Sunday, February 15, 2009
A+E, Movies, Reviews

‘Friday the 13th’: The horror!

 

The new “Friday the 13th” isn’t so much a remake or a “reinvention” as a new sequel to the original film, which is summarized in the opening moments.

Two more groups of nubile young adults come to Camp Crystal Lake, the site of the 1980 killing spree by Jason Voorhees’ mother, who blamed the counselors for her son’s drowning death.

The first group of five is dispatched quickly. Six weeks later, Clay (Jared Padalecki of “Supernatural”) comes to search for his missing sister, Whitney (Amanda Righetti). He encounters seven college students, hosted by Trent (Travis Van Winkle) at his family’s cabin. It’s a strange configuration: two Caucasian couples, black and Asian-American single men, and a spare girl for Trent to bed when his date, Jenna (Danielle Panabaker), goes off with Clay.

Speeding up the process from the original series, Jason (Derek Mears) trades the burlap sack covering his face for that iconic hockey mask as he delivers death by machete, fire, axe, bow and arrow, antlers and other pointy things.

Despite hootable dialogue like, “Go to the tool shed. It’s down the path,” the so-old-it’s-new fun wears off quickly, and the chasing and killing become monotonous en route to the final, unsurprising surprise. Unlike Rob Zombie, who gave his “Halloween” remake some psychological underpinnings, director Marcus Nispel (the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” remake) is all about straight-ahead sex and violence.

With several more horror sequels and remakes on the way (Zombie is shooting “Halloween 2” locally), it remains to be seen how long horror fans will keep rewarding Hollywood’s lack of originality. 2.5 STARS—Steve Warren