"Camp Crystal Lake... Can't believe it. That story used to scare the shit out of me."
— Kyle
Never Hike Alone is a Fan Film of Friday the 13th created by Womp Stomp Films. It was released on October 13th (a Friday) 2017 on YouTube.
The fan film is about Kyle McLeod, a hiker who, during a solo backpacking trip, discovers the long lost remains of Camp Crystal Lake. However, as he explores around the area, he soon realizes he's not alone.
It is available to watch for free here
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On September 13, 2019, Womp Stomp Films released a music video simply titled Disappear, with a small teaser for a 20 minute prequel, "Never Hike In the Snow", with the possibility of 3 webisodes following suit.
Just one year after the teaser, on October 13, 2020, Womp Stomp Films released "Never Hike in the Snow" that can be viewed here.
On January 13, 2023, a teaser trailer was released for a full sequel, Never Hike Alone 2, which is set for release on October 13, 2023.
This Fan Film contains examples of:
- Abandoned Area: Camp Crystal Lake has become this after the infamous killings that took place there.
- Abandoned Camp Ruins: Again, Camp Crystal Lake.
- All Just a Dream: Bits of the film are all in Kyle's mind, including his death.
- All Men Are Perverts: Kyle finds an '80s Playboy (July 1980, specifically). Later, Axel — one of the paramedics who rescues Kyle — "reads" it instead of treating Kyle's not-exactly-superficial injuries.
- Ambiguous Situation: Whether Jason was always going to kill Kyle for the simple act of trespassing on his perceived turf or if he only decided to kill him for going near his mother's head is hard to parse.
- Noticeably Jason only seemed to be tracking Kyle before that and never attacked despite having ample opportunities to do so.
- Badass Normal:
- Kyle. The opening of the film, showing him running through pretty rough terrain to get to his first camp site before sunset highlights his athleticism (he states that point is an eight hour hike, and sunset is in seven hours. He makes it.) He's also a very experienced outdoorsman, knowing how to tend to his wounds and well-prepared for several days in the wilderness.
- Tommy Jarvis gets snatched by Jason when he's sitting at the front of the ambulance and looks like he's a goner. He manages to survive his off-screen struggle with Jason (maybe because Jason deciding to kill Axel saved him) and he gets back on the ambulance and floors it.
- Big Damn Heroes: Tommy Jarvis manages to save Kyle from Jason at the end of the film.
- Black Blood: Jason has this, showing that he's no longer even remotely human (or very easily killable).
- Blood from the Mouth: Kyle has copious amounts of this in his dream as Jason pops his head barehanded. Jason also has this out the holes of his hockey mask when Kyle buries an axe in his neck.
- Boulder Bludgeon: Kyle has so far had zero effect in his fights with Jason, and has just been disarmed of his only defense against his machete and thrown violently to the ground. In desperation, he grabs a rock and smashes Jason in the face with it, knocking his mask off. This being Jason, knocking his mask off is all it does, and even that's quickly fixed.
- But Thou Must!: Kyle nearly escapes completely from his first encounter with Jason, getting to the "No Trespassing" sign he'd ignored earlier that brought him onto Jason's turf. Unfortunately, he tripped on the barbed wire the sign was hanging from, cutting his leg badly. He states to his webcam that without his supplies, he won't last the night, but he left them back in the heart of Camp Crystal Lake when he fled from Jason. The third act of the film is him attempting to get his supplies, patch up his wounds, and get back out without getting found and killed by Jason.
- Brick Joke: Kyle, upon first arriving to the camp and exploring, finds a Playboy magazine and stores it in his backpack. He loses it during his second to last confrontation with Jason, but it reappears when one of the paramedics, Axel, looks through it.
- Canon Discontinuity: Per the creators of the film, they chose to ignore the events of the films produced by New Line Cinema.note Considering Never Hike Alone, and it's follow-ups, to be a follow up to the original eight films produced by Paramount.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- That axe Jason threw at Kyle and embedded in a tree? Its role in this drama is not over.
- His first night on the trail, Kyle is recording a plug (apparently paid) for a collapsible, multi-function shovel, and flubbing his script. Kyle comments to himself that "it looks like a cheap piece of shit to me." Turns out it's pretty good for chopping fallen branches for firewood, and not useless to have at your side when a seven-foot-tall murderous revenant is on your ass.
- Kyle's guidebook he uses throughout the film saves his life by taking the brunt of Jason's machete when he gets stabbed in the abdomen.
- Chairman of the Brawl: Kyle tries to slow Jason down by hitting him with an old wooden chair. It shatters over Jason's shoulder.
- Continuity Nod:
- The crime scene markers that Kyle discovers as he wanders through Camp Crystal Lake showcase the police investigated Pamela Voorhees' rampage in Friday the 13th (1980).
- Tommy Jarvis manages to distract Jason from taking out Kyle at the end by yelling out "remember me?!"
- Dramatic Unmask: Par for the course, Jason gets his mask knocked off while he and Kyle struggle. His face is heavily shadowed, but it's pretty clearly a Part VII-inspired Jason, complete with a few identifiable wounds from previous Fridays.
- Found Footage Films: Downplayed. Parts of the film are through the tiny camera Kyle takes to blog his hiking adventures. Most of the action is shot as a traditional film, since Kyle's smart enough to drop the damn camera when his life depends on it. And the fact that the battery dies shortly after his first encounter with Jason.
