Whether you like it or not, the original “Friday the 13th” series had written itself into a corner with “Jason X”. There was pretty much no way to bring Jason back to his roots outside of starting all over again. I was never opposed to the idea, as the original series had become exceedingly convoluted by this point, never sure if Jason was a hillbilly, a zombie, a ghost or a “Hell Baby”. Michael Bay’s production studio, Platinum Dunes, had won me over with their inspired reboot of the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” franchise, so I was more than willing to give them the benefit of the doubt with their “Friday the 13th” remake. The trailers looked fantastic, Jason’s new appearance was right on the money and it all seemed very appealing.
Having just returned from the theater, I can’t say I didn’t enjoy myself.
Back in 1980, inattentive counselors let young Jason Voorhees (Caleb Guss) drown at Camp Crystal Lake. Jason’s mother (Nana Visitor) took a bloody revenge upon the counselors, murdering all but the one who succeeded at lopping off her head. However, Jason didn’t drown, and to this day remains in the woods of Crystal Lake…and he isn’t very fond of visitors.
Fast forward to the present day, a grown up Jason (Derek Mears) succeeds in slaughtering a group of rowdy teens camping it up on the shores of Crystal Lake. Not long after, a young man named Clay (Jared Padalecki) begins searching for his missing sister, though the superstitious locals tell him he’s wasting his time. While Clay is busy with this, a posse of party-loving college kids show up to rock out at a luxury cabin on the lake. They all have a good time, Clay finds his sister and everybody goes home happy.
No, wait, I’m sorry. What I meant to say was, “Jason fucking kills everyone”. My bad.
Going into the movie, my understanding was that it was going to be a straight-up remake of the first three films in the original “Friday the 13th” series. This gave me painful flashbacks to Rob Zombie’s truncated yet scene-for-scene remake of “Halloween”. Well, you can rest easy knowing that Marcus Nispel’s “Friday the 13th” isn’t a straight up remake of any of the old movies, but a brand new story which simply integrates several ideas from the first three or four movies. The events of the first “Friday the 13th” are covered by the time the opening credits finish, Jason starts out with a sack over his head as he did in “Friday the 13th Part II”, he eventually dons a hockey mask like he did in “Friday the 13th Part III” and the character of Clay might as well be the same as Rob from “Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter” (except, you know, without awesome dialogue like, “Oh God, he’s killing me!”).
The story is mind-numbingly simple, like just about any “Friday the 13th” film, to the point of making you wonder how anybody could possibly be paid to write something like this. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, since as I said, all “Friday the 13th” films have simple plots and those that try to be too complex for their own good… Well, let’s just say “Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday” and be done with it.
My problem with the script isn’t that the story is paint-by-numbers, but more that Nispel’s “Friday the 13th” is treated a bit too much like a self-parody. The characters are bottom level archetypes of every 80s slasher movie ever made: you’ve got the spoiled rich kid, a slew of whores, the most token of black guys (he smokes weed and wants to be a rapper!) and even…an Asian kid? Wow, I haven’t seen one of those in a “Friday the 13th” movie since “Jason Takes Manhattan”! They’re all having sex like crazy and there’s even a moronic subplot about there being a “legendary stash” of marijuana somewhere on Crystal Lake, baiting scores of stupid kids to waltz onto Jason’s front lawn in search of it.
I’m not asking for “serious” storytelling from a “Friday the 13th” movie. God, no. It’s just that these characters stop one step short of smiling and winking at the camera, that’s all. You should only be so self-aware.
But really, I’m not here to bitch. I’m sorry.
Nispel’s “Friday the 13th” has a great atmosphere to it, with some excellent cinematography, set designs, lighting and a fantastic look for Jason. His redesigned “sack head” looked so cool I was almost sad when he traded up for the hockey mask. This “Friday the 13th” also marks Jason’s first return to the shores of Crystal Lake since “Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood”. No, I’m absolutely serious. In “Part VIII”, he went to Manhattan, in “Jason Goes to Hell” he was too busy possessing people to stalk around the woods, in “Jason X” he went into space and in “Freddy vs. Jason” he went to Springwood. It has honestly been that long since we’ve had a back-to-basics, “Jason as Jason” killing stupid teenagers in the woods around Crystal Lake. For those of us who had to endure that painful stretch of producers pondering, “Where the fuck can we send Jason THIS time?” I can’t tell you how much of a relief this was.
