Every once in a while, I check out what Ari Lehman is up to. He’s been an advocate of my Friday the 13th short film (see past stories on this blog). Ari is a musician whose band, First Jason, has been playing to horror convention crowds — they know him as the 12 year old Jason Voorhees from the first Friday the 13th.

Over at Ari’s website, there’s a transcript of a panel discussion from Comic-Con in 2004. Someone had the crazy (genius?) idea of bringing together all the Jason actors to discuss the F13 movies and promote the DVD box set. In any case, I hadn’t seen this article until now, and it turns out Lehman managed to slide in a plug for Jason: The Rebirth.

Q: Do you think you will ever be able to go back and straighten out the inconsistencies in Jason’s origins?

(snip)

Ari Lehman: Interestingly enough, there was an animation created with that timeline gap. It is called Jason: The Rebirth. It won an award, as a matter of fact. It kind of answers that question. But, why is Jason so enduring? I want to speak to that before we end this…It is because of you, the fans. The fans bring Jason back to life by attending the movie. Every time you come and support the movie, that is what brings Jason back to life. It’s the fans that make it happen in the first place.

After a bit of googling, I found the original article posted at movieweb.com

One good plug deserves another — if you want to check out Ari’s horror movie band, visit firstjason.com or myspace.com/firstjason

Sometime in the last few weeks, Jason: The Rebirth passed 10,000 hits on YouTube. Who knew so many horror fans would happen across the video?

Hey, it’s not a runaway viral phenomenon, but it feels good anyway.

Check it out and leave me a comment if you so desire!

I was quite pleased to open my email this morning and find a message from Sergio Gaviño, who writes for Spain’s CineFantastico.com. He informed me that Jason: The Rebirth was ranked number three in their article on the 12 Best Fan Films online.

It’s rewarding to even be considered for such a list, which contains such notable fanfilms as Troops, Grayson, Batman: Dead End, and World’s Finest.

Here’s their fanfilm rundown:

12) TROOPS
Kevin Rubio, 1997

11) CATWOMAN: COPYCAT
Collin Blakeston, 2006

10) FIGHT OF THE UNIVERSE
AMDS Films, 2006

9) FAST TIMES AT HERO HIGH
Kyle Peck, 2003

8 ) BATMAN LEGENDS
Aaron Schoenke, 2006

7) STAR WARS: REVELATIONS
Shane Felux, 2005

6) LOBO PARAMILITARY CHRISTMAS SPECIAL
Scott Leberecht, 2002

5) WATCHMEN: PAGE 5
Bryant Hodson, 2005

4) BATMAN: DEAD END
Sandy Collora, 2003

3) JASON: THE REBIRTH
Mike Boas, 2003

2) GRAYSON
John Fiorella, 2004

1) WORLD’S FINEST
Sandy Collora, 2004

If you want links to each film, or you read Spanish and want to see what they’ve got to say, visit CineFantastico.com

“Jason: The Rebirth” now has a listing at Fanfilms.net. It’s a great directory of fanfilms, with links to filmmakers’ websites and online content.

Visit www.fanfilms.net

A careful search of the internet has yielded a couple more reviews of “Jason: The Rebirth.”

From Fanboy Theatre:

“This short is meant to fill in the gap between Firday The 13th 1 & 2 and it does just that. Using an scratchy and loose drawing style with a limited color palatte really gives this film an eerie feeling, and Mr. Boas even uses actual music from the original Friday The 13th films adding more to the overall coolness of the short. Very brave, very unique, and a damn fine Fan Film. I would have liked this short to be a tad longer, but sometimes in the world of Fan Films that can become a bad thing and ruin the finished product. Nope, this one is definitely a keeper, Awesome stuff!”

And here’s some thoughts on franchise animation from VisibleH20.com:

“I found this (Jason Animation) inventive and fun. I hope that someday we will see much more animation for such works. Perhaps many such works that are awaiting new creative juices to flow, should be animated until better scripts and or creators are at hand. Take The Batman, for instance, the Cartoons continued with or without the live action movie. It took ten years or so for Batman to Return.”

Lastly, I see that “Jason” is listed with other F13 fanfilms at scabboy.net.

Cinematical.com has been running features on fan films lately, and “Jason: The Rebirth” made the cut.

Peter Sciretta writes:

“The animation is better than you’d expect, with a style of its own”

TDavid writes:

“That washed out green/black texture for the fanfilm has its own dark flavor to it. This is actually much better than I thought it would be.”

I suppose the trick is to keep people’s expectations really low, so they’re pleasantly surprised with the film itself…

Read the story at http://www.cinematical.com/2005/06/11/fanfilm-jason-the-rebirth

The “Friday the 13th” 25th anniversary celebration was a big success. I heard from Eben, convention head honcho:

“Yours and Rupert Takes Manhattan were winners. Yours screened on a 10 foot screen facing Hollywood blvd. all night (looped) on Thurs. night a ‘coming attraction’ for the weekend. It was a cool spectacle.”

So I’m imagining unsuspecting passers-by walking down Hollywood Boulevard, being subjected to my strange little cartoon. Pretty wild. This sort of response makes me want to get my next shorts out to festivals as soon as possible.

“Jason: The Rebirth” is a modest fan film that was created for entry in the 2003 ManiaFest competition. The judges liked it quite a bit, awarding it second place (with a cash prize!). The producers of the Friday the 13th DVD box set were sponsoring the competition, and for a while it looked like they would be including several winning fan films with the collection. Legal problems prevented that from happening, unfortunately.

Once the DVD fell through, I decided to send the animated short out to some horror festivals and fan conventions. Here’s a list of Jason screenings so far:

NecroComicon - November 2004
Carnage Con - November 2004
Dark Xmas - November 2004
Cinema Wasteland - April 2005
Chicago Horror Fest - April 2005
NecroComicon - F13 reunion! - May 2005

The responses I’ve been getting inspired me to make the trip to Cleveland for April’s Cinema Wasteland Convention. Head honcho Ken Kish put together a great panel of guests and a line-up of trashy b-movies that were not to be missed.

Coincidentally, while I was in Cleveland, I had a supporter in Chicago pushing the cartoon. Ari Lehman, the actor who played young Jason in the first Friday film, gave me some props at the Chicago Horror Fest. I first communicated with Ari last year, after he found my website and showed interest in the cartoon. Here’s what he had to say about Chicago:

“I wanted to let you know that you now have some fans in Chicago.

This past weekend was the Chicago Horror film Festival at the Three Penny Cinema in Chicago. For the past two years, I have been a Special Guest at this event. On my way to the cinema this year, I put your DVD in my briefcase, hoping that maybe they would show it to the crowd. They were delighted to show your short animation on two nights, right after I spoke to the crowd, and the people were THRILLED! They really dug your film. The event’s co-ordinator commented that it was very well done and that he would like your work to be included next year as well.”

I can’t ask for any higher praise than that.

So what’s next? Well, I don’t own the characters or the music, so my options are limited. I’ll be sending it off to screenings as they present themselves, but I think that will taper off as I complete other films. When I approach the big festivals (that usually ask 25-40 dollars entry fee) it’ll be more satisfying to push a wholly original work.

Watch this space for future screening info!