Friday the 13th DVD: Review By Vamp

As I said in my "The Good" section, it's nice to see that the "Friday the 13th" series has been returned to glory. With the epic failure that "Jason X" was, many fans probably just gave up on the series. I'm sure that "Freddy Vs. Jason" helped some of them return, but I know that many people I've talked to have dubbed that movie as absolutely horrible, so that didn't bring everyone back. Nor did this one, bring EVERYONE, at least, but it brought enough back, I bet, to make a difference. Where as "Freddy Vs. Jason" was a funny movie, "Friday the 13th" returns Jason Voorhees to the seriousness that he was raised with, and it does it well. What I liked most about this series, is the fact that it doesn't shirk anything from the first three. I mean sure, Pamela Voorhees' part in the film was only the opening credits, but you saw enough, and if you've seen the original "Friday the 13th (1980)," then you also KNOW enough, to get what is going on there, and what she means when she tells her boy to kill. It starts out using Jason's bag mask, and gradually, he finds his legendary hockey mask. This spans the entire movie, and it's nice to see that the writers and the directors want to show some homage towards the original movie which was loved by all. Jason Voorhees is known to be one of the founding fathers of the slasher genre. Michael Myers being one as well, of course. This year seems to have been the year of the slasher's return. In January, we got the remake of "My Bloody Valentine," in February, we got this, the remake of "Friday the 13th," and in August we shall be getting the sequel to the remake of John Carpenter's "Halloween." So far, as I'm sure it still will be, we've not been disappointed by any of these films. This one especially. Jason was meant to be a badass psychotic killer, and towards the beginning, that's what we got. Up until "Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan," in fact, that's what we got. But after that, he just seemed to go south. While "Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday" managed to turn him back into a badass again, but with "Jason X," he took the unreturnable plummet. This is not counting "Freddy Vs. Jason," though, if you count it, and I know I do, he was brought back up to the badass psycho killer he was, and that at least was a savior for some fans, though most had given up by then. With this remake, Jason Voorhees has returned, and he is as badass, psycho, and murdersome as ever. Welcome back, Mr. Voorhees.

Marcus Nispel directs this remake of the classic "Friday the 13th (1980)." Many remember Nispel for his iconic remake of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)," back in 2003. Nispel returned Leatherface to his glory after the hilarious rendition in "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation," which ultimately failed as bad as "Jason X" did. Because of this fact, and what Nispel did for this series as well, I refer to him now as "The Savior of Slashers" because so far, with every Slasher that he has had at his command, he's saved the series from complete ruination, and further the disappearance of that. I don't know exactly if the series would have disappeared in "Friday the 13th's" case, or even "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)'s" case because they're cult classics, but it saved it from the newer generations skipping over them, and for that I applaud Mr. Nispel's skills greatly. He coomes out with some awesome angles to make Jason's brutal kills more interesting and creepy. One instance being in the beginning, when the woman is dangled over a fire and burning to death in her sleeping bag. He uses an interesting angle from the ground far away, meant to be like watching it happening with the kid who is stuck in the bear trap. It really worked out awesome. Subsequently, Nispel also uses some awesome filters to make scenes even more eerie. One instance of this can also be noticed in that same scene. The way the night sky and the firelight lent light to the burning of the woman, and made it incredibly spooky, and for me at least, it kind of had that "Oh my God," heart-stopping feel. Nispel really manages his horror films well. The Writers of this movie are Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, who both develop the screenplay, as well as developed the story, with the help of Mark Wheaton, based on the characters created, of course, by Victor Miller. These three really manage well with Miller's characters, and create a new movie with Jason, while at the same time, still sticking to the story. I really like that they managed this. While they tried to stay true to the pace of the original "Friday the 13th" films, by making sure that the pot smoking and overly sexual kids were there, I feel that part could have been skimped, but I'm not going to complain about it (And no, I don't mean that to be perverse in any way), since it stays true to the series that it is rebooting. They definitely handled the story for this one VERY well.

