Feb 19 2009
Friday The 13th
*WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD*
Friends,
I realize that this doesn’t REALLY have to do with the writing world, but I think the premise is the same. If you take an AMAZING book and decide to make a movie, the movie better at least stay true to the book. Which, in most cases, does not happen and most book turned movies are a huge disappointment–There are, of course a few exceptions.
So, in regards to the recent Friday The 13th movie, I would like to express my sever disappointment with the flick. While I was okay with them combining elements from the first 4 original films, I was not okay with what they did to the Jason character. They should have never attempted a re-make and instead just added to the series.
Movie producers and directors claim to have stayed true to the Jason character when what they did could not have been further from the truth. Yes, Jason started out with a burlap sack on his head and then got the hockey mask–bravo for getting that part right! Yes, he had weird mommy issues and a plethora of sharp weapons, but that is where the similarities ended.
Jason wasn’t a thinker, he didn’t plant traps or rig up interesting ways to kill his victims. Nor did he clean up after himself and the people of Crystal Lake were certainly NOT aware of his presence. Jason was a slasher…stab stab you’re dead, I”m moving on… and the movie should have stayed true to what he was, even if it was a cliche. The fact that he was a methodical and human character defeats the whole purpose of Jason. It also diminishes the fear that he invokes in others. It’s not scary when he’s just a human, it was the supernatural element that made him a threat.
Also, the whole system of underground tunnels that he had made for himself didn’t make any sense and what was he doing with all of those dead bodies he brought back… taking them apart, eating them? It was void of purpose to show him storing bodies in some underground back room!
He also would not have kept someone chained up and alive, even if they did look like his mother… I realize it was a part of the storyline, but that is not something Jason would have done. As we have seen in the past, even the girls that had tried to be his mother….got axed.
The only part of the movie that I liked was the very end where he jumped back out of the lake and grabbed the girl. That was very Jason. The rest of it was an extreme disappointment to me.
That being said, enjoy some of the original slasher goodness that is Jason Voohries:
Also these guys did a review on the film and they were also disappointed!
