Rating: 3/5
Hooptober 4.0 | 6/31 | Sequels 6/6
We open with an endless recap that establishes one thing: Jason is unstoppable.
Jason remains chained at Crystal Lake, like an anti-Prometheus, ready to extinguish the human flame.
The calendar reads Friday the 13th. Tina stands outside, hearing her parents fight. Her drunk father beats her mother. Tina runs from the house to the docks. Her father runs after her. She jumps into a boat and rides to the middle of the lake. Her father calls to her from the shore.
“I wish you were dead,” Tina screams. Energy surges from boat to dock through the lake. The dock shakes violently before crumbling around her father, killing him.
Now a teenager, Tina awakes from a nightmare in the car with her mother. Her mother drives her to her old house. Her therapist, Dr. Crews, tries to awaken the latent psychic power within her. He claims it is to help her, but Crews has his schemes.
Tina, after an upsetting session with the doctor, runs to the docks, where her father died years ago. With the same psychic energy, she wishes her father would come back. Instead, the power hits Jason and resurrects him once again.
Meanwhile, some teens are around throwing a surprise birthday party, so Jason will have plenty of folks to kill.
After reading this summary, it feels like the writers have a book of key phrases they could use and stick together. It’s all a vague déjà vu as we retread the same familiar beats.
The one obvious difference is Tina. The filmmakers aimed to subvert final girl stereotypes by including a character who could distinctly combat Jason. I was initially skeptical of the idea, but it at least gives them some novel troupes to exploit.
Like the previous movie, they know their lead would stop Jason if they let their characters run free. So, we have a foil character — the sheriff in the previous movie and the doctor in this one — who keeps our hero from taking care of business. It’s exhausting.
They also make no effort on the relationship dynamics. I don’t understand why anyone does anything except for Robin and Maddie trying to fuck David.
The movie has a couple of kills that work. Jason whipping the girl in the sleeping bag against the tree is ridiculous.
Where it gets interesting is the third act, when it’s Tina v. Jason. Tina has more creative ideas for fighting Jason than Jason has for killing teens. The ending is so wild.
I didn’t expect to like this one! The return to formula, while dull, still helped the movie. By adding Tina, I was into it.
With that, I’m done with Friday the 13th for this month. I’ll get to the rest of them next month.