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| All Images Courtesy: Arrow Video, New Line Cinema |
For a lot of horror fans, “reboot” is a dirty word, eliciting a viscerally negative reaction, often without even bothering to see the film first. To a degree this is understandable, since there certainly are a lot of terrible cash-grab horror reboots out there that completely misunderstand everything that we loved about the originals (looking at you, 2010’s A Nightmare on Elm Street), but I have always thought that knee-jerk hating on reboots is a pretty bad habit, because at least every now and then there comes a reboot that genuinely gets it right, and does something special. Arrow Video is shining a light on one such genuinely great reboot with a swanky new 4k limited edition, just in time for Halloween. The bad habit of curmudgeonly horror fans engaging in knee-jerk reboot-bashing bashing naturally reared its head when the disc was announced, with comments sections full of predictable “why this and not the original” complaints, but don’t let those naysayers fool you – 2009’s Friday The 13th is not only a reboot done very right, but a genuine top-tier entry in the franchise, and Arrow Video is making a very strong argument as to why.
THE FILM:
While the original series was impressively dedicated to maintaining continuity from film to film – no matter how messy, convoluted, and made-up-as-they-went-along that continuity became – Friday the 13th was also one of the most open-ended and malleable horror franchises. It wasn’t burdened with recurring protagonists, a single recurring actor playing the villain, or even much care as to whether the series had consistent internal logic; it’s the kind of series where an installment can introduce telekinesis as a major plot point, or the concept of Jason as an evil spirit who can hop from body to body, just because it’s fun. Its installments don’t even need to be set on Friday the 13th, or anywhere near Camp Crystal Lake. All a Friday the 13th sequel needs is Jason and a bunch of disposable people for him to kill, and beyond that the director of the sequel is free to just have fun with the concept.
This makes Friday the 13th a series that is very friendly to being rebooted, and director Marcus Nispell (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2003, Pathfinder) does it in exactly the right way – which is also the simplest way. He doesn’t reinvent the wheel and try to make this series entry something dramatically different (which the Nightmare on Elm Street reboot tried to do and failed miserably), and he doesn’t hard-reboot the franchise, he simply soft-reboots and gives us more Friday the 13th, which is what everyone wanted in the first place. The only thing that makes this a reboot and not a years-later sequel is that it totally ignores the increasingly byzantine continuity that the series developed after part 4 (Jason dying and coming back as an undead superbeing, telekinesis, body-hopping demons, fighting Freddy Krueger, going to outer space, etc).
It isn’t explicitly set in a different continuity – in the flashback prologue it repeats the exact same classic backstory as Friday the 13th Parts 1 and 2 – it just isn’t concerned about fitting into that continuity. It feels very much like an in-between sequel set between Friday Part 2 and Friday Part 3, except set in the present day because that’s easier and more convenient than making it a period piece set in the early-80s. It simply asks you to not think too hard about the idea of a Friday the 13th canon that every story needs to neatly fit it, and just enjoy some classic back-to-basics Jason carnage. This was absolutely the right approach: the result not only feels like a classic Jason movie rather than a reinvention, but it is arguably the best entry in the series since Part VI: Jason Lives.
In keeping with the back-to-basics-Friday the 13th concept, the film has the most straightforward premise that a series entry could ask for: it follows a group of college kids (including our main character, Danielle Panabaker of Sky High and The Crazies) looking to spend a long weekend drinking, partying, and hooking up on the shore of Crystal Lake, where local legend says that long ago, young Jason Voorhees massacred a group of camp counselors, following in the footsteps of his serial-killer mom. Supernatural’s Jared Padalecki crosses their path as a man on a mission: several months ago his sister and her friends disappeared in the same area, and he suspects that they were murdered. It isn’t long before Jason starts picking them off, and the surviving college kids must take their stand: both at their own cabin, and taking the fight to Jason in his compound at the old Camp Crystal Lake.
Panabaker and Padalecki are both very good, giving their characters personality and humanity, and giving us at least two people to genuinely care about and root for. In classic Friday fashion, everyone else is pretty much just Jason fodder: either comic relief we aren’t too emotionally invested in, or actively terrible humans who we want to see meet Jason’s machete. This is very much by design, to keep the slasher thrills fun and exciting, rather than sticking us with the more tragic feeling of the deaths of people we care about; it’s a popcorn slasher movie, after all, and it understands its function.
But this is not to say that the script is weak or lazy: quite to the contrary, while it absolutely provides a back-to-basics Friday experience, it also makes good on a couple wasted opportunities that past films never really explored. This is clearly a film written by long-time fans of the series – and not only that, but past Friday the 13th screenwriters as well. Co-writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift are the same guys who wrote Freddy vs Jason, and they are back with a stronger screenplay this time, and a clear desire to explore facets of the early days of the Friday saga that we never really got to see. Aside from the climax of Friday Part 2 which finds its final girl in Jason’s shack with his shrine to his mother’s severed head (a shack we return to in this film), the series always found Jason taking the fight to his victims. This film sees our protagonists taking the fight to Jason, and exploring his environment, in the form of a vast underground complex that he has built beneath the remnants of Camp Crytal Lake. It is a very cool, unique environment, which also serves to add depth to Jason’s character as a villain by acting as a representation of his mind. He’s like an unhinged survivalist, always ready to spring traps and improvise weapons, and his lair reflects all that, while also being cobbled together from the remnants of the summer camp he haunts.
