I don’t have a problem with Hollywood rehashing its own catalog. I just wish that whatever they remade, no matter what the film’s overall place in film history, that they would just make it good. Seeing Michael Bay’s name in the credits of this remake of the 1980 film that started the Friday The 13th franchise already determined for me what this film would be like.
Then again, were Friday The 13th and its sequels ever really all that good to begin with?
The plot of every film, from the first on down through the franchise, is pretty much the same. A masked killer with territorial issues kills whoever enters his domain. Sometimes when he’s really mad, he ventures beyond his lair to kill even more. This masked killer’s legend is so great that it inspires wannabes and a good campfire tale now and then.
There are a few departures from the original material in this remake. These changes, while they might have looked good on paper to the production team, look silly on film.
Before we even get to the opening credits, we are treated to an out-of-place pre-credits sequence involving a camp counselor running away from Jason’s mother, Pamela Voorhees. Mrs. Voorhees sets the reasoning down which really hasn’t changed from the original: Jason died at the careless hands of the counselors of Camp Crystal Lake. Mrs. Voorhees, being peeved, goes and kills all of the counselors but one, who then chops Mrs. Voorhees' head off.
You aren’t really given the name of the person who chopped her head off. This is kind of bizarre to me. If you were to witness the death of your own mother, why would you just stand there? This is an issue that was addressed in 1981’s Friday The 13th Part 2. Alice (Adrienne King), who killed Pamela Voorhees in the original 1980 film, was found by Jason and killed.
Jason wasn't introduced until Friday The 13th Part 2. You could say this is a remake of both the 1980 film and the 1981 sequel with scenes from the 1980 film remade into a small segment at the beginning of the 2009 remake. The rest of the film is a remake of the 1981 sequel, although it doesn't contain the same plot as the original sequel.
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