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Paramount Delays Horror Reboots Friday The 13th and Rings

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Okay, we understand that part of a good scare is anticipation, but this is getting ridiculous.

The latest revival of the ‘Friday the 13th’ series was originally penclled in to hit cinemas on 13 March of this year. When progress on the production proved slow, it was put back to 13 November 2015; a date that was subsequently changed for a second time, to 13 May 2016.

Now, Deadline report that Paramount Pictures have postponed the new ‘Friday the 13th’ for a third time, changing the release date to - wait for it - 13 January 2017. Yes, that was the next available Friday the 13th on the calendar.

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The days when they churned out one of these movies just about once a year seem a very long time ago. For those not old enough to remember, 1980′s original ‘Friday the 13th’ was followed by seven sequels up to 1989; four more films have come in the 26 years since, culminating in the 2009 reboot from Michael Bay’s production company Platinum Dunes.

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And as if this wasn’t disheartening enough for horror fans, the film which had originally been scheduled to fill ‘Friday the 13th’s vacant 13 November 2015 slot - ‘Rings’ - has been pushed back by Paramount as well.

Director F. Javier Gutiérrez’s third installment of the US series based on the Japanese ‘Ringu’ series, reported to delve into their origins of that mysterious and deadly VHS tape, will now not reach screens until 1 April 2016.

Still, ‘Rings’ has at least completed principal photography, whereas the latest ‘Friday the 13th’ - produced again by Platinum Dunes, and set to to be directed by David Bruckner - has still not managed to get rolling.

There are no official reasons given for these delays, but it’s sure to leave horror fans wondering whether Paramount has a problem with the genre these days. For one thing, we might note these delays come on the back of the studio abruptly pulling the plug on the sequel to ‘Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters.’

Still, the studio’s most bankable horror series of recent years has its final chapter hitting screens imminently, as ‘Paranormal Activity: the Ghost Dimension’ opens in cinemas today.

Picture Credit: Paramount