Friday the 13th is a 2009 American slasher film serving as a reboot and the twelfth installment overall in the Friday the 13th franchise. It was directed by Marcus Nispel from a screenplay by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, the film stars Jared Padalecki, Danielle Panabaker, Aaron Yoo, Amanda Righetti, Travis Van Winkle, and Derek Mears. The story follows Clay Miller (Padalecki) as he searches for his missing sister, Whitney (Righetti), who is captured by Jason Voorhees (Mears) while camping in woodland at Crystal Lake.
The film was originally conceived as an origin story, but the project evolved into a reboot of the franchise where elements of the first four Friday the 13th films were used as inspiration for the story and characters. Voorhees was redesigned as a lean, quick killer with a backstory that allows the viewer to feel sympathy for him but not enough that he would lose his menace. In keeping with the tone of the film, Jason's mask was recreated from a mold of the original mask used for Friday the 13th Part III (1982) with minor changes. The film includes some of Harry Manfredini's musical score from the previous Friday the 13th films because the producers recognized its iconic status.
Friday the 13th was theatrically released in the United States on February 13, 2009. It received negative reviews, while grossing $92.7 million at the box office on a budget of $19 million, becoming the second-highest-grossing film in the franchise after Freddy vs. Jason (2003).
Plot
On Friday, June 13, 1980, a young Jason Voorhees watches as his mother Pamela is beheaded by Alice Hardy, who was trying to escape Mrs. Voorhees's murder spree around Camp Crystal Lake. 28 years later, five friendsWade, Richie, his girlfriend Amanda, Mike, and his girlfriend Whitneyarrive for a camping trip at Crystal Lake, where they hope to find a crop of marijuana growing in the woods. That night, an adult Jason kills everyone except Whitney, whom he captures as she resembles his mother at a young age.
Six weeks later, Trent, his girlfriend Jenna, and friends Chelsea, Bree, Chewie, Nolan, and Lawrence arrive at Trent's summer cabin on the shore of Crystal Lake. Meanwhile, Whitney's brother Clay Miller arrives at the lake to search for her, despite his local sheriff's pleas to look elsewhere. Clay visits Trent's cabin, and Jenna agrees to help him search for Whitney. Chelsea and Nolan go wakeboarding on the lake where Jason kills Nolan with an arrow and Chelsea with his machete. Meanwhile, Clay and Jenna search the old Crystal Lake campgrounds, where they eventually see Jason hauling a body into an abandoned camp house.
Jenna and Clay run back to the cabin to warn the others about Jason. Chewie is killed by Jason in a tool shed near the cabin, while Trent and Bree have sex in a bedroom. Jenna and Clay arrive, and Clay calls the police. Jason then disconnects the cabin's electricity. Lawrence heads outside to search for Chewie, and Jason kills him with an axe. Jason then sneaks inside and kills Bree. A police officer arrives and knocks on the front door, but is killed by Jason before he can enter. Trent, Clay, and Jenna escape the cabin and become separated, but Trent is killed by Jason when he reaches the main road.
Jason chases Clay and Jenna back to the campgrounds, where Clay discovers Jason's underground lair and finds his sister, who's still alive but chained to a wall. Clay frees Whitney, and all three try to escape as Jason arrives. They find an exit, but Jenna is impaled by Jason's machete just before she can escape. Jason then corners Clay and Whitney inside of a barn, where Whitney confuses Jason by pretending to be Pamela. Clay and Whitney subdue Jason with a chain, and Whitney stabs Jason in the chest with his own machete. After sunrise, Clay and Whitney dump Jason's body into the lake, but before they can leave, Jason bursts through the wooden dock and grabs Whitney to her death.
Cast
Production Development The film was produced by New Line Cinema, Paramount Pictures, Platinum Dunes, and Crystal Lake Entertainment. New Line Cinema's Toby Emmerich approached Platinum Dunes producers Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form about remaking Friday the 13th in the same way they restarted The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise. They agreed and spent over a year obtaining the film rights from Paramount Pictures, New Line Cinema, and Crystal Lake Entertainmentthe latter run by Friday the 13th creator Sean S. Cunningham. Paramount executives gave Platinum Dunes producers a license to use anything from the original films, including the title. Paramount was given the rights to distribute the film internationally and New Line Cinema retained U.S. distribution rights. Fuller and Form said they did not want to make Friday the 13th Part 11 or 12, but wanted to rework the mythology. They liked elements from the first four filmssuch as plot points and ways particular characters are killedand planned to use these in their remake, which they did with Paramount's approval. Fuller said, "I think there are moments we want to address, like how does the hockey mask happen. It'll happen differently in our movie than in the third one. Where is Jason from, why do these killings happen, and what is Crystal Lake?" The producers initially expressed an interest in using Tommy Jarvis, a recurring character who first appeared in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984), but the idea was scrapped.
