HOLLYWOOD—This week has been very tough for me when it comes to finding a remake that wasn’t completely horrid compared to the original. So I have fallen on “Friday the 13th.” I recently saw the 1980 version and then saw the 2009 remake. Look, the 1980 version is a classic because it ushered in the brutal violence in the horror genre with iconic kills. Who can forget Kevin Bacon’s character getting an arrow through his throat, or that character getting an axe to the face? I didn’t and it’s only made more riveting by the big reveal that Mrs. Voorhees was the killer, not Jason, who doesn’t make an appearance until the end of the movie where he jumps out of the lake.
It would be almost 30 years before we got a remake with a twist in Marcus Nispel’s 2009 flick “Friday the 13th.” For those keeping score Nispel, is on my list twist with “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and now this classic involving Jason Voorhees and that hockey mask. The difference with this take is that it takes the first four flicks in the franchise and ties them together (Part II, Part III and The Final Chapter). The 2009 flick has an amazing and captivating open with plenty of tension. I mean Jason with that burlap sack over his face, dispatching of several young adults at Camp Crystal Lake and I loved that the audience got to witness a visceral Jason. I mean he’s running.
Something people may not know, Jason Voorhees has always ran after his victims, just watch “Friday the 13th Part II,” “Part 3D” and “The Final Chapter” and you will see that. It only changes when he was brought back from the dead with “Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives.” I thought the violence in the remake was a bit tame compared to the original and I actually appreciated that.
We examined the bond of a brother and sister, and unlike the previous films where one of the siblings suffered an unexpected fate, this time around the brother and sister are closely aligned as Clay (Jared Padalecki) searches for his sister Whitney (Amanda Raghetti) who has gone missing. Their dynamic works, it could have been fleshed out just a bit more, but you can only do so much with the narrative. The remake has a fantastic first act, a weak second act, and a solid third act.
The second act just follows the horror troupe of the killer dispatching of the victims one by one until a select few FINALLY discover that something is wrong. It is not like the typical flick where we get down to the final girl and the killer, we have a select few survivors and some who are annoying. When that character you hate gets his or her comeuppance it is indeed satisfying.
The big climax involving our core characters and Jason is a treat because some people you expect to survive don’t survive and that’s a tough blow to swallow, but it hits you where it is supposed to as a horror film, which means the characters are well developed. I didn’t love how Jason Voorhees met his maker in the final act, but the ending of the movie I recall quite vivid had everyone in the theater jump out that theater seat so it’s a solid jump scare that has become a trend in the franchise, at least in the first three flicks. Watch the original and then jump to the remake, you can compare and contrast the differences and how they line up on a scare factor, tension and shear terror.
