Friday the 13th (2009) Movie Review
Written By: TJ
Edited By: Grave Reviews Staff
Film Information
Director: Marcus Nispel
Producers: Sean Cunningham, Michael Bay, Andrew Form, Brad Fuller
Writers: Damian Shannon, Mark Swift
Date Released: February 13, 2009
Cast:
Jared Padalecki as Clay Miller
Dereck Mears as Jason Voorhees
Danielle Panabaker as Jenna
Amanda Righetti as Whitney Miller
Julianna Guill as Bree
Travis Van Winkle as Trent DeMarco
Aaron Yoo as Chewie
Arlen Escarpeta as Lawrence
Rating = 3/5 Graves
***May contain some spoilers***
Synopsis
Six weeks after his sister goes missing, Clay Miller (Jared Padalecki) decides to look for her in a town where he knows she last went. There he meets a group of friends having a vacation in one of the guys’ house near Camp Crystal Lake, a place where a horrifying event took place. Jenna (Danielle Panabaker), the friendly girlfriend of the host, accompanies Clay on his mission after her boyfriend acts mean on him. Clay and Jenna soon discovers that they are on an imminent danger after seeing a masked guy carrying a dead body on his shoulders. The two of them hurries back to the vacation house to warn the others, but they are followed by the killer and now it’s too late. Clay also finds out later on, that this same killer has his sister somewhere in Camp Crystal Lake.
Gore Factor
Being a slasher movie, Friday the 13th (2009) gives you its first beheading before you even make yourself comfortable. From start to finish, this film never shows merciful deaths. All the characters who have been killed suffered the most painful and gory demise in the hands of the hockey-masked killer which surely will satisfy even the hardcore gorehounds. Prepare to see a lot of beheadings, burned body, carnage, and a lot of stabbings as if the killer does not run out of machetes. The prosthetics used are very convincing especially when the scenes show the faces of the characters being stabbed, burned, or lacerated. Even when they show Jason’s face being deformed will make you commend the makeup department. What makes me hold my breath is when Clay and Jason had a one on one fight and either of them can be killed by the wood grinder. I would recommend this film to people who love creative killings, but not to people who are looking for a real mind-scare.
The Grave Review
Audience are asking, why is Jason still alive? The original film series Friday the 13th came out in 1980, 29 years after the sequel of same name in 2009 was released. Assuming that he was a camper at aged 12, he would have been 32 in 1980, and 61 in 2009. However, despite living in the woods for almost 3 decades, he still seems indestructible in the hands of healthy-looking young adults. And that’s where the loophole began.
The plot starts off showing the horrifying event before this current scenario begins when it shows the mother of Jason being killed, making Jason hungry for more kills. It is a pitiful prelude, but it gets better throughout the film. Sticking to the slasher formula is a wise choice, however, sex scenes are way too long that this film can be tagged as soft-porn. Moreover, it seems rather foolish that Jason is that hard to kill that even in the ending, after being put to a grinder, stabbed in the chest, and drowned in the lake, he is still capable to destroy a perfectly good wooden bridge and drag the female character with him. That’s just way too far from reality, and it pays seeing the negative comments about this film.
Cinematically, the ambience of Camp Crystal Lake is executed perfectly which is a vital aspect of the film. Great lighting and effects add to the settings nicely. Emotions are wrapped up effectively in each scene, making the film somehow tolerable. Sound effects really help in producing jump scares as well as tension buildup. Some scenes, however, suffer from the slapdash editing that swarms modern horror and action films. The fact that there are some instances when it’s almost impossible to be scared, seems sillier to be so horrendously edited in some areas.
Some of the actors are passable. With plenty of cheap scares at a moment’s notice and offers just enough laughs in the story. Derek Mears, on the other hand, gives more justice to the character of Jason as he is badder than ever. He is more active in the film and he obviously is a massive lumbering maniac. Other cast could have tried harder too, but that is just nitpicking gripe.
For the foregoing reasons, Grave Reviews gives Friday the 13th (2009) three graves out of five graves.
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