The Visuals of this movie are as awesome as they ever were. What I really liked was how they skipped over the entire, we're going to do the killings from the killer's point of view, and went straight to seeing Jason as he does his dirty work. I'm not sure exactly WHY they went with this route, but it doesn't bug me in the slightest. They decided not to use the Pamela Voorhees storyline throughout the entire movie, so it wasn't really needed. Jason Voorhees' look in this movie was spectacular. Never before has he looked so badass as he does in this reboot of the "Friday the 13th" series. He's got his gunny sack mask, which looks as killer and badass as it ever has, and when he finds his legendary hockey mask, it just completes the epic vision of the killer that everyone on Crystal Lake fears, and everyone in the movie-watching universe loves to be bad. It's just awesome to watch him come into that status yet again with this movie. He's got his usual coats and clothing that makes him look like he's supposed to, like he's been living in the woods for over twenty years. The look of Jason's face in this one is back to it's regular creepiness. It's not over-the-top or bloated, like it was towards the end of the original "Friday the 13th" franchise, rather it takes you back to the man you saw at the end of "Friday the 13th Part 2." I hope that they manage to keep Jason's face consistent in this new series, since we know that they've already got planned "Friday the 13th Part II," which will be the sequel to this movie. The blood in this movie looked pretty good, I must say. The kills are over-the-top, yes, but the director manages to keep it at a believable blood level, so as to not overdo it like they did with "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning," or any other movie that came out in 2006 to the horror genre, for that matter, making it seem like you want to vomit, rather than inducing your fear. Rather, by keeping the blood level at a good level, you get that feeling of "Oh my God, I can't believe that's happening," or "Holy sh*t! That's not good!" or even the legendary, "That can't have felt good!" It's nice to have that feeling in a movie. Movie's that depend on blood and gore for scares, really get on my nerves, so it's nice to see this one making it's effort for scares. Speaking of the kills, the one in this movie that really stuck with me, was the death of the character, Lawrence, who is running from Jason. Jason starts to run after him, finds himself a nice axe, and throws it over twenty yards, and still burying it into Lawrence's back. The sight of that axe flipping through the air was just so badass. That was definitely the kill that stuck out for me in the whole movie. The visuals of this movie DEFINITELY serve us up some of the action and terror that we would expect from a "Friday the 13th" reboot, and also adds a nice edge of creepiness and eeriness to the film that really makes it fun to watch.

The Storyline of this movie is not really a remake of "Friday the 13th (1980)," but rather it is a compilation of "Friday the 13th (1980)," "Friday the 13th Part 2," and "Friday the 13th Part III," which really lends to the legacy of Jason by telling it in one story, and letting the bloodshed commence. I like how they used Pamela Voorhees in the movie, even though they still based it on Jason Voorhees. It allows the series to do a prequel, where the visit Mrs. Voorhees massacre at the killer camp if they wish. One thing that this story finally does, is solve the error in continuity that "Friday the 13th (1980)" and "Friday the 13th Part 2" had linking them. If Jason Voorhees really was a child at the end of "Friday the 13ht (1980)," and really did grab Alice out of the boat and into the lake, then how did he grow over twenty years to become the adult that he was in "Friday the 13th Part 2," when he only had a couple of months difference between the goings on at the end of "Friday the 13th (1980)," to the beginning of "Friday the 13th Part 2," and Alice's death. In this one, right after his Mother is beheaded, we see Jason as a child, and then it does the twenty years later time skip, which explains Jason's growth into an adult. It's a minor thing, but when you think back to "Friday the 13th (1980)" and "Friday the 13th Part 2," it was left as a mystery to the fans, and I don't know whether they just wanted that to be part of the mystique that surrounds Jason Voorhees, or whether they just didn't think about it when they wrote it. Either way, it was fixed with this reboot of the "Friday the 13th" series, and I have to give it major credit for that fact, which I do. They definitely fixed that bit. I also like how, as I said, we see Jason come into his hockey mask, rather than just starting out with it outright. The gunny-sack-masked Jason was always really creepy to me, creepier perhaps, than even his hockey mask, and so I was really excited when the pictures started to get released for this movie, and they revealed it as having Jason starting out with his gunny-sack-mask. That was a definite spirit-lifter for me, even though I was seeing the movie no matter what. They definitely managed to reboot the series with style and flair, and restore my own interest, as well as, I assume, everyone else's interest in the "Friday the 13th" series.

