Friday the 13th: Forgotten classic?

To begin my first blog on NoobFeed, I'll talk about the latest FRiday the 13th reimagining movie that came out a while ago, which I, out of curiosity, finally decided to watch a couple of days ago. So, enjoy Ron, since you are for now my only friend ;p

 

We need to start with how I perceive reimaginings: I really dislike them. Why do I? Because they usually scrap what was once a classic into something entirely different, barely following what made the franchise known to the public, which we can call key events. Friday the 13th, unfortunately, did not get spared in my opinion. The movie is great.. for people who never experienced the old movies dating back in in 1980, which was the year of release for the first movie of the successful franchise.The difference between remakes and reimagings? None. People can argue as much as they want on this, but the truth is that nowadays, with the way remakes are done, they can be called reimaginings entirely. Remakes do not exist anymore, and I guess that's precisely why I dislike them. A simple remake of something good isn't enough anymore, they all need to make it their own, hence ruining it in the process.

 

I'll need to state a professional reviewer for my own pleasure: "For die-hard fans of the series, this new movie is ideal". This statement is entirely false.. I'll change this around to: "For newcomers, this new movie is ideal" since they have not grown watching the series and probably do not care for small details, unlike the die-hard fans. For die-hard fans, it is an unnecessary reimagining which misses a lot of things. To begin with, "ts ts ts.. ha ha ha.. ts ts ts.." or put that however you'd write it, everybody knows what that is.. that is one of the key events to every Friday the 13th movies, which is heard for 5 seconds during the begining of the reimagining and not once ever again throughout the movie. How they managed to leave out one of the most popular sound throughout a life lasting series is beyond my comprehension. I would of heard it too, I love that small effect, and I watched the movie on Blu-Ray on my 7.2 surround sound system, so I couldn't have missed it. If it is heard, however, then it got buried deep down, underneath the elctronic music that replaced the good, classic, fast-paced and creepy orchestral music that could be heard in the first movies, which brings me to another point.

 

The chaotic music of the first movies was just amazing. Orchestral music, which can often be found in old horror movies, beats any modern music in the modern horror movies we get in my opinion. How they make a reimagining with electro music is.. let's say, not as good as it could have been. It hardly feels chaotic anymore, it only feels modern. I don't have much more to say on this part, as musical tastes are bound to change alongside people's tastes, but as far as I am concerned, when you take on a classic of horror, you try as much as you can to keep the original feeling, while adding your own twist instead of making it feel entirely different.

 

Now as far as detais can go.. only one of them stay true to the originals: The useless sight of breasts. Hey, they at least managed to get something right. In every Friday the 13th, you can see breasts. Sometimes you wonder why you had to see them, but you still see them. Everybody loves swimming in a dirty lake they've never been to naked. While in reality, people hardly even want to swim in a dirty lake they've never been too, let alone do it naked. But the matter is, they were able to keep something true to the originals.

 

Many other details, which are rather small, but which got to me simply for being one of these "die-hard" fans, are moments such as when Jason finds his mask. I cannot get over the fact that Jason found his mask in the third episode, after killing some dude that keeps pulling pranks on everyone. Not while randomly killing a redneck that phantasize about having sex with a plastic life-size mannequin. You think this is going to far for a dislike? Well, at the beginning, they find Jason's mom's head, Pamela Voorhees' head, in a hole in the wall inside the small shed Jason lives in.. while in the original, her head wasn't in any kind of hole, it simply was on a table, plain and simple, completely personified with a sweater of his mom below the head. Those are, "small" details, as we could call them, but for die-hard fans, these can be huge details. Just like when in the first scene, the girl and Pamela hardly fight at all, while in the first movie, an epic women fight took place, complete with bad syncing of the voices before the girl was able to pull off this move, makes you wonder. From watching the reimagining, how are people supposed to actually fear Pamela Voorhees?

 

Oh yeah and don't expect anything special in the murders.. forget the chainsaws, the head banging on the trees, the things pushed into someone's eye.. In this one, it seems that apart from the once used axe, Jason doesn't know any better but his machete. This was highly displeasing, seeing as how he even used, back in the days, a small birthday air trumpet to pop in the eye of a victim and pierce his brain, or how Jason was able to crush people's skull with his bare hands. He now even has his special underground tunnels, complete with strings attached everywhere in the woods, which when touched, rings a couple of bells at his complex underground base letting him know someone is there..

 

Overall, it isn't a bad movie. People who never experienced Friday the 13th, or who watched them but never really cared for them, will most likely enjoy it. For the die-hard fans though, it's worth watching just to be able to point out every single detail that does not follow the original story. My moral of the story though: LEAVE THE CLASSICS ALONE! I always hoped they wouldn't turn Friday the 13th into what Halloween has become with Rob Zombie's reimagining, but I guess I'm too late now. So which one is next on the list? Nightmare on Elm Street is, and apparently, Hellraiser also gets a reimagining. I can't comment for Hellraiser, since I never watched his movies, but I bet both Freddy Krueger and Pinhead will get the same treatment as Micheal Myers and Jason Voorhees, unfortunately.

 

So anyway, I think I have said enough, I had to get it out somehow and I decided to make this my first blog on NoobFeed. Despite this being a big "hate" blog, it still came out, didn't it? Well, you were looking forward to my first blog Ron, I guess you'll be served ;p