| Overall Grade: |
B |
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| Story: |
B- |
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| Acting: |
B |
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| Direction: |
B |
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| Visuals: |
B |
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Hooray for the return of Jason!
by Carlos el wrey (movies profile)
Feb 13, 2009
60
of
68 people found this review helpful
The Friday the 13th franchise has come along way home with thirteen films in a row, the most recent with a reboot of the original one... but after 20 years of terror, and the evolution of terror movies now-a-days, can a hockey-wearing mask, machete welding prick scare a few chills down the spine?
From what I saw... He sure can.
As a recent horror director, Markus Nispel, and I really have to give it to him, did a very good effort at improvising from the old ones. It's not about the 10-minute suspense scenes, and the squirting down blood anymore, it's about the intensity, the brutality, and the red meat, and Jason delivers them all.
For those new to the franchise (Which I hope notm many) the story follows young friends Whitney (Amanda Righetti), Mike (Nick Mennell), Richie (Ben Feldman), Amanda (America Olivio), and Wade (Jonathan Sadowski) end up missing in the woods near the abandoned Camp Crystal Lake , after allowing their curiosity to get the better of them and visiting the site where a psychopathic killer resides. Six weeks later, Trent (Travis Van Winkle) invites friends Jenna (Danielle Panabaker), Bree (Julianna Guill), Chewie (Aaron Yoo), Chelsea (Willa Ford), Lawrence (Arlen Escarpta), and Nolan (Ryan Hansen) to his father's cabin on Crystal Lake for a weekend of sex, booze, pot smoking, and water skiing. However their seemingly fun weekend soon escalates into a nightmare after lone traveler Clay (Jared Padalecki) shows up looking for his missing sister Whitney. The police have searched with no luck, and Clay is now searching alone. Local citizens have advised Clay not to go into those woods, because anyone who shows up missing is already dead, and he is wasting his time. During his search, one of the students, Jenna, decides to help Clay find his sister, and they go into the woods. They find the abandoned Camp Crystal Lake and search the dilapidated camp house for any signs of his sister. They soon find themselves face to hockey-mask with evil reborn, reimagined, and rebooted, and his name is Jason Vorhees (Derek Mears).
It's the same ol' problem with horror movies...the acting. And what was really surprising in this case, and very unlikely in recent horror movies, is the well-acted part done. A young group of well deserved B actors, that manage to get beyond the shout, run, and die. Because writers Shannon, and Swift...really develop well different characteristics from each character, that just really gets past the "comic relief guy", "the annoying guy that always dies first guy", "the hot busty blond that gets chased around naked", etc. And in fact, I was really somewhat dissapointed in especially two characters (not gonna give out spoilers), when Jason's machete finds them.
Derek Mears too plays an insanely badass, Jason. He is big, he's a brute, and he is scary. It's no more zombie-Jason, or depressed Jason (egh* egh* Freddy vs. Jason egh*), There's a human side/attitude in him, which makes it scarier, and more realistic.
Horror fans will not be dissapointed... The blood and guts are made realistic too, in order to keep it below the "oh my god, that's so fake" level, at the same time being creative like the past ones. And there's a lot of it... from axes, to bows, the classic machete kills, heads get stabbed, bodies are chopped and mutilated, etc.
I have never seen a slasher like this, and I am very happy to say I enjoyed 'Friday the 13th' unlike any other past slasher movie. To say it's perfect film would be a lie, there are couples of flaws throughout the film...but at the end, it all comes down to the guts, and scares. As for now... I'll just hope Jason will return. Ki Ki Ma Ma.. |
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