The movie starts out with a black-and-white scene, showing a camp counselor (Played by Stephanie Rhodes of "The Briefcase"), who is running through the woods terrified, being chased by an older woman, named Pamela Voorhees (Played by Nana Visitor of "Babysitter Wanted"), who tells her that she is the last one, and that she killed the others, and to avenge Jason's drowning she must kill all of those who were responsible, including this counselor. As Pamela advances, we see the counselor grab a machete, and hack Pamela Voorhees' head off. The counselor drops the machete next to Pamela's body, and runs away, visibly shaken. As the scene progresses we see a young boy, Jason Voorhees (Played by Caleb Guss of "The Hottie & the Nottie") come up to the body and kneel down beside it. He takes the machete, and his mothers head, and leaves the woods. Now we cut to twenty years later, in the present. A group of campers, Wade (Played by Jonathan Sadowski of "Live Free or Die Hard"), Richie (Played by Ben Feldman of "Extreme Movie"), Mike (Played by Nick Mennell of "Rob Zombie's Halloween"), Whitney Miller (Played by Amanda Righetti of "Role Models"), and Amanda (Played by America Olivo of "The Thirst: Blood War") who are going on a camping trip to find a field of pot plants that are supposledy growing somewhere in the area. When Wade, their technology man, cannot seem to find the location, they all decide to camp out at this spot for the night. They all sit around the campfire, and Wade tells them that they're somewhere near Camp Crystal Lake, a Camp where a boy named Jason Voorhees had drowned twenty years ago, and then his Mom went crazy and killed all the counselors. Only to get beheaded by the one surviving counselor. He goes on to say that they say that Jason still lives, growing up in the woods, and murdering anyone foolish enough to wander into his territory. That's when Whitney decides to head out for a walk, and her boyfriend, Mike, decides to follow her. They stumble in upon a deserted campsite, and start to investigate it. Meanwhile, back at the camp Wade discovers that his GPS hadn't synched up, and that they're right around the area where the weed is stored. Richie says that that is awesome and he should go off. Wade understands what he means and heads off, as Amanda and Richie start to have sex. Meanwhile, Wade, who has gone out to take a pee, has stumbled upon the weed, and is exulting over his find, when he runs into a big man carrying a machete and wearing a gunny sack over his head, Jason Voorhees (Played by Derek Mears of "The Hills Have Eyes II"), who kills him. As Whitney and Mike are searching the cabin they find a bed with the name Jason on it, and remember Wade's story. They enter into a bathroom with a hole in the wall, and a ton of candles. Mike sees something in the wall, and thinking it's a doll, pulls it out. He finds out that it's the severed head of Pamela Voorhees. As they freak out, they hear a noise, and as Mike is kneeling down, Jason makes his entrance, and stabs through the floor into Mike's hand. Soon, as the two are scrambling around, Jason busts through the floor, and finally pulls Mike down to him. Whitney screams and runs out of the house into the woods. Meanwhile, Amanda has heard a noise and tells Richie to go out and tell Wade to quit watching them. He goes, and while she waits alone, Jason shows up, and grabs her. As Richie stumbles into the woods he finds the pot, and subsequently finds the body of Wade. He runs back into camp screaming, only to find Amanda tied up in her sleeping bag, and dangling from a tree into the fire. As Richie starts to run to Amanda's aide, he is stopped suddenly by a bear trap that clamps onto his leg. As he is screaming in agony, and trying to pry it off, Amanda is writhing and sccreaming, and soon, the sleeping bag rips open, and she falls out, dead. Whitney enters the camp, and sees the body of Amanda laying on the ground charred and burned, then she heads to Richie's aid, but as she tries to pry off the bear trap, Jason returns, and buries his machete into his head. Whitney runs away screaming, but trips and falls, and soon enough, Jason is upon her. It suddenly cuts to six weeks later, as a group of teenagers, Trent (Played by Travis Van Winkle of "Meet the Spartans"), Jenna (Played by Danielle Panabaker of "Mr. Brooks"), Nolan (Played by Ryan Hansen of "Superhero Movie"), Chelsea (Played by Willa Ford of "Anna Nicole"), Bree (Played by Julianna Guill of "Be Good Daniel"), Chewie (Played by Aaron Yoo of "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist"), and Lawrence (Played by Arlen Escarpeta of "The Ten") who are headed out to Trent's cabin on Crystal lake. They pull into a gas station, and Nolan fills up, as Trent and the others enter the store. In the store is Clay Miller (Played by Jared Padalecki of "Cry_Wolf"), who is passing out fliers to people who may have seen his sister, Whitney, who had gone missing six months ago. There Trent is waiting impatiently as Clay talks with the man behind the counter, and tells Clay to get a move on if he's not