The Platinum Dunes reboot comes to 4K via Arrow Video and makes us hungry for more Jason
The 2000s saw something of a gold rush of classic horror remakes, from 2003’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre to 2010’s Nightmare on Elm Street. Arguably, one of the most successful of these attempts was Marcus Nispel’s remake of the 1980 slasher classic, Friday the 13th. Blending elements of the first four movies in the series, Nispel’s revival acts like a greatest hits buffet of Crystal Lake carnage that catches up newcomers as well as playing to long-time fans of the franchise.
After a brutal prelude where a group of campers stumble upon a certain bag-headed stalker (Derek Meers), the film catches up with Clay (Jared Padalecki) as he searches for his vanished sister, Whitney (Amanda Righetti). As he puts up missing posters, he runs into Jenna (Danielle Panabaker) and her scummy boyfriend Trent (Travis van Winkle) who are on their way to a lake house getaway with their friends at–well, no prize for guessing which lake they’re going to. What follows is exactly the sort of gleeful debauchery and grisly death that pretty much anyone familiar with the hockey mask will expect from this setup. However, while anyone with even a passing familiarity with the series will be able to guess most of the first two acts, the movie’s merit is all in the (forgive me) execution.
While the casting is in full 2000’s-era “everyone looks unrealistically hot” mode, the solid charisma of the characters and heavyweights like Padalecki and Panabaker, combined with the especially bleak and brutal kills, go a long way towards keeping stakes clear and investing the audience in (most of) these characters’ survival. Even cast members who won’t be sticking around long are given time to establish dynamics that acknowledge the line between amiably obnoxious and actively unpleasant. Nispel proves early that he’s adept at building the “oh no, they don’t know they’re in a Jason movie” tension, cutting between different characters and locations to keep it bubbling. He also decently oscillates between sustained dramatic irony and just mashing the “big ol’ jump scare” button to keep things popping.
One of the smarter choices that screenwriters Damion Shannon and Mark Swift (who also wrote 2003’s Freddy vs. Jason) make is how this movie sorta speed runs the first four Friday the 13th films. The film opens with a stylistic credits sequence showing the violent end of Mrs. Vorhees’ rampage at Camp Crystal Lake in 1980 before picking up in present day, and when we first see Jason he’s wearing the burlap sack on his head that he sported in 1981’s Friday the 13th Part 2 before donning the iconic hockey mask from Part 3. There’s also the young bachelor who lost a sister from The Final Chapter, as well as various other nods to the franchise’s history. However, the movie also throws in a few new elements and rotates things enough to even make you wonder who the film’s “designated survivor(s)” might be.
Among the possibly “controversial” elements in this vein is the expanded view we get of Jason’s lair. Not only does he haunt the old campgrounds of Crystal Lake, but he’s got a warren of underground tunnels and tripwire alarms set up which let him know where unsuspecting new victims may be found. I actually really like this touch – while I never needed “explanations” for how Jason was able to pop up at various points around his stomping grounds, the addition of a literal other level to explore helps the escalation of the third act. I also appreciate the claustrophobia it introduces, and the production design (including entrances spilling into ancient school buses as well as convenient trapdoors) feels very much at home alongside the dilapidated cabins and tool-filled barns more familiar to the series.
This is also a Jason who has a (very select) interest in prisoners, another potential sticking point. However, it’s mostly in the service of giving characters the chance to make canny choices to exploit his memories of his mother (not unlike Ginny’s big moment in Part 2‘s finale), and this movie knows how to follow up a smart payoff with a satisfying hit. And it’s not like this Jason is pulling any punches. Meers is embodying one of the more mobile versions of this character, running at full speed as Jason did in his early films, and he’s great at being both physically imposing as well as doing just enough body acting to give us a glimpse of the killer’s thought processes at key moments. Kane Hodder has more than cemented his place as the iconic Jason actor, but Meers proved himself the ideal successor here, and deserved more at-bats to see where he could go.
Ironically, one of the tragedies of this movie not getting any successors (copyright shenanigans having kept there from being any new entry since 2009) also makes it feel a bit special among so many entry-a-year sequels in the genre. If you want a gory slasher where careless youths meet gruesome fates, this one is determined to give you your money’s worth. While the film as a whole doesn’t reach the heights of prime cut horror remakes like Carpenter’s The Thing, Russell’s The Blob, or Reeves’ Let Me In, it’s both a rewarding watch for Crystal Lake veterans and a rock-solid tasting for anyone wanting to dip their toes into the franchise for the first time.
Presentation:
Arrow has more than proven their chops at high-quality presentation on their premium 4k releases, and Friday the 13th is no exception. Both the theatrical and extended cuts included feature 5.1 DTSHD sound, and from the gooey sound effects and shrill screams to the eerily re-orchestrated music by Steve Jablonsky, this is a solid meat and potatoes audio showcase.
Both cuts of the film also boast 4K Dolby Vision video, which is easily one of the best reasons to upgrade to this release. Nispel makes good use of some stylistically extreme visual choices during the credits sequence (splashing brief moments of color into the black-and-white 1980 flashback) and the present-day material comes through with both vibrant color and appreciably deep blacks, while always prioritizing high visibility – even at night in the woods. The transfer captures the visual hallmarks of the era, from saturated colors to plentiful lens flares, and never looks overly-graded or scrubbed.
Both cuts of the movie are presented in 2:35:1 anamorphic widescreen.
Bonus Content:
Arrow didn’t skimp here, either. All the previous extras from the 2009 home video release are included here, along with new features including interviews and commentaries.
Disc 1 (4K UHD)
Theatrical Cut of the film (97 minutes)
- Brand new audio commentary by director Marcus Nispel
- Brand new audio commentary by writers Mark Swift and Damian Shannon
- Brand new interview with director Marcus Nispel
- Brand new interview with writers Mark Swift and Damian Shannon
- Brand new interview with cinematographer Daniel Pearl
- A Killer New Beginning, an exclusive video essay about why horror fans shouldn’t fear remakes, what 2009’s Friday the 13th remake gets right, and why the film serves as a perfect template for future franchise remakes by film critic Matt Donato
- Excerpts from the Terror Trivia Track
- The Rebirth of Jason Voorhees archival featurette
- Hacking Back / Slashing Forward archival featurette
- The 7 Best Kills archival featurette
- Deleted scenes
- Original teaser, trailer and TV spots
- Electronic press kit
- Image gallery
Disc 2 (4K UHD)
- Extended “Killer Cut” of the film (106 minutes)
- Brand new audio commentary by film critics Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Josh Nelson
Note: the “Killer Cut” largely consists of extended scenes of violence/gore during kills and more sexuality/nudity, but there are also some minor scene extensions and a minor subplot about Whitney nearly escaping from Jason being re-edited. This is a classic example of ’00s-era home video “unrated” versions rather than a “director’s cut,” but is still the ideal way for most Jason fans to watch the film.
With both cuts of the movie, the extras from the previous release, the new features, and the sumptuous presentation, this is easily the Cadillac release of Platinum Dunes’ Friday the 13th. Here’s hoping it won’t be another 15 years before it has some company.
Friday the 13th is now available on 4K UHD from Arrow Video.
