Friday the 13th Dual Review

Are you a fan of the Friday the 13^th series?

Donny:  I love this franchise!  Jason is the quintessential sequel spawning homicidal maniac.  He strikes fear into the hearts of anyone thinking about having premarital sex at a summer camp.  Jason is a pimp, but he’s also a mamma’s boy.  Think about it, Jason’s not really doing anything wrong.  He’s just obeying his mother’s wishes.  His only crime is that he never told his sweet mother that he actually survived the so-called drowning.  I figure he saw faking his death as an opportunity to start over, maybe find a nice mongoloid community to settle down in, only his plan took another turn after his mom decided to start hacking up horny campers in the name of her dead son.  

Basically what I’m saying is that I can relate to Jason, and this series as a whole.  If you break it down into it’s simplest elements, it’s just a story about a boy that loves his momma.

Jon: I’m a huge fan actually. While I enjoy the Nightmare on Elm Street series more, this is pure fun. No, not all of the films are good, most don’t offer up much more than the previous entry’s antics, but so what? Jason Voorhees is an icon of horror cinema. My parents grew up on Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Wolfman; I grew up on Jason, Michael, and Freddy. He’s a character that will never die, and will live through countless generations. The whole camp setting; from horny teenagers/camp counselors, the music cues (chi-chi-chi-ma-ma-ma), just about everything about this series is iconic. 

For those who are curious, the entries I like a lot are: Friday the 13^th, Friday the 13^th Part IV: The Final Chapter, Friday the 13^th Part II, and Friday the 13^th Part VI: Jason Lives. I love Freddy versus Jason, but that’s more of a tangent to the series and not part of the main series. These films are simple, fun, and I hope Jason can pick up the hockey mask and machete forever. 

For the record, I like the character of Mrs. Voorhees a lot and wished she was used more in the series, but Jason is the main face and has become symbolic with the series, poor Mommy will never get her due.

What did you think of the remake’s trailer?

Jon: I was skeptical about the idea of the remake, but seriously, folks, these things won’t stop, so let’s roll with it. We still got the original, you know? With that said, I thought this might be the easiest classic to remake. Slasher films are formulaic so playing with this film’s concept and adding to it, got me excited. Then the trailer was released. I was immediately pleased. I couldn’t wait. I thought it looked really good and my hopes for a new generation of horny teenagers getting whacked by our favorite goalie mask-wearing psycho. 

Donny:  The remake’s trailer kicks ass!  After seeing this trailer I started counting down the minutes until the film’s release.  What could be better than Jason swinging his machete at a girl’s head while in a full force run?  Hell to the Yes!

Your thoughts on the film?

Donny:  I had fun with this reboot, but I also think the story itself had a ton of plot holes.  But on a positive note, the flick is filled with boobies.  I’ll even go as far as to say that this flick has the best boob shots I’ve seen in a horror movie in a long time, nearly flawless specimens that spent their time on screen bouncing and gyrating their way into my heart.  Also the flick had some pretty cool kills that got me excited to be a horror fan, but like I stated above, it also has swimming pool size plot holes.  

****Spoiler Alert****

One of the things that really irritated me about the flick was the fact that the filmmakers ruined the best kill the flick had to offer.  I’m talking about the stupendous scene from the trailer that shows Jason lunging his machete into a young hotties head.  This is an amazing scene that impressed me immensely.  Only half way into the movie the young girl from this scene, Whitney (Amanda Righetti) shows up in the flick.  The filmmakers tried to explain this away by showing Whitney pick up and put on Jason’s mother’s necklace.  So, I guess we are supposed to believe that Jason summoned his super powers to stop the physics in it’s tracks a millisecond before the machete hit Whitney’s pretty little head.  

Also, I was irritated by the fact that there the camp has been reduced to ruins, and the campers were nothing more than drug dealers on a quest to find a hidden stash.  I know some of the victims were just hanging at a friends house, but they were still close to the secret stash.  Also in relation to the pot angle, Jason kills a redneck that has lived next to him for years, and he only decides to kill him after he steals his weed.  I guess the moral of this story is that if you steal Jason’s weed, your gonna get whacked.  

When I think about this reboot I think of it more as a sequel (Friday the 13th Part 13: Jason Fights for His Weed) than a reboot.  As a sequel it’s on equal ground with some of the weaker sequels in the franchise, but as a reboot it misses the mark by a mile.  

Jon: Yeah, I agree with Donny. I wasn’t too thrilled with this apparent reboot. I was hoping for a new start, and for most of the film it felt like just another sequel. I did appreciate the intesity the filmmakers gave to Jason. He’s no longer a slow, lumbering zombie. He’s fast, he thinks, and plots; this Jason is one we haven’t seen. I felt like this Jason was a combination of Kane Hodder’s mean streak and Ken Kirzinger from Freddy vs Jason. His look is reminiscent of that film too.

With Jason redefined, why did they throw such a hapless story for him to play around in? The famous Camp Crystal Lake was a not used like a summer camp, there’s no counselors, and while there’s the typical horny teenagers and drugs, having Jason protect his pot like he was saving it for his High Times cover shoot is ridiculous. 

But I think the main problem with this film is the hiring of Marcus Nispel as director. Most of this film is stylistically the same as his Texas Chain Saw Massacre; same DP was used, so we have a very similar art direction.  Camp Blood to me was an East Coast location, so why does this feel like the Dirty South? Nispel feels like a one-trick pony, even copying one the the more inventive camera shots from the Texas remake in here. 

The overall film is very disappointing, especially since I was really looking forward to it. I felt they left a lot of potential on the drawing board. Platinum Dunes needs to get some fresh blood for their remakes, as I think they all look and feel the same. Oh, and don’t have Nispel do anymore remakes. I like the guy, he seems like a capable director, it’s that he didn’t bring anything new to the table. Beat for beat, this Friday the 13th felt like his Texas remake, same pacing, same story structure, which is even more disappointing since this film was written by the Freddy vs. Jason writers, and that film was fun. It felt more like the kind of Friday film we should’ve gotten here. 

Care for a sequel?

Jon: You know, even though I was pretty disappointed with this film, I want a sequel. It ended on a good note and I’m ready for Jason to become immortal, zombie Jason and hopefully, Platinum Dunes will address some of my issues I had with this one, because there’s still potential left untapped. 

Donny:  Unlike Jon, I don’t ever need to see a direct sequel to this film.  Although I would love to see a sequel to the original series, or another Jason VS.

 

Donny: Rating:

Jon: Rating: