and explicit violence, lots of foul language, redneck and/or white trash characters, sexual content, and a general feeling of sleaziness.

Zombie very much brought that aesthetic to his 2007 remake of Halloween, which remains the most divisive film he’s made to date. Some feel his attempt to explore what made Michael Myers into a monster was worthwhile, while others feel Zombie’s presentation of Michael as a victim of abuse and mistreatment made the character too sympathetic and relatable, even once he starts killing.

At the end of the day, it’s possible Zombie’s trademark style and tone just wasn’t right for Halloween, a suspense piece with little gore and middle class suburban characters. However, there’s another classic slasher franchise he might just be perfect for.

Why Rob Zombie Should Direct a Friday the 13th Reboot

When one stops to think about it, Rob Zombie’s directorial sensibilities and a Friday the 13th reboot almost seem like a match made in heaven. The Friday the 13th films are usually set in the woods of Camp Crystal Lake or its nearby small town, and often feature backwoods redneck characters, including Jason Voorhees himself in the early entries. Friday the 13th has been renowned for its high level of gore and violence from the start, unlike John Carpenter’s classic Halloween. Friday the 13th is also well known for nudity and sex, again right up Zombie’s alley. The camp counselors also tend to have foul mouths, and a general feeling of sleaze indeed permeates the older Friday the 13th movies.

To make the combination of Zombie’s style and Friday the 13th work best though, a reboot would need to be set back in the 1970s or 1980s, a time when both society in general and studio horror movies were a lot less concerned about being politically correct and not offending anyone. A Rob Zombie-directed Friday the 13th that features Jason slaughtering camp counselors clad in short shorts or bell bottoms, while sporting afros or thick mustaches could be just what the horror landscape needs to liven things up right now, at least once Coronavirus has passed.

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