Paramount Pictures
www.fridaythe13thmovie.com
For all the horror fanatics out there, you are probably familiar with the story of Jason Voorhees and the Friday the 13th franchise. For those of you that are not, I am asking myself why?
The original 1980 Friday the 13th will remain as one of the most violent and horrific horror films I have ever seen. It made a statement and included content other horror films have since attempted to stand up to with very few able to achieve this. As well as the violence it had the occasional sex scene/nudity that was unnecessary, but now present in many horror films. These are aspects now predictable and we have come to expect, yet still make for an interesting film. What worked for the first in the franchise, works just as well in this instalment.
I was excited yet apprehensive when I heard Halloween was being remade. Rob Zombie’s outcome was horrendous and completely changed the entire foundations made over the franchise. Many believed Friday the 13th (2009) to be a remake of Friday the 13th (1980), which is in fact incorrect. The location for both may be Camp Crystal Lake, where a young Jason Voorhees drowned due to the camp counsellors being “busy”, but the stories follow on from each other rather than the newer version attempting to retell the same narrative. Much like Halloween: H2O continued twenty years after the original, Friday the 13th (2009) opens with the death of Jason’s mother, before taking on a whole new set of characters and murder scenes.
This renewed version spreads terror through the viewers building of suspense and anticipation creating a few jumps and shocks rather than the actual visions of murders, as these seem to have lost momentum and lack in their shocking scares. There are very few creative killing scenes such as in the opening sequence, the rest lack in terror. The way three separate narrative lines gradually build into one story is what captures the eye and gets a viewer pondering over the open ending.
There is the likeness that you are unfamiliar with the majority of the cast here. The only person I recognised was Jared Padalecki as I had seen him in Supernatural. This doesn’t affect your response to the film; in fact it probably makes the film more accepting not knowing previous films the cast have stared in.
With Friday the 13th (2009) Marcus Nispel hasn’t lost the original status created back in 1980, but added to the franchise creatively and effectively, leaving space for a future enterprise; hopefully with a little more aggression as the first film offered.
Michelle Moore
