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Friday the 13th

I was really hoping that this 're-tooling' of the iconic story of the drowned misfit at summer camp would live up to the excellence of the recent remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Same director, same cinematographer, and a lot of the same crew so one would assume that the vision for Friday the 13th in the 21st century would be as hard hitting, emotionally disturbing and as inventive as its predecessor. No one expects you to top the original but it would be nice if you could match it in certain ways.

Sadly, this was not the case. This is little more than yet another sequel in a franchise that like its lead character, Jason, will just NOT die. Regardless of how creatively unsuccessful past efforts like Jason X where we find him in Space"¦ yup Space"¦ have been, they always seem to turn a profit thanks to their dedicated fans so they just keep churning them out.

This time around it's twenty some odd years later and Jason is living in the woods near the now abandoned Camp Crystal Lake. Of course two different groups of young and absurdly attractive collegiate co-eds head up there; one group on a hunt for alleged sprawling fields of Pot and the other for a weekend get away at a rich friends house. Not surprisingly, Jason does not take kindly to the uninvited guests and systematically dispatches them all one by one.

I suppose one could say that this film was made with the intention of mirroring the classic slasher film; intentionally having little to no dialogue or character development throughout. If all it's about is the different ways people you don't really care about get killed, then I guess it succeeds. For me though, that's not nearly enough to hold my interest.

One new trick that the director seemed to be using in abundance was not only punctuating the scare moments with jarring music, but also ramping up the sound to crazy levels so that even if you aren't scared by what you are seeing, the burst of sound forces you to jump in your seat regardless. Personally, I think that is a complete and total cheat. That's lazy film making as far as I'm concerned, you have to earn your scares the same way you have to earn your laughs by not using a laugh track to force the reaction out of the audience.

Another disappointing aspect of this film was that they don't even mention that the date is Friday the 13th. Maybe I missed it; I know it's in the trailers but I don't remember it being in the final cut of the film I saw and that just makes no sense. The classic

'Jason' theme music that added so much to the original film was also barely utilized showing up only one or twice.

All of this is not to say that the film was all bad. For one thing, Jason was scary as hell in this incarnation of the hockey-masked killer. He was fast, powerful and vicious. Too often these serial killers take way too much time in walking or limping up to their victims, Derek Mears as Jason sprints after his prey making the kills and the futility of fighting back all the more realistic. He also shows up in broad daylight which added to the chills as well.

As for our gorgeous young cast there are some stand outs here that you will definitely be seeing more of in the future. First and foremost is our heroic lead Clay Miller played by the strikingly hot Jared Padalecki of Supernatural fame. Its one thing to have a chiseled face and a ripped muscle body, its quiet another to have those things and be 6'6" tall! He's the largest, most physically imposing man I've ever met. So when he is pitted against Jason it's not a stretch to believe the outcome.

Danielle Panabaker best known for her role as James Woods daughter on the short lived television series, Shark has a presence and exudes her emotions in a way that completely fill the big screen. A lot of young actresses end up being lost in the large scale and scope of being in a feature film, but Danielle reveals in it and really stands out. Of all of the girls in this film (and there are many) she's the only one who I remembered 15 minutes after leaving the theater.

As far as the half naked female eye candy we've all become very accustomed to seeing in horror films there is plenty; Lots of topless grinding and such, but sad to say not much on the guys end. Seriously, creative team? You hire newly ripped up Jared and the always perfect Travis Van Winkle and you don't have them shirtless for the majority of the film? No idea what that's about.

As far as horror films in general go these days you could certainly do worse than Friday the 13th. And of course needless to say anyone who is a fan of the Jason series will be showing up for this one but I think they'll largely be disappointed. Any cross over audience members could really stand to wait for it on DVD.

Movie Grade: C

Official Synopsis:

Returning to the story that started it all, this retelling of the original Friday the 13th heads back to summer camp where a mysterious killer is systematically slaughtering the teenage camp counselors.