So far as kills are concerned, I was both impressed and a little underwhelmed. Nispel’s back-to-basics approach meant a more human Jason and more “realistic” kills. When it comes to a “Friday the 13th” movie, the kills are supposed to be spectacularly over-the-top; machetes and arrows and screwdrivers to the face simply don’t cut it. It’s okay to get a little “silly” and let Jason punch a guy’s head clean off or stuff some bitch in a sleeping bag and smack her against a tree trunk. I don’t want to say all the kills are “mundane”, because the editing gives them a great sense of impact (particularly the flying axe), but only a few really “stood out” to me. There’s a great sleeping bag kill (not what you’re thinking, I promise) and a few other sweet ones...just not enough.
I’ve heard some complaints about Jason’s running; such statements as, “Jason doesn’t run! He's never run!” I’ve got to say, that simply isn’t true. At least not in the early movies; Jason ran like crazy in those. His amped up speed in this installment actually gives him a far greater “scare” factor and makes him even more threatening than ever. This take on Jason plays up his status as a “wild man”, as he sets lots of hunting traps and what-not. Traps were barely ever used in the original movies (only the snare from “Part II” comes to mind) and I’m pleased they decided to explore that angle a bit more. Jason’s single-minded devotion to his mother is also retained and they even recycle some use of it from “Friday the 13th Part II” as an important plot point, but I won’t spoil it for you.
Overall, I had a fun time, but it just didn’t strike me as being everything it could have been. The empty story, the self-aware characters and the unevenly inspired kills left me thinking that if this had been titled “Undead Killerface” instead of “Friday the 13th”, it probably wouldn’t have made it past the straight-to-video market. I know that sounds harsh, and this was a very decent horror movie, it just didn’t live up to its full potential.
Grade: B- (as in “But hey, at least there’s lots of nudity”.)
Having just returned from the theater, I can’t say I didn’t enjoy myself.
Back in 1980, inattentive counselors let young Jason Voorhees (Caleb Guss) drown at Camp Crystal Lake. Jason’s mother (Nana Visitor) took a bloody revenge upon the counselors, murdering all but the one who succeeded at lopping off her head. However, Jason didn’t drown, and to this day remains in the woods of Crystal Lake…and he isn’t very fond of visitors.
Fast forward to the present day, a grown up Jason (Derek Mears) succeeds in slaughtering a group of rowdy teens camping it up on the shores of Crystal Lake. Not long after, a young man named Clay (Jared Padalecki) begins searching for his missing sister, though the superstitious locals tell him he’s wasting his time. While Clay is busy with this, a posse of party-loving college kids show up to rock out at a luxury cabin on the lake. They all have a good time, Clay finds his sister and everybody goes home happy.
No, wait, I’m sorry. What I meant to say was, “Jason fucking kills everyone”. My bad.
Going into the movie, my understanding was that it was going to be a straight-up remake of the first three films in the original “Friday the 13th” series. This gave me painful flashbacks to Rob Zombie’s truncated yet scene-for-scene remake of “Halloween”. Well, you can rest easy knowing that Marcus Nispel’s “Friday the 13th” isn’t a straight up remake of any of the old movies, but a brand new story which simply integrates several ideas from the first three or four movies. The events of the first “Friday the 13th” are covered by the time the opening credits finish, Jason starts out with a sack over his head as he did in “Friday the 13th Part II”, he eventually dons a hockey mask like he did in “Friday the 13th Part III” and the character of Clay might as well be the same as Rob from “Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter” (except, you know, without awesome dialogue like, “Oh God, he’s killing me!”).
The story is mind-numbingly simple, like just about any “Friday the 13th” film, to the point of making you wonder how anybody could possibly be paid to write something like this. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, since as I said, all “Friday the 13th” films have simple plots and those that try to be too complex for their own good… Well, let’s just say “Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday” and be done with it.
My problem with the script isn’t that the story is paint-by-numbers, but more that Nispel’s “Friday the 13th” is treated a bit too much like a self-parody. The characters are bottom level archetypes of every 80s slasher movie ever made: you’ve got the spoiled rich kid, a slew of whores, the most token of black guys (he smokes weed and wants to be a rapper!) and even…an Asian kid? Wow, I haven’t seen one of those in a “Friday the 13th” movie since “Jason Takes Manhattan”! They’re all having sex like crazy and there’s even a moronic subplot about there being a “legendary stash” of marijuana somewhere on Crystal Lake, baiting scores of stupid kids to waltz onto Jason’s front lawn in search of it.
