Review #134: Friday the 13th (2009)

Cast/Notable Credits:
Marcus Nispel (Director): TCM

Amanda Righetti (Whitney): Return to House on Haunted Hill (2007), The O.C. and The Mentalist T.V. series

Jared Padalecki (Clay): House of Wax

Danielle Panabaker (Jenna): Sky High (2005), Shark T.V. series

Travis Van Winkle (Trent): Accepted (2006), Dorm Daze 2 (2006), Transformers (2007), Meet the Spartans (2008)

Aaron Yoo (Chewie): Disturbia, 21 (2008)

Derek Mears (Jason): Cursed

Julianna Guill (Bree): Fired Up! (2009)

Arlen Escarpeta (Lawrence): We Are Marshall (2006)

Ben Feldman (Richie): Cloverfield (2008)

Ryan Hansen (Nolan): Veronica Mars T.V. series

Willa Ford (Chelsea):

Nick Mennell (Mike): Halloween

America Olivo (Amanda): Iron Man (2008), Transformers 2 (2009)

Richard Burgi (Officer Brackett): Decoys (2004), Starship Troopers 2 (2004), Cellular (2004), Fun with Dick & Jane (2005), Hostel 2, Desperate Housewives, 24, & The Sentinel T.V. series

Nana Visitor (Pam Voohrees): Star Trek: Deep Space Nine T.V. series

Caleb Guss (Young Jason)

Michael Bay (Producer)

Brad Fuller (Producer)

Sean S. Cunningham (Executive Producer)

Trailer:


Plot:

Normally, I try not to do reviews on movies that was just released in the theaters. Typically I'm really opinionated with them, and tend to either really, really hate or like them. But let's be honest. I'm a Friday guy. This is my baby. I'm gonna give it the benefit of the doubt and love it anyways. I might have a stronger opinion on it later...or not. So let's roll with the review (kind of long, but I tried not to throw too many spoilers)...

Friday the 13th 2009 is a re-imagining of the series, mostly taking parts from the original first four movies. Since Jason’s mother was the villain in the first movie, and he is the focal point of this movie, it can’t be necessarily called a remake.

Five young adults go on a camping trip to Crystal Lake to find a secret stash of weed. Unfortunately for them, weed is not all they find as they run into the horror icon, Jason Voohrees, who quickly dispatches them for trespassing onto his land…and trying to steal his weed. :)

A couple weeks later, the brother (Clay) of one of the missing adults (Whitney) is on his own quest to find his missing sister. Clay has given up on the local police’s efforts to find his sister, and has hit the road on his motorcycle himself, to find her.

While going door to door posting missing flyers, Clay comes across another group of young adults heading to Crystal Lake for the weekend. One of the adults, Jenna, sympathizes with Clay and tags along with him for the search around the lake.

The new group of young adults arrives looking for a good time…i.e.: sex, drugs and drinking…only to find themselves eventually crossing paths with Jason. Jason wins, they lose as he dispatches them for coming onto his territory.

Villain:

The Friday the 13th re-imagining focuses on everyone’s favorite hockey mask wearing retard, Jason Voohrees. This re-imagining tries to bring the human element back into the Jason character. The early Friday the 13th’s (Parts 2-4) really portrayed Jason as a humanistic person. This for me made him a lot more terrifying.

As the sequels grew in the franchise, Jason’s character evolved into a zombie/Frankenstein monster. He moved slow and methodical and also became indestructible. His victims always ran away from him, but yet he was always able to catch them by walking. That never made sense to me.

Jason also demonstrated an unusual amount of strength as he confronted his victims. Even when they fought back, it did them no good, as Jason was able to with stand all the punishment they could dish out. The bottom line was that he was indestructible and incredibly strong both of which made him a super beast from hell.

Being a horror and Jason fan, seeing that version of Jason was nice, because it made him the ultimate badass. But…as the franchise grew in sequels, outrageous plots, and Jason’s character evolving into the fleshy version of the Terminator, the scary aspect of him and the films lost all of its “mojo” that it had in the early films.

The producers, director and writers of the film realized that and gave Jason a make-over for this film. They threw the zombie/Frankenstein portrait of Jason out the window and brought the character back to being more human. They traded the slow, dumb and imperishable version for a faster, smarter and vulnerable Jason. I loved the idea! But did they pull it off?

