Friday The 13th (2009)
Official Site:
Cast: Jared Padalecki, Danielle Panabaker, Willa Ford, Aaron Yoo, Travis Van-Winkle. Rating: R18+ for High Impact Horror Violene, Several Sex Scenes. Tagline: Welcome to Crystal Lake. Theatrical Release: March 12, 2009 DVD Release: July 24, 2009 BOX OFFICE: Released to 142 screens, the film was marketed and expected to be a hit. The R18+ rating was definately a blow to it's box office her, and the film opened with $619,336 with a $4,362 average. No screens dropped it 2nd weekend, but ticket sales plummeted 65% to gross $213,790 over the March weekend. The 3rd weekend was another shocker, a 59 screen drop and a 70% sales decrease. It only spent another week in cinemas, and finished it's theatrical run with a mediocre $1,196,048 Special Features: * The Rebirth of Jason Voorhees * Hacking Back, Slashing Forward * Best Kills * Alternate Scenes |
Plot Synopsis, Review
A group of friends are on a weekend getaway at one of their parents holiday house. Clay is also in Crystal Lake, looking for his sister Whitney who was last seen there a month ago. No one realises yet, but Jason Voorhees is at the old camp, and will stop at nothing to kill whoever gets in his way.
Fun. The film is very fun and will clearly please teen audiences. Although filled with a pile of cliche's, it manages to be entertaining and enjoyable throughout. It's opening scene was questionable, and the eye-rolling open-ending was inevitable, but at the heart and sole of the film, it's average horror. Cliche's aplenty, it had the stupid characters, the "why are you doing this to me" dialogue, predictable scenes and the pun that a character says right before killing the villian which in this case was "Say hi to mummy.... IN HELL". What I liked about the film was it was never too pacy, some films like to speed the pace once the ball is rolling, but this one has about 15 minutes of one group of characters, then after they are sliced and diced the rest of the film has a new bunch of friends, with only one of the previous group being key in the story. I dislike how predictable it was, it seemed everytime someone was going to die, I expected it five minutes prior. The death scenes themselves were pretty cool i'll admit, but Jason's "death"was pretty dull.
The plot is a re-imagining from horror making company "Platinum Dunes", and it's another hit by me. It's watchable and very modern, the dialogue and characters especially, but there were several plot holes within the movie. The question of, how is Jason alive if he was killed 20 years ago, and if the 10 "best" police officers in town were searching for the first group of unfortunates, why didn't they bother looking at the old campsite which has it's own myth about Jason. As a remake, the film isn't one of the worst, and isn't one of the best, it fits right in the middle with the likes of Thir13en Ghosts and The Amityville Horror (also by Platinum Dunes). If you compare the film against the original (which it isn't exactly remaking, it's a new story with a few scenes and elements from the first three Friday's), you'll find you hate it, but if you see the film without thinking of previous Friday's, you'll probably enjoy it more than you thought.
The acting was average. 'Jared Padalecki' played the good-guy hero Clay, searching for sister 'Whitney' (who was part of the first unlucky group slashed in the first fifteen minutes). He was slightly annoying being so modest and good-goody. 'Danielle Panabaker' played Jenna, part of the 2nd group who goes off with Clay after a fight with her boyfriend, in which 'Travis Van Winkle' plays to a tee a real big douche. Panabaker was also slightly irritating and a good-goody. 'Amanda Righetti' played Whitney, Clay's sister, and we all knew she'd be alive, otherwise what was the point of her storyline in the film. She can scream and act slightly better than average, but her underuse for most of the film was slightly odd because she was the heroine in the end. 'Willa Ford' was the scrag she was born to play, and 'Aaron Yoo' was the funny asian guy we all knew he was.
Overall "Friday The 13th" is a fun and modern re-imagining that manages to keep you watching for the whole film. My rating is 3/5.
Fun. The film is very fun and will clearly please teen audiences. Although filled with a pile of cliche's, it manages to be entertaining and enjoyable throughout. It's opening scene was questionable, and the eye-rolling open-ending was inevitable, but at the heart and sole of the film, it's average horror. Cliche's aplenty, it had the stupid characters, the "why are you doing this to me" dialogue, predictable scenes and the pun that a character says right before killing the villian which in this case was "Say hi to mummy.... IN HELL". What I liked about the film was it was never too pacy, some films like to speed the pace once the ball is rolling, but this one has about 15 minutes of one group of characters, then after they are sliced and diced the rest of the film has a new bunch of friends, with only one of the previous group being key in the story. I dislike how predictable it was, it seemed everytime someone was going to die, I expected it five minutes prior. The death scenes themselves were pretty cool i'll admit, but Jason's "death"was pretty dull.
The plot is a re-imagining from horror making company "Platinum Dunes", and it's another hit by me. It's watchable and very modern, the dialogue and characters especially, but there were several plot holes within the movie. The question of, how is Jason alive if he was killed 20 years ago, and if the 10 "best" police officers in town were searching for the first group of unfortunates, why didn't they bother looking at the old campsite which has it's own myth about Jason. As a remake, the film isn't one of the worst, and isn't one of the best, it fits right in the middle with the likes of Thir13en Ghosts and The Amityville Horror (also by Platinum Dunes). If you compare the film against the original (which it isn't exactly remaking, it's a new story with a few scenes and elements from the first three Friday's), you'll find you hate it, but if you see the film without thinking of previous Friday's, you'll probably enjoy it more than you thought.
The acting was average. 'Jared Padalecki' played the good-guy hero Clay, searching for sister 'Whitney' (who was part of the first unlucky group slashed in the first fifteen minutes). He was slightly annoying being so modest and good-goody. 'Danielle Panabaker' played Jenna, part of the 2nd group who goes off with Clay after a fight with her boyfriend, in which 'Travis Van Winkle' plays to a tee a real big douche. Panabaker was also slightly irritating and a good-goody. 'Amanda Righetti' played Whitney, Clay's sister, and we all knew she'd be alive, otherwise what was the point of her storyline in the film. She can scream and act slightly better than average, but her underuse for most of the film was slightly odd because she was the heroine in the end. 'Willa Ford' was the scrag she was born to play, and 'Aaron Yoo' was the funny asian guy we all knew he was.
Overall "Friday The 13th" is a fun and modern re-imagining that manages to keep you watching for the whole film. My rating is 3/5.