Friday the 13th
When Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes shingle remade Tobe Hooper’s visceral classic “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” in 2003, the filmmaker’s stylistic approach hearkened closer to modern slasher conventions than paying homage to Hooper’s gritty, snuff-like approach to the depraved material. To say it fell flat with genre aficionados (myself included) is to put the matter lightly; when Bay and co. produced the prequel a couple of years ago- “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning” went unseen by me- the nail closed the coffin earlier.
So you’ll understand people’s hesitation when they announced that the same crew was going to remake the 1980 slasher classic “Friday the 13th.” Though generally not considered in the same league of horror classics like “Massacre,” “Halloween,” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” the origin saga of hockey-masked sociopath Jason Vorhees has nevertheless a passionate following. I’ll admit that in my early years I was a big fan of this series, watching the first six films of the franchise by the time we moved to Georgia in 1988, watching the unrelated (but still kind of interesting TV show), and actually writing my own little mini-Jason stories (what you would call fan-fic today if it were actually substantial). My Jason obsession unsettled my mother, and it was something I basically grew out of on my own. I wouldn’t watch another Jason movie until the God-awful “Jason X” in 2002. At least the franchise was somewhat redeemed by 2003’s successful “Freddy vs. Jason” hybrid, setting the stage somewhat for a reboot.
To be fair, this was a franchise that could benefit from a reboot. “Halloween” was an instant classic, as was “Nightmare on Elm Street,” although with few exceptions, both those franchises quickly devolved into the same hackery that plagued Jason by the third film (admittedly, the first two tell an intriguing story). And Bay and co. successfully reinvent the franchise, starting with a prologue that delves into that story- first of his mother’s rampage against the counselors who let her boy drown, only to be decapitated by a lone survivor, then of Jason’s own spree 20 years later, with the iconic shot of his shrine to his mother (complete with severed head) added for good taste (or not, depending on your perspective).
Six weeks after we see Jason take out a group of young adults, in the woods around the now-closed Camp Crystal Lake, another group comes to summer home around the lake for a weekend of debauchery. Parallel to them is loner Clay (Jared Padalecki), who is looking for his sister Whitney (Amanda Righetti), who was one of the victims of six weeks before. The group of seven- led by a tool named Trent (Travis Van Winkle) and including Aaron Yoo as a horny pothead named Chewie and a sweet girl named Jenna (Danielle Panabaker)- are too dazed by their own lustful urges to care about Whitney, although when Clay comes up to the house to drop off a flyer, he gets a helper in Jenna. It’s not long after that that Jason (played by Derek Mears under some pretty cool makeup and athleticism) starts knocking off the group, starting with a couple skiing on the Lake (really well executed sequence by the way), and just going from there. There’s even a few surprises in store on the story front…who knew?
Screenwriters Damian Shannon and Mark Swift know not to reinvent the wheel here. When people go to a “Friday the 13th” movie, there are a few things they want to see- boobs, death, more boobs, and more death, preferably combining the two where possible. Shannon and Swift deliver those in spades, but also do something more- they update Jason for the modern age with a reverence and awareness of how he got there. Starting with the nearly 20-minute prologue, Shannon and Swift are loyal to the Jason mythos of the original films and also script a thriller that owes much to “Predator” and other skillful films of the like, presenting Jason as a trapper and hunter who doesn’t kill randomly- otherwise, would anyone really live 50 miles of him?- but does kill well (bear traps, bow and arrows, and the iconic machete are all used at different times). Director Marcus Nispel (who directed the “Chainsaw” remake for Bay) keeps the film moving at a break-neck pace and stages the deaths with skill and maximum impact.
The only one who doesn’t really keep up his end of the bargain is composer Steve Jablonsky (who scored “Chainsaw” and “Transformers”), whose score is a brilliant bit of horror-suspense writing no doubt, but doesn’t use enough of Harry Manfredini’s iconic theme for my taste. There were plenty of times in the film’s 91 minutes where it would have been terrific to hear over the silence, but that’s a minor quibble for what is otherwise an effective thriller, and a new start for one of horror’s most iconic boogeymen. Yes, I said “new start.” You didn’t think Jason was gonna go quietly did you?
