An Ode to Bad Reels: Friday The 13th 2009

When I first heard that a reboot to the Friday the 13th film franchise was in the works I was a bit cautious.  This could have mostly been due to the less than stellar remake Hollywood gave us with Rob Zombie’s version of the classic ‘Halloween’ film.  Looking back at the history of the Friday the 13th films, I realized that they were all over the place when it came to quality and storyline so I had absolutely no idea what to expect from this film.  With this being the Halloween season it is only right that I determine once and for all if this Friday the 13th reboot is a new seasonal classic or a complete dud.

Friday the 13th

The first fifteen minutes of this movie w=are exactly what I wanted to see from a Friday the 13th remake and it seemed to mix together the first two movies of the franchise in a way that works for this film.  We get an opening scene of the ending of the first Friday the 13th where we see the final encounter between Alice and Mrs. Voorhees in which Mrs. Voorhees was beheaded.  We then flash forward to present day where a group of friends are camping out in Crystal Lake in search for a big field of marijuana.  That night Jason appears sporting his original burlap shack mask and begins to kill off the young adults one by one.  This sequence gave me a glimmer of hope for this film because it had the right amount of suspense, gore and Jason himself has a great presence in every scene he appeared.  Unfortunately, after these first fifteen minutes, the movies starts to take a nose dive right into Crystal Lake.

Friday the 13th

After those first fifteen minutes of the film, we then shoot forward to 6 weeks later in the story which kind of threw me off because why would they show that the event with the first group happened in present day and now we are moving into the future, but that’s just me.  Within this group, we get introduce me to the biggest douche bag I’ve ever seen in a horror movie, Trent (Travis Van Winkle), who brings his girlfriend, Jenna (Danielle Panabaker) and a few friend to his parents’ cabin near Crystal Lake for the weekend.  What makes him a huge douche and the main reason this movie takes a huge plummet is the fact that he invited all these people out to this cabin yet he is always worried about them messing up the house or getting too crazy.  Jenna even ask him about this in the film, stating, “why did you invite them here then? To show off your nice things?”  Because of this, most of the cabin scenes are just filled with him getting annoyed at the others.

Friday the 13th

We also introduced to Clay Miller(Jared Padalecki of Supernatural fame) who is the brother of one of the earlier victims and is on the look for his missing sister.  Trent is, of course, a jerk to him for no reason and this just adds to the annoyance of his character.  When Jason finally arrives at the camp and the killing starts almost immediately.  The deaths in this movie are pretty bad good but Jason himself relied more on jump scares than a creepy presence to inflict fear into the group.  There have been other Friday the 13th films that have handled the suspense way better.

One scene that confused me in this film was when Jenna left with Clay and Trent got upset which ended up in him have super loud sex with one of the other girls.  When Jenna returns to warn them about Jason, she goes and knocks on the bedroom door, where she can obviously hear what is going on, they come out and there was no reaction to Trent cheating or any acknowledgment of what was happening at all.

This movie took a huge dip after those fantastic first fifteen minutes but overall, this movie is not that bad.  I would probably only be able to pick maybe two other Friday the 13th movies to watch over this one so I would say that this would be a good watch for the Halloween season.  Is it a new classic? No, but it will keep you entertained with meaningless gore for an hour and a half.   So grab you hockey mask and your favorite decapitated head and enjoy the 2009 remake of Friday the 13th.


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About Luis Hernandez 67 Articles
As Reel Talk’s Creative Director, Luis is responsible for all the visuals of the website and marketing materials. He brings the views of the everyday movie audience but still holds an appreciation for the critically acclaimed films. He enjoys all things horror (good or bad) as well as comedy and action flicks. Follow him on Twitter @luisthedesigner