Friday the 13th (2009)

On Friday night, I went to a screening of the new "Friday the 13th" film on opening night. As I expected, the theater was packed with a mix of teenagers and older fans of the earlier series. When the cleaning crew came out, we jockeyed our way into position to assure that we would have adequate seats and waited several minutes for the feature to begin.
The best way to describe "Friday the 13th" and many of the horror remakes for that matter, is that it is an "it is what it is" film. With a film like this, you already know what you are getting into: your typical 80's slasher film, complete with copious amounts of gore, poor dialogue, and superfluous female nudity. If these are the things that entertain you, then yes, you'll probably agree that the new version stands true to its predecessors.
Other than the plot, I did find the camera work the most enjoyable part of the film. Though many of the scenes with the teenagers were typical conversational shots, some of the establishing shots on the lake, several underwater scenes, and the interior shots of the cabins were well done. I can only imagine the difficulty in remaking a popular cult series: being able to reproduce something satisfactory to followers, as well as making something fresh that displays your artistic design and interpretation. I think these two distinct ideologies are most notably present in the teaser and the trailer for "Friday the 13th." You'll notice that the former is better put together and has an aesthetic appeal that the trailer lacks. The trailer (which was released later) focuses more on the group of teenagers and gives the film a more popular appeal; it assures the potential viewer that the new version will follow the same plot line and archetypes of the old series.
While I thought director Marcus Dispel did a nice job of overhauling the series (after disastrous films set in New York and space...yes, space) by bringing it back to Crystal Lake, I was a bit annoyed by the lack of his producer's candor. Not only did Criterion Collection golden boy, Micheal Bay have the audacity to run his trailer for the new "Transformers" movie before the feature, but also "Friday the 13th" continued his previously gratuitous exploitation of product placement (*see "Transformers"). Though I never expected that this film would be Oscar material, I was definitely put off by certain not-so subtle attempts at subliminal advertising. Overall, there were some very "creative" slasher death sequences, but more so, the film never breaks away from convention--it ultimately is what it is.

1.5 of 4 stars