Another Friday the 13th, This One Not So Bad

Friday the 13th (2009)
Director- Marcus Nispel
Starring- Jared Padalecki, Danielle Panabaker, Derek Mears

Years after the original slayings at Camp Crystal Lak,e, five teens explore the area, looking for a rumored marijuana crop growing wild, hoping to cash in. That night, after some gratuitous sexual play, Jason Voorhees (Mears) stalks them. One by one, they fall prey as he mercilessly (and creatively slaughters all but one.

Fast forward six months later. Clay (Padalecki) is searching for his sister, Jenna (Panabaker), who was one of the five from that night. He has a run in with a group of rich kids, led by Trent (Travis Van Winkle in an utterly convincing role), on their way to his parents' vacation home for a raucous weekend party. Trent's girlfriend feels sorry for Clay, and eventually agrees to help him look for his sister.

This might lead to a love interest. but that darn maniacal slasher is on the loose!
Keep in mind, this is a reimagining of the original. What's the difference? A remake is virtually a scene-for-scene reproduction, updated to a current genre. A reimagining takes an existing origin and throws a new story into it as though it was the first. Jason starts off with only a cloth bandage covering his face. We find out he was into hockey as a kid from little tidbits around his room. When he sees the hockey mask for the first time, we think, of course he gravitates toward that, it stirs up a memory from his childhood, and it hides his "ugliness".

I can't help but compare this a little to Rob Zombie's reimagining of Halloween from 2007. Is this movie good? Yes. But is it rob Zombie good? No. Zombie set the bar pretty high for making a strong horror movie that just sticks with you long after seeing it, and Nispel's reimagining of the Voorhees legend doesn't quiiiiite measure up to that. Regardless, it is still an excellent slasher flick. It's not very difficult to predict who gets killed, but it's harder to figure out how they get killed. Jason proves himself more human in this movie by actually running after his prey, as well as going into a silent rage every once ina while rather than acting stoic. He still never talks, so that has a pretty good effect altogether.

The ending is classic Firday the 13th, but still felt like it belonged more than any other ending that could have been dreamed up.

Rating: 4 Bonedaddies.