- Directed by Marcus Nispel
- Written by Victor Miller, Damian Shannon, Mark Swift
- Stars Jared Padalecki, Amanda Righetti, Derek Mears, Danielle Panabaker, Travis Van Winkle
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 37 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCfO1aB8CIE
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This is a reboot and sequel in one, showing a brief refilming of the ending of the first original movie and then continuing on with Jason years later as an adult. It disregards pretty much every other sequel. Jason seems more human and less indestructible this time around, but able to get from place to place very fast. It was okay but unnecessary and not very satisfying.
Synopsis
June 13th, 1980. As the credits roll, we watch a girl running through the woods as Jason Voorhees’s mother attacks her. The old woman tells her the story of what happened to poor little Jason. The girl kills the older woman and runs off. We see a boy take her locket as we hear, “Kill for mother.”
In the present day, five teenagers walk through the woods, planning to find their “secret crop.” They camp for the night out in a field, but they see some broken-down old cabins not far away. There was a camp here that shut down about twenty years ago. One of the campers, Wade, knows the whole “Jason story” and tells them all about it.
Whitney’s worried about being here, leaving her sickly mother home alone. Richie and Amanda go off to have sex. Wade wanders through the woods, listening to his iPod. He finds the hidden pot garden– but there’s someone there with a machete. Wade’s not gonna tell anyone about it.
Whitney and her boyfriend, Mike, check out the old camp and find Jason’s locket with his mother’s photo inside. It looks like someone’s been living in this cabin, as it’s all decorated with kid’s toys. They find a bed with “Jason” written on it. They keep snooping and eventually find Jason’s mother’s head. Someone under the floor grabs Mike and pulls him down.
A big man in a hood cuts open Amanda’s tent and drags her out; Richie steps on a bear trap and can’t help as she’s burned alive in her sleeping bag.
Whitney finds Richie, and then Jason finds them both. Credits roll, 23 minutes in.
Six weeks later, another carload of teenagers stops at the gas station near Crystal Lake. Clay Miller is also there, and he’s looking for his sister, who went missing six weeks ago.
The sheriff knows Clay; Clay’s been investigating for a long time. The sheriff says they’re doing all they can, but Clay thinks foul play was involved in Whitney’s disappearance. Clay talks to an old woman who says his sister is probably dead. “We just want to be left alone, and so does he,” she says cryptically.
The teens all arrive at Trent’s father’s house, but they all complain about having no cell signal. Trent’s a jerk. Chewie is a pothead. Lawrence is a very stereotypical black guy who doesn’t want to be stereotyped. Trent whines to Jenna that he regrets inviting the others as they’re all “hooligans.” Clay shows up, and Jenna likes him a lot.
Meanwhile, one of the locals that Clay had talked to earlier goes into his barn to get high. He hears someone upstairs and finds Jason, who loses his mask. He does, however, find an old hockey mask that he puts on. Jason then kills two of Trent’s crew on the other side of the lake.
Clay and Jenna check out the old Camp Crystal Lake as night falls. They watch as Jason walks through, carrying a headless body. As they run through the woods, we cut to Whitney, who’s chained in Jason’s lair; she’s not dead. Somewhere along the line, he’s taken Clay’s backpack with the “Missing” posters in it, so she knows that Clay has been looking for her.
Back at Trent’s cabin, things are getting pretty lit. Chewie goes out to the largest tool shed he’s ever seen. Inside is the biggest killer he’s ever going to see. Jenna and Clay run in and tell Lawrence what they’ve seen before calling the police. Trent and Bree are having sex in the bedroom, which isn’t going to please Jenna when she finds out.
The power goes out, and Lawrence goes outside to fight– with a wok. He soon finds Chewie and Jason and learns that he’s not as tough as he thought he was. Bree runs into Jason in the bathroom and pays the price.
The sheriff arrives outside and services for a minute and a half. Clay, Jenna, and Trent run out of the house to the woods. Trent doesn’t last long.
Clay and Jenna go into one of the cabins and hear Whitney calling from below. They find Jason’s secret underground lair and the missing sister as well. As they try to break her chains, Jason shows up and stabs Jenna. Clay and Whitney find another way out, but Jason’s waiting for them topside. The two fight off Jason for a bit.
During the fight, the woodchipper gets turned on. He’s about to shove Clay in when Whitney pulls out the locket and tells Jason to stop. They wrap a chain around Jason’s neck, and he slowly gets dragged into the wood chipper. We do not, however, see him get chewed up. They dump Jason’s body in the lake when the sun rises. Three seconds later, Jason jumps up and kills them both.
Commentary
It’s not quite a remake since we see the stuff from 1980. That part has been refilmed, but it’s exactly the same story. This is more of a straight continuation of one of the normal camp-based Friday the 13th movies. Still, there’s really nothing new here at all, it just skips the last three films of the series, the more outlandish ones.
How does Jason have electricity in a camp that’s been shut down for twenty years? How can he seemingly be everywhere, all at the same time? He’s always exactly where he needs to be to find someone or make a kill. We were starting to wonder if there was more than one of him, like in “Scream.” He doesn’t seem quite so supernaturally indestructible as he did in previous films, but he makes up for it by being just about everywhere at the same time.
It’s… more of the same, and not particularly impressive, at that.