Really interesting to see this franchise reach what popular culture regards as its "final form" - Jason in a hockey mask, hulking physicality, superhuman capabilities - in what's for the most part a fairly goofy (the 3D lol) and thrown-together entry in the franchise. I stipulate for the most part because the final sequence, when it's just Jason and Dana Kimmel, kinda rips, achieving a genuine internal logic and sense of urgency that most of the earlier kills never attempted to build.

I find these old-school slashers work best for me when they work to build suspense and generate some drama from the impending character deaths, even where the characters are thinly-drawn or irrelevant; they're at their weakest when they're just a procession of perfunctory murders, simple genre-box-checking. Maybe this makes a fitting franchise touchstone by including a little of both.

October Horror 2020 #18