The first new task of reshaping Jason was to find an actor to play him. Sure they could have dipped back into the Kane Hodder pool, but they passed on that and went with Derek Mears. Mears (Pictured Left) has notably played some of the mutant hill billies in the remakes of The Hills Have Eyes.

Whereas Kane is the poster child of a scary imposing dude being a huge, magnificent physical piece of work, Mears statue is terrifying in itself in different ways. He’s not as built, but more of a taller and leaner person compared to Kane. As this translates to the Jason character, is still makes Jason an over lurking body compared to his victims, but it doesn’t give him the freakish Frankenstein look.

Jason still is able to be physically strong and terrifying, but he is also limited in his strength. Put it this way, he’s not crushing skulls with his bare hands in this one.

Now onto Jason’s demeanor in the film…for years, he had always been the dumb, slow, stealth and popping out of nowhere to catch his victim’s guy. Now Jason is smarter and has been reshaped into a hunter. It makes sense for somebody who has been living off the land for years. You would expect for him to be able to survive somehow. In this film, Jason is actually “setting up” and hunting his prey. And when he attacks, he really attacks. Jason comes after the people…and fast.

He doesn’t give them or the audience time to stare in “ah” at him, he moves with a purpose. No more, “I’ll let you run away so I can magically appear and catch you” bull sh*t. If you’re going to run away, you better be quick and don’t look back, because someone’s on your heels every step of the way. I liked it.

It’s a trait that horror movie should incorporate. If the killer is going to kill someone, let them have the killer instinct to go after the person and carry it out quickly. I’m tired of the screwing around, delaying B.S. that happens in some of these horror movies. Sh*t or get off the pot.

Jason’s wardrobe in this film has some familiar similarities to previous films. First of all, he supports a utility belt. Honestly, it’s quite difficult to tell making it unnoticeable, but he does have a belt. It’s easily identifiable in some of the early promo photos of the film. I’ve read some comments on the web by angry fans exclaiming that Jason never would wear something like that.

Jason actually supported a utility belt in Part 6, after taking out all the paint ballers, so it’s been done before, I don’t see a big deal about it. Besides, I could hardly tell that he had it in the film. That’s probably due to the fact that he was a movin’ mother*cker! He just wouldn’t stand still. See what happens when you make him fast.

The movie also pays tribute to his debut movie, Part 2, and he dons a pillow case mask on his head to conceal his identity. Honestly, that part didn’t do it for me. I liked the old potato sack looking thing in Part 2. The pillow case looked more like a wrap and I had just a hard time digging it. It seemed a little “off” to me.

After some slicin’ and dicin’ with the pillow case on his head, Jason finally has the wrap removed, and comes across the iconic hockey mask. In the originals, Jason received the hockey mask in Part 3. This was another part of the problem when labeling this thing a remake. Just another reason to call it a “reimagining”.

Besides the fact that his mommy did the dirty work in the first film, the mask didn’t come along for a couple movies. It would be impossible to do this film without the mask. Disgruntled fans about remaking old horror movies would have had a coronary if this thing wasn’t in the film. Some people never knew Jason operated without it. So the film makers HAD to incorporate this thing in the film somehow.

I was a little disappointed with the scene of Jason finding the mask. I guess my expectations were a little too high when it came down to the scene. I had heard that it would be memorable, and it would really seal the deal on the new Jason. But the air was let out of my balloon a little bit when it happened. This is probably just me setting higher standards, but I was thinking, “That’s it!” when Jason finally found it. In retrospect, it wasn’t a bad scene, but I just pictured it being more.

Cast:

The Friday films have never been too worried about developing characters or making the audience feel for them, and this film was a little better than most. The two lead characters in the film was Whitney (Righetti) and her brother Clay (Padalecki).

Original I thought that I was going to HATE the Clay character. After all, the character was a WB or CW…whatever…star in Padalecki. I figured that it was just going to be a heart throb, eye candy for the female audience. I didn’t think that Padalecki was going to bring anything to the table.

I know that he stars in the T.V. series, Supernatural, but I’ve never seen an episode, so my expectations of his acting abilities weren’t too high. I was expecting the worse actually. And I admit, he proven me wrong. I actually liked his character a bit. Padalecki (Pictured Right) proved to me that he had some acting talent behind his paper thin character. Clay was a concerned brother looking for his missing little sister. According to the back story (a line or two in the script), they weren’t the closest siblings, but Clay was dedicated to finding his sister. Padalecki wasn’t given much to work with, but he excelled in what he did on screen.

