Review of Friday the 13th (2009) by Jared K — 05 Apr 2018

It wasn't the worse movie I've ever seen. Though it wasn't particularly good either. I can really only recommend it to someone if they have never seen any of the other movies and just want to watch one and get an idea of what the rest are like. Because if you notice, there isn't one definitive Friday the 13th movie that has what everyone expects. Let's go back to the original movies. Part one had Jason, but not as the killer. Part 2 had Jason, but not with the classic hockey mask. Part three had Jason as the killer and him getting the hockey mask, but it was filmed for 3D and frankly, it just looks awful. By the time we get part 4, with everything you could want, it's called "The Final Chapter" and nobody wants to start at the supposed end. So this remake serves the purpose of combining the first 3 movies, where we see the full transformation of Jason.

The best part of this movie is the first 20 minutes, you see Pamela Vorhees (Jason's mom) get killed, you see young Jason watch that happen, and then we see adult Jason wearing the burlap sack from the second movie kill a couple kids in the woods. Then the title screen drops, a mere 20 minutes in. And at that point, you've already seen the best that this movie has to offer. I think the movie would have served best as a sort of short film explaining the origins of Jason.

The rest of the movie features the typical cast of disposable teenagers. They're not very likable, especially this one guy, he's like the rich kid whose dad owns the place that they're staying at. He's just a jerk throughout the entire movie and you wonder why these people are friends with him, he literally insults or has an attitude with everyone in the main cast.

I won't go too much into the plot because it doesn't really matter that much and it was honestly kind of confusing. Jason kidnaps the one girl who was in the opening sequence and keeps her locked in some sort of tunnel system that I guess he made. And Sam from Supernatural is trying to find her because she's his sister. They never clearly establish why Jason kidnaps this girl. In the opening sequence, that girl and her boyfriend (I think) are exploring the camp site and find a necklace that Pamela Vorhees was wearing, that Jason kept. They look inside the necklace and see a picture of a girl, who likes like the girl that Jason kidnaps. So I was thinking that they were pulling a Halloween 2 where the main character is the killer's little sister or something. But later, there's a moment where that girl talks to Jason like the one from Part 2, as if she were pretending to be his mother. It seemed like a confused plot point.

I also want to say, that the kill scenes are shot with shakey cam, so you can barely tell what's going on. Anytime something interesting to the audience happens, they can just barely tell what's going on. But other than that, the kills are alright, I also watched the extended cut, so I might have gotten the better deal than people who saw it in theaters.

Overall, I'd say this one was serviceable, but also passable. If you're looking to get the general Friday the 13th experience in one movie, I'd say this is an option. Or if you're a fan of the series and you're looking to get your fix after watching the all the others, I'd say go watch Sleep Away Camp, but I guess this could work too.