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I caught a showing of German director Marcus Nispel's Friday the 13th (Nispel previously helmed the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake of 2003, as well as the entertaining but unsuccessful viking flick, Pathfinder) in theaters back in February - on a free ticket, no less - and found myself thoroughly unimpressed.

Maybe I wasn't in the mood for this kind of slickly produced slasher throwback that day, but I walked out of that dark theater feeling no less unenthused and inquisitive because of it. For one, why did Jason now seem so well-organized (a man-made underground lair complete with tunnels and an alarm system made up of bells and tripwires), cunning and, beyond all else, methodical. What happened to the animalistic maniac of past films that hung bodies in doorways and sauntered after his prey? This iteration of Jason now finds him darting after his victims with all the speed of a track runner and the taught anticipation of a Chess champion. The J-man didn't seem too comfortable with his trusty machete, either. Sure, he slices and dices with the infamous blade for a good amount of the picture but he seems surprisingly comfortable using everything from a bow & arrow (!), bear traps, campfires, deer antlers, and other assorted items as well.

Me being the guy I am, I can't say I shunned the film for being all about the gore 'n' tits, but Nispel certainly seemed more reliant on the tits getting the average horror fan through the door than the gore. The kills were inventive and bloody where it counted, yes, but just not vicious enough. Moreover, the theatrical print rendered some of these death sequences so useless I was left wondering what had just occurred: a murder in a toolshed and the death of the quintessential "douchebag" are two good examples. Despite the ridiculousness of some of these sequences (the biggest offender, I think, being Jason using a bow & arrow to pick off two unlucky twenty-somethings carelessly cruising Crystal Lake on a speedboat). For the most part, Friday the 13th was creative with its kills but didn't completely deliver on the gory goods its predecessors promised.

But Killer Cut indeed as this version of the film, despite still earning itself an R-rating even with the inclusion of more gore/more elaborate deaths and a good deal more sex, feels like the satisfying slasher flick we should have gotten the first time around. With its run time clocking in at 106 minutes as opposed to the meager 97 minute duration of its theatrical counterpart, much of what the Killer Cut presents to its audience is not copious amounts of additional bloodshed and fornication. Rather, it is added character exposition and plot development. Most of these added minutes really compensate for the theatrical print's lack of punch. One sequence in particular involves Amanda Righetti's character, Whitney, watching Jason trash his lair after he realizes the similarities between her and his beheaded mother. Jason then proceeds to sharpen his machete as Whitney watches in horror from afar.

The Killer Cut's additional footage makes Friday the 13th a more watchable film through and through. Where the theatrical cut lent no pathos to Jason's actions and behavior, there's more digging being done here and it makes the movie that much more effective. The added gore helps, definitely, but I appreciated more the footage that defined this faceless killer that had literally become all too faceless.

The movie itself – although filmed in 2008 - feels quite similar to the '80s slasher flicks it's paying fitting tribute to; stupid characters saying and doing stupid things – like smoking pot, drinking profusely, and having sex while characters disappear systematically - with an unstoppable madman on the loose that the audience tends to root for more than the supposed protagonists. Still, some of these characters are marginally likeable (Aaron Yoo (Chewie) and Arlen Escarpeta (Lawrence) steal the show) and you do actually hate to see them go. Others are as one-dimensional as they come and feel like typical Friday the 13th fodder which, by the way, is nothing but a compliment.

Director Marcus Nispel, who had a rather illustrious career directing music videos before helming feature films, puts up a nice visual show if a touch too dark. It is sometimes hard to see what's going on during nighttime sequences and my best guess is that most of the film was shot using natural lighting. With that being said, it lends to this Friday a tense, ominous flavor that hasn't been relevant to the franchise since the early ‘80s. Beyond that, there’s too much time spent on promiscuity and not enough on Jason doing what he does best. Perhaps a fault of the screenplay and not Nispel's, but it is still one of the movie's biggest flaws nonetheless. There is, however, a high body count and some truly smirk-inducing deaths that successfully offset that glaring negative.

Certainly not the best Friday film I’ve seen thanks to an overreliance on nudity, drug use, and sex as opposed to the other half of the Friday equation, the Killer Cut does manage to spruce up the theatrical print nicely by tossing in more gore, more character exposition, and more plot development (for those that are actually concerned about the latter two in a Friday film). As mediocre as I initially felt the movie was four months ago, revisiting it after nearly a year's time I’ve come to realize that Marcus Nispel’s Friday the 13th hits (mostly) all of the right notes and harkens back to the days of old in a way that only true Friday aficionados can appreciate. A little too pretty, too well-crafted, and too pristine at times, but the unluckiest day of the year has just become valid again.

7/10