This Week in Horror: Friday, November 13, 2026

It’s Friday the 13th, and Jason Voorhees’s face is up for sale. Nobody has bought it. The bidding hasn’t even started. But somebody out there is deciding whether $40,000 is a reasonable price for a hockey mask.

Elsewhere: a studio rivalry settled by merger, a cult slasher back in production, and the loss of an actor who made every genre he visited stranger.

Kane Hodder’s Jason Goes to Hell Mask Heads to Heritage

Heritage Auctions is offering Kane Hodder’s mask from Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday with an opening bid of $40,000. That’s where bidding starts, not where it ends. The lot comes up December 2 during an auction running November 30 through December 3, and a 25 percent buyer’s premium sits on top of the hammer price.

The damage is what ties it to Hodder, the first actor to play Jason more than once. The production punched out an eyehole and chewed up the lower right edge, and Heritage includes printouts matching those flaws to specific frames. The lot also carries Hodder’s signed, annotated copy of a February 18, 1992 first draft titled “Friday the 13th Part 9: The Death of Jason,” with his notes on stunts and kills, plus letters of authenticity and verification and a copy of the Friday the 13th Props Museum book.

Warner Bros. Is Out of the Elm Street Race

Warner Bros.’ A Nightmare on Elm Street film, which had Lee Cronin in talks to write and direct, is no longer moving forward. Paramount held U.S. rights, Warner held international rights, and then Paramount completed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery on October 6.

Paramount’s film, based on Wes Craven’s original 1984 screenplay, is in development. That’s the entire status report. No writer or director is confirmed, though Jane Schoenbrun has expressed interest.

Leslie Vernon Is Rolling Again

Cameras are rolling in Illinois on Behind the Mask II: The Return of Leslie Vernon. Ben Pace, who plays Doug the cameraman, confirmed it over the weekend: “We got a sequel!”

Robert Englund returns as Doc Halloran, the man who worked out what Leslie was building toward in the 2006 original. Scott Glosserman directs, and the filmmakers are targeting an October 2027 premiere in Salem, Massachusetts. Slashers are very patient.

Remembering Stacy Keach

Stacy Keach died November 10 at his family home in Poland. He was 85. His wife, Malgosia Tomassi Keach, said he died after a long battle with a serious heart condition and heart failure.

Horror got some of his finest work. In William Peter Blatty’s The Ninth Configuration (1980), he was Colonel Vincent Kane, a psychiatrist arriving at a military asylum under a false identity. In Richard Franklin’s Road Games (1981), he was Pat Quid, a trucker chasing a killer across Australia with Jamie Lee Curtis riding along. In John Carpenter’s “Hair” segment of Body Bags (1993), he was Richard Coberts, a vain businessman who buys a full head of hair from a doctor who isn’t human. Three very different men, each completely believable.

Werwulf Gets Its R

Robert Eggers’ Werwulf is rated R for “strong bloody/disturbing violent content, gore, sexual assault, graphic nudity and strong sexual content.” It opens December 25. Adjust the family movie plans accordingly.

Play House Went From Pitch to Theaters

Nicolas Curcio’s debut Play House opens in theaters April 2, 2027. Curcio won the first Fantastic Pitches competition from Fantastic Fest and Chroma, worth $100,000 in production financing, made the film for just over that, and premiered it at Fantastic Fest in September. Focus Features and Blumhouse‑Atomic Monster bought it out of the festival for seven figures.