Friday the 13th
New Line Cinema | Release Date: February 13, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
34
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
1
Mixed:
15
Negative:
13
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Entertainment WeeklyClark Collis
However, this film is (be)head and shoulders above the recently reanimated likes of "Prom Night" and "My Bloody Valentine." Read full review
60
The New York TimesNathan Lee
There's an itch for this kind of material, and here it is scratched -- to the bone. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerTravis Nichols
The new new new Jason Vorhees, played by Derek Mears in this Michael Bay-produced homage/update of the '80s slasher franchise, is a bit of a fox. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
About the best Friday the 13th movie you could hope for. Its technical credits are excellent. It has a lot of scary and gruesome killings. Not a whole lot of acting is required. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Stephen Cole
Despite an evident appetite for mayhem, however, Bay is not the right guy to produce slasher movies. Horror requires intimacy. Read full review
50
VarietyRob Nelson
As in his "Chainsaw" remake, Nispel's scare tactics amount to little more than carefully timed cattle-prod shocks, aided by high-volume speaker blasts that were beyond the budgetary reach of the early '80s films. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad Derakhshani
Nispel is no Rob Zombie - who achieved something akin to brilliance with his 2007 Halloween remake. What's more, as influential as it's been, Friday the 13th was never that great. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
A surprisingly straightforward romp in slasher-flick cliches, Friday the 13th is replete with gee-whiz gore, gratuitous sex and nudity and party-loving teens with a penchant for ending up on the wrong end of a pick ax. Read full review
50
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
This Friday the 13th is glossy, good-looking garbage, acted out by a cast of big-chested androids (male and female alike) and with the original series' rough edges smooved over. It's reasonably entertaining. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
It's business as usual at Camp Crystal Lake, with very little in the way of fresh jolts or an innovative visual style that would have really revitalized the hokey franchise. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineCammila Albertson
It's not an openly meta take on the genre like "Scream," but it's a slasher movie for people who love slasher movies, and if your heart will flutter when a woodchipper casually appears in the first act, it's probably worth watching. Read full review
50
PremiereStaff (Not credited)
Just because it’s less campy doesn't mean the acting isn't awful. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderCliff Doerksen
It accomplishes what it sets out to do, and if slasher fare is your thing, you've seen far worse. Read full review
42
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
What damage could Michael Bay inflict on Jason Voorhees that earlier producers hadn't already inflicted on everyone's favorite hockey-masked serial killer? Well, Bay could make Jason Voorhees ... boring. Read full review
40
EmpireKim Newman
Unlucky for almost everyone. It's a sad day when a Friday the 13th remake is shown up by a My Bloody Valentine remake – couldn't they at least have sprung for 3-D? Read full review
40
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
The question isn't whether Nispel's remake is better than the 1980 original (it isn't) but whether anything original is brought into the mix. And minus a mild plot twist you"ll probably see coming from the first five minutes, there isn't. Read full review
38
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
If all you're looking for is breasts, blood, and gore, this film hits pay dirt. None of the killings are terribly inventive, but they are plentiful, and why bother being devious when axes, machetes, knives, and pointed sticks will do the job just as well? Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneChristopher Borrelli
This new Friday the 13th, unquestionably savvier and snappier than the original "Friday the 13th," though just as useless, is a needed return to simplicity. Read full review
38
USA TodayClaudia Puig
While it's billed as a "re-imagining" of the horror franchise, this Friday is more like a rehash, delivering just what you expect and nothing more. Read full review
38
New York PostKyle Smith
Is the Crystal Lake PD really doing such a good job? You'd have to go back to Phnom Penh in 1975 to find a place with a higher per-capita rate of unprosecuted homicides. Read full review
30
Washington PostDan Zak
Michael Bay is destroying horror films by exhuming the genre's standard-bearers, stripping them of genuine terror, refusing to either re-create faithfully or reimagine boldly, and upping the irony until the original concept stands rigid like a taxidermied grizzly, its teeth bared but its presence, most of all, sad. Read full review
30
Village VoiceJim Ridley
This means that for one ticket price, you get three shoddy Friday the 13th movies packed into one, which might constitute entertainment value if any one of them constituted entertainment. Read full review
25
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
The movie might have worked if it winked more - or if it played things completely straight. Read full review
25
The A.V. ClubTasha Robinson
It's almost charming in its sheer lack of ambition, but the lack of creativity in its by-the-numbers shocks is harder to excuse. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Hartlaub
The reboot of the "Friday the 13th" series is a pretty big mess - not particularly scary or interesting or even gory by 21st century movie standards. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsStaff (Not credited)
Purists will be – happy? Relieved? – to know that the "ch-ch-chhh" music survived, and the body count still totals 13. Read full review
20
Los Angeles TimesMark Olsen
Not fun, louder than it is scary, not even all that gory, this new Friday the 13th has Jason, all right, but otherwise it's missing nearly everything that made the original films work. Read full review
20
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
You really have to screw it up to dishonor the memory of a movie as shitty as the original "Friday the 13th." Heads should roll. Read full review
0
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
But bad, this film's so bad! To flub the fans' most beloved butcher boy. Read full review
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