Sweet Revenge Jason Short Film Review!
Jason is Back?!
To paraphrase Alice Cooper, yes he’s back – the man behind the hockey mask. After a sixteen year purgatory due to a protracted legal battle over the Friday the 13th franchise rights, Jason Voorhees has resumed rampaging through the deep, dark forests surrounding Crystal Lake.
The new “Jason Universe” has given us a little appetizer with a 15 minute short film. Numerous fan productions have been produced over the past decade and a half, but this is the first official Jason film of any kind since 2009.
The plot is typical Friday fare. A group of young folks journey to a cabin at Crystal Lake. Eve (Ally Ioannides) is the movie’s final girl. She’s at the lake with her fiancee and their friends. A weird old guy makes ominous comments about the area’s troubled past. They ignore him. Then Jason (Schuyler White) shows up. Carnage ensues.
Sweet Revenge has a contemporary setting, but the short takes inspiration from the series’ ’80s heyday. There are several entertaining references to the original 1980 movie. As for Jason, he looks like he’s been on a diet. He’s definitely less physically imposing than usual. They’ll need to make him look much bulkier for the next feature-length movie.
Beware: Spoilers for the Ending Forthcoming
Earlier in the film, Jason rises out of the water, snatches Eve, and pulls her into the lake. She later returns, somehow still alive, and discovers that her fiancee is cheating on her with one of her friends.
She survives more carnage that should kill her. Near the end, she stabs her cheating friend with a machete and has a stare down with Jason. The two start moving toward each other, and the movie cuts away to the credits.
It appears that Eve was somehow resurrected by Crystal Lake, probably in the same way that Jason was as a kid. The circumstances of how Jason survived his drowning have consistently been glossed over by the series, ever since the decision was made to make him the new killer (replacing his mom) in Friday the 13th Part 2.
The Jason Universe may be taking a stab (pun intended) at giving an explanation for this. It’s unclear whether any future Jason projects will pick up where the short ends. It may be just an experimental one-off. If Eve is supposed to be Jason’s sidekick, a Robin to his Batman, I don’t think that’s going to work. Jason has no need for an assistant.
Rating
Sweet Revenge is a decent return for one of horror’s most iconic villains, with a mixture of classic Friday the 13th elements and an intriguing, albeit questionable, new twist. I’m taking a “wait and see” attitude toward this new franchise era.
Rating from 1 (avoid at all costs) to 10 (masterpiece: 6.5
Here’s the full Sweet Revenge Jason short.
