I think the Friday the
13th re-fake from roughly decade ago gets a lot of undeserved guff and backlash
for not capturing the feel and atmospheric dread of the classic films, lacking
the classic Manfredini soundtrack and ki-ki-ki-ma-ma-ma zazz. Jason has
become a cultural icon, the films themselves have carved a niche in the horror
community for being fun popcorn slashers repeating the same stalk and slash
formula ad nauseum with boobs, bad words, and booze on both sides of the
screen. The refake was pretty and polished, practically an Abercombie and
Fitch ad with nubile teens and soft skin in dressed in ripped jeans and covered
in pseudo-Americana, practically a spiritual opposite of the original films,
but none of this really bothered me. The director Marcus Nispel is
a music video director from Germany, so some of the backwoods stuff feels more
like a Hollywood backlot than a real location, kind of like the German
approximation of what camping in America feels like, but again none of this
really bugged me, his Texas Chainsaw Massacre refake looked and felt like it
was pulled from the same universe. The first 15 minutes of the movie
really ratchet up the tension and are probably some of the most intense moments
in the franchise history. Jason displays a new bag of tricks, each
increasing his threat level exponentially. He runs, he sets traps, and is
generally much faster and more aggressive than any Jason we've seen before,
which is awesome. However, what is not awesome is Jason actively
kidnapping and taking people prisoner. There really isn't any
precedent set, you could argue "new remake, new rules" but typically
the new rules don't cut against the core of what defines the
character.
Well what defines the
character of Jason? After over a decade of films I think we have a pretty
good template to go on; for one Jason doesn't talk, or reason with his
victims. He's essentially a land shark with machete teeth killing
anything that wanders close to his camp, including poodles (part 2).
Jason's not completely mentally handicap, he has displayed some mental
capacity through using various power tools and prank calling Alice, it's a fair
bet to say he isn't trying to solve the mystery of the missing dark matter in
the universe from his shack in the woods, but setting and baiting traps around
Crystal Lake is probably not much of a stretch for him. In parts 2 and 3
he was fairly speedy as a regular human mongoloid, so running isn't much of an
issue either. These new aspects only act to enhance his lethal repertoire
and they use them brilliantly in the 2009 remake.
In over a decade of films
centering around Jason there are really no instances of him showing any hint of
mercy for anyone invading his territory, much like the land shark he is, there
is no room for any forgiveness or cajoling him into stopping outside of
temporarily tricking him with his mom’s favorite threads. Essentially Jason is defined by killing
relentless; the bull in a china shop.
So why does it make any
sense to suddenly have him kidnapping women who remind him of his mother
(without looking anything like her, or even having that worn out sweater)? It cuts against the core of his character; by
kidnapping and allowing to live he is essentially showing prolonged mercy,
which should never be in Jason’s highly limited vocabulary. I know this is a refake, but this isn’t a ground
up re-imagining of the mythos; there are certain expectations one has with a
Friday the 13th movie that they do manage to adhere to throughout,
it’s just that one plot point sticks out like a severed limb to me, even a
decade later.
The good news is this
movie looks better in retrospect and with time, as the future of the Friday the
13th series remains up in the air, at least we can settle on the
fact that the last movie wasn’t too bad, but for my money I just want Kane
Hodder back! Just one more film! Jason in the snow…make it happen! Derek did a fine job, but least Kane would
have never agreed to the kidnapping bit….
