2020 October Horror Challenge #31: "Friday the 13th (2009)"

 

I saw this movie in theaters back when it came out. I don't know if I was expecting too much or what, but while I did like it, I was sadly underwhelmed. Instead of doing a straight remake of the first movie, or doing something totally new, they kinda smashed all 8 of the Friday the 13th movies into one movie, and it seemed jumbled to me, and also like there wasn't really anywhere to go with the sequel if they tried to make one, since we already had 8 movies in one. I guess I was just disappointed. I decided to check it out today though and give it a second chance. 

So this movie opens with a grainy flashbacky sequence showing Jason's mom killing a bunch of counselors to avenge her son's death, then we flash forward and it's like 20 years later and some college students are hiking in the woods looking for a huge crop of Marijuana that's supposed to be growing in the woods. They end up stumbling on the old campground and pissing Jason off, so he kills them. Then we flash forward again and it's 6 weeks later, and the older brother of one of the missing girls is lurking un the area trying to find out what happened to his sister. There's a group of friends led by a rich jerk whose family owns a cabin in the woods, so they decide to spend a weekend partying there, and they all run afoul of Jason, who's getting mighty pissed that people keep trespassing in his woods, so he starts killing them all, and they have to try and stop him.

So we have the kids in the woods partying from parts 3, 4, and 7, we have the guy looking for his missing relative from part 4, we have Jason's mom's original Massacre from part 1. It feels like the movie is all over the place and that makes it seem choppy,  which really annoyed me back when I first saw the movie, but I don't mind as much now. Watching the original series of movies followed immediately by the remake kinda reminds me why I love these movies in the first place. They're sashers, and I like slashers. The performances are also pretty good here. Even the rich douchey guy plays his part well. There were a few scenes that even made me jump, and I loved the nod to that infamous jump scene at the end. I definitely appreciated this movie more the second time around, so I'm glad I gave it another chance.