Friday The 13th: How Never Hike In The Snow Brought Back Tommy Jarvis
Never Hike Alone, the most well-known Friday the 13th fan film, now has a sequel — Never Hike in the Snow takes place three months before the first movie in Vincente DiSanti's Friday the 13th series, brings back Thom Matthews as fan-favorite Tommy Jarvis.
Along with the return of Matthews as Jarvis, another actor from Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, Vincent Guastaferro also reprises his role as Rick Cologne, who is now the sheriff of the small town outside the former Camp Crystal Lake. Never Hike in the Snow's plot follows the strange disappearance of Mark Hill, a seventeen-year-old boy who went hiking in the dead of winter and never came home.
Naturally, Never Hike in the Snow brings Jason into the dead of winter for a chilling short slasher movie. In the aftermath of Mark’s disappearance, it becomes clear that the sheriff knows more than he’s saying, but wants to leave the whole thing in his past. Tommy Jarvis, on the other hand, doesn’t want to let that happen. Tommy Jarvis almost returned for the 2009 Friday the 13th remake, but this didn't come to fruition — his return to the franchise, at least in some capacity, was a welcome sight.
Probably the most well-known and beloved Friday the 13th fan film, Never Hike Alone follows Kyle McLeod, a hiking vlogger who stumbles across the remains of Camp Crystal Lake and the terror that still lives there. At the very end of the movie, Thom Matthews returns as Tommy, an ambulance driver who pulls away just in time to save himself and Kyle.
Never Hike in the Snow is set just three months before Kyle McLeod’s incident; Tommy Jarvis is not yet working in emergency services, but comes across a gruesome crime scene in the forest where it’s clear the sheriff is trying to cover up the death of a local teen. When the sheriff’s deputy expresses reluctance to salt the bloody snow at the scene of the crime, Sheriff Cologne waves off his concerns. Tommy responds by taking matters into his own hands, writing the name ‘Jason’ in the snow with the salt. Afterward, he takes off into the closed part of the forest to look for the missing teen, but the sheriff apprehends him before he gets too far. Unfortunately, the sheriff’s deputy gets a bit too curious, and goes in search of answers for himself, which costs him his life.
Never Hike in the Snow brings back Tommy Jarvis in the perfect incarnation of the character. It makes sense that, as an adult, Tommy would remain vigilant for Jason’s return. Like Laurie Strode in 2018's Halloween, he's obsessed with helping people in danger, and ensures nobody ever ends up in the same position that he was back in his youth. As Jason Lives is arguably one of the best and most beloved Friday the 13th sequels, it’s especially great to see characters brought back from that iteration of the series.
Having Thom Matthews and Vincent Guastaferro both return for Never Hike in the Snow brings legitimacy to this fan film in a way that makes it feel so gratifying for Friday the 13th fans who are still waiting for the next movie in the franchise. Tommy Jarvis is probably the most famous Friday the 13th character after Jason himself, so there’s a lot of room for a fan film to make mistakes with him. Never Hike in the Snow writes the character perfectly, reviving Tommy Jarvis in a realistic and incredibly satisfying way that stays loyal to the existing canon, despite not being an official part of the franchise.