Friday The 13th

Hollywood has shown an absolute dearth of originality over recent years, taking all their non-sequel movie ideas generally from books, comics or old television series. Indeed, it has reached a point where they are now remaking old movies, and horror movies seem to be a goldmine, be it Halloween, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or My Bloody Valentine. Friday the 13th is the most recent in this series of remakes.

The majority of previous horror remakes have attempted to make them grittier and realistic, giving us deep backstories to explain why our favourite psychopaths the way they are. As a result, they are often a little demystified. Michael Myers, for instance, has ceased to be a disturbingly, motiveless, masked killer and is now an abused man who kills in the same mask his sister was shagged in by her boyfriend.

When it was announced that Friday the 13th was to be remade, there was a little concern, not least when it was altered to actually be remaking the first four movies, otherwise there'd be no Jason or hockey mask. But a lot of people were concerned at the thought Jason may become another tortured young child taking his revenge on society.

Happily he's not. Oh, sure, in the first five minutes we see Jason watching his mum get decapitated, but that's the extent of his motivations - exactly as it was twenty-seven years ago. In fact, for all the claims that this is a remake, the truth is there is pretty much nothing to mark this as a remake. Nothing contradicts earlier movies (although the original flashback is slightly different) and it easily flows on from Freddy Vs Jason. In fact, although Jason is a more intelligent hunter in this movie, you could argue that his higher intellect was amped up by Freddy when he left hell. So I'm happy to call this movie by it's Canadian title - Friday the 13th Part XII!

This is a homage movie, of sorts though. The dialogue is just as cringe-worthy at times as the original movies, and of the five girls, three of them get their boobs out as soon as possible, one for the most tenuous of reasons. It's all very Friday the 13th. The characters follow the stereotypes: a good girl, the rude slut, the naughty girl, the loving girlfriend, the geek, the annoying prat, the wild guy...they're all there. Even some of the killings pay a nod to the past with a variation of the sleeping bag kill and Jason himself getting strangled with a chain. And of course the ending...but let's not spoil that.

But what is curious about this movie is the couple of surprises in this movie. When five horny teenagers turn up and get slaughtered within the first twenty-five minutes and *then* the title card is shown, you get thrown slightly and realise that you're getting two little movies for the price of one. Equally, having been a great fan of horror movies for a long time, you get the hang of the characters and are able to pick which is the girl that's going to be the one to send Jason to hell. However, while I had in my mind exactly who it was going to be, when she was killed I was quite, quite surprised.

Most of the cast deliver what is expected of them, and the appearance of Ryan Hansen was a pleasant surprise, though it did confirm that he plays himself all the time. Jared Padalecki is good as the "good guy" in the film, mainly because he *gets* what the movie is about - an ever so slightly tongue-in-cheek horror movie. Meanwhile, the two lead girls - Danielle Panabecker and Amanda Righetti - are both wonderful and are instantly likable.

In my mind I had exactly what I wanted from a Friday movie, and this movie delivered all of it. At one point I was concerned we weren't going to get some mad old person preaching doom and gloom, but as soon as the thought crossed my mind, a mad old biddy told Jared Padalecki that all outsiders got killed. Nice. As a result I couldn't be more satisfied with this movie.