{"id":29471,"date":"2024-09-16T00:21:13","date_gmt":"2024-09-16T07:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=29471"},"modified":"2024-09-16T00:21:13","modified_gmt":"2024-09-16T07:21:13","slug":"blasts-from-the-past-4k-ultra-hd-review-friday-the-13th-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=29471","title":{"rendered":"Blasts from the Past! 4K Ultra HD Review: FRIDAY THE 13th (2009)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This 4K Ultra HD \u201cLimited Edition\u201d set from Arrow Video\nis available on September 17th<\/sup>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Back in the 1980s, one of horror\u2019s biggest franchises was\nthe Friday the 13th<\/sup><\/em>series. While the iconic Jason\nVoorhees character didn\u2019t become the central antagonist until the second title,\nhe quickly became an iconic figure with genre fans (particularly after the\nthird picture, when he officially donned a hockey mask). The original feature\nspawned seven sequels in the 80s alone (as well as a TV series that didn\u2019t\nreally have anything to do with Voorhees), and another three movies in the\nfollowing 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, there was little surprise when a remake was announced in\n2009 by Michael Bay and his Platinum Dunes production company. The film was a\nbox office success, but like other films in the series, didn\u2019t earn a positive\ncritical reception. While further follow-ups were planned, behind-the-scenes\nrights issues have prevented more films from being made. Regardless, many genre\nfans did appreciate the Friday the 13th<\/sup><\/em> reboot and are still\nhoping for more Jason Voorhees mayhem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arrow Video is now presenting a \u201cLimited Edition\u201d 4K Ultra\nHD set of Friday the 13th<\/em> that contains the theatrical and extended\n\u201cKiller Cut\u201d of the movie (which runs an additional 9 minutes). The transfer\nwas prepared by Arrow Video from source materials obtained from Warner Bros..\nBoth cuts of the movie look fantastic and the set contains a great deal of\nbonus material both old and new that will thrill anyone who enjoys these\npictures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins with Whitney (Amanda Righetti) and her\nfriends heading out on a camping trip. They end up pitching their tents near\nCamp Crystal Lake and barely have time to settle in before Jason Voorhees\n(Derek Mears) rampages through their site. Some time later, Whitney\u2019s brother\nClay (Jared Padalecki) arrives in the area searching for her. He encounters the\nnasty Trent Sutton (Travis Van Winkle), who is taking his girlfriend Jenna\n(Danielle Panabaker) and their friends to his father\u2019s swanky cabin for a\nweekend party (even though he seems more than irked at the thought of anyone\ndoing damage to the place). Anyway, Jason reappears and the group find\nthemselves being hunted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For me, this is a decent redo. It certainly has its share of\nflaws, but benefits from a wonderfully fun first act (that it never quite\nmanages to top). The first 25 minutes rehash the first few titles in the\noriginal series with incredible speed, efficiency and wit. For the audience at\nthe time, this approach was completely unexpected, with the kids showing up and\nthen being mercilessly hacked to pieces in quick succession. The murder\nsequences are creative, and most importantly, darkly humorous. It\u2019s an\nentertaining homage that also manages to thrill and generate laughs in a\nremarkably short amount of time.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The issue with a movie that opens so strongly is that it\nreally has no way to top itself. When the main story starts, there\u2019s only\nslightly more than an hour left in the running time to introduce a new set of\nleads and get the action moving. As a result, with the exception of worried\nbrother Clay, every other character is about as one-note as it gets. This\nincludes the standard creep, drug user, \u201cnice\u201d girl, etc.. It\u2019s simple to the\npoint where the first group of campers who didn\u2019t make it out of the first act\nfeel more developed. There are a few inventive deaths (including a pair that\noccur on the lake) and the film still delivers what fans will enjoy, but almost\nall the new characters are cannon fodder and events begin to feel repetitive,\nespecially since there is no one to really relate to except Clay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The camera also shakes wildly during the bloody attacks to\nthe point where it can be difficult to follow the action. This cinematic\ntechnique was commonly used during this era and personally, I am thrilled that\nit died out in the following years.