From there, we move into a similar treatment of Friday the 13th Part 2. The centerpiece here is the return of the Jason myth as a campfire story. This helps bring back the original fears of Jason and the tradition of telling scary movies around the campfire. This also brings in some elements of Part III. This ends with the title card coming up on the screen, now the real story can begin.
This is also where the movie takes a bit of a turn and becomes The Real World: Crystal Lake. This is also my least favorite part of the film. The characters are unlikable, the dialogue is corny, and the focus on drinking and drugs is a bit much. I expected them to be here, but the focus just seemed to be a little unnecessary. Fortunately, Jason shows up again before long.
We also meet a young man named Clay (Jared Padalecki) who is looking for his sister who's gone missing in the area of Crystal Lake. As we all know, "missing" around this particular lake generally translates to "dead."
Clay makes a connection with Jenna (Danielle Panabaker), who then joins him to help canvas the area. This leaves Jenna's boyfriend, Trent (Tavis Van Winkle), free to enjoy some adult time with Bree (Julianna Guill). Meanwhile, their friends, including Chewie (the very funny Aaron Yoo) and Lawrence (Arlen Escarpeta) are free to get drunk and high. Not to mention the other couple that headed out to the dock. Based on these people, can you guess who gets killed?Now, I am not going to take you through the kills, but I will say they all work pretty good. That reminds me, some of the deaths are longer in the "Killer Cut" with added blood, this is most notable with Chewie's demise.
I must admit that even with its faults, I really liked this movie. It helps that Jared Padalecki and Danielle Panabaker give us characters to identify with and can actually cheer for. It also does not hurt that a few things in the film actually surprised me, such as what characters die and when they die. I also think the timing of the sequences work better than the original film.
You see, 29 years have passed between the death of Mrs. Voorhees and the main story of this movie. This makes the boy at the beginning and the much larger Jason later make sense. As it is, in the original series, we see the little boy in the first film, and the second film which takes place not long after the first has the fully grown Jason. That is a little something that always bugged me a little about the original series timing of events.
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