After a few miles of making our way up a winding gravel road through wooded hills just outside Blairstown, New Jersey, Fango comes to a large metal gate. Beyond it is a camping retreat that at first glance looks nothing out of the norm; however, look a little closer, and horror fans around the world would easily recognize it as Camp Crystal Lake, infamous stamping grounds of Jason Voorhees and his murderous mom.

We almost doesn’t get that closer look, however, as soon after pulling up to the gate, we’re greeted by the decidedly unfriendly faces of the caretakers. “We’re here for the filming,” we tell the grizzled guard, who could pass for a relative of the original FRIDAY THE 13TH’s Crazy Ralph. Upon getting the go-ahead, we soon found ourselves down on the shore of the original Crystal Lake, where Chiller TV is filming CAN YOU SURVIVE A HORROR MOVIE?, an all-new original special that premieres this Friday, July 13 (natch) at 9 p.m. ET.

“Basically, I’m a huge horror fan,” creator/executive producer Richard Drew says of how he came up with the concept for the show. “And as a huge horror fan, you go to bed thinking about what would happen if there were a zombie invasion, what would you do if you were at Camp Crystal Lake and up against Jason… That’s the sort of stuff you think about if you’re into horror. So I’ve always thought about how I would fare in those scenarios—how would I fight back? What would I do? That’s the inspiration for the show, really. The other thing we were thinking about is what’s true and what’s not true about horror movies. So we describe the show as MYTHBUSTERS meets 1000 WAYS TO DIE crossed with FEAR FACTOR. We want to look at what’s real and what’s not real about horror films, but do it in a really entertaining fashion.” It’s a sunny day on the lake, but there’s a chill in the air as the crew films the three goofy and likable hosts—REMAINS’ Anthony Marks, CELEBRITY GHOST STORIES’ Annie Unnold and DEAD SOULS’ Morgan West—running through the show’s intro. Standing on the sand right where Mrs. Voorhees was beheaded with a machete over 30 years ago is an eerie experience, but today this hallowed ground will be utilized for other sinister purposes: namely, a zombie/human wrestling match.

In between setups, Drew takes Fango on a tour of the different challenges he has set up for our three unlucky heroes at various locales around the camp. Coming to a fairly deep hole in the ground big enough for a coffin, Drew explains, “Anthony’s going to be buried in here Thursday night. A massive moment, as it took us forever to dig that hole, about five hours just to get this far; [the ground] is full of stones. But we have a hole, and he’s going to be put in a coffin and buried in it. And the challenge is, there’s a cell phone in there; he has to call for help. The phone is locked, and he has to use a code. There’s loads of different codes written inside the coffin lid, and he has to find the correct one, unlock the phone and call for help—just as you would in a movie. The challenge—and he doesn’t know this yet—is that we’re going to be pumping a bunch of crap in there with him every 30 seconds!”

Drew gives a sinister grin as he goes into detail, clearly relishing the torture he’s going to unleash on his helpless host. “We have cockroaches, we have crickets, we have maggots, we have blood going in there… It’s going to be pretty crazy.”

As Drew leads FANGORIA to the next challenge, we tell him of our less than welcoming greeting committee. The British producer is not surprised. “It took a bit of work,” he says of getting the owners to agree to let Chiller use the location. “The FRIDAY THE 13TH people came here 30 years ago, shot here and had no idea that it was going to become the phenomenon that it did. And I don’t think the camp realized then what it would involve. Even now, literally just last weekend, people come up at 3:00 in the morning and try to break in because they want to make out on the beach, hide in the cabins, drink beer… This is very much a tourist spot, so we’re keeping it under wraps. We talk about being in a campground in northern New Jersey, but we never refer to the actual location, because the last thing they want is publicity. But when we found out our airdate was Friday the 13th, we knew we needed to find an iconic location, and when we discovered the actual Camp Crystal Lake was an hour away from where we’re based, we were like, ‘Perfect!’ ”

Taking us to a cabin on the other side of the lake, Drew opens the door to reveal two large tubs. “This is for a sequence called ‘The Chiller Thriller,’ which is inspired by the SAW and HOSTEL movies,” he says. “We have a segment called ‘How Long Can You Survive?’ and it’s basically about how certain things kill you and how long it takes to happen. So we’ve got fire, drownings, stabbings, poison…and extreme cold. And our two guys, they have no idea we’re doing this yet—we’ll fill these tubs with water from the lake, and they’ll get into the tubs in their underwear. They will be shackled by two padlocks, and then we’ll give them 60 keys each by chucking them in the bathtub, and then they have to find the right keys to unlock themselves. And every 30 seconds, we’ll be dumping ice and ice water on them!”

In addition to freezing cold temperatures, the three contestants will have to endure crawling through a maze which itself will be crawling with rats, dunking their faces into tanks filled with disgusting movie-themed muck (e.g., cockroaches and rotten food for TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE), in a segment guest-hosted by scream queen Suzi Lorraine, and a vampire-themed sequence involving drinking blood. There’s also a challenge that Jason himself could appreciate.

“We have a whole slasher segment on the show: ‘How to Survive a Summer Camp Slasher,’ ” Drew explains. About a month ago, we shot a whole stalk-and-slash sequence with a killer chasing a couple around the woods and killing one of them with an ax. And we really worked with our experts on, for example, how not to make noise, the best place to hide, what not to do, because slasher movies are obviously full of people going out into the dark and doing stupid, dumb stuff. So it’s very much our experts telling people what they should and shouldn’t do, that kind of advice.”

There’s also a challenge involved, albeit one that fits in with the show’s stunt competition format. “We came up with a challenge inspired by stalk-and-slash movies,” Drew says. “It’s tricky; you’re trying to make something work for TV. You can’t just have them running around these woods at night. A lot of it has to work on these reality-competition/FEAR FACTOR kind of terms. Having someone running through the woods at night is great and everything, but what is the challenge, how are they doing it and how do you shoot that? Everything’s got to be measurable. We do a lot of stuff where they’re being clocked and they have to accomplish something.”

When we get back to the set, the zombie wrestling is in full swing. The zombie, a musclebound walking corpse whose rotting flesh would send the Undertaker packing, is up against Marks, who’s bobbing and weaving as best he can in order not to get bitten while his friends cheer him on. After a string of close calls, Marks manages to duck the ghoul’s advance and throw him out of the circle, winning the match. Later, back in the cabin/makeshift FX studio, “Zombie 1” performer and ex-WWE wrestler Giovanni Roselli wants a rematch. “I think I was taking it a little easy on him. I was still feeling out my zombie roots, but now I really feel one with my zombie. Next time, I’m gonna bite his neck off!” Only in Hollywood, folks…or in this case, New Jersey.

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MOVIES/TV - Fearful Features