Friday the 13th (2009)

Marcus Nispel, 2009

Given that I would be kicking off the month of Halloween late at night, I needed to start with something modern and, therefore, fast-paced. At the same time, I wanted to tap into a bit of that comforting nostalgia, so what better choice than a modern remake of an 80's franchise?

I say franchise, rather than movie, because the 2009 Friday the 13th draws from all of the first four Friday Friday movies and probably has more in common with part 3 than any of the others. This works very much to its benefit, because the first Friday the 13th is actually not very good. It's not until part 3 that things start to become interesting, and part 6 is the only one that could be considered a good movie outright.

Nonetheless, I was less than impressed with the modern Friday, but it certainly had its pleasures. The college kids were generally amusing and there were some impressively brutal kills- I particularly liked the deaths of the two kids who went boating. The movie is empty calories, but still reasonably tasty. And at least it's an improvement on its source.

3.5/10