Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘Friday the 13th’ (2009)

Written by Scott Edwards

​Going to summer camp is supposed to help you develop into someone better, or at least give you a chance to make new friends where you never thought you would find them. As time goes on and you meet more people, you may find that it is the place for you, but you also might find that the outcasts in the camps are treated worse than anything you have ever seen. I always tried not to define myself in a single group while growing up, mainly because I never did fit into any one clique. This gave me the opportunity to hang out with whomever I wanted, and I like to think that I became a better person because of it. Learning about different people from very different backgrounds, it was something amazing that I would not trade for anything and the friendships that I was able to make lasted many years and it will never be lost on me going forward.
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Wanting to get some sort of look at the famed Camp Crystal Lake to get hits on a website, Wade knows about what happened there many years ago. Telling his friends Whitney, Mike, Richie and Amanda about the murders that old Mrs. Voorhees committed and the atrocity of her being beheaded and her son Jason witnessing it, it is a great ghost story for the ages. Wanting to get away from the fire for a little bit, Mike and Whitney take a walk and find the old campground and give it a look. Finding a cabin that appears to have been lived in recently, they see that part of the Jason legend is true and try to leave, only to find themselves being hunted down by the deranged killer. Being able to make her way back to camp alive, Whitney sees that all of her friends are being killed by Jason and she appears to be next on his agenda.

Months have passed, and Clay Miller is worried that something has happened to his sister. Trying to follow in her footsteps, Clay is hitting up every shop and house he can find on his way to Crystal Lake with flyers looking for Whitney. While at the gas station, he gets a rude awakening that some people are not taking his search seriously when he bumps into a rich boy, Trent, who is not willing to give up his time to even give the flyer a look, or listen to any sort of story. Heading off on his bike, Clay gets pulled over by a local officer and is told that everything is being done to find his sister, even when he knows that it is not. Continuing his hunt, Clay finds himself back up at Trent’s cabin and is not greeted with open arms.

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Seeing how rude her boyfriend Trent was towards the poor man, Jenna wants to get his mind off of things once they reach his family’s cabin. But Trent only has two things on his mind, going to bed with his girlfriend and keeping his friends Chewie, Lawrence, Bree, Nolan and Chelsea from messing up his place. Knowing that there is plenty of other things to do around the lake, Jenna is ready to try something new and when Clay comes knocking for help, she is willing to give him the time of day and tries to help him with his search. Making their way to the old campgrounds, they take a look inside one of the cabins and find it disturbing, but not as disturbing as a large individual making his way back with what appears to be a body. Hiding from the machete wielding giant, the two need to make it back to Trent’s house and get help for whomever the victim is.
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As the party in the cabin is in full effect, Chewie and Lawrence are enjoying their booze and weed while Bree is putting on a show for everyone to see. When a chair gets broken, Chewie is sent out to the tool shed while Bree takes her new man Trent upstairs to take care of her needs. Seeing the freaked-out Jenna and Clay returning, the group does not understand what they are saying, but quickly find out that there is a killer in the woods that is stalking the cabin. Getting the police involved does not help when Jason Voorhees is back in the swing of things and looking to take his lake back from everyone that dares be near it or in it. The ultimate prize of this game will be survival, but will anyone be able to claim it since Jason is looking to set the new high score.

Talk about a bloody reboot of a classic franchise that has left us all afraid of Camp Crystal Lake. I have heard decent things about this movie, and I was glad to see that the slasher part of the storyline was strong, but there is something very different about this story that left me longing for an explanation. Jason has never been known to keep anyone alive, but in this movie, he did and that did not sit well with me. I understand why it was done, but it was just silly, I don’t think Jason would have locked up his mother to keep her around, so why would he do it with someone that looked kind of like her. That was strange and also the addition of a weed farm at the camp. I really think that Jason is trying to keep his product safe and is more like a cartel killer in the long run since everyone that found his wacky weed was put down. With plenty of sex, drugs, drinking, crushed dreams and ambitions and of course a lot of blood, I see what the team on the movie was trying to bring back with this reboot, but it just fell short since the story fractured once the killings started taking place. Stay Scared.

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