The 2009 remake Friday the 13th is a horror flick distributed by New Line Cinema and Paramount Pictures. Its stars include Jared Padelecki as Clay Miller, Danielle Panabaker as Jenna, Amanda Righetti as Whitney Miller, and Travis Van Winkle as Trent. The producers are Michael Bay (Armageddon), Sean S. Cunningham (the original Friday the 13th), Andrew Form (The Hitcher), Brad Fuller (The Amityville Horror), and Alma Kuttruff (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning). It is directed by Marcus Nispel (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre).
The film opens with the scene when the lone surviving camp counselor beheads the vengeful Pamela Voorhees, whose son Jason drowned in Crystal Lake because the counselors weren’t paying attention. Jason himself witnesses the killing and hears his mother’s voice inside his head telling him to punish those that wronged him and her. Some time later, Whitney Miller and her friends are out camping and searching for a large marijuana plant in the Crystal Lake woods. Jason kills all of them but Whitney. He keeps her alive because of her physical resemblance to his mother. Six weeks later, her brother Clay goes out to Crystal Lake to find her. He runs into some college students who are on their way to a cabin owned by one of them, Trent. Trent is hostile towards Clay, but his girlfriend Jenna sympathizes with him. A while later, Clay ends up knocking on their cabin door searching for his sister. Jenna offers to help Clay. Eventually, they come across the old and abandoned Camp Crystal Lake. They catch Jason as he is carrying a couple of dead bodies but he doesn’t see them. They run back to the cabin to warn Trent and the others about the killer. The group tries to barricade themselves in the cabin but Jason is already in there. He kills off all the others, leaving Trent, Jenna, and Clay. After Jason takes out the cop that had arrived, the three of them try to get away in the cop’s car. Jason throws a corpse of one of their friends on the car, which startles Trent and causes him to abandon Clay and Jenna. Nearby, Jason catches up and kills him. Meanwhile, Clay and Jenna have stumbled across what appears to be Jason’s lair. He returns and traps them.
In this remake, the storytellers manage to combine elements from the first three original Friday the 13th films. First of all, there is the opening scene where the lone surviving counselor beheads Mrs. Voorhees, which actually happened at the end of the 1980 Friday the 13th. Also during Jason’s first killing spree with Whitney’s friends, we notice that he is wearing a bag over his head, similar to the one he wore in Friday the 13th Part 2. Finally, when he begins killing Trent and Jenna’s friends, he comes across a hockey mask. Jason picks it up and puts it on, an event that originally took place in Friday the 13th Part III.
This Friday the 13th was obviously another attempt to revive a horror subgenre which was popular in the 1980’s, the Slasher-style movie. This is a movie where the killer is a huge, monstrous being, usually a male, and is impervious to most attempts to injure or kill him. He goes out killing all who are being bad, similar to Michael Myers’ portrayal of the boogeyman persona in the original Halloween. Being “bad” includes underage drinking, having premarital sex, and doing illegal drugs. It can also include amazingly stupid behavior such as going out in the dark alone. As you will see, this is exactly what most of Jason’s victims do during the course of the film.
To wrap, if you’re into the 1980’s style of horror movies or just a fan of the old Friday the 13th film series, then you will very much enjoy this movie!
