Friday the 13th Writer Doesn’t Like That Jason Became the Villain

The original writer of Friday the 13th takes issue with the sequels, saying he doesn’t like how Jason Vorhees became the franchise’s villain. Victor Miller was the writer of the original film, and as JoBlo reports Miller explains in his website’s FAQ section why he doesn’t like the sequels even if he hasn’t seen them.

Miller wrote:

“To be honest, I have not seen any of the sequels, but I have a major problem with all of them because they made Jason the villain. I still believe that the best part of my screenplay was the fact that a mother figure was the serial killer—working from a horribly twisted desire to avenge the senseless death of her son, Jason. Jason was dead from the very beginning. He was a victim, not a villain. But I took motherhood and turned it on its head and I think that was great fun. Mrs. Vorhees was the mother I’d always wanted—a mother who would have killed for her kids.”

The quote is potentially significant now as Miller is in the midst of a lawsuit with Friday the 13th producer Sean Cunningham over the rights to the first film. Miller attempted to reclaim the rights to the franchise through copyright termination laws that allows authors to regain rights to a work after 35 years under certain conditions. Cunningham has argued that as Miller did the script as a work for hire, he didn’t ever own the rights. The lawsuit is one of the reason that the franchise has not produced a new film since the 2009 reboot.