Friday the 13th (2009) Review

Slasher movie franchises appeared dead. Torture movies had taken over and created a whole new generation of horror fans. Movies like Cabin Fever, Hostel and the Saw series set the bar for graphic violence and what was acceptable to show extremely high. Friday the 13th had always been fun. In 1980, when the original came out it was shocking how violent it was. The remake could not compare to the common trend in horror. With the Freddy Vs. Jason sequel movie in development hell and New Line losing their brilliant maverick Bob Shaye, Warner Brothers who now owns New Line Cinema teamed up with Paramount and Michael Bay to bring Friday the 13th and more importantly Jason to a brand new audience.

As always we begin with the trailer. The trailer is very old school. It's a throw back to the carnival attraction that the first three films trailers were like. It was great fun, but I don't know if it gained a new audience using that technique. The tagline: Welcome to Crystal Lake. is really stupid. I think the tagline just plain sucks.

Here's the thing: with the blu ray release of the film, it is nearly impossible to find the theatrical cut. I did find it, but it was super hard to navigate to. If you have trouble finding the theatrical cut, go to amazon and look at frequent questions on the blu ray page for this film.

I must say, the first time I saw this was on Friday the 13th, 2009 in the movie theatre and it was an AWESOME experience. I instantly gave the film 9/10 on IMDb. I couldn't remember the last time I had had so much fun at a movie. Rewatching it, however, it doesn't fare as well. It is by far the best film since The Final Chapter. Friday got really really jokey and hokey in the subsequent zombie Jason sequels. But this film really really drags. It's actually quite boring. I was shocked when I rewatched it. Granted, this is the Friday film I've seen the least, so I don't know it nearly as well as the others, but still...it's really boring.

I now understand why everyone said the best part of the movie was the opening scene. That opening scene is also long, but it gets to the point fairly quickly and the deaths are really cool. The gore affects are great in this film and for the first time in ages, there is a creative and more importantly SHOCKING death sequence. I still jump when that arrow goes through the boat driver's head.

Let's be straight, Derek Mears as Jason rocked. He was the perfect casting decision. He's such a fan boy and that's perfect for the character. Let's get one thing straight: the controversy over Jason running in this movie is uneducated and stupid. Jason runs in Part 2, and Part III in 3D. Jason running is nothing new. I guess some people just want to complain about everything even things that were alluded to in the first entries of the franchise. Jason also gets a moment when he actually puts on the mask for the very first time. We never saw that in Part III. It's a great moment for the fans.

As far as following the original film's plot line, they do a fairly decent job, but it's only given 2 minutes of screen time. Let's face it, the replacement for Betsy Palmer is very poor in comparison. Betsy just OWNED Mrs. Voorhees. It's a calmer take with this film, but I gotta go with the original on their take on Mrs. Voorhees. The rest of the film departs from the original storyline and plays more like a sequel than a remake, but I'm fine with that. Expanding on what audiences responded to in a remake is never a bad thing. Take the 1956 remake of The Ten Commandments. Cecil B. DeMille just expanded on the Moses storyline from his 1923 original film. Now, Friday the 13th is no Ten Commandments, but the basic idea still applies. However, I just can't say that the 2009 remake is a better film than the 1980 original. Film quality, it's a ton better. Storywise, character moments, acting, the 1980 film is better.

This movie tries to explain how Jason appears out of thin air. This movie put tunnels underneath Crystal Lake. I still like this idea. This, to me, brought it back to the realness of the first film. It's still not as realistic as the original classic, but it's a vast improvement over previous entries.

With so much going for it, why does it feel so slow when you watch it? I think the problem lies in two fundamental areas: our main character is a dude and the ending is cliche. Our final heroine spends a good amount of the film chained in the underground tunnels. We don't know much about Whitney at all. We do know this: Whitney has a strong heart. She cares for her mother who is dying from cancer. She goes missing in Jason's woods, but Jason doesn't kill her. Jason feels like she is his mother. So he keeps her chained underground. What is interesting about our final heroine to date is that she doesn't seem like she's a virgin. She has a boyfriend who she goes out to the woods with. Her friends were all screwing, so who knows what Whitney has done with her boyfriend in the past. However, like it's stated before, Whitney is MIA for the majority of the film and that is not ok.

The ending is really bad. There's no way of getting around it. We've seen it all before. Jason jumps out of the water again, only this time we don't get an iconic, horrifying jump scene, we get a scene that's so forgettable you'll forget it within an hour. The ending ended on such a cliche note that I think it screwed the course of the remake series.

Friday the 13th, the remake, premiered on Friday the 13th, February, 2009. On a budget of $19 million, the film grossed $64,997,188. I do enjoy the remake. A lot of complaints are said that I don't think carry much weight at all, but it does drag and the ending sucks. So there you have it, but we're not done just yet. There's three officially released alternate cuts. Those will not be a typical review, they will only compare with the theatrical cut and I'll determine which cut I feel is the better cut. Until next time...