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Blog by Don Kennedy

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Friday the 13th


Friday the 13th scheduled its opening day on the fist Friday the 13th of 2009 which is a lucky coincidence – not so lucky or course for anyone paying to see this remake – but if it didn’t open on Friday the 13th then the title would have nothing to do with the actual film. Camp Crystal Lake is again the scene of the crime(s) where in 1980 (the year of the original movies carnage) young Jason Voorhees is mentally scarred after witnessing his deranged mother’s decapitation. Fast forward to today and the former summer camp is long ago deserted which doesn’t inhibit a quintet of hikers (some bent on raiding a mythical grow-op) who set up their tents there for the night. As usual anyone having sex gets dispatched in a gruesome fashion. Since pretty much everyone is having sex Jason doesn’t take long to go to work although at first his unexplained hideous face is covered by burlap. It’s not till later that he adopts his trademark homage to Jacques Plante. At first with only enough victims to count on one hand it seems like the film will be mercifully short. However one of the five has a brother Clay Miller (Vancouver immigrant Jared Padalecki) who won’t give up the search despite opposition from the locals and a preppy rich kid with a cabin on the opposite side of the lake. He and an SUV full of surprisingly mult-ethnic hangers are invading the lake for a party weekend but you know that hangovers will be the least of their headaches. It’s hard to imagine after so many years and so many sequels that there is a groundswell of demand for a return to square one of the franchise. This go round motives are non existent save for having an excuse for non stop slice and dice with a side of skewering, but if you really are a fan of this genre you might forgive that and enjoy the roller coaster juxtaposing of humour and terror. And of course it does set itself up for a sequel.

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