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, none of my nitpicks are quite enough to ruin the\nexperience. This is a very well-produced slasher. While I don\u2019t care for the\nshaky camera approach to the murders, the movie is still impressively lit. And\nthankfully, the climax does offer a new story twist or two that helps to\nmaintain interest. It certainly delivers a satisfying final face-off between\nVoorhees and the remaining lead or leads. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Admittedly, this is a solid reimagining that is better than other remakes of the era. Fans of the series and Jason Voorhees will definitely find something to like here. And as mentioned, the presentation is outstanding. The 4K Ultra HD presentation is incredibly clean, even though much of it takes place at night. It certainly outperforms the previous Blu-ray from Warner Bros. and offers the sharpest version of the picture that has ever been available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The extras are also outstanding. The theatrical edition\ncontains a new commentary from director Marcus Nispel and another featuring the\nscreenwriters. These are entertaining tracks that go into detail about how\neveryone approached the remake, trying to both serve those who loved the\nprevious entries and still add something fresh to the proceedings, as well as\nthe problems they encountered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There is also an interview with cinematographer Daniel C.\nPearl. His first film was the 1974 classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre<\/em>\n(as well as the 2003 Chainsaw<\/em> redo and the recent chiller The Boy<\/em>)\nand he discusses his craft lighting and shooting these pictures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is also a new video essay about \u201cremakes\u201d from an\nindividual who really, really likes this movie. He makes a couple of good\npoints about giving remakes a chance, but goes a bit far in some of his\narguments (particularly in his assertion that this effort is the franchise\u2019s\nbest picture). Still, it\u2019s an amusing watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The extended \u201dKiller Cut\u201d of the movie also comes with a\nfilm historian commentary. Much like the previous extra, there is some\ninteresting analysis. This includes how the movie attempts to update certain\ntropes, as well as plenty of information about what was going on in the horror\ngenre at the time of production. Some of their assertions are a bit much, like\nthe defense of the blunt characterizations and, at one point, insisting that\nthe movie is intentionally making a comment on the financial crisis of 2008.\nThe argument feels like a big stretch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The set also contains all archival bonuses from earlier\neditions, which are plentiful. This includes a terror trivia track that runs\nthrough much of the film, featurettes on the production, deleted scenes, and\nnearly 45 minutes of promo materials including trailers, TV spots, the\nelectronic press kit with interviews, and an image gallery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If that wasn\u2019t enough, this release also arrives with a\nfancy booklet containing new essays on the picture reversible sleeve, a\ndouble-sided fold-out poster, as well as an amusing Crystal Lake postcard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me, this Friday the 13th<\/sup><\/em> film lands\nsomewhere in the middle of the franchise. It isn\u2019t flawless, but it does\ndeliver an amazing opening act and some gruesome, graphic fun along the way.\nThere certainly is plenty to like in this title and it\u2019s the best of the\nPlatinum Dunes series of remakes. As for the 4K Ultra HD package, it is the\nbest presentation and extras-filled set in the series and tops just about any\nother individual release of any of the movies in the series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re a slasher film or Friday the 13th<\/sup><\/em>\nseries enthusiast, this is a must-buy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This 4K Ultra HD \u201cLimited Edition\u201d set from Arrow Video is available on September 17th. Back in the 1980s, one of horror\u2019s biggest franchises was the Friday the 13thseries. While the iconic Jason Voorhees character didn\u2019t become the central antagonist until the second title, he quickly became an iconic figure with genre fans (particularly after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":29479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[157,300,1170,1836,5166,5909,7949,7950,7951,7952,9319,10400,10444,16846,18515,23989],"class_list":["post-29471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvdblu-ray-reviews","tag-157","tag-4k-ultra-hd","tag-amanda-righetti","tag-arrow-video","tag-danielle-panabaker","tag-disc","tag-friday-the-13th","tag-friday-the-13th-2009-review","tag-friday-the-13th-4k-ultra-hd-review","tag-friday-the-13th-remake-review","tag-horror","tag-jared-padalecki","tag-jason-voorhees","tag-remake","tag-slasher","tag-warner-bros"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29471\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}