Gotta hand it to them on this one: at least they tried to make it a little different from the previous ones. The plot here involves a girl with telekinetic abilities who is brought back to the lake house where she inadvertently killed her father. Her therapist believes this move will be very therapeutic in her recovery, but it seems her therapist has plans of his own.
That is actually the main plot of the film. Jason's involvment is what throws a monekywrench into the whole scheme. Unfortunately, the main plot is kept only mildly interesting as the focus is placed on Jason wandering around killing people. The two plots intersect briefly as Tina, the telekintetic, runs out of a session frustrated with what the doctor is doing and stands on the dock wishing her father could come back to her. Since her episodes of telekinesis are triggered by high emotional states, this desire serves to break Jason loose from his chains at the bottom of Crystal Lake (curiously renamed back to its original name from its brief moniker as Forest Green in 6).
Tina's plot continues on as she decides to party next door with kids who are conveniently waiting there for a surprise birthday party for one of their friends who hasn't arrived yet. No spoiler here; he never gets there...any guesses as to why? They just don't make cars like they used to. Anyway, as Tina parties, she gets a vision and even sees a piece of this vision stuck into the side of her house when she runs home. Conveniently this is gone moments later when everyone checks it out, and while this is later explained, there are a whole lot of holes in this doctor-patient plot that I never fully got.
There are a lot of holes in the doctor's character that make his actions a little weird and nonsensical. We get a lot of info about him kindof second hand, so we get an idea of what he is up to, but he never admits to it, nor is it sufficiently explained before he becomes a victim. He knows a lot about the region and what happened (everyone seems to have this stash of old newspaper clipping laying around somewhere, don't they?), but how the heck does that play into his character?
Jason's plot of the hack 'n' slash is pretty standard, and we've seen all the conventions and weaknesses in this line before. Nothing new or even interesting here. Characters pop up out of no where to be killed. Teenagers wander off and split up to be killed. They go into dark areas calling out random names to be killed. Jason acquires a random power tool to kill off one person. Where'd he get it? Why's he carrying it? I don't think anyone really cares. People run for a while, and then stop whle being chased to look behind them and then back up while watching their killer approach. Seriously, people, who does this? Who would? If I were running from someone, I'd be hightailing it as fast as I can. Screw looking back to see how close he is. I'd be long gone.
Anyway, they get some credit for attempting to make the plot a little deeper than it normally runs, but the deeper plot gets no focus once the bodies start dropping. As in most of the recent installments, the actual deaths (i.e. the reason this film was even made) are cut tremendously leaving only an implication that something happened. This was apparently requierd so that the film woudl not be rated X. I've read multiple things online where fans are screaming for unrated versions of these films so the full make up work of the death scenes can be enjoyed, but Paramount (or New Line, who I believe owns the F13 series now) refuses to deliver.
So it works as yet another installment. It's got some variations on the old themes, and even a little new something to enjoy as Tina is allowed to go head to head against Jason at the end. That was actually the best part of the film right there. I did actually jump once, so big points for that. So if you check the first and third acts only and skip all the teen death crap in the middle, it's pretty nice to watch.
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