Friday 13^th (2009)

Paramount

R4 DVD

Extended Cut aka Friday 13^th Part XII

Friday 13^th is one of the most successful horror franchises of all time, with its iconic hockey mask killer, Jason Voorhees, and eleven films thus far. It has outsold ever other franchise in the genre and spawned all manner of marketing product from Jason dolls to the hockey mask, arguably the mask is more iconic than Freddy’s glove from the Nightmare on Elm Street series.

However, after so many different configurations of the slasher tale you begin to wonder what can be brought to the table in a new version. It is difficult to update an Eighties slasher to the present, CGI and special effects have come a long way and in the case of Friday 13^th nobody goes to “holiday camps” any longer. So what the filmmakers have tried to do is to create a new interpretation of the mythos in the spirit of the original.

The opening black and white sequences are flashbacks to the original tale and set the stage nicely for what is to come. The first 30 minutes of the film is really a slasher story in miniature and hark back to the Eighties slasher a lot better than the rest of the film. It is a classic tale of teenagers going camping (in this case looking for a dope crop since nobody would go to an old holiday camp these days), being hunted and slaughtered. It has some awesome scenes including being barbequed over a fire in a sleeping bag and a hachette to the head. Sure these kids are not greatly likeable, but they are nice enough working hard to get laid and having a good time. As we cut to the credits, it feels like the film has already finished, but it has just begun.

Soon we have a new group of college kids heading to a pad in the hills. This group is even more dislikeable than the first (if that is possible – sadly it is !) and you can’t wait until they are sliced and diced. An additional character is Clay, who rides in on his motorcycle looking for his sister. She was among the first group, hence being the link between the two stories. He is only one worth a pinch of salt and is quite separate from the “rich kids” offering a solid comparison in personality and character.

The rich kids pad and the drinking and drug antics of what seem to be spoilt well to do college types is well portrayed but soon becomes extremely annoying. As would be expected it soon comes down to sex and death, they get laid and then Jason comes to visit.

Clay invades Jason’s territory looking for his sister and soon Jason comes to take revenge. Jason is superbly portrayed and while not “supernatural” as in the earlier films, is impressively psychopathic. It is a strange film which reverses slasher conventions. Usually with “redneck” killers we side with the poor city folk killed (and sometimes eaten) by the evil inbred fiends. Here is it exactly the opposite, Jason is the anti-hero and you just can’t wait for the self obsessed rich kids to get a good dose of instant “Karma”. The subplot with Clay, who while looking for his sister, is demeaned by Trent simply increases the feeling of contempt for the self obsessed characters.

As a Friday 13^th adaptation it is fairly successful, the gore and violence while visceral and extreme, still has a certain Eighties slasher feel. The score is excellent with some great mood music; Jason is an impressive killer and the use of the story as a backdrop to the film adds a context which makes it work even better. Sure it isn’t perfect, no remake is, but surprisingly this one works well enough and accordingly is worth the experience.

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This review will appear in Volume 2 No.6 (2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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