Unlike the previous reviews, I will not be giving you a recap of the finale of Freddy vs. Jason. Only because it has nothing to do with the continuity of the Friday the 13th. For this is a re-something involving several of the early films.
During the credit sequence of this film we see Pamela Voorhees chasing a a young girl. It is June, 13, 1980. She tells the girl that she must pay for letting her son Jason drown. Unfortunately for her, the young girl chops her damn head off. After the credits end, we transplanted to “present day,” which is 20 years later according to some dialogue. A group of young people are hiking, and stop near Camp Crystal Lake to find some marijuana that they heard was being grown in the woods. As tradition dictates, there is an obligatory camp scene and the legend of Jason is told. The same poor choices are made; some have sex, some wander off and find Camp Crystal Lake. Jason kills everyone except for Whitney. He keeps her. Flash forward several weeks later, Whitney’s brother Clay comes to town with missing person flyers, hoping to find her. Also arriving are a random group of more young people, going to Trent’s father’s cabin (Trent is a rich dick, thus we immediately hate him). Then the death. Oh my goodness, the death.
Most of the issues with this film are the same as the Nightmare remake. It is unclear what kind of “re” this is supposed to be. We never go further back than the original film. In fact, this version only shows us the decapitation of Pamela Voorhees during the credits, then moves on. Jason was never in the original film (present day), and his mother was the murderer. In this film, after the credits are over and we are in present day, Jason is the killer, wearing a sack on his head, which was in part 2. At some point in this film, Jason finds a hockey mask, which did not happen until part 3.
Also, what’s with the timeline? This time around, Jason’s mother is killed in 1980 and then we flash forward 20 years. The original timeline separates the first two films by 5 years. So at this point, I peg 2009 F13 to be in the year 2000, 2 years before Freddy vs. Jason. Platinum Dunes seems to purposely mix already established storyline with “new” storyline (or stealing, but changing certain things). So, are you rebooting, re-imaging, consolidating or what?
The first 23 minutes of the film (if you can view this ignoring the other films) is awesome. Brutal deaths. Frightening scenes. Jason runs quite fast as opposed to slowly chasing you and magically appearing someplace else. There is very little comedy and it is just a dark film during this time. This was more than likely done to quickly establish a back story so that the rest of the film could linger establishing stereotypes and pretending it was like the rest of the franchise. Guess what? Uneven!
However, Jason was quite sinister in this. He does not waste time, nor does he seem to have spent time thinking of humorous ways to kill people. In fact, Jason seems very human. He has traps and a sort of alarm system set up in the woods to let him know when potential victims are present. This was quite enjoyable.
This film’s downfall is its constant references (stealing) from multiple earlier films, but insistence on also having original material. It is not at the same level as the Nightmare remake was, but it is in the same vein.
If you are going to update a classic (which at this point the original was) that’s fine. If you want to remake it, great. If you even want to re -imagine it, I don’t care. But, pick one. And stick to that.
Favorite kill: Jason seals up Amanda in her sleeping bag, then hovers her over the campfire and she burns.
Comments
Post a Comment