Clay’s sister, Whitney on the other hand…yeah…I just could really care less about her. I saw nothing but a disposable character here. She was the strong female lead in the film and usually it’s a great honor and tradition in the Friday films, but I was rooting for Jason in this time. Well, I always root for Jason, but I wasn’t at all impressed with either Whitney or Righetti. She’s hot looking (Pictured Below), but even that couldn’t turn me from the dark side.

Outside of the siblings, the film lined up the usual stereo typical cast of young adults. There was the dick head prick of the bunch (Trent), the funny Asian dude who loved to drink and smoke pot (Chewie), the token black guy (Lawrence), the slutty blonde (Bree and Chelsea), and a couple of others that fit the type molds.

Outside of Clay being one of the respectable characters in the film I cared for, there were two others…actually three if we include the one that gave me happiness, but I’ll get to that in the TNA section. The first one is Chewie who was played by the Asian dude, Aaron Yoo (Pictured Left). He was one of the kids from the movie, Disturbia. Chewie’s character in the film was the comic relief. The film itself was pretty dark and gruesome, so there was little room for humor…unlike let’s say the…last seven sequels of Friday.

Yoo was one of the few who has actual acting talent as he used it to pop outside of the stereotypical molds set up by the film makers. A little change in tone and voice here and there goes a long way to reshaping a character, and Yoo pulled it off.

The last character worth mentioning is the character of Jenna, played by Danielle Panabaker. Since she’s one of the stars of the film I’m going into spoiler mode when referring to her character. So highlight to read. It’s not hard to figure out that most of these people are going to die given the nature of the film. It’s a Friday the 13th movie after all, but Panabaker’s character is a good character and even I had questioned whether or not she would be the one who would live or die in the film. So…* Highlight to Read *

First of all, F*CK WHITNEY! Jenna’s character was sooo much better. Unfortunately I knew coming into the film that she was going to be the last one to “bite it” on the screen. Damn internet rumors! I really didn’t care too much about that until I actually watched the film.

Panabaker’s performance was pretty good in the film. She played the role of one of those good ole’ whole some girls you would love to take home to moma, but with a mysterious “dark side” –in a good way –to her. I actually cared about her character unlike the chick that survived, Whitney. Swap them out! Jenna was good spirited and well intended, but sometimes that even spells doom in the world of Friday the 13th. I was sad to see her go, but oh well, what do you do? * End

SFX/Gore:

What better number of deaths for a Friday the 13th movie than the number 13? That’s old school! They made Jason brutal in his killings but still had that touch of class of not over doing the gore. I can’t recall too many things that were actually that gory in nature. There weren’t any fountains or geysers of blood in the film. They were all done in a quick brutal fashion.

The film incorporated some old death ideas with new takes on them into the film. There was an arrow to the head kill which had some shout outs to Parts 1 and 3. There was also a disturbing and creepy take to everyone’s favorite sleepy bag death (Parts 7 & 10). The fire poker from Part 3 was revisited in the film, and I believe it added the element of an eye ball on the end…maybe a blend from Part 3 also? Of course, Jason had his favorite weapon on his side, the machete. Unlike FVJ, he wasn’t afraid to leave it behind and try another weapon.

If there were any complaints about the deaths, it probably stems from them being too scripted. What I mean is they were easily predictable as to who would die in what order. One person leaves and is now isolated…dead. Next couple leave…dead. I just thought there could have been room to mix it up every once and a while. Randomize the kills. We all know that most are going to die, I’m just saying throw in a little surprise here and there. I just thought it was too predictable on who would go next.

Another complaint is that, I didn’t think that the film had that ONE kill that stood out. You know that kill that hasn’t been done, and then catches the audience in “Oohs” and “Aahs”. I just didn’t see any of them really separating themselves from the pack.

My favorite kill: *Highlight to Read * This death was more of circumstance death than a better than the rest. The chick water skiing topless finally realizes that Jason is out there, so she swims to the dock and hides underneath it in the water. She looks up through the cracks in the floor boards and sees Jason walking on the dock above her and scanning the lake her.

She thinks that he’s walked away and then a machete comes through the boards and into the top of her skull. As Jason pulls the machete out of the head, it lifts her body out of the water until her head reaches the boards and then just gently slides off the blade and submerges into the water.

