THATFILMGUY

[pullquote cite=”” type=”left, right”][amazon text=Amazon&template=carousel&chan=that film guy&asin=B001SAO340][/pullquote] Horror films have a knack or being dismissed as somehow not as good quality as other film genre types. For instance, when was the last horror film that won an Oscar? That is not to say that there are no great horror films. Far from it, they are just unfairly perceived as a pulp medium because of their content. However, horror films do have the ability to become iconic in a way that many dramas or thrillers fail. Some are loved by their audiences with fervour equal to the finest sci-fi saga. One of the most recognisable horror franchises of the last few decades is Friday the 13^th and in 2009, Michael Bay decided it was time to continue the story of Jason Voorhees and the poor visitors to Camp Crystal Lake.

Clay Miller (Jared Padalecki) is looking for his sister who went missing in the forest near Camp Cystal Lake. He runs into a group of teenagers headed by the obnoxious Trent De Marco (Travis Van Winkle) heading toward his fathers cabin in the surrounding area. One-by-one the group get separated and brutally attacked by the seemingly unstoppable masked man.

Friday the 13^th is as standard as it gets in ˜slasher’ horrors. There’s a mysterious masked man, lots of dark, abandoned buildings, lots of screaming and an unbelievable amount of blood. Friday the 13^th is a not really a remake, or a reboot of the classic series as it picks up the action well after the original film and acts almost as half an origin story for the man-slaughterer Jason. While some horrors like to keep their antagonists hidden, Bay’s Friday the 13^th puts the man front-and-centre to the point that he is almost the hero.

The acting is terrible, with Padalecki especially failing to recreate the brooding charisma from his time on cult TV show Supernatural. In fact a lot of the dialogue and pacing is like an extended episode of the show, but without the fun banter or chessy deaths. Instead, living as we are in a post-Saw world, we’re treated to extended scenes of sex, torture and suffering. Showing this is obviously intended as a way of scaring the audience, but instead you can’t help but feel bored.

So where the original was a hotchpotch of classic horror films and an overall homage to the genre as a whole, this instalment simply wants to show teenagers getting dismembered, making sure the whole time that the cash-cow of the series Jason is never put into any jeopardy.

Thomas Patrick