Arrow’s disc, as with the previous blu-rays, features the film in its R-rated theatrical cut and its nine-minute-longer “Killer Cut,” making it one of just a small handful of Friday films which got unrated director’s cuts on video. And does it ever make the most of it: the unrated version of Friday the 13th 2009 is a nasty movie, with a lot of seriously gnarly practical-effects gore which definitely honors the legacy of the original series. It also does feature some digital gore, but the digital effects are very well-done, and never conspicuous or cheap-looking. And crucially, the digital effects were mostly used to achieve kills that could not have been done in these ways without creating serious danger to stunt performers, which is a respectable reason. If the kills are what you care about most in a Friday movie, this one definitely measures up.
While it often doesn’t get discussed as much because it is a dreaded reboot, I would argue that Friday the 13th 2009 is not only a very worthy Friday the 13th film, but a legitimately top-tier one. In my personal ranking of the series, I would put this one as the 4th best in the franchise, after Jason Lives (my personal favorite), The Final Chapter, and Friday Part 2. I like it better than the original, and certainly better than any of the increasingly goofy installments that follow Jason Lives’ high-point of the series. It is an entry in the franchise that I will always advocate for people to give another chance, and I am glad that Arrow Video is bestowing it with limited-edition boutique-UHD status to give it a bit more love.
- Christopher S. Jordan
THE ARROW VIDEO LIMITED EDITION:
THE VIDEO:
Marcus Nispel’s remake of Friday the 13th originally came out in 2009 on blu-ray disc via Warner Brothers in the original theatrical release version and an extended ‘Killer Cut’ featuring additional footage such as scene extensions alongside additional blood and gore and/or sex and nudity. In October 2020, the film was paired up alongside the other Jason Voorhees iterations in a deluxe boxed set by Shout Factory and as such remains the definitive home video release of the saga however rather than do a new transfer, Warners simply repackaged the same 2009 blu-ray as before. Though lensed on 35mm by Daniel Pearl who shot both the original The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and director Marcus Nispel’s remake, in the case of Friday the 13th the film was finished on a 2K digital intermediate file which was supplied to Arrow Video by Warner Brothers for their 4K upscale and regrading with 4K HDR and Dolby Vision playback. The results are not terribly dissimilar from the 1080p blu-ray disc from 2009 but home theater fans keen on 2160p ultra high-definition upgrades will likely upgrade their discs anyway. It’s a solid, crisp presentation with a healthy grain structure that is a marginal upgrade from the blu-ray but for fans who don’t own this at all yet are inclined to go with Arrow’s new 4K.
THE AUDIO:
As with the video, the 5.1 theatrical audio mix originally was offered on the Warner Brothers blu-ray with Dolby TrueHD encoding, typically used for playing back Dolby Atmos tracks. Again, differences are small though fans of DTS-HD Master Audio will argue there’s a marginal improvement and less compression. In any case, the score is by recurring Michael Bay composer Steve Jablonsky (also responsible for the soundtracks to the remakes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and A Nightmare on Elm Street) comes through loud and clear with much of the audio front loaded but in some instances displaying spatial depth and vastness on the soundstage. Again, the qualitative differences between the original 2009 Dolby TrueHD track and this new DTS-HD track are marginal but fans of high end audio will appreciate the slight additional sonic edge this release has over the initial one.
THE EXTRAS:
As always, Arrow Video have gone above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to the packaging with a limited slipcover, double-sided poster, a ‘Greetings from Crystal Lake’ postcard, illustrated collector’s booklet and reversible sleeve art. Each version of the film, spread across two discs, port over both archival featurettes included on the 2009 release as well as several brand new audio commentaries and interviews with the director, screenwriters and finally cinematographer Daniel Pearl. Exclusive to this Arrow release is a new video essay by film critic Matt Donato A Killer New Beginning which makes a deep dive into the mythos of the series and how the redux does or doesn’t improve upon the original. Finally for the extended Killer Cut version, the disc includes a new audio commentary moderated by film critics Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Josh Nelson. Fans keen on newly filmed extras for anything Friday the 13th related are inclined to snag this disc for the exclusive newly filmed and recorded extras and package design.
FINAL WORDS:
Marcus Nispel’s Friday the 13th came at a time when Michael Bay was producing souped up remakes of classic horror films and some genre fans were lukewarm to this updated extra gory and sexy version of Sean S. Cunningham’s original 1980 slasher epic. Still, in recent years these new and “improved” versions have started to form their own cult followings as attempts to usher in longstanding horror iconography into the present day audience demographic. Arrow Video’s release might be superfluous for those who already have the 2020 Shout Factory box, but for those keen on moving the rest of their 480p DVDs and 1080p blu-rays up to 2160p 4K resolution the new Arrow UHD of Friday the 13th presents a welcome upgrade and a chance for those who passed on the film initially to see this frankly underrated reinterpretation in all its unexpurgated glory.
- Andrew Kotwicki
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