Marcus Nispel directed the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 2003, so why shouldn’t he get a shot at Jason? This film is more than just a remake of the first film. It’s really a bit of the first four all in one, which is an interesting way to start a new version of the series.

We watch Jason (Caleb Guss as a kid, Derek Mears as an adult) as he watches his mother (Nana Visitor, voiced by Kathleen Garrett) get killed by a camp counselor. Thirty years later, he kills every single teen — Wade (Jonathan Sadowski), Richie (Ben Feldman), Amanda (America Olivo, also in the remake of Maniac) and Mike (Nick Mennell, Bob in the Rob Zombie remake of Halloween) — who has comes to Crystal Lake looking for marijuana, except for Whitney (Amanda Righetti), who reminds him of his mother.

Weeks later, some rich kids — Trent (Travis Van Winkle), Jenna (Danielle Panabaker), Chelsea (Willa Ford), Bree (Julianna Guill), Chewie (Aaron Yoo), Nolan (Ryan Hansen) and Lawrence (Arlen Escarpeta) — come to stay at a fancy cabin. They’re all fodder, too. Only Clay (Jared Padalecki), Whitney’s brother, can save her. Finally, Whitney acts like Jason’s mother and stabs him, but he comes back at the end, rising from the lake.

This is a slick, CGI animated take on the Jason mythos. Writers Mark Swift and Damian Shannon also wrote Freddy vs. Jason and they have some decent ideas. No matter what, this had to be a hard movie to make, as there will be people that hate it no matter what. I’m more into the Savini school of gore, so there’s a lot of this that didn’t work for me. It’s not a horrible film by any means. It does look gorgeous, as this had a major horror cinematographer — Daniel Pearl from Texas Chainsaw Massacre — filming the movie. And while it did well at the box office — $92.7 million at the box office on a budget of $19 million — it was the end of the series. There are so many reasons for that, but it’s been too long since there’s a new film.

The package for this Arrow 4K UHD and blu ray is amazing. It has a double-sided foldout poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gary Pullin, a limited edition Greetings from Crystal Lake postcard, an illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Matt Konopka and Alexandra West, a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gary Pullin. On the discs, you’ll discover both the theatrical and killer cuts of the movie with two new commentary tracks for the theatrical cut, one by director Marcus Nispel and another by  writers Mark Swift and Damian Shannon; an interview with cinematographer Daniel Pearl; A Killer New Beginning, an exclusive video essay about why horror fans shouldn’t fear remakes, what 2009’s Friday the 13th remake gets right, and why the film serves as a perfect template for future franchise remakes by film critic Matt Donato; terror trivia; archival features; deleted scenes; the original teaser, trailer and TV commercials; a press kit and an image gallery. The Killer version has audio commentary by film critics Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Josh Nelson.

You can get this from MVD.