Dir. Marcus Nispel, US, 2009, 95 mins
Cast: Jared Padalecki, Danielle Panabaker, Aaron Yoo, Amanda Righetti, Travis Van Winkle, Derek Mears
Review by Michelle Moore
Horror fanatics reading this are probably familiar with the original 1980 Friday the 13th and its many sequels. For those of you that are not, let me fill you in on the story. The location for all the events is Camp Crystal Lake, where a young boy by the name of Jason Voorhees drowns as the camp counsellors are otherwise engaged. Years later, the counsellors are murdered by Jason's mother, who is ultimately decapitated in the conclusion of the film.
Before you think that I have ruined this “remake” - as some people have wrongly described it - this previous narrative is retold in the opening credits of what is, in fact, a continuation in the series. Just as Halloween: H2O continued twenty years after the original, so Friday the 13th opens with the death of Mrs. Voorhees, before taking on a whole new set of characters, murders and shocks.
Most of the cast are unfamiliar, with the possible exception of Jared Padalecki who audiences may know as Sam Winchester from TV's Supernatural . Here his is probably the most interesting character, displayingstrong determination in his struggle to find the truth behind the disappearance of his sister, even though everyone else has given up hopes of finding her.
The original Friday the 13th is perhaps one of the more violent and bloody films from the 70s/80s slasher genre. This later version, however, builds the fear through suspense and the anticipation of the viewer, with a good few jumps along the way. It doesn't have the same momentum of violence or murders as its predecessor: a machete killing here, a machete killing there, there are only a few really imaginative murders. The others are predictable and therefore lack the terror factor, but the way the storyline brings in three separate beginnings to one open ended conclusion is quite inventive and gets the viewer wanting more.
All the horror film cliches we expect and love are present, from the half naked blonde girls getting killed, to people who run upstairs instead of out of the front door and they always end up getting separated. Iit still intrigues as to why we so enjoy viewing such things. As in the original, sex also plays large role and, as so many discussions and analyses have concluded, sex equals death in the horror genre, and here is no exception.
It may have been horrendous to with through Rob Zombie's Halloween revamp, but Marcus Nispel hasn't done that badly with his take on the Friday the 13th series. As it leaves the ending open for a sequel, I just hope the one that follows is slightly more rugged around the edges.
|
