Friday the 13th

At the turn of the millennium, horror fans were confronted with remakes of pretty much every franchise, from the expected (Rob Zombie’s Halloween) to the out-of-left-field (Last House on the Left).  2009’s reboot of Friday the 13th was neither the best nor worst of the bunch, remaining faithful to its slasher simplicity but not adding much to the eccentric Jason mythology.  It did what it was supposed to do – nothing more, nothing less.  But 15 years down the line that’s actually kind of refreshing.

 

After his sister goes missing, Clay Miller (Jared Padalecki) focuses his search on her last known location:  the now defunct Camp Crystal Lake.  Which just so happens to be the vacation destination for some rowdy college kids staying at daddy’s luxury cabin.  The two parties eventually come together when Jason begins his body count, offing these annoying expendables in his singularly gruesome fashion.

 

There’s not much more to it than that.  And many fans are probably happy that there isn’t.  After 11 sequels, there wasn’t much the Friday franchise hadn’t already tried:  body swapping, psychic powers, black comedy, even space travel!  So, director Marcus Nispel keeps things narratively restrained and focuses on the good stuff, working with DP Daniel Pearl to try and replicate the success they had early with the Texas Chainsawremake.

 

The new Friday looks like it cost more than every other film in the franchise put together.  It’s slick, polished and often downright beautiful but still manages to come across like a Grimm fairy tale.  But it’s never scary.  Jason is simply a blunt instrument with no personality imbued in the wordless performance behind the mask.  His victims aren’t the endearing oddballs of the past like Crispin Glover, his final girl is no rough-and-ready tomboy like Amy Steel, these people mostly deserve to disappear from the screen as quickly as possible.  But it’s a misstep that most new millennium fans will overlook…and that who this one if made for anyway.

 

Arrow Video jumps straight to the best-looking entry in the franchise for their new 4K UHD and it’s a real stunner.  Nispel likes his movies dark so the HDR here makes for some amazing scenery.  Of course, this one has been on standard Blu-ray before so all those archival extras are included.  But you also get two new audio commentaries, three new interviews (Daniel Pearl is the best of the lot) and an exclusive video essay from critic Matt Donato who’s not shy about trying to convince the audience that this one is something special.  Disc one contains the theatrical cut (97 minutes) while disc two features the “killer cut” bumping things up to 105.

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