Vengeance

Jason wakes up after 30 years and goes on another killing spree. Meanwhile his father is out getting revenge on the people responsible for his son's death.

For a fan film, the production values are very high. This is not something an amateur shot with friends in someone's backyard, but a film with professional directing, cinematography and special effects. They even went the extra mile of getting people who worked on the official films involved such as Steve Dash, C.J Graham, Harry Manfredini and Tom McLoughlin. Thumbs up for that.

The writing could've been a bit better. There are several things that feel random or poorly explained. No proper resurrection for Jason, he just suddenly wakes up. Elias' motive isn't consistent, he mostly kills people for revenge, but also random bystanders who never did anything to him or his family. Jason impales someone who later reappears unharmed with no explanation. The open ending suggests maybe these things will be explained in a sequel. But I would prefer it to mostly stand on its own without having to get answers from a sequel that isn't even guaranteed to happen.

Special effects were great. Lots of gore and inventive kills where little to no CGI was used. The costume for Jason was also good. They went with a custom silicone mask and a detailed and realistically aged hockeymask. My only gripes were that the black fabric in the eyeholes is often visible and he should've been much more rotted and skeletal after being dead for 30 years. But a full zombie bodysuit like in Part 7 was likely to costly for their budget, so I can forgive that.

Acting was mostly decent. The younger cast members do a good job for the most part, but real standouts are the returning actors from past films such as C.J Graham and especially Steve Dash. The latter is a blast to watch, and conveys the sheriff's annoyed and bitter attitude really well. This was Dash's final role and he went out on a high note.

Vengeance is a fan film with a really cool premise: opening with the scrapped Elias Voorhees ending for Part 6 where Elias visits Jason's (empty) grave. The plot of the movie retcons everything after Part 6 and takes place 30 years later in 2019 centering on descendants of some of the survivors from the previous films. When they bring in familiar names like Henry Manfredini, CJ Graham and Steve Dash, you know they made a remarkable effort.

There are some awesome callbacks for fans of the series, but be warned: it's really cheesy... even for a Friday the 13th movie. Still, I have to recommend it!

B- pros:this wasn't a fan film, this was an actual film with great cinematography. the acting for the most part was rally good. I actually cared for some of the main characters, though only a couple of them. I like the whole tour at crystal lake aspect with the show. I thought it was neat. I think this film does do somethings new, has Jason Voorhee's father killing as well and Jason is pretty scary himself. I thought this was a quite scary and intense and entertaining film, only 94 minutes long. also the kills are very brutal and are amazing. cons: The rest of the acting and characters aren't very good. the main teenager isn't too great and has some stiff lines. the rest of the characters were just there to die and have sex which they kinda do. they were pretty annoying and I was glad when they died. also some scenes were weird and a little amateur. the story even though is kinda new, generally feels the same for a lot of the film. some teenagers or people come to crystal lake and die. yea there's the whole revenge plot which is cool, but other then that, same thing. also a ton of the characters are only in a few scenes, take the sheriff, just gives orders then dies. also the inmates are just picking up trash then die. they are pointless characters. overall, this film is decent. good acting for the most part and great kills, but is generic and has lame characters.

I'll admit it's great to see CJ and Steve in their non-Jason roles, but beyond that, the majority of the acting is just plain awful to the point that it is often distracting. Technically, it's mediocre. Editing and shot framing look extremely amateurish and the kills have very little suspense to them and are clunky in execution. Storywise, there is little new here, aside from the Elias Voorhees angle (which had way more potential but was mostly squandered here).

Getting a low budget film off the ground is no small feat so I give them props for succeeding in that aspect. But, it's a shame the filmmakers couldn't use real actors in the key roles. Also, an experienced director, cinematographer and editor would've made all the difference in elevating this to a semi-professional production, instead of the high school quality we got.

Even.tho this is not an official sequel, it's so well made and ties in nicely with Jason Lives and evolving around it's scripted unshot ending so nicely I have just one word to say.... "canon"