Jason Voorhees is resurrected once again, this time as a cranky and violent marijuana farmer. This is a purported remake of the original, 1980 Friday the 13th, but it’s really yet another update of a familiar brand for our torture-porn era (director Marcus Nispel did the same thing with 2003’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre). Jason’s mother – the maniacal, sweater-wearing, middle-aged murderer of the first film – is dispensed with early on to make way for the infamous hockey mask. Aside from a jokey opening – in which no less than four horny college kids are dismembered before the opening credits for stumbling onto a marijuana patch near Camp Crystal Lake – this shows very little imagination. A half-spirited restaging of the original’s iconic shock ending feels especially egregious.
