Bree (Julianna Guill) suspects something is wrong as Jason (Derek Mears) lurks in the background in the new remake of Friday the 13th. (Warner Bros. Pictures)

In the nearly 30 years that hockey-masked killer Jason Voorhees has been terrorizing debauched young victims, he’s managed to cover a surprising amount of ground, venturing away from the shores of his native Crystal Lake, N.J, to Manhattan, Hell and even outer space.

If the first 11 films in the Friday the 13th series have demonstrated anything, it’s that one should never underestimate Jason’s capacity for self-preservation.

Sadly, the producers of this grisly franchise have rarely displayed as much gumption as their famous villain. Even as a preteen seeking parent-forbidden thrills on VHS, I knew that the Friday the 13^th movies, when placed alongside predecessors like Halloween, were schlocky, bargain-basement stuff, favouring low-rent visuals, high body counts and gratuitous female nudity over logic, characterization or genuine suspense.

So a 2009 remake of the original Friday the 13^th (1980) is a dicey proposition. It could either improve upon the old chestnut’s shoddy production values or arrive D.O.A., like so many other recent slasher-film remakes (Prom Night, Black Christmas, My Bloody Valentine) that have been splattered across multiplex screens.

If there’s anything the first 11 films in the Friday the 13^th series have demonstrated, it’s that one should never underestimate Jason’s capacity for self-preservation, and this latest movie matches his vigour step for relentless step. The new Friday the 13^th isn’t high art – not even close – but there are enough new twists to satisfy diehard fans seeking one more round of cheesy, gory fun.

Marcus Nispel (the director behind the icky updated Texas Chainsaw Massacre) ensures the remake comes on strong, with the obligatory flashback sequence many of the Friday the 13^th movies are known for. It is June 13, 1980, and a crazed woman named Mrs. Voorhees is informing one nubile young camp counselor that she will be the last to die, as payback for the drowning death of her young son, Jason, at Camp Crystal Lake. But Mrs. Voorhees underestimates her opponent’s skill with a machete, and pretty soon, a young boy’s hand is shown removing a locket from Voorhees’s decapitated corpse.

Derek Mears stars as iconic bogeyman Jason in Friday the 13th. (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Plausibility and even the series’s own chronology is then thrown to the wind. Friday the 13^th jumps ahead to the present day and swiftly introduces a new batch of slasher victims so standard-issue, you can almost feel the filmmaker winking off-screen. There’s the smart-mouthed geek, the swaggering horndog and his no-problem-with-nudity girlfriend, as well as another girl, Whitney (Amanda Righetti), who seems bright and chaste enough to survive until at least the fourth reel. It isn’t long before Jason arrives and starts eviscerating some loose-moraled, pot-seeking morons.

Following this lively, protracted opening, another group of hedonistic young adults arrive at Crystal Lake for a weekend of thrill-seeking fun. Bong hits, corny jokes and topless water-skiing ensue. Ignoring both the rumours of a psycho killer in the area and requests for help from Clay (Jared Padalecki), a young drifter searching for his missing sister, this boneheaded lot is ripe for the picking.

The requisite bloodbath begins — fan boys seeking gruesome effects, as well as a few lingering T&A shots of dim-witted blondes, will not be disappointed. But in updating this material, screenwriters Damian Shannon and Mark Swift have made some surprisingly clever choices; there are scenes that show a real awareness of the genre’s obvious failings.

In the midst of the bratty college kids camped out at daddy’s posh cottage are two characters who feel particularly fresh. At first, brainy Asian dude Chewie (Aaron Yoo) and his wisecracking black pal Lawrence (Arlen Escarpeta) seem like recognizable stock types — these are the two nerds who won’t be getting laid come nightfall. But when Chewie delivers a witty, spot-on assessment of the party host’s obnoxious wealth, the movie veers into interesting new turf. It’s an equally unexpected touch when Lawrence, venturing out into the night with only a flashlight and a wok (!), proves to be the movie’s most decent, heroic character. This bantering duo injects some smart (albeit brief) commentary on race and class into a franchise that, save for the ridiculous bikers in Part III, has centred almost entirely on privileged, white-bread teens.

Another revisionist twist occurs in the film’s final confrontation scenes, and it’s a bold, vaguely distressing one you won’t see coming. This shocker, coupled with a more predictable closer that will still cause audience members to jump in their seats, suggests that even at age 62, Jason has enough life in him for a Friday the 13^th: Part 13. How terrifying is that?

Friday the 13^th opens Feb. 13.

Lee Ferguson writes about the arts for CBCNews.ca.