My first vivid memory of Jason is from Friday the 13th part 3 when I was in Elementary school. Luckily my parents weren’t overally protective of what I watched as long as I understood it was just entertainment. Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street were my first horror movies and imagine my excitement with the news that a reboot of Friday the 13th was coming. As soon as I saw the scene where Jason runs towards a downed woman I smiled and proclaimed that I had to see that movie. So after seeing it, did the movie live up to my fanboy expectations? Yes and no.
There’s a formula to the Friday the 13th series and this movie used alot of it, but scrapped some of my favorite. This reboot takes stuff from 2 and 3, but puts it in “present day”. I liked the fact that they left the original movie alone and built a new start from that. I heard that there was supposed to be 13 kills in this movie, but only counted 11. A big number to be sure, but some of the deaths where just rehashes of earlier movies. I read a ton of interviews/articles with the director and cast touting the creativity of the kills in this movie and really wondered where that creativity was 90% of the time. Most of the kills where the same kills you’ve seen in every Friday the 13th movie ever, and I’ve seen them all (except Jason X, I just won’t do it). During the movie the drug and sex stuff was just as dumb and tacked on as before, so it kept within it’s wheel house.
Drugs, Beer, teens, and the woods...your just asking to be killed
I know that people are supposed to be dumb in horror movies, but some of the characters where oddly suicidial. Two examples stick out to me the most. When the “nice girl” and the “hero guy” first stumble upon a corpse carrying Jason and manage to evade him, the guy actually starts to follow the seven foot Jason…he actually says “Where’s he going?” and starts to follow him until the nice girl stops him. Then when everyone (living) knows that there’s a pyscho killer outside, one of the group goes outside BY HIMSELF to look for a friend who is obviously dead already and his “friends” argue with him for about 2 seconds before giving up. I have to say that this movie has about the dumbest group of pyscho killer cannon fodder I’ve seen in a long time.
I had almost forgot what it was like to watch a slasher flick in the theater. I mean the last one I saw in the theater was Scream 3 with my best friend Te-Lo. If I decide to watch one it’s usually in the comfort of my home and it’s like night and day. Now that being said I could have done without the three talkative 15 year olds and their mom. At the end of the day the movie was alright, it wasn’t as good as the Texas Chainsaw remake but it is light years better than the awful Prom Night remake and the Texas Chainsaw prequel.
CHARLE’S GRADE: C+
PROS: It’s a Friday the 13th movie
CONS:The predictable jump scares, the aggravatingly cliche jump scare ending, the extremely suicidal character choices
