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  • Writer's pictureGabe Powers

Friday the 13th (2009) 4K UHD Review


Arrow Video

4K UHD Release: September 17, 2024

Video: 2.40:1/2160p  (HDR10/Dolby Vision)/Color

Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1

Subtitles: English SDH

Run Time: 97:14 (theatrical cut), 105:30 (extended Killer Cut)

Director: Marcus Nispel


A group of oblivious teenagers choose Camp Crystal Lake as the destination for a weekend getaway. Among them, the young Clay Miller (Jared Padalecki) is not looking for fun and frolics, but for his sister Whitney who disappeared around the lake six weeks earlier. The trip turns into a waking nightmare as the bloodthirsty Jason emerges from the shadows, wielding a deadly machete and out for blood. Cut off from civilization, these youths discover too late that Crystal Lake bears the scars of a violent past as they uncover the terrifying events that spurred the masked killer's quest for violent vengeance. (From Arrow’s official synopsis)



Following Marcus Nispel’s wildly successful remakes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2002), post-millennial Hollywood turned their gaze towards two of most successful horror franchises of all time – Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street. Both series were now owned by New Line Cinema, who failed to cash-in on Friday the 13th’s perceived value when Jim Isaac’s Jason X (2001) flopped at the box office. Flush with cash from the Lord of the Rings movies, the studio changed course and plotted to combine their franchises for the action-heavy mash-up Freddy vs. Jason (2003), directed by Hong Kong transplant Ronny Yu. The film was a hit, but bureaucracy, ownership, and the industry’s turn towards darker, grittier material kept a sequel from materializing. Freddy and Jason were put back on ice until some time in 2007 when Platinum Dunes, the studio behind the 2002 Chainsaw Massacre and its prequel, negotiated the rights to remake both Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street.


First up was Friday the 13th (2009). Post-Chainsaw Massacre, Nispel hadn’t found much luck and was brought back into the fold as director. Freddy vs. Jason scribes Damian Shannon & Mark Swift were hired to write and opted wisely not to retell the original Jason-free original. Instead, they tried to make sense of the events of the first two movies and distilled them into a 20-plus minute title sequence and fake-out first act that kills off (almost) an entire troupe of sexy campers. The real movie begins six weeks later, when a new group cast of twenty-somethings take a trip to Crystal Lake for a very Friday the 13th Part 3-esque vacation weekend. Shannon & Swift implement as many genre clichés as possible in order to meet and subvert audience expectations. The script is full of irony, including some relatively acidic takes on social class that mirror Tobe Hooper’s original Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), but it stands clear of the comedic meta-callbacks of Wes Craven’s Scream (1996), which had fallen out of fashion in the early post-millennium.



The slasher part of the story plays out predictably, but is almost background noise to the real meat of the script, which follows an outsider character, Clay (Jared Padalecki) and the main cast member, Jenna (Danielle Panabaker), who opts to help him search for his missing sister. Clay and Jenna, like their Freddy vs. Jason counterparts, learn uncover a mystery that prepares them to face the threat, unlike the others, who are easily picked off. In defining their version of Jason, Nispel and the writers pay unexpected homage to not only Texas Chain Saw Massacre, but Hooper’s 1982 sequel, where Leatherface was an obsessive hoarder of junk, and Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes (1977), as well as Alexander Aja’s 2006 remake, which reimagined the cannibalistic hillbillies as stand ins for entrenched al-Qaeda insurgents fighting off foreign invaders. Friday the 13th ‘09 isn’t quite as politically aware as Aja’s Hills Have Eyes or even Nispel’s own Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but the filmmakers are savvy enough to acknowledge the importance of political subtext to horror during the era.


Friday the 13th ‘09 is a bit too familiar and hamstrung by its clumsily over-stuffed structure to stand alongside the most significant post-millennial remakes, such as Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead (2004) and Aja’s The Hills Have Eyes, but it was a respectively modern take on the material. Nispel and the writers refer to the original movies (...perhaps too many original movies)  while avoiding the current Hollywood remake trends of swaddling the audience in nostalgia for the era. It’s not as important as Nispel’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre in the grand scheme of horror remakes, but its grander ambition, willingness to be narratively lopsided, and frankly superior cinematic technique make it more enjoyable and, arguably, a better movie. I just wish I was a little more interested in the characters.


The less said about Platinum Dunes’ wretched Nightmare on Elm Street remake, which was completed the following year, the better. 