going to buy anything. Clay obviously knows what kind of person Trent is, and tells him he's sorry for being an *sshole, and they banter back and forth, and Clay leaves. Meanwhile, the group heads back into their truck, and arrives at the cabin. Everyone unpacks and commences with having a great time. Clay has gone around to pass out more fliers, and is pulled over on his bike by Officer Bracke (Played by Richard Burgi of "Hostel: Part II"), who tells him that they did everything they could to find Whitney, and that he should just start looking elsewhere like the other families have and that maybe she just up and left with her boyfriend. Clay says that that's impossible because he didn't even know his sister. She had been spending time with his Mother, who passed away, and she didn't show up at the funeral, which Whitney just wouldn't do. Officer Bracke tells him one last time that he should just go search somewhere else, and leaves. Meanwhile back at the cabin, the group continue their fun, and Nolan and Chelsea decide to drive down to the lake, with Trent's permission. He tells them not to drive his boat, though, because only he drives his boat. Nolan and Chelsea head down to the lake, and get on the boat and start driving it anyway. Chelesea gets on the boogie board, and starts to water ski, but when she hits a particularly big wave, she is upended. As Nolan turns the boat around to come get her, and arrow flies through the air, and embeds itself in his skull. No the boat drives off course, and hits Chelesea. As she is struggling to reorient herself, she sees Jason voorhees standing there, and he pulls out his machete. She screams, and swims away, floating underneath of a dock to hide, but Jason knows she's there and he embeds his machete through the slit in the dock and into the top of her skull, killing her. Meanwhile, Clay is still passing out fliers, and he comes to the cabin where all of the kids are staying. He knocks on the door, and when it opens pulls out a flier and starts asking if they've seen Whitney, but he sees that it's Jenna, and stops, and apologizes. She invites him in, saying that it's no problem, and offers him a drink. Trent shows up and freaks out, telling him to get out of his house, and not letting him have any beer. Jenna shows him the way out, and asks where he plans on going. He said he was going to check out the houses on the other side fo the lake before he stopped tonight. She asks if he wants any company, and they ride off together. They enter into an old abandoned campground, quite obviously Campy Crystal Lake, and start looking around. They get creeped out, and decide it's time to leave, but as they're leaving, someone is entering, and it's Jason Voorhees. As they hide, Clay drops his bag where they were, and watch. They can see he is carrying something, and as he drops it to check out the bag laying there, they find out that it is a body in a bag, and start to freak out. The man starts to go berserk, and knocks a bunch of sh*t over, trying to find them, but when he finds nothing, he goes back to where he was headed. Jenna and Clay run for it, and manage to trigger a trip wire that runs bells through Jason's underground tunnels, where Whitney Miller is being kept hostage. She tries to scream, but it's of no use. Jason comes down, and she cowers away from him. He throws a bag in her direction, and sets about doing some stuff. He sharpens his blade, and has a flashback to his Mom, and starts to freak out, and destroy everything. He leaves set out into the woods. Whitney takes the bag, and finds a broken GPS unit in it, and recognizes it as Wade's. She breaks it open, and finds a part just big enough to pick the lock. She escapes from Jason's tunnels and runs out into the woods. Clay and Jenna, meanwhile, must warn the others about the psycho killer that is running around the grounds. However, they know nothing about what they're going to have to deal with, and how to stop it, as Jason knows no boundaries. They must make a frantic attempt to escape his horrific clutches. The Actors and Actresses that are involved in this movie, manage to deliver their roles very well. They manage to get down their respective character's emotions, feelings, worries, and other such characteristics EXCELLENTLY, and really help the movie along very well, and make it more enjoyable. Derek Mears must get a huge applause for his performance, as, in my opinion, he portrays the best Jason yet, topping even Kane Hodder's performances in "Friday the 13th Part VIIL The New Blood," "Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan," "Jason Goes to Hell," and "Jason X." He really manages to bring to life Jason with every tilt of his head, and slash of his machete, and even manages to bring to life the mask. He doesn't need to speak, it's all in his body movement, and Mears REALLY does well with that. Jared Padelecki and Danielle Panabaker's chemistry together was also done excellently, and they make a very believable couple as they go through the movie together. Definitely a great job on the casting of this movie.

