I feel that the Halloween remake was an abomination. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake was totally unnecessary, but not bad. It just exists. Totally unmemorable.
This feels along the lines of the latter, but Friday the 13th was never the classic that Tobe Hooper's original was, so it's kind of fun to sit through a slick remix of the first four films that feels like the "Best of Jason Vorhees". There's not really anything that's memorable; we will likely remember it in retrospect for being the first of the modern Friday films and not for anything of substance.
I do think that the flick has the best incarnation of Jason Vorhees - even better than Kane Hodder's unstoppable killing machine/zombie look. Here, Derek Mears brings the unstoppable force of Kane Hodder, but makes the character far more menacing than he ever has been. He's totally vicious. I loved it. It's a definite step up from the "dumb child" route they went with for Freddy vs Jason.
There is some real humor in this and the film benefits from knowing exactly what type of film it wants to be. Unlike Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street (up for a Bay remake), the Friday series has never really had any artistic credibility. Sean Cunningham created it almost as an exploitation flick to pay his rent. It's always been about whacking off hot coeds. The tradition, I'm glad to say, is still alive in this one.
And I cannot stress this enough - Friday the 13th has probably the best female nudity in a mainstream horror film in decades. Michael Bay's casting process shines again! And considering that the Friday series already had some of the best female nudity of its kind, this chick cemented the series status as the best of the litter when it comes to pure T&A.
Bringing the discussion back to Nispel's remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre - I did have a problem somewhat related to his remake of that flick. Crystal Lake feels like an extension of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre set, as if this is just a lake a couple miles down the road from Leatherface's house. Even the townspeople have the same ugly, 50s horn rimmed glasses and dirty costume design, as if rural America was stuck in a time warp. The creepy, forest feel of Crystal Lake has been displaced by a dry, set extension of Nispel's other remake. I missed the steam, the rain, the fog, etc. I felt Freddy vs Jason did a far better job capturing the feel of the series.
This is something I hope they improve with further sequels.
The real question is - where do we go from here? It had been almost twenty years since we had a Friday film set in Camp Crystal Lake, so I feel there was a real desire to return the character to his roots. It's virtually a remix of the first four films, and audience ate it up considering so much time had passed. But I highly doubt that audience want to see a remix of the last four or five films, and that's when the question comes up - where do we go from here?
We already did space and Hell and comic book crossovers. It's hard to imagine where else to take the character.