It was pretty cool because she’s got that look of having any orgasm on her face as her half naked body is pulled slightly out of the water. Her boobs are just jiggling away in the wind. I thought it was pretty funny. * End.

TNA:

This movie makes up for all those lame remakes, 90’s movies and PG-13 pieces of crap. Big time. It installs some of the true elements of horror movies…sex and nudity…and then you die. For starters, there are five smokin’ hot, sexy chicks in the film (Pictured Below: Guill, Panabaker, Ford; Not: Righetti and Olivio).

Over half of them (three) show their goods. Americo Olivio…what a great porn star name…is the first one, and she oils them up for us as she takes it in the rear doggie style with her boyfriend. Unfortunately her pair seems a little…unnatural. Rack Grade: C+

Next, we have Willa Ford water skiing topless. Hey it works for me. And it’s just not one quick take or a cheap shot of a side boob. We really get to see her chest exposed. Rack Grade: B

Finally we have Guill (Pictured Below). God Bless her. She definitely has a career in the horror industry and has officially won my heart over. Not only does she have a long sex scene exposing her body in perfect poetry, but she’s videotaping it and has it hooked up to the T.V. playing. YOU GO GIRL!

Back to her body…because it’s worth the price of admission alone. Let’s get this part out of the way…the dude refers to her chest and nipple placements as “stupendous”. He’s right. They’re damn perfect. I know I like surgical enhancements as an option, but this is a perfect example of being the way God made you. Her body was rockin’. Just as she was.

The movie even didn’t shy away from it. It wasn’t just a quick ten second glimpse of her artwork, but it was like a 5 minute scene of her going to town and exposing her nude body. Even Jason stopped by the outside window to check the show! Rack Grade: A+

T.Gun Factor:

I was excited about the rebooting of one of my favorite franchises. I saw the movie twice and I loved some things about the movie. Yet, there’s still one of those weird feelings I’ve had about it. I know it’s a Friday, it’s got the same ingredients, but yet there’s something “off” about the film.

It could have been just another slasher flick with a dude in the hockey mask. I’ve tried to decipher what it is, or would be and I've come up with a couple conclusions or ideas that may have made the film seem a little "off". I think the missing "it" centeres around the change in Jason and the music to the film.

As far as the Jason conclusion, I think it’s the change in character. I knew it was coming and I was expecting it. I even was looking forward to it. But I guess it has been beaten into me over the years with the zombie/Frankenstein look to him. The new version looks like him, and does stuff like him, but I still find myself not entirely buying into him. It has nothing to do with Mears or the film; it’s mainly the years of conditioning that I’ve endeared.

I guess somewhere in the back of my noggin, I still miss the little things he did to make him the Jason of old. I found myself looking for one of those patented stares, or the tilt of the head, or the deep exhale of breath, but the new version offered none too little of those traits.

I was expecting those traits from the new one, but I guess somehow I really wasn’t ready for it. I think after a couple of sequels to this new look, it’ll probably be something of a long, lost quirk.

Also, on a character note of Jason * Spoiler: Highlight to Read * Jason does NOT take hostages! WTF!? I know Nispel and Fuller were playing it off as Whitney looking like his mother, but he doesn't take hostages! Period. Now that's off my chest...okay...he did in the film, but let this be a lesson to him in future films. In the end she came back and f*cked him over. * End.

Another thing that might lead to my conclusion is the music. The new version hands the reins to the musical score to Steve Jablonsky. Jablonsky’s movie credits include the score for both of the new TCM movies, The Hitcher, D-War and both Transformer movies (2nd one coming out this summer). He incorporated a few things from the original, but it sounded more like a Terminator soundtrack than a Friday movie.

I know the original flicks centered on Henry Manfredini’s cheesy, but eerie sounds. I have to say, I did miss the simplistic sounds of plucking a guitar down the frets to create a terrifying sound. Jablonsky did stay with the Ki Ki Ki Ma Ma Ma theme at times, but overall, I just couldn’t “feel” it with the musical score.

A few other notable gripes in the film include: the racist jokes, the poorly edited opening sequence with mom, and the campfire story with Wade.

Let's start with the racist thing. The film has the "token" black guy in Lawrence, and every f*ckin' chance it has in it's dialogue it takes a dumb racist joke route. Like the "I'm gonna be a singer" reference. Don't profile me into rap. But in the end, that's what he wants to do. It's just dumb. Why does Hollywood need to make those dumb jokes?

