At one time, Jason might have belonged to his momma, but now he belongs to his fans. Perhaps that's why the folks who usually roll their eyes at remakes are running hot for the new Friday the 13th coming out in February. That includes Travis Van Winkle, one of the movie's stars. He hasn't seen the finished result yet, but he's dying to. "I've heard so much from (producers) Andrew Form and Brad Fuller about how much they love it, and how this is the best film they've ever made," he says. "And I think is their seventh horror film... so for them to say that this is their best one makes it so hard to wait!"

Van Winkle, who revisited many of the movies before filming began, admits that though they still give him the creeps, some things just don't stand the test of time. "Anytime I watch movies from the '80s now, they just make me laugh. Like Kevin Bacon's outfit -- he wore these little baby booty shorts!" he says. "But during his sex scene in the movie, there's that shot with he gets the machete through the bottom of the bed -- that was still a shocker!"

Van Winkle's brushes with the fan universe have left him awed by the people who take their love for the franchise even further. "I had somebody write the other day through my website about how excited he was about this movie... He says he has three Jason tattoos," says the actor. "I thought, now that's a fan!" That guy would feel right at home within the gallery of hockey mask tattoos over at Fridaythe13thfilms.com. The eight galleries of costumes shouldn't surprise anyone too much, but that there's a separate area for sculptures tells you there is practically no limit to the depths of Friday fandom. It's no wonder that Van Winkle has trouble hanging onto the very clothes on his back. "I have some T-shirts that I got from the job," he comments. "People stop me -- they say, 'Where'd you get that? I want that,'...I haven't had many people asking for spoilers or anything yet, mostly just expressing excitement for the movie -- and wanting my shirts!"

The fan base will stop at nothing to get the definitive experience -- even starting their own summer camp. While they may revere each and every actor to ever have played Jason, the one thing that most fans don't get to do is be chased by him, for real. Van Winkle has them all beat, since playing Trent, one of the bright young things that discovers a boarded up Camp Crystal Lake, put him right in the line of fire. Van Winkle remembers the exact moment when the significance finally sunk in. "It was the first time that the mask had been revealed," he says. "Jason was holding the machete out toward one of the actors, and as I watched, I got the chills and thought, 'Holy sh--... this is really happening!'" Turns out he wasn't alone -- within a few minutes others in the cast expressed the same feeling. "We all kind of just lost it, because it was suddenly so real. And I think that excitement carried through the entire movie."

While February still seems pretty far off, promotion will soon be going full bore, meaning you can expect more than production stills to satisfy your fix."When the teaser airs before Saw V -- and, I think, during the Scream Awards -- everyone's going to wish they were about to watch that instead," says Van Winkle. "It's sick. I think it's gonna kick people in the face." If the fans enjoy that sensation, then the remake, which combines plot elements from the first three Friday films, may make more than all three of those films combined. Van Winkle points out that the top-grossing Friday the 13th movie made $40 million dollars, adding with a laugh: "I hope we can pass that bar!"

Tracking down interviews with horror icons has provided Tom Blunt with a healthy alternative to obsessively spying on old classmates via Facebook. More interviews abound at his site http://hermitosis.com.