I'm beginning to think that the folks who make these films don't know what the word "final" means. But here we are....a new era....and a new watch for me. My initial reaction is to trash it...because it's not a great movie....but you know what? It's hardly the worst of the franchise - so let's talk about the positive.
We're now in the '90s....New Line Cinema now owns the rights to the franchise....there is no "Friday the 13th" in the title....the human dominoes are adults, not teenagers....and we don't get to see Jason's face this time around....although I guess the mask may now BE his actual face (and did we really EVER need to see Jason unmasked in the first place?....it was always anti-climactic to me....and his face in Part VIII was outright comical).
It can't be easy to take an idea that's already been done eight times before and create a masterpiece out of it...and....this is not a masterpiece. But I give a lot of credit for trying to do something different here. We have a larger world....we have characters who actually try to fight back....we have one (rather bizarre) character who understands the unstoppable nature of Jason & has a plan to rid the world of him permanently....there is an additional mythology to Jason....and heck - he's even got some family!
But we have also gotten very far away from the simpler times of the original films....Jason is now a full-blown supernatural entity - and is this REALLY what we want?
The filmmakers find a lot of time to have fun here, sometimes at the expense of its own franchise. The opening scene - which might be the best opening scene of any of the films and gave me hope that I was in for a genuinely great watch - baits both the audience AND Jason, with a scene containing the most generic of Friday the 13th-isms....the hot girl looking at herself in the mirror before stripping naked & jumping in the shower....and then running away through the woods wearing only a towel....because of course - if you're the FBI - that's EXACTLY how you would lure him out. We have become as predictable as Jason - and we were all caught off-guard.
And this isn't the only time the film becomes self-referential - when our lead male, Steven, drops a threesome of campers off at Camp Crystal Lake and says, "planning on smoking a little dope, having a little premarital sex and getting slaughtered?". There is a self-awareness that this is all formula - so let's have fun with it.
One of the greatest misdirections is the bounty hunter character of Creighton Duke (Steven Williams from 21 Jump Street), who I was sure was going to be the lead hero of the film - because he's the one guy who really knows how to kill Jason for good...and I guess he does - but he's also a complete lunatic who gives us some of the film's funniest moments. Breaking Steven's fingers while they're locked up as payment for information....or - the best line in the film - when asked by the reporter about what he thinks about Jason Voorhees: "That makes me think of a little girl in a pink dress sticking a hot dog through a doughnut."
WHAT???? That's the best line in history!!!
Some nice homages to other horror films too - Invasion of the Body Snatchers obviously, Nightmare on Elm Street, Evil Dead, Creepshow, The BIrds - and probably some I missed.
Nice to see Erin Gray who I grew up watching on Silver Spoons.
And huge kudos to Kane Hodder, who is barely in the movie, but plays both Jason AND Freddy....AND one of Jason's victims. That has to be one of the first times in history an actor played both the villain and a victim of that villain in the same flick.
But - in the end - the whole thing is a bit of a mess and a bit too far of a stray from the path. I'd say it's a better horror film than it is a Friday the 13th film, if that makes any sense.
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