Supplements: What Goodies Are There?
The Friday the 13th: Killer Cut special edition comes with a nice complement of bonus material — much of which is exclusive to Blu-ray — beginning with two complete versions of the film: the original 97-minute theatrical cut and the longer, 106-minute “killer cut,” although both are R-rated according to the packaging. A quick comparison of the two reveals the obvious addition of more gore and slightly more nudity in the longer but surprisingly not unrated cut. (Note that the BD initially defaults to the longer “killer cut” when first played; you need to select the theatrical cut from the “special features” menu.)
Next is an interesting picture-in-picture with trivia track that is a mixed bag of one feature I dislike (those distracting picture-in-picture boxes in the bottom corner of the screen with various talking heads) and one I’ve come to appreciate (running text trivia track). While some of the trivia is a bit lame — like the fact that this is the first Friday the 13th movie co-produced by New Line and Paramount Pictures! — I did glean some other interesting bits, like the fact that original screenwriter Victor Miller actually picked the name Jason as an amalgam of his two sons’ names: Josh and Ian.
The first of several featurettes included on the disc is titled The Rebirth of Jason Voorhees (11:24, 1080p) and it is a standard EPK-type affair that offers insights from the various cast and crew members on how they decided to approach this latest horror remake. More than an inordinate amount of time is devoted to how Jason evolved from his “sack head” look to his trademark “hockey mask” appearance while director Marcus Nispel comes across as someone with little to no knowledge of the original franchise. Next up, Hacking Back/Slashing Forward (11:41, 1080p) deceptively claims to be a “look back” at the Friday the 13th film franchise but, in reality, is another round of talking-head interviews with the 2009 cast and crew talking about their impressions of the original films. I was hoping for more of a montage/tribute to the original movies, but no such luck.
The next section, titled The 7 Best Kills (22:33 aggregate, 1080p), is an interesting feature taking a look back at how Jason annihilates Trent, Richie, Amanda, Chelsea, Bree, Mike and Officer Bracke (the latter named in homage to former DVD File editor Peter Bracke and author of Crystal Lake Memories: 25 Years of Friday the 13th). While it’s interesting to see how some of the various special effects were staged, all the interviewees here seem to overstate the originality and gruesomeness of each murder here. As if Friday the 13th fans have never seen someone get a hatchet to the head or get stabbed through the eye! Give me a break!
There’s also a collection of three deleted scenes (8:19, 1080p) under the generic heading additional scenes that provide random exposition that is wholly unnecessary and pointless. The most amusing bit here is a longer sequence involving the pot-smoking farmer that Jason eventually stumbles upon and kills before relieving him of his hockey mask. The BD also includes downloadable content for players that are BD-Live enabled and a digital copy DVD that allows you to transfer the movie onto portable media devices via a Windows-based PC or Apple’s video iPod.
Both the 97-minute theatrical cut and 106-minute “killer cut” are divided into twenty-five chapters.
Final Thoughts
I suppose the one or two neophytes out there who have never seen a single Friday the 13th movie might find a couple of worthwhile shocks in this 2009 reboot, but it lacks all the atmosphere and camp (pardon the pun) that made the earlier films in the franchise so appealing. The iconic Jason Voorhees is reduced here to a brutish and robotic killer and the one-dimensional teen stereotypes he’s given to knock off are even less interesting. Although the BD boasts impressive video and audio presentations and comes with an ample offering of bonus material, the movie itself only warrants a marginal rental recommendation for the extremely curious. Real horror devotees would do better to seek out the franchise’s first three entries that are now available on BD.
