Friday the 13th (1980 & 2009)

Hello, readers and friends, welcome back. It is time for another installment of "Originals vs. Remakes". I could have selected from any number of horror films out there that have remakes (or re-boots as they are calling them, and there are plenty), and I will probably eventually cover them all, but after having already reviewed a John Carpenter film and its lackluster update, I was reluctant to do "Halloween" just yet. Instead, I decided to go with the movie that was inspired by the aforementioned film, "Friday the 13th" and its 2009 remake. The original was directed and produced by Sean S. Cunningham (no relation), who previously worked with another horror pioneer in the form of Wes Craven on his first picture, "The Last House on the Left". The script was written, believe it or not, by a guy who mainly wrote soap operas for television. Originally panned by such renowned critics as Siskel & Ebert and Leonard Maltin, it still managed to rake in impressive box office numbers on its opening weekend, and over the years has become a cult classic and a standard bearer for horror films to come. Eventually, even Maltin softened his stance on the film, but only because a sequel came out that he hated more.

M. Night approves of your twist.

For the uninformed, the story goes like this: in 1957 at Camp Crystal Lake, a couple of fornicating camp counselors are unaware of the drowning of one of the children, Jason Voorhees, because they were, well, fornicating. A year later, at the same camp, a couple of other counselors sneak away from the camp-fire, presumably to engage in coitus, but are savagely murdered by an unknown assailant before they can fully disrobe. We then flash forward to the summer of 1979, and the owners are preparing Crystal Lake for re-opening, despite legends and superstitions from the locals warning of danger. One of the new counselors arrives at a local diner looking for a ride to the camp and gets a lift halfway there from a friendly trucker. Shortly after the trucker drops her off, she hitches a ride with someone else (whose face we never see), who promptly proceeds to murder her ass. Switch to the camp, where the counselors who have made it there without a serious case of the deads are preparing for the opening, going about tasks like painting, setting up the archery range, and smoking dope and screwing. One by one (or sometimes by two) they are picked off by the mysterious assailant, until only "Survivor Girl" Alice is alive. She then meets up with a Mrs. Voorhees, who says she's an old friend of the camp owners. Alice proceeds to tell her tale of terror, which is met with little shock from Voorhees, who, in a twist that Shyamalan wishes he came up with first, reveals that she is the mother of the child who drowned 21 years previous, and that today, Friday the 13th, would have been his birthday. She then attempts to kill Alice, with the result being Voorhees' head falling off of her neck due to a well timed machete swing. Still not feeling too safe, Alice boards a canoe and drifts out to the middle of lake to safety, that is until Jason pops up out of the water to drag her down. But wait! She wakes up in the hospital, that last part possibly being a stress induced nightmare, the rest all too real. Closing credits.

This scene is directly responsible for Jason X.

The film originally was not supposed to end this way, however. Make-up effects veteran Tom Savini gets credit for the final scene, based on the fact he had just seen "Carrie" and thought they need a "chair-jumper" to close the film out like the end of that movie. Coincidentally, had that scene not been included, the entire franchise may not have existed, because script writer Victor Miller never intended on the younger Voorhees to be used outside of mentions in the script, much less a full fledged character: "Jason was dead from the very beginning. He was a victim, not a villain.". Also worth noting, the iconic sound effects that occur whenever the killer shows up, since Mrs. Voorhees wasn't actually shown in person until the final reel, is based on what she says when chasing Alice, in a falsetto as though as Jason, "Kill her, Mommy!", ("Ki, ki, ki...ma, ma, ma..."), and was recorded by film scorer Harry Manfredini by speaking those words and looping them through an echo reverberation machine.

Does Jason do requests?

After the success of the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" reboot, Toby Emmerich approached the development and production team of that film about doing the same for "Friday the 13th", but instead of a direct remake, the film would be a re-imagining of the story, using the first four films in the franchise. The problem with that is that the first film of the franchise is whittled down the the first five minutes of this film, basically just there to show you why Jason is the murderous bastard he is. But I was okay with that. Going in to the film thinking reboot instead of remake helped, of course, but I was there to see Jason whack some stupid teenagers, and they gave me just the amount of information I needed to set me down that path. It's 1980, and a young Jason witnesses his mother being beheaded. After the initial opening sequence, we advance 30 years to present time and are introduced to our first set of teens, who are invading Camp Crystal Lake in the search for marijuana that is apparently growing there in the wild. They eventually split up and Jason starts killing them off in great fashion, leaving the last girl surprisingly alive, and taking her captive, because she reminds him of his mother. Six weeks later, another group of teens lands in the area, this time across the lake from the camp at one of the kids' lake house. Also in town is Clay, in search of his missing sister. He makes his way to the cabin where the other kids are, and predictably, so does Jason. Death and mayhem ensue in the traditional Voorhees fashion, with a few exceptions, namely Jason RUNS now. Before, he would just stalk, never breaking his pace, and then BAM! there he is, no matter how fast you ran from him. Now, running is useless because he's just plain faster than you.  And that makes it more terrifying, because it makes it more real.

KICK. ASS.

So, which of the two did I like more? Well, I don't prefer one to the other, I view them as both separate, yet equal works. The remake stays faithful to the source material, while adding its own spin and freshness for the new generation. I like them both, the first version for what it represents in the annals of film and horror history, and the second as a pure thrill ride and well-made horror film with a fresh voice for a mute killer, also probably one of the most sentient zombies in film history. I'd rather not see the series get extended to the point of putting Jason in space again, in fact, I hope they leave it where it is. Although, a Jason vs. Freddy vs. Ash movie would totally kick ass.

1980: 7 out of 10 Fists

2009: 7 out of 10 Fists