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The ‘Friday the 13th’ Rights Battle Heats Up

Published

7 years ago

on

It’s all about perspective and a judge is free to wield a machete as he wishes in accordance with the law, explains THR.

With that, the rights to Friday the 13th and Jason Voorhees are in the midst a legal battle, which could end ugly for fans of the character and franchise.

The article at THR breaks down the filings and what each side is alleging, which is based around the idea of “work for hire” and where the concept for the film and character were created. Victor Miller, the original film’s scriptwriter, claims he wasn’t employed when he wrote the movie and thus is looking to terminate a grant of rights and reclaim ownership. In the 1970s, the U.S. Congress amended copyright law to allow this and Miller is looking to do exactly that.

While the full implications aren’t explained, the website theorizes this Friday the 13th horror story: The franchise is ripped apart. In the United States, new films in the canon are made but without the “Jason” character. Outside the country, other Friday the 13th sequels come — these with “Jason” — but are banned domestically.

If that sounds odd, it’s all possible thanks to the 1976 Copyright Act and what happens soon in a Connecticut federal court. Click the aforementioned links for all the legal mumbo-jumbo.

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Horror movie fanatic who co-founded Bloody Disgusting in 2001. Producer on Southbound, V/H/S/2/3/94, SiREN, Under the Bed, and A Horrible Way to Die. Chicago-based. Horror, pizza and basketball connoisseur. Taco Bell daily. Franchise favs: Hellraiser, Child's Play, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Scream and Friday the 13th. Horror 365 days a year.

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Do ‘Ready or Not’ and ‘Abigail’ Take Place in the Same Universe? Did You Spot This Connection?

Published

10 mins ago

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April 23, 2024

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Abigail trailer

Both extremely bloody cat-and-mouse chases through massive mansions, Radio Silence’s horror movies Ready or Not and Abigail (now playing in theaters!) are certainly cut from the same cloth, but do they actually take place within a shared universe? It was a question the filmmakers were asked, and their response suggests that the answer to that question is YES.

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff asked the question of Radio Silence filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who co-directed both 2019’s Ready or Not and this year’s Abigail. As they point out, an Easter egg nestled within Abigail confirms a shared universe connection.

Bettinelli-Olpin tells Collider, “There is a portrait in the background of one of the scenes [in Abigail] of Henry Czerny’s [character from Ready or Not].” Gillet chimes in to clarify, “It would be a grandfather. A great, great, great, great grandfather [of Czerny’s character].”

Bettinelli-Olpin adds, “There is a little bit of a tied universe to Ready or Not within the movie.”

ready or not abigail

Actor Henry Czerny played the character Tony Le Domas in Radio Silence’s crowd-pleasing hit Ready or Not, the owner of the Le Domas Gaming Dominion and patriarch of the Le Domas family. The film centers on the Le Domas family’s deal with the devil to build their fortune, which Samara Weaving’s character Grace of course finds herself paying the price for.

If the Le Domas family exists in the world of Abigail, as the aforementioned portrait suggests, then that would indeed indicate that both films exist within the same bloody universe!

And it would seem there’s a deeper connection between the Le Domas family and the Lazar crime family introduced in Abigail. Have fun playing around with that idea. We know you will!

We’ll get you started. Is it possible that Abigail’s father is Mr. Le Bail from Ready or Not…?

In Abigail, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”

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