Friday the 13th grossed almost $40 million at the box office and inspired a long-running franchise: Friday the 13th Part II; Friday the 13th Part III

However this is not just another installment in the Friday the 13th film series but a complete reworking of the storyline. The film keeps many elements of the original series, while at the same time being surprising and scary. Everyone who is familiar with the original Friday the 13th film series already knows the basic storyline: deformed boy drowns, his mother goes crazy and becomes a murderer and is ultimately killed, boy returns from the dead and seeks revenge on all camp counselors. But this new film gives a bit of a twist that the original film never hinted on which was what if Jason had never been dead in the first place.

In the new version of Friday the 13th Jason is introduced as a character in a myth, a story that was thought to be created to scare camp counselors. However that myth seems to be more real than they expected when the character comes to life and wreaks havoc so to speak, as Jason begins killing them off one by one. Then some time passes and another group of intruders roam along Jason's territory Camp Crystal Lake, and are murdered one by one as one of the intruders searches for his missing sister, where she was last spotted, not knowing that he too will have to face the wrath of Jason.

The film lets the viewer see how Jason becomes Jason so to speak, and gives us some clues about how he was able to survive so to speak. From what drove Jason to become a serial killer to how Jason lived to why he started wearing his trademark mask are all explained to some degree in the film. Hence the film becomes one of revenge, and protecting what one feels is rightfully there’s, and trying to unlock the clues of the unknown. However like the original film series Jason never says a word and remains the silent monster stalking his victims. also in this film Jason does not just kill his victims with his trademark machete but uses other methods and weapons to accomplish his task.

I must mention this is not a remake of the original remake. As everyone may already be aware in the original Friday the 13th film Jason Voorhees was not the killer, his mother was and in fact, Jason appeared as a figment of the main character's imagination. The character of Jason wasn't introduced until the second film, and did not wear his trademark hockey mask until the third film in the Friday the 13th series. What this film does is combine the sequence of the first four films, and adds it's own spin.

I would highly recommend this film, especially to anyone who was a fan of the original Friday the 13th series. Not only does it have plenty of suspense, fear factor, but it gives all the characters personality especially Jason who in the original film was sort of like a mindless beast. In this film Jason uses clever tactics, and traps to get his victims.

Distributor: Warner Bros
Cast: Jared Padalecki, Danielle Panabaker, Amanda Righetti, Travis Van Winkle and Aaron Yoo
Director: Marcus Nispel
Screenwriters: Damian Shannon and Mark Swift
Producers: Michael Bay, Andrew Form and Bradley Fuller
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Rating: Rated R for strong bloody violence, some graphic sexual content, language and drug material.
Running time: 97 min.
Release date: February 13, 2009

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