Last Friday (Friday the 13th of February 09) I was lucky enough to get a ticket for the very first showing of the new Friday the 13th movie by director Marcus Nispel (the texas chainsaw massacre 2003) & apart from the usual guy secretly trying to film the movie then getting nabbed by staff it was one hell of a night. Well any serious movie fan knew this was going to happen some day. Much like the Texas chainsaw massacre & Halloween, Friday the 13th is one of those classic horror movies that made an impact on their original release. Funnily enough when Ft13th was first released it was given a may 9th date. Coming from the same director as the Texas chainsaw massacre remake it was a little predictable where this movie was going from the start to finish. Straight away its nothing like the original movie but has much more in common with the next 3 of the series.The movie is set into three parts. The first part is about five minutes long & tells the story of Jason’s mother & why she did what she did. The second part is kind of Harold & Kumarish..a group of friends trek through the woods in search of a generous crop of marijuana - eventually crossing into Jason’s territory so you can guess what happens next. The 2nd part also sets up the back-story for Jason - told by a campfire by a slightly annoying character.
Part three is the main movie itself & is set about a month or so after the 2nd part. Here a group of college friends are staying over in a lake house that just happens to be located on..yep you guessed it Camp Crystal Lake. On their way to the house they come across a guy searching for his missing sister - she went missing a month ago, see where this is going? The gang arrive at the lake house & start to get comfortable but its not long before things start to kick off & Jason comes calling - & as you would have guessed the killing begins.
Its obvious the filmmakers filtered out some of the most memorable kills from the original movies & reinvented them for this new one.. But is that a bad thing. Well it is & it isn’t & as much as I loved the originals for their fresh approach to the horror scene I have to say they do work a little better in Fth13 09. Obviously the makers of this one had a much much bigger budget than the originals combined so they could easily achieve more in the visual effects but they didn’t overdo them to the point where they got to be too big for the story. The sets are really well done & camp crystal lake looked really good & atmospheric. There were even a few surprises when it came to the set, the main one being Jason’s lair.
The acting is good but not great but then I honestly didn’t expect an Oscar worthy performance from the main cast - that said it’s a horror movie & I didn’t go for the acting but more for the experience of being scared & for the shock factor. So is it actually scary? Yes it is, the audience were jumping out of their seats in the first few minutes so it really did do what it set out to do, no easy task for a horror movie especially a modern remake of a classic that not only delivered the thrills but set the standard for horror movies themselves.Jason Voorhees is one of my favourite movie characters & I didn’t know what to expect from him in this one. Over the last 8-10 years or so I was used to seeing Jason as an unstoppable almost supernatural boogieman that would always return for his revenge so seeing him so human in Fth13 09 wasn’t so thrilling. For me he has always been more scary because he moves so slow but gets to where you are going before you, of course in this one he has to run & at one point even operates a bow & arrow. that’s really only quarrel with the movie & I will admit I’m on the losing side of the argument because he had to be human or the story wouldn’t make sense. If you are a fan of the originals or even a fan of movies in general then definitely check this movie out for a good scare - it wont disappoint & its sure to lean up at the box office.
