• Director: Marcus Nispel
• With: Jared Padalecki, Amanda Righetti, Derek Mears, Danielle Panabaker, Travis Van Winkle, Aaron Yoo, Jonathan Sadowski, Julianna Guill, Ben Feldman, Arlen Escarpeta, Ryan Hansen, Willa Ford, Nick Mennell, America Olivo, Kyle Davis, Richard Burgi, Nana Visitor
• Music by: Steve Jablonsky
• Duration: 1h46
• Studio: New Line Cinema & Paramount Pictures & Platinum Dunes
• Rating: 6/10

Review:

The last Friday the 13th movie to come out was this one in 2009. The version I watched is called the Killer Cut, an unrated version of the movie, with more violence and sex. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Friday the 13th movie without the (un)necessary titty-scene. (Why do we never see frontal male nudity in these movies? Are we that stupid that men shouldn’t get naked?)

Okay, apart from that… (just had to say it), I rewatched this movie and somehow I didn’t feel the same love for it as I did the first time I saw it. Probably because I rewatched the entire series and now it just felt unnecessary and redundant and badly executed.

Nispel (who also made a remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 2003) and the writers of this movie changed the entire franchise by skipping all the events from any of the sequels after part IV and starts with a revisioned ending of the original movie, where a girl (no name given but we can easily imagine it is Alice from the original Friday the 13th) is on the run for Mrs Voorhees. Then she grabs a machete and chops off the head of the Voorhees woman, who killed everyone else in the camp. What the girl doesn’t see is the little deformed boy hiding in the woods, witnessing the death of his mother. Even though Jason should have drowned years ago, he apparently came back (as a kid).

In present day, a group of friends go into the woods near Crystal Lake looking for a weed plantation. Two of them split and go look in the woods, ending up near Camp Blood aka Camp Crystal Lake or what’s left of it, and end up in cabin nearby. What they don’t know is that someone is living there… Jason Voorhees! And he just killed all their friends and now it’s their turn!

Six weeks later, another group of friends arrive at the lake for a weekend off. A weekend of sex, drugs and drinking. At the gas station they meet a guy, Clay Miller, who is looking for his missing sister. When their mother died, she never showed up. The last time she was seen was with her friends at the lake. (The previous group looking for the weed). No one can and wants to help him. One woman even says she’s probably dead because strangers tend to disappear around Crystal Lake. And those that do, are never seen again!

Clay ends up at the house where the friends are having the time of their life. And when Jenna, a girl from the friend’s group, decides to help Clay, they end up at the campsite as well… where a prowler is waiting for them and Jenna’s friends.

All in all there’s a good movie in here. Jason’s kills are not bad (although sometimes some scenes promise better kills only to end up in a classic stab and bleed kill… thinking of the tool shed that had so many great possible weapons) but it lacks a lot of story. It stayed on the surface and could have delved deeper in the lore of Jason’s existence and reasoning to kill people. Somehow he just pops up when someone is on his territory (and near to it) so he’s very protective.

The great things I did love about the movie is the reimagining of how he took on the hockeymask and the kills of the first group of friends (even giving a slight nod to the sleeping bag kill from the earlier films, but adding a bit more gore to it).

One thing is for sure now. After rewatching a few of the biggest (slasher) horror franchises these past few years such as Halloween, A Nightmare on Elmstreert and Scream, this one is my least favourite with the lowest ratings. I think someone needs to grab this franchise, give it some new blood and try to revive it… or just leave it alone and kill it for good… but as we all know (or not), a tv-show called Crystal Lake is in the making at this moment. And I’m not sure that will revive it or add great things to the franchise. I’ll watch it anyway whenever I’m able. But I’m a bit anxious… If they do make it, I hope they correct some of the plot holes that remained in the movies (as how did Jason survive and stay a kid, years after his mom died… and don’t give me that demon possession or supernatural crap! Been there, done that!)

One other thing that bugged me a bit in this movie… there were too many scenes copying ‘Wrong Turn’. Can Hollywood not just be original anymore?

There has been talk about a tv-show called ‘Crystal Lake’. As of today the only thing I know about it is it’s in production by A24 for streaming platform Peacock. So maybe we’ll see it soon enough.