Mar 18 2009
“Friday The 13th” (2009) ****
Preview
Starring: Derek Mears, Jared Padalecki, Danielle Panabaker, Aaron Yoo, Amanda Righetti, Nana Visitor, Jonathon Sadowski, Ben Feldman, Nick Mennell, America Olivo, Willa Ford, Ryan Hansen, Juilianna Guill, Arien Escarpeta, and Travis Van Winkle.
Directed by: Marcus Nispel.
Story:
About 30 years ago, young Jason Voorhees witnesses the beheading of his mother by a camp counselor who was the last survivor of Mrs. Voorhees’ murderous rampage at Camp Crystal Lake. Now, in present day, a group of teens vacation nearby Crystal Lake in search of weed that was planted in the surrounding wood areas. The pack is killed by Jason, all except for Whitney, who is kept prisoner beneath the campsite due to the resemblance between her and his mother.
A month later, Whitney’s brother, Clay, has been searching endlessly for her. While searching near Camp Crystal Lake, he runs into some trouble with Trent who is driving his friends to his summer vacation cabin nearby. Jason Voorhees hunts them down one by one as Clay continues to search for his missing sister with the help of Trent’s girlfriend who is falling for him.
Characters:
*Jason Voorhees (Derek Mears): The looming and iconic hockey-mask wearing murder who needs no introduction.
*Mrs. Voorhees (Nana Visitor): Jason’s mother who makes a brief cameo at the very beginning.
*Wade (Jonathon Sadowski): A nerdy GPS-using, know-it-all geek who is very well-informed about Camp Crystal Lake.
*Richie (Ben Feldman): Wade’s buddy who doesn’t believe in the scary stories that he shares with him but does share the same desire to find weed in the woods and get rich off of it.
*Mike (Nick Mennell): A friend of Wade and Richie.
*Whitney (Amanda Righetti): Mike’s girlfriend who goes missing after her five friends get killed by Jason in the beginning.
*Amanda (America Olivo): Richie’s freaky girlfriend.
*Trent (Travis Van Winkle): Leader of the new pack of teens who are introduced after the first batch is killed. He’s the a-hole of the pack.
*Jenna (Danielle Panabaker): Trent’s far more sympathetic and caring girlfriend who seems to be more interested in Clay.
*Chewie (Aaron Yoo): An Asian dude whose nick name is the work wizard and that’s not just because he masturbates, according to him that is.
*Chelsea (Willa Ford): Nolan’s girlfriend.
*Nolan (Ryan Hansen): Trent’s best buddy and Chelsea’s boyfriend.
*Bree (Julianna Guill): A freaky white girl whom Trent cheats on Jenna with.
*Lawrence (Arlen Escarpeta): A funny, down-for-anything African-American dude whom makes his presence well-aware to everyone and is not afraid to speak the truth in a humorous way.
*Clay (Jared Padalecki): Whitney’s brother who is in search of his missing sister.
Overall:
When I first heard that this was going to be remade, rebooted, or whatever the heck you want to call it, I just wanted to smack myself in the head and say “Oh no, not again”, then I watched the trailer and thought to myself, “Typical, so sad”. But you know what? This remake totally surprised me. I think this remake could stand right up there with the new ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ films that came out in this decade, is it no wonder that they were also directed by Marcus Nispel who directed this?
If you’re looking for some new twist on the slasher genre, “Friday The 13th” doesn’t offer any of the sort, instead it accepts what it is and lets it be clearly known - Ridiculousness, death, dismemberment, teenage sex, party animals, and the like. That’s exactly what the franchise contained. This remake contains a huge amount of nostalgia and references to other films. Mind you, this is a remake of Parts I-IV in the “Friday The 13th” franchise, not just the first one.
There appears to have been some effort put into the death of the characters as many of them are quite impressive. They even put enough effort to make some of these faces in the cast stand out. The script adds a black and Asian character to keep up to date with the ‘movies of the millennium’. The plot of a brother searching for his sister is well written, executed, and adds a little more juice to this ‘Friday The 13th’ story to make it stand out.
Jason is now able to run, not as fast as the zombies from the “Dawn of the Dead” remake, but enough to make him more menacing and scary; he also has a somewhat sympathetic backstory now which doesn’t soften him in any way whatsoever. Also notable is the fact that he slowly obtains his hockey mask as the film progresses. The film has an open-ended climax, of course (what did you expect?) and, while I wasn’t left with a sense of “you’ve got to be kidding me”, I was left wondering how on Earth they plan to make one, two, five, heck even ten MORE films in this “rebooted” franchise and have them be as good as this one or the old ones?
Rating: ****
