Friday the 13