All in all, this was a great remake of a legandary film. It's nice to see that they can add some of their own things to a remake, and still pay homage to the original base material. I especially liked how the used the gunny-sack-masked Jason, and then had him go into getting his mask. Also, the aspect of Jason running was almost too much to handle. It was just so awesome. DEFINITELY a well done job on this remake. The Director of this film, who has done others that I have liked, really manages to do a great job with it. He comes up with some new and interesting angles and filters that really add an edge of eeriness and creepiness to the film that was missing from the ending of the original "Friday the 13th" series, and the return is DEFINITELY a welcome one. DEFINITELY a great job on the Directing of this movie. The Writer of this movie does a great job with it. He manages to spin a great story by using the first three of the original "Friday the 13th" series as his basis, and spinning new twists into it to really give it a freshness so that the fans won't exactly be seeing the same old stuff. DEFINITELY a great job on the Writing of this movie. The Visuals of this movie are done spectacularly. They use an awesome point of view for the killer, Jason looks as menacing and badass as ever, the blood looks realistic, and the kills are new and inventive, making for a good old fashioned creepy and eerie slaughterfest that we're used to with the "Friday the 13th" series. DEFINTIELY a great job on the Visuals of this movie. The Storyline of this movie is done wonderfully, as well. It takes the basis of the first three "Friday the 13th" films and puts them together for one fresh new one, and delivers us new characters, as well as new kills to make everything the same, yet new and fresh all at the same time. DEFINITELY a great job on the Storyline of this movie. The Acting ties everything about this movie together. All of the Actors and Actresses involved in the movie manage to deliver performances as characters that are VERY Convincing, VERY Believable, and VERY Realistic, as well as delivering performances as characters that you can really FEEL FOR, though I'm not really sure how well you could RELATE TO them, on VARIOUSLY different levels. DEFINITELY a great job on the Casting of this movie. So if you've been let down by the ending of the original "Friday the 13th" series, most especially "Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan" and "Jason X," then I urge you to watch this movie and have your faith restored. If you're a fan of the original series, and have stuck with it through it's ups and downs, then you'll love this movie as much as I do. So go ahead and give it a try. I am almost POSITIVE that you will NOT get disappointed with it. I know I didn't!!!!!