Though the producers decided that Friday the 13th would not be an origin story, they said that they wanted to work out a logical origin story for Jason that would provide a sense of history as the film progressed. Form and Fuller explained that the audience gets to see how Jason attains his famous hockey mask, and is given a reason for why he puts it on. Jason would transition from wearing a bag over his head—similar to the one seen in Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)—to finding and wearing his hockey mask, whereas in Friday the 13th Part III (1982) he obtains the mask off-screen and comes out of a barn already wearing it.
Unlike both horror remakes, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) and The Amityville Horror (2005)which were also produced by Bay, Form, and Fullerit was decided that Friday the 13th would not be a period piece. Form and Fuller said the film was not strictly a remake so there was no reason they could not set the story in the 2000s. In October 2007, Mark Swift and Damian Shannon, the writers of Freddy vs. Jason (2003), were hired to write a script for Friday the 13th. Jonathan Liebesman was in negotiations to direct the film, but scheduling conflicts meant he was unavailable and Fuller and Form chose Marcus Nispel. Nispel was apprehensive about taking the job, mainly because he would be taking over another film franchise, but Fuller eventually persuaded him to direct the project. Principal photography began on April 21, 2008, in Austin, Texas and ended on June 13, 2008. Additional scenes were shot on location at Camp Fern near Marshall, Texas.
Casting Stuntman Derek Mears was hired to portray Jason Voorhees at the recommendation of special make-up effects supervisor Scott Stoddard. Before the producers contacted him, Mears had already heard about the production of a new Friday the 13th and had decided to start physical training so he could pursue the role. He was unaware that Stoddard and other industry professionals were suggesting him to the producers. The studio worried that Mears' pleasant demeanor might affect his ability to portray a menacing character, but Mears assured them he was suitable for the role. According to Mears, "They were like, 'You're really nice ... are you going to be able to switch over, right?' I was like, 'I cage fight... and I've got a lot of dad issues. So yeah.'" Mears said he related to "Jason the victim" when he was growing up, and he wanted to portray Jason as a victim in the film. To Mears, Jason represents people who were bullied in high schoolspecifically those with physical deformitiesfor being outcasts. Jason is unusual because he exacts his revenge on those trying to take over his territory at Crystal Lake.
When Mears went to audition for the role, he was asked, "Why do we need an actor as opposed to just a guy in a mask?" Mears said portraying Jason is similar to Greek Mask Work, in which the mask and the actor are separate entities, and depending on the scene, there will be various combinations of mask and actor in the performance. Mears said the energy from the actor's thoughts will be picked up by the camera. He compared his experience behind the camera to a stock car race: he is the driver and the effects team is his pit crew. As he performs, the effects team subtly suggest ways he can give the character more life on camera.
Amanda Righetti had not read the script when she was offered the role of Whitney Miller. She wanted to be part of the Friday the 13th franchise from the start. Righetti said she wanted to act in the film to be a part of the franchise and was convinced by the script. Jared Padalecki describes Clay Miller as a real hero because he sets out "to do the right thing" when his sister goes missing, and goes about it as a "lone wolf" who wants to take on the responsibility alone. Adjustments were made to the filming schedule to accommodate Aaron Yoo, who portrays Chewie. Yoo had his appendix removed shortly before filming began, and could not film his scenes immediately. As soon as Yoo was ready for filming, Nispel immediately hung him upside down from some rafters, exposing the staples over his surgical wound for the character's post-death shot.
Fuller and Form said the casting process for Friday the 13th was more difficult than that for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre because thirteen young actors were involved in Friday the 13th, as opposed to five in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The pair continually recast roles to find which actors worked best together. This recasting process lasted until the start of filming. Hostel: Part II'''s Richard Burgi, who was cast as Sheriff Bracke, did not sign his contract until twelve hours before he was due to start filming his scenes.
Writing When Shannon and Swift began writing the script for Friday the 13th, they imposed some rules based on their experiences of writing Freddy vs. Jason on themselves. They wanted their teenage characters to "sound normal". Shannon and Swift said they did not want the characters to know Jason's name or to become what they considered "the Scooby-Doo cliché where it's a bunch of kids trying to figure something out". The writers also wanted to distance themselves from self-referential slasher films such as Scream and to give the film a gritty, more 1980s feel that had been lost in recent films. They wanted to create a quick, loose Jason. The writing team decided to create a version of Jason "who was actually in the woods surviving off the land", and whose killings are presented as a way of defending his territory rather than randomly murdering whoever came along.
The writers did not want to spend a lot of time covering Jason's childhood experiences, which they felt would remove the sense of mystery from the character. They tried to write scenes that would add verisimilitude, like the audience finding a deer carcass lying on the ground as they follow Jason through his tunnels. Fuller told the writers they would have to do without it because it would cost $100,000. Because of budget constraints, certain character deaths and the ending of the film were also scaled back from what Shannon and Swift originally envisioned.