Friday The 13th (2009)

Today I did something that I rarely do, I went to the theater on a weekday. A friend of mine asked me last week, if I wanted to go with a bunch of people he was trying to get together. He said he would email me what day and time. Since I wasn’t sure if I would have a computer by then, I do have it back up and running by the way, he said he would just call me. He never did. I assume he went, I haven’t bothered to call and ask yet. I was going to go yesterday, but I managed to mess up my sleep, so wasn’t sure if I would have been able to stay awake in a dark theater. Despite being told it wasn’t a good film, because of too much nudity, I went today to watch Friday The 13th (2009). I was excited by the new film, so I tried not to read anything about it before going. I did read a couple of reviews by people that I trust, and they all seemed to like it. That is grand and all, but how did I like it after the credits rolled?

I admit that I had trouble calling this film a remake, until I started to watch it. When reports of this film first started, it sounded like they were trying to weave a plot that would fit into, and around, parts two and three of the original sequels. Instead, we get a plot that takes different elements from the first three films, and mixes them into a remake. The film opens with the end of the original film, in 1980. Mrs. Voorhees (Nana Visitor) is seen chasing after that last surviving camp counselor (Stephanie Rhodes), and being beheaded for her trouble. We are then told it is now present day. It would appear that Camp Crystal Lake has been shut down since Mrs. Voorhees went on her little murder spree. We join up with a group of people, who end up camping near where Camp Crystal Lake is. They are looking for some weed that has been growing. They know this because of a friend of a friend type thing. The good news is, there is some growing out there in the woods. The bad news is, Jason (Derek Mears) doesn’t like people stealing his weed. Who knew?? Actually I think it is just because they are so close to his home. Six weeks later, we meet Clay (Jared Padalecki), who is looking for his sister (Amanda Righetti). Whitney was one of the campers that went missing six weeks earlier. He runs across another group of people, who will be in a house on the other side of the lake. Trent (Travis Van Winkle) is the leader of the group, more or less, and takes a very big disliking to Clay for no real reason at all. That is until his girlfriend, Jenna (Danielle Panabaker), starts to feel sorry for Clay, and offers to help him. Clay and Jenna eventually meet up with Jason, but manage to get away. The only problem with that is, Jason follows them to the rest of the group.

The only real difference we see in the first part of the film, is that after Mrs. Voorhees is killed, we catch a glimpse of Jason seeing what happened. The way I see it, they basically rewrote the history of the Friday The 13th films. Jason wasn’t saved in 1980, instead of 1959; and then Mrs. Voorhees flips out and kills the counselors that were there at the time. But Jason didn’t drown after all. How could this happen? It’s not impossible really. Maybe he was seen going under, but managed to show up elsewhere in the lake before going back to shore. It would have helped if this had been explained a little more, and the time line behind it. The present day segment is, more or less, taking the place of part two of the original series. It is very condensed though. Jason wears the pillow case during this. The six weeks later segment, takes the place of part three, where Jason first wears the hockey mask. Outside of these things, and Jason’s choice of weapons, it is a complete overhaul of those films.

Even though Friday The 13th gets the R rating, it wasn’t really because of the gore effects. While there are plenty of people getting cut up, dismembered and mangled, I was rather disappointed that there was hardly any blood to go along with these effects. I admit it, I can be somewhat blood thirsty when it comes to horror movies. I don’t need a lot of blood to enjoy a film, but it does add some fun to it. So the effects, while good, were a little disappointing all the same. The acting was much the same way. It was good, but nothing that really stands out.

I went into Friday The 13th hoping that I would love it. I have watched every Friday film to date so far now. While some are really bad, I still get a sense of enjoyment out of them. This film is no different. I can’t tell you that I did end up loving it, but I did have a good time with it. Even though I would have liked to have seen more blood, some of the kills still managed to make me smile. They will remind you of kills that have come before, but with a slight twist to them. One of the reasons I always went to see a film in this series, was to see how Jason would kill people this time around. The different kills did make this one more fun to watch, but there were some that I didn’t care for. Jason himself looks good, and very big. Derek Mears is a very big guy, trust me on this. I sat two seats away from him once. The biggest issue, for some people anyway, is that Jason runs. He does run at times in the early films as well, so it isn’t that big of a surprise. To be honest, the always walking Jason, in the later films, always bothered me a lot. He is walking while the person is running away, yet he manages to catch up to them in seconds, or gets ahead of them. Please don’t tell me that you wouldn’t be more scared by someone running straight at you, with a weapon raised to strike you down.

If you are a die hard fan of the series, by all means, get yourself to the theater. If you don’t mind waiting for the DVD, maybe that will be the best way to go about it then. Friday The 13th is a worthy remake to me. It was fun and entertaining, but it wasn’t as good a film as I was hoping it would be. I might have set the bar too high, but in all honesty, I wasn’t expecting a master piece.

3 out of 5 Might take up track since Jason loves to run now