THIS CONCLUDES PART 11, THE FINAL PART, IN MY REVIEW SERIES FOR THE "FRIDAY THE 13TH" SERIES!!!!! THANKS FOR READING!!!!!

I'm not really one who likes to watch a lot of Special Features, so I'm just going to list out what this version of "Friday the 13th (2009)" has to offer in the Special Features department. This disc includes:

-Explore "The Rebirth of Jason Voorhees" for a New Moviegoing Era

-Additional Slashed Scenes

As you can see, this version of "Friday the 13th (2009)," is a little skimped on for the Special Features, whereas the blu-ray version has more. I'm not completely let down, though I did kind of hope there would be more than three Additional Scenes, since that's the one Special Feature I always liked most. Since I'm not a Special Features kind of person, the small amount of Special Features on this disc doesn't bug me. For those of you who do like Special Features, you'll be slightly disappointed with the Special Features offered on this version of "Friday the 13th (2009)."

The Picture Quality of DVD's is a VERY important thing. There are many things that can go wrong with Picture Quality. One of these things is when the Picture Quality is too dark, which causes you to be unable to see the things going on in the movie. This really sucks if you're watching a horror movie because it'll take away the scare of the movie, since you'll have absolutely no clue what is going on in the movie. Also, Picture Quality can get too bright, which will cause colors to distort, so that when you're watching a movie and they make a comment in the movie about the color of something, you'll see a different color than they're claiming it is. However, none of this is wrong with this version of "Friday the 13th (2009)," which was Digitally Mastered WONDERFULLY to really help your viewing experience of "Friday the 13th (2009)" QUITE enjoyable.

The Sound Quality of DVD's is just as important as the Picture Quality of DVD's is. There are many things that can go wrong with a DVD's Sound Quality, but most prominent among these issues is when the Sound Quality is too quiet, and you have to turn the volume all the way to the top JUST to be able to hear the people talking on the screen. Then, when the action hits, and there's tons of fighting, screaming, murdering, killing, explosiongs, gunfire, and the likes, the Sound Quality is suddenly at the normal volume again, and the speakers on your TV are making your windows shatter because you've got the volume turned all the way, so you have to turn it back down. I call this "The Silent Explosion," effect, and it's one of my least favorite things to have happen with a DVD. This especially sucks for people like me, who like to have their TV's volume set at ONE level, and use that same level for everything they watch, and don't like to have to change it to watch something, and then have to go back and find that same comfortable level again. However, none of this is wrong with this version of "Friday the 13th (2009)," which was Digitally Mastered WONDERFULLY to really make your hearing experience, as well as your viewing experience, of "Friday the 13th (2009)" QUITE enjoyable.

Packaging is very important to DVD's as well. Packaging is what is going to sell a DVD to someone whose never seen the movie before, or even heard of it, for that matter. This version of "Friday the 13th (2009)" does just that. The Front Cover features a picture of Jason Voorhees standing in the woods, with the title over his midsection, and his machete slashing across the page, and showing the words "Killer Cut." This Front Cover will cause the person looking at the DVD, to pick it up, and flip it over to look at the Back Cover.The Back Cover of this movie is done very well, also. It's got a picture of Jason Voorhees, and next to him is a very well written description of the movie, and beneath that is the Special Features Table of Contents. Below all of this are a variety of stills and images from within the "Friday the 13th (2009)" movie, and below that are the credits and DVD information. It's a very provocative back cover, and would definitely cause anyone who is examining it to want to buy it right away. Not only this, but it will also look good on your DVD shelf with all of your other DVD's, as well as with all of the other "Friday the 13th" DVD's in your "Friday the 13th" DVD collection. It's DEFINITELY some awesome packaging.

So, if you're looking for a version of "Friday the 13th (2009)," a movie with great Directing, great Writing, great Visuals, a great Storyline, and great Casting, that has minimal, but fun, Special Features, excellent Picture Quality, superb Sound Quality, and excellent Packaging, then this is DEFINITELY the version of "Friday the 13th (2009)" for you to get your hands on. I'm not saying to go out and buy it outright, but if you ARE a fan of the original "Friday the 13th" series, including the stinkers, like I am, then I suggest that you go out and buy it, and skip the rental fee. If you're not, and stopped watching the series, or lost complete faith in the series after seeing "Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan" and "Jason X," then rent it, and have your faith restored completely. If you don't know if you'd like because you've never seen any of the original "Friday the 13th" movies, then go out and rent it and be drawn into it complete. At any rate, don't skip, and make sure you see it because it is DEFINITELY worth the watch. So give it a try. I am almost POSITIVE that you will not get disappointed with it AT ALL. I know I didn't!!!!!