I’m not asking for “serious” storytelling from a “Friday the 13th” movie. God, no. It’s just that these characters stop one step short of smiling and winking at the camera, that’s all. You should only be so self-aware.
But really, I’m not here to bitch. I’m sorry.
Nispel’s “Friday the 13th” has a great atmosphere to it, with some excellent cinematography, set designs, lighting and a fantastic look for Jason. His redesigned “sack head” looked so cool I was almost sad when he traded up for the hockey mask. This “Friday the 13th” also marks Jason’s first return to the shores of Crystal Lake since “Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood”. No, I’m absolutely serious. In “Part VIII”, he went to Manhattan, in “Jason Goes to Hell” he was too busy possessing people to stalk around the woods, in “Jason X” he went into space and in “Freddy vs. Jason” he went to Springwood. It has honestly been that long since we’ve had a back-to-basics, “Jason as Jason” killing stupid teenagers in the woods around Crystal Lake. For those of us who had to endure that painful stretch of producers pondering, “Where the fuck can we send Jason THIS time?” I can’t tell you how much of a relief this was.
So far as kills are concerned, I was both impressed and a little underwhelmed. Nispel’s back-to-basics approach meant a more human Jason and more “realistic” kills. When it comes to a “Friday the 13th” movie, the kills are supposed to be spectacularly over-the-top; machetes and arrows and screwdrivers to the face simply don’t cut it. It’s okay to get a little “silly” and let Jason punch a guy’s head clean off or stuff some bitch in a sleeping bag and smack her against a tree trunk. I don’t want to say all the kills are “mundane”, because the editing gives them a great sense of impact (particularly the flying axe), but only a few really “stood out” to me. There’s a great sleeping bag kill (not what you’re thinking, I promise) and a few other sweet ones...just not enough.
I’ve heard some complaints about Jason’s running; such statements as, “Jason doesn’t run! He's never run!” I’ve got to say, that simply isn’t true. At least not in the early movies; Jason ran like crazy in those. His amped up speed in this installment actually gives him a far greater “scare” factor and makes him even more threatening than ever. This take on Jason plays up his status as a “wild man”, as he sets lots of hunting traps and what-not. Traps were barely ever used in the original movies (only the snare from “Part II” comes to mind) and I’m pleased they decided to explore that angle a bit more. Jason’s single-minded devotion to his mother is also retained and they even recycle some use of it from “Friday the 13th Part II” as an important plot point, but I won’t spoil it for you.
Overall, I had a fun time, but it just didn’t strike me as being everything it could have been. The empty story, the self-aware characters and the unevenly inspired kills left me thinking that if this had been titled “Undead Killerface” instead of “Friday the 13th”, it probably wouldn’t have made it past the straight-to-video market. I know that sounds harsh, and this was a very decent horror movie, it just didn’t live up to its full potential.
Grade: B- (as in “But hey, at least there’s lots of nudity”.)
5 comments:
You sold me with the last line. :)
Seriously though, it sounds like what I was expecting. I'm going to try to get my wife to go see it with me.
I didn't know it was supposed to be a legendary stash. What with the GPS and the guy they mentioned I'd assumed they knew someone had planted it there, or they themselves had. I mean, they had a GPS and knew exactly where it was. Doesn't really read like a rumor of weed around that area.
About the self parody, I'm not sure I see it really. Honestly, ALL Friday Campers/Victims act that stupid, I don't think they acted any dumber then they usually do, especially the first four movies. (Crispin Glover) Ugh.
I liked that it wasn't too unrealistic. The only nagging question on my mind through the whole movie was. How did the rich kids dad get that house built on the lake. And if Jason allowed the house to be built there, then why all of sudden did he decide to kill the people in that house. They were just being too noisy and pissed him off? Lol.
All in all though, I really liked the movie alot and thought it was a great return to the 'Classic' feel of a 'Friday' movie, and not a 'Jason' movie.
That's one of the problems that Friday Part III and Final Chapter also had; why did Jason decide to start pestering the people who live in houses on the lake NOW instead of years ago?
It's just one of those "things", I guess.
Well you sold me Spengs, I just have to get my wife to go see it with me tomorrow or maybe Sunday since the kids will begone for the weekend. I hope your review doesn't let me down (Oh who am I kidding, I would want to go see it if you gave it an F..its Jason!)
Well, my review was a bit mroe cuationary than chalk full of praise. Quality-wise, it lands somewhere in the middle of the series. It's not BAD, and it's a better start than the original Friday the 13th (IMO), just don't get your expectations too high.
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