Video

Both the theatrical and extended Killer Cut of Friday the 13th ‘09 were initially released on Blu-ray and DVD solo in 2009 from New Line and has since been available alongside the franchise’s other films in full series sets from Warner Bros. and Scream Factory. This standalone release represents the film’s 4K UHD debut. Nispel and cinematographer Daniel Pearl shot on 35mm film, then digitally graded everything, as was the style at the time. There isn’t a whole lot to say about this 2.40:1, 2160p transfer, besides that it looks about as close to the theatrical release of the film as possible on home video.


The screencaps on this page are from an earlier digital version and, because Arrow hasn’t made any major changes to the grade, they’re generally illustrative of this 4K, minus, of course, additional resolution and HDR/Dolby Vision upgrades. The big improvement is the simple fact that the added detail and extra dynamic range ensure that you can actually see what’s happening during the darkest scenes, which occasionally became a crushy mess on Blu-ray. IMDb specs claim that the master format was 2K, so the process of upgrading to 4K might explain the slightly more ‘digital’ overall look. There aren’t signs of additional DNR or similar tinkering, this is just what 35mm-to-digital movies tended to look like. There are also no obvious differences between the theatrical cut and the additional Killer Cut sequences.


For a breakdown of the differences between the two versions, see this Movie-Censorship.com post.



Audio

Friday the 13th ‘09 theatrical and Killer Cuts are presented in their original 5.1 and uncompressed DTS-HD Master Audio. The mix really emphasizes the impact of jump-scares, to the point that some viewers – not me, of course, someone else – might turn up their systems too high in order to hear the dialogue, only to be blasted by one of composer Steve Jablonsky’s chunky string stings. This discrepancy in volume levels is done on purpose, naturally, so I can’t exactly fault the 4K’s mix for that. Directional effects are lively and incorporate elements of the pop/rock/hip-hop soundtrack. Jablonsky’s score has a rich stereo presence and the environmental ambience fills out the rear speakers nicely.



Extras

Disc 1 (theatrical cut 4K UHD)

  • Commentary with director Marcus Nispel – The video upgrade might not be enough for fans to buy this film a second, third, or fourth time, but Arrow’s extensive exclusive extras might be. These begin with a jovial new commentary from Nispel, who looks back on the production, his career, working with the cast, the locations, and things he might do differently if given the chance. Commentary with writers Mark Swift & Damian Shannon – In the second new commentary, Swift & Shannon talk about various versions of their script, the changes made from script to screen, and they generally praise Nispel and the cast.

  • 2024 Interviews:

    • Marcus Nispel (28:39, HD) – The director focuses a bit more on the franchise’s themes, Jason as an antihero, developing his version of the character with actor Derek Mears, drawing inspiration from Frank Frazetta paintings, other inspirations, differences between Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th, shooting in Texas, and his music video background.

    • Mark Swift & Damian Shannon (37:09, HD) – The writers look back on being hired, paying homage to the original franchise, setting the remake in the modern era, developing creative kill ideas, working with Nispel, some of the changes made to the script (also detailed in the commentary track), and the abandoned sequel.

    • Cinematographer Daniel Pearl (23:00, HD) – The cinematographer wraps up the new interviews with a chat about his career, collaborating with Nispel on multiple projects, the tricks behind jump-scares, lighting techniques, and various technical difficulties.

  • A Killer New Beginning (18:22, HD) – Freelance film critic Matt Donato heavily praises the remake (I agree that it’s better than the original, for the record) as he explores the history of horror remakes in general and Friday the 13th’s place in the pantheon. 

  • 2009 archival extras:

    • Excerpts from the original DVD’s picture-in-picture trivia track (43:13, SD)

    • The Rebirth of Jason Voorhees (11:24, HD) – A production EPK

    • Hacking Back/Slashing Forward (11:41, HD) – The cast & crew discuss the franchise

    • The 7 Best Kills (22:32, HD) – A longer behind-the-scenes look at the murder set-pieces

    • Deleted/extended scenes (8:20, HD)

  • Promotional materials – Teaser and theatrical trailers, TV Spots, EPK, and image gallery.



Disc 3 (Killer Cut 4K UHD)

  • Commentary with Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Josh Nelson – Heller-Nicholas, the author of The Giallo Canvas: Art, Excess and Horror Cinema (McFarland, 2021), and critic, writer, lecturer Nelson discuss the making of the film, the Friday the 13th franchise, slasher movie franchises in general, the remake’s place in the post-9/11 canon, the history of post-9/11 remakes, and socio-political themes (class issues, bad cops, et cetera).


The images on this page are taken from New Line’s original Blu-ray – NOT Arrow’s 4K UHD – and sized for the page. Larger versions can be viewed by clicking the images. Note that there will be some JPG compression.



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