Movie Info
Movie Name: Friday the 13th
Studio: New Line Cinema/Paramount Pictures
Genre(s): Horror
Release Date(s): February 13, 2009
MPAA Rating: R
The age-old question: How many campers does it take to make a campfire?
After witnessing the death of his mother, Jason Voorhees (Derek Mears) spends his life hidden in the woods surrounding Crystal Lake. When Clay Miller (Jared Padalecki) learns his sister Whitney (Amanda Righetti) has disappeared near the lake, he sets out to find out what happened to her. Meanwhile, Trent (Travis Van Winkle) is throwing a weekend party at the lake, and Travis, his girlfriend Jenna (Danielle Panabaker), Bree (Julianna Guill), Chewie (Aaron Yoo), Nolan (Ryan Hansen), Chelsea (Willa Ford), and Lawrence (Arlen Escarpeta) have become the new targets for Jason and his rage.
Directed by Marcus Nispel, Friday the 13th is a remake-reboot of the Friday the 13th slasher series. Following Jason X from 2001 and Freddy vs. Jason in 2003, the movie was released to mixed to negative reviews but a relatively strong box office return.
Friday the 13th movies were the exciting event as a kid. The first (unedited) slasher I saw was Friday the 13th Part IV, and I was hooked. The movies were goofy, gory, and just loaded with jumps. Going into the remake of Friday the 13th, I expected the “’90s treatment” of horror with more clever than cruel behavior…Friday the 13th surprisingly took a more classic approach.
Stoner vs. Jason…Jason 1 Stoner 0
The story is essentially a retelling of Friday the 13th, Friday the 13th Part 2, Friday the 13th Part 3, and Friday the 13th Part 4 in a condensed film which tries to make it flow a bit better from story to story (a majority of the film resembles Part IV with Jason attacking a house party while a family member of one of his victims seeks to stop him). It is full of cliché teens dying in rather expected deaths…but I also didn’t expect much more. You also get a more intelligent Jason which resembles the earlier Friday the 13th movies where he could drive a car.
The cast is like many Friday the 13th movies. It is helmed by Supernatural star Jared Padalecki, but the movie does do a surprising switch up of the female lead from Danielle Panabaker to Amanda Righetti near the end of the film. The rest of the “teen” cast is pretty forgettable, but like other slasher films, there are fun moments like Jason interacting with stoner Aaron Yoo. Derek Mears makes a good Jason in that he’s faster and more dangerous than the lumbering Jason.
I just was looking for some more friends…
The film is rather grueling. Much of horror in the late 1990s either went gore or intelligence which toned down the gore (and often landed a PG-13 rating). Friday the 13th goes for classic slasher and has lots of moments of cringeworthy jumps (like the under the floor attack). It was a nice throwback to have a simple slasher.
Like its predecessors, Friday the 13th is no great work of art, but it also isn’t meant to be. I liked that it did feel like a classic “Jason” film with a classic killer. I was rather surprised that with the moderate success and slightly better than previous entry reviews that the franchise did not continue after this entry. With talk of reviving Friday the 13th, Jason will surely rise from the depths of Crystal Lake again…and I’ll welcome him.
Related Links:
Friday the 13th Part 4: The Final Chapter (1984)
Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning (1985)
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1987)
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