Secondly, the opening sequence with his mother's death was poorly done. The film opens with a sequence showing Jason's point of view during the night of his mother's beheading. You can tell that it was thrown in last minute, as it is spliced together with the montage of opening film credits. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that Producer Brad Fuller listens to his fans, and implemented his mother back into the film (after early test screens had her scenes cut), but it could have been done better.

The last real gripe is the campfire story with Wade. Is this a tribute to the iconic scene in Part 2 where Paul has the camp counselors sitting at the campfire and telling the legend of Camp Blood and Jason. I hope not. I would really hate to see this thing as the opening summary scene for future sequels. I thought it was a rushed and not really done correctly. It didn't help that I wasn't a big fan of Wade in the film...outside of him having a Star Wars Tee on and rockin' to Night Ranger's "Sister Christian".

Okay, I think I got everything I didn't like or didn't live up to my expectations off my chest. Let's move on to the good things about the film. First of all, I give a huge shout out to Nispel, Fuller, Cunningham, and others for rebooting the film. They realized what a joke the last six or so sequels were, and they wanted to make this franchise scary again.

One of the nights I saw this movie, I witnessed...at least a new generation of fans...actually get scared during the film. I sat next to a six pack of teenie boppers (who I'm not sure was even 18...17 maybe...18 could be)and the closest chick next to me was scared out of her mind.

Now, I don't know what her experience is with horror movies, but she was jumping out of her seat all through out the movie. It was pretty funny, because she would shake the row of seats with her constant movement. The ones next to her, I could tell got scared also, but I judge how much based on the one next to me always being jumpy.

This is the stuff that the film makers aimed for. Make it a horror movie again. Not just some random event to make Super Jason kill again. No one took that Jason or franchise seriously anymore. I applaud them for trying to make the franchise good again. As for me...I think I'm too beaten down with horror movies to get scared anymore.

Secondly, the film itself was very polished and complete (outside of the bad opening mommy scene). The look of the lake, and camp was awesome! The film truly felt like there was a haunted place like Crystal Lake. As for the lighting, it wasn't too dark and rough like the old films, but also wasn't glowing with some weird tint to see everything that's going on.

Another great idea they brought into the movie was the maze of tunnels that Jason lived in. They would explain a lot for minor details that might help explain the mystique of Jason. If people went missing around there, it would be easy to track Jason down, BUT if he had a secret maze underneath the ground to hide in (and his victims and their stuff), it would make sense for his disappearing.

The tunnels also make sense from the stand point of him popping up everywhere. It was hard to buy with slow moving Franken-zombie Jason, but makes a whole lot of sense with the newer Jason.

Another great idea the flick gave us was the whole Mary-Jay-Wanna thing. Yep. Jason's a marijuana farmer. So don't mess with his weed! OR He'll F*CK YOU UP! Damn there was a lot of weed in the film. It was great! And the center piece of everything was that it all happens in Jason's backyard.

Could he be like Snoop Dogg? Does he just want to relax, and have some munchies? Probably. But nooo. Young adults come hunting for his weed. No wonder he gets pissed and f*cks them up. Who cares about that whole mother revenge thing? I know why Jason kills...to protect his stash.

Overall, I'm a sucker for Friday films, and with all the hype and anticipation for this flick...I was pleased. I know there will be a lot of hate and discontent by fans who think they are some type of purist, but for me, I'm glad it wasn't a train wreck. Nispel, Fuller and crew did a great job staying true to the franchise and gave the majority of the fans what they wanted.

This movie stastified my hunger for the Friday franchise and I eagerly await the sequel coming on August 13, 2010? Hmm.

Misc. Movie Trivia:
-Film opened on Friday, February 13, 2009 (BOX OFFICE still going)
-First film by Paramount and New Line Cinema together
-Scout Taylor-Compton (Laurie in new Halloween) auditioned for the role of Jenna
-Olivio was Playboy’s Babe of the month for February 2009 in Playboy Afterhours
-Principle photography wrapped up on Friday, June 13, 2008 and released on Friday, February 13, 2009
-Is the 5th Friday to open up on Friday the 13th
-One of the longest opening sequences in movie history; film titled popped up 25 minutes into film
-Biggest opening weekend ($43.5 million) by a horror remake; beat out the Grudge (2004)