Never Hike Alone

Never Hike Alone – I am honestly not sure what state the Friday the 13^th franchise is in, and who owns what, to me that’s all slick lawyer mumbo jumbo, but one thing is probably for sure; you can’t count on a new Friday the 13^th movie to hit the screens anytime soon, which is a major bummer for this diehard slash-head.  Luckily some fans are keeping the dark spirit of the franchise alive, and the curse of Crystal Lake lives on through fan films and fiction.  Never Hike Alone might be the best fan movie I have ever seen.  With no budget and a very limited cast they managed to capture that classic Friday the 13^th feel that the highly polished refake seemed to miss; the tension and atmosphere is all there in spades.  The setup is a lone hiker creating Youtube videos of his solo hiking adventures stumbles upon Crystal Lake Camp, something he has only heard about in ghost stories from his older brother.  After wandering the camp grounds, he quickly discovers Jason is real, and he’s still out there.  This simple setup works magnificently for the length of the movie, which seemed perfect at the 1 roughly hour mark.  After spending the night running away from the teleporting masked killer, the hiker, at the end of his frayed wits, is rescued by an ambulance, with none other than the original Tommy Jarvis from part 6 at the wheel!  Axel from Friday the 13^th part 5 is also name dropped, so is Sean Cunningham (Cunningham Road).  Jason attacks the ambulance, killing two of Tommy’s coworkers, and speeds off into the night with the hiker in tow, now insane with fright.  I loved it, simple, atmospheric, with all the Friday tropes of boobs and blood.  Definitely check it out maggot-heads!