Friday the 13th: No Man's Land

Mr. Pat

11 minutes ago

4 min read

When Black Friday came along last year, we stocked up on streaming services because they had such good deals. We ended up getting a year of Disney, Hulu and HBO Max, all for less than 10-money a month!

When it comes to the services, I used to think Peacock was head and shoulders above the rest; I got Notre Dame games, the excellent Here Come the Irish documentary, good horror selection and WWE events. I still think it’s the best streaming, mainly because of Notre Dame, but Hulu is right up there. Its horror selection is fantastic, and I think it’s leading in Mr. Pat movie picks this year. This movie, however, is only on YouTube. I’m talking about…

Friday the 13th: No Man's Land (2010)

Since we haven't had any Friday the 13th movies in far too long, I've reviewed a Jason fan film, or in last year's case, the extended commercial for Angry Orchard featuring Jason, for several years in a row. Mr. Voorhees is my favorite movie baddie, and these fan films have been sort of scratching that itch since Sean Cunningham's greed shut down the video game and any possible sequels. Well, greed and Gun Media's laziness, using the lawsuit as an excuse to cut bait. These fan films have ranged from fantastic- Never Hike Alone, very good Vengeance Part II but the majority have been bad. Still, it doesn't feel right to have a Mr. Pat's 31 Days of Halloween without Jason involved, even if I've checked out all the big ones.

In this movie, a group of people from the UK are road-tripping across the U.S. when they decide to take a bit of a break with the Americans who are driving them around. While wandering about the area, they slowly realize that they've stumbled upon the remains of Camp Crystal Lake. Naturally, J-Bird isn't too happy that people are chilling out in his home and then proceeds to pick them off one by one.

I mean, it's a fan film, and because they're a labor of love with no backing behind them, I tend to grade them on a bit of a curve. These fan films are the thing keeping Jason alive, so I appreciate the fact that they exist. Because they're the only Jason stuff we're going to get, it shows that dying so many times isn't as deadly as the U.S. court system.

The acting is on par with what you'd expect from this type of thing. It was shot entirely in the U.K., but that presents a bit of a problem because Camp Crystal Lake is in the U.S. Because of that, they have two characters that are from the Land of the Free, but their American accents are so funny. Now, I'm not one to rag on bad accents because I can't do one to save my life, but it's so funny to hear the Frankenstein's Monster mashup of a British and American Southern accent. The stereotypical redneck accent is funny on its own, but hearing the British take on the American South way of speaking is really something else.

You know what? I recently watched In a Violent Nature, and this movie, despite being funded solely based on the change found underneath the couch cushions, did several things better. For starters, I was surprised that it had some effective jump scares. I've said that jump scares are easy and you don't get credit for them, but these ones were surprisingly good, and I actually jumped. Now, that could be because I was super tired while watching and the scares helped jolt me back to life. Maybe if I were more awake while watching, it wouldn't have had the same effect, but I'm not going to take points off of it based on my state of consciousness. Plus, it used the classic Jason music, and after watching a movie without any music, you realize how hollow a movie without it really is.

Jason appears in Friday the 13th: No Man's Land

As for the most important part, Jason himself, I will say he wasn't bad. Granted, they used the jacket-clad Jason, which bugs me. As an aside, I'm annoyed that in every single version you see of him now, he's wearing the old, dusty jacket. I much prefer the work shirt and work pants combo he's worn since Part 3 through Jason Goes to Hell, but I don't think it's going to make a comeback because everyone just associates him with wearing some kind of jacket, which is a bummer.

The movie included a bunch of callbacks to the original, using footage from the first movie, which was kinda cool. One callback that absolutely doesn't work is the inclusion of Crazy Ralph. He died by barbed-wire strangulation in the second movie, and this takes place after that movie because he's got the hockey mask, and it makes no sense for him to be there, especially when he's just there to be killed anyways.

Not all of it works, but it's passable, and it's only 52 minutes long; there are worse ways to kill an hour. It's always nice to see Jason on screen and, to this movie's credit, he does feel like Jason, even if his look isn't the greatest I've seen, but it's entertaining enough. It's also better than In a Violent Nature.