- Genius Bruiser: Kyle is clearly an intelligent and athletic person, who can (very, very briefly) go toe-to-toe with Jason and not die instantly. But his main successes come from outsmarting the Crystal Lake Killer.
- Genre Shift: Due to having only one primary character, the film isn't a body-count slasher like the typical Friday the 13th film, but rather a tense, suspenseful cat-and-mouse between Kyle and Jason with bouts of combat between an ordinary hiking enthusiast and a giant undead killing machine. And as above, with minor elements of Found Footage Films.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: Kyle tries to fight Jason off with punches in their first encounter. It goes about as well as you'd expect.
- Hairy Girl: Discussed in regards to the 1980 Playboy.
- Here We Go Again!: Tommy and Jason's cat-and-mouse game resumes with a wounded and confused Kyle strapped in for the ride.
- The Hero Dies: Averted. Jason crushes Kyle's head with his own hands... But then he wakes up in the ambulance and ultimately escapes.
- Hope Spot: Kyle buries the head of an axe in Jason's neck, got saved from a nearly-lethal machete stab by his guidebook, has his gear and supplies back to get back out of the woods... Then Jason reaches up, yanks the axe out of his neck, and starts chasing Kyle again.
- Lightning Bruiser: Jason has elements of this in the film. While he generally moves slowly, when it's time to attack, Jason strikes like a snake, making him all the scarier.
- Machete Mayhem: After failing to kill Kyle with his initial throw from the second story and axe attack, Jason rushes to grab his trusty machete to finish the job.
- Made of Iron: Kyle. Jason's first attack is to throw Kyle out a "door to nowhere" on the second story of the main lodge. Kyle survives this, gets into a fistfight with Jason and makes it out okay, though he does quickly start accumulating wounds that start slowing him down. Unfortunately for Kyle, while he's Made of Iron, Jason is Made of Diamond.
- Mutual Kill: Subverted. Kyle is stabbed by Jason at the same time as he manages to drive his own axe into his neck. Of course, Kyle's Pocket Protector saves him... and Jason just yanks the axe out and gets right back up.
- Mythology Gag: Kyle finds numerous crime scene markers with numbers on them, each marking where one of the counselors from the first film died or where their body was found after the killings...
- The first one Kyle finds, number 6, is Marcy.
- The second one, number 3, is Steve Christie.
- The third one, number 2, is Jack.
- The fourth one, number 5, is Brenda.
- The fifth one, number 4, is Bill.
- The sixth and final one, number 1, is Pamela Voorhees.
- Nightmare Face: Again, par for the course, Jason's face is not pleasant to look at. It's heavily shadowed the one time it's shown, however.
- No-Sell: Jason is in fine form, soaking up punches, a chair, a bludgeoning with a rock, and even an axe to the throat with nary a wince.
- Offscreen Teleportation: Jason appears to have this as usual. Notably, when Kyle is first deciding whether or not to ignore the "No Trespassing" sign, Jason can be seen just appearing closer and closer to Kyle, until he's standing right over him, only to vanish when Kyle looks in Jason's direction. After Kyle hops over the sign, Jason appears again... right where Kyle had been moments before.
- Oh, Crap!: Tommy Jarvis has this reaction when he realizes who the "second lost hiker" is.Tommy: Son of a bitch, I KNEW IT!
- Pocket Protector: Kyle when Jason stabs him with his machete and gets saved by his guidebook.
- Punched Across the Room: After Kyle tries punching Jason to subdue him, Jason knocks Kyle through the air and into a tree with a single backhand.
- Red Filter of Doom: In one of Kyle's hallucinations at the ambulance.
- Scenery Porn: The film takes good advantage of its filming location and delivers some amazing shots of natural beauty.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Kyle's reaction after seeing Jason pull out the axe he chopped into his neck as if it were nothing.Kyle: Fuck this!
- Self Stitching: Kyle cuts his leg open on some barbed wire, and needs to patch himself back up before it becomes infected. Unfortunately, his pack with all his supplies, including a first aid kit, is back in the main lodge of Camp Crystal Lake.
- Shout-Out:
- Kyle relates the "legend" of Camp Crystal Lake, then goes on to wax philosophical about how no one except for "your lonesome trespassing hiker" gets to enjoy the place, "all because of some stupid ghost story." He then states "Well, I ain't afraid of no ghosts."
- The last "found footage" part of the film, where Kyle, injured from his narrow escape from Jason, pulls out his camera. He tells whoever finds it that Jason is real, the stories are true, and to get this to his parents. He tells his parents he loves them and that he's sorry before the battery dies. Quite similar to the famous "I am so scared right now" scene in The Blair Witch Project.
- After Kyle is rescued but hallucinates Jason attacking him while he's strapped to a gurney, Jason is wielding a Buck 120 hunting knife, the knife used by the various Ghostfaces in Scream films.
- Title Drop: "Hey, didn't anyone ever tell you, you should never hike alone?"
- Wham Line: As if the fact the ambulance driver being Tommy Jarvis wasn't a Wham Shot, he also distracts Jason at the end by yelling out "Hey, maggot-head! Remember me, asshole?!"
