Friday the 13th is supposedly an unlucky day, and the latest addition to the Jason Voorhees slasher series is something of an unlucky movie. While the film has all the elements of a classic horror flick, from nudity to drug use to bloody chase scenes, it's neither memorable nor particularly creative.
After struggling to produce 11 installments of the "Friday the 13th" series, the last two installments taking place in outer space and featuring a visit from Freddy Krueger, the writers have finally run out of inspiration. This dead end has unfortunately failed to put a moratorium on the stream of sequels, however, as the 12th film, "Friday the 13th," is nothing more than a reworking of the previous, more successful films.
The new "Friday the 13th" begins with the events that take place at the end of the first film, set in 1980. After slaughtering all but one of the kids at the camp, Pamela Voorhees (played by Nana Visitor), Jason's mentally disturbed mother, is beheaded as her zombified son watches. The film then advances to the present day as a group of friends attempts to find a stash of marijuana plants that just happen to be near the grounds of Camp Crystal Lake. The irresponsible youths proceed to drink and have pre-marital sex, which awakens the wrath of Jason once again. Six weeks later, another group of students on a school break trek to a family cabin that is inconveniently located in the middle of nowhere. This group runs into Clay (Jared Padalecki), who is searching for his sister Whitney (Amanda Righetti), who went missing six weeks ago.
Just like many recent remakes, including "The Hitcher" (2007) and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (2003), "Friday the 13th" intends to return to the root of the series. And, by referencing all the essential elements of the first Jason flicks, it attempts to create a retro-styled horror film that still plays on modern tendencies and attitudes.
While this film is a "reboot," the subtle connections to events in other films of the series show that it was made by fans of the original. For example, Jason is more fit than in the previous films; he chases victims with great fervor before chucking axes or swinging machetes. This is also the first time that Jason actively holds someone captive, which conveys an entirely different representation of the character than the other films.
As expected, the acting is sub-par at best and, save for Padalecki, Willa Ford and Aaron Yoo, the entire cast is made up of unknowns. The film's cinematography is sleek, however, and is obviously aimed at the targeted teenaged demographics that will appreciate close-ups, dark shadows and scary chase scenes as a great opportunity to cling to their dates. The film also returns to its roots by exposing as many females' chests as possible and having characters drink and take drugs in relatively innovative ways.
The one major problem with the film is its inability to create something original and memorable to make it stand apart from its predecessors. For example, the death scenes seem to have all been done before. How many times can a masked murderer slice someone open with a machete before it's no longer shocking?
Jason has many opportunities to kill people, but he doesn't take advantage of the many potential weapons around him. For instance, when one character enters a shed with a bug zapper outside, its killing potential sadly goes unrealized. However, the final scene of the movie does involve a wood chipper which leads to the final battle between Jason and the survivors of his rampage.
With necessarily lowered expectations, the film does a good job, and the cheap scares, jumps and thrill of being chased by Jason are not lost in this remake. However, those in search of a genuinely horrifying film should save their money for the next big-budget supernatural thriller.
