Just finished watching Vengeance, an interesting take on the Jason mythology starring Steve Dash (Jason actor, Part 2), C. J. Graham (Jason Voorhees in Part 6) and Tom McLaughlin (writer/director, Part 6) as a cemetery caretaker. This film picks up where McLaughlin's final scripted scene from Part 6 left off--Elias Voorhees overseeing the graves of his wife and son, but with the twist that Jason's grave is empty. Which is of course because Jason is still at the bottom of Crystal Lake, albeit not for long.
This film is in every sense a sequel to Part 6, and really goes big on Part 6's lighter, self-referential tone--lots of quirky throwaway characters, drunken buffoonery, dad jokes, gags, and whatnot. Some really land well and some not so much. Steve Dash is being his wonderfully abrasive self and man, do we miss him. Perhaps the best part of this movie is being able to see Steve in action one last time.
The plot goes big on nostalgia, with several major characters related to heroes and victims from the Paramount films, and Vengeance is absolutely bursting with fan service, with perhaps its crowning achievement a convincing shot-for-shot remake of an iconic sequence from the original Friday the 13th. The score was evidently written by Harry Manfredini himself and contains elements of Part 6 and 7's scores, with some good old-fashioned echoplex tricks for old times sake. NICE.
This movie really excels in both the nostalgic elements, and in the overall concept--a fascinating peek back into the mythos of Jason's origins with a bigger role for Elias (who appeared briefly in the original script for Part 6) and several unexpected twists to the canon. But a great concept can be difficult to execute with limited resources, and this entry doesn't escape the familiar earmarks of a fan film: sloppy editing, sound issues, weak acting, badly written dialogue, uneven pacing and other dings that are understandably difficult for amateur film makers to get right. Some of the kills were studied imitations of classic Jason moves from the Paramount films, with others brand new. As with many elements of the film, many of these new kills were conceptually great but weakly executed, with only one or two decent FX shots.
Executing a feature-length film is HARD even with a multi-million dollar budget, and must be even more so with a just few grand, so I don't want to go too rough on these guys. They made a fun, interesting throwback that fits well into the franchise even as it plays with the canon pretty liberally. Though Never Hike Alone was undeniably a slicker production, Vengeance boasts a body count more worthy of a classic Friday the 13th; while less beautiful, it is in a sense more satisfying.
Despite the flaws, I enjoyed Vengeance, and I'm still looking forward to the wide variety of fan films still underway, including Voorhees, Never Hike in the Snow, Jason Rising, 13 Fanboy, and Mythos. Keep em coming filmmakers!
Here's my review breakdown. Each score is out of five points:
Concept: 4.5
Script: 3.0
Acting: 3.5
Directing: 2.5
Score: 4.5
Kills/FX shots: 2.5
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