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Friday the 13th

Movie Grade: C+

DVD Features Grade: C-

Overall Grade: C

The 2009 remake of Friday the 13th is in my mind the best of its kind. Before you get all hot and bothered over that last statement let me remind you that its kind falls under the "terrible slasher remakes" category. To be blunt, they are all pretty awful; everything from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre down to April Fool's Day. All of these (even more) over sexualized, torture loaded "slasher" films are just shotty version of great movies, or shottier version of shotty movies. Never-the-less, Friday the 13th managed to surprise me.

The opening scene covers the events of the original very quickly which was probably the best part of the movies. After we get that two minute recap, we get quickly tossed into what seems most like parts 2, 3, and 4 being that it followed Jason as he hacked his way through hormone infested potheads. They try and fool us into thinking that the movie is about Clay (Jared Padalecki) trying to find his sister who was attacked by Jason earlier in the film; but everyone should know better by now. Yes this movie is about what I would say 99% of bad slashers are about, the four "B"'s (Booze, Blunts, Babes and Blood).

To be honest though, I wouldn't expect anything less from a Friday the 13th movie. If all of those qualities weren't involved it just would have been letting the entire franchise down. This remake actually did some justice to its predecessor because it took things that just didn't make sense and putt hem in better context. The end of the original has always been confusing to me. Was Jason coming out of the water a dream or not? Did Jason drowned and return form the dead, or did Mrs. Voorhees just kill everyone because she was a raving lunatic. Even though we don't get a lot of information it least here we see that he was alive at the time of his mother's death.

The problem is that for everything it explains, there is something else that just makes no sense. There is no better example of this, possibly in any film, than Jason's elaborate tunnel system under the camp. Who thought that was a good idea? Their definitely wasn't a labyrinth down there while the camp was running so Jason definitely built it and being that Jason has been alone since he was a kid, was uneducated past that point, had no one to help build the tunnels, and is clearly retarded, I would really like to know how he pulled that one off. The other issue relating to the other Friday the 13th films is that

the kill sin this one are really unoriginal. The early parts of the franchise had some really innovative stuff and actually showed the first ever frontal decapitation on film. I can't think of one death in this movie that I didn't predict before it happened or hadn't seen in another slasher film.

Up to this point all of my expectations were surpassed and I was actually pleased with the outcome of the movie; expecting nothing and getting something small is pleasing after all. Then I turned on the special features and it was all downhill. The Rebirth of Jason Voorhees was a joke. They honestly try and make it out like the underground tunnels were a good idea. Even past that, they try and say that this is a great recreation of Jason. Don't get me wrong, the modernization of Jason wasn't bad, but it had already been done. The Jason in this movie is incredibly similar to the Jason in Freddy Vs. Jason. So much so that I would go as far as to say that the only real difference was the clothes they wore and that this Jason moved quicker. Yes, making Jason quicker was a development but it took out one of the key factors that made Jason scary; suspense. The Additional scenes weren't too much of a let down but that is because I assumed they would be completely pointless additions or extremely minute alterations and that is exactly what they were.

The Friday the 13th went sour when it came up to The Final Chapter. That might seem like the proper time to loose the spark, but that was only the fourth part of this now twelve part series. What slasher films needed after the parody-slashers like Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer of the mid to late 90's was a proper rebirth. What they got was a shallow attempt in the form of these torture-porn influenced reboots. Being that this is probably the best of the reboots and the majority of this review has been negative I hope it shows that I am displeased with the current direction of my favorite sub-genre.

Movie Grade: C+

DVD Features Grade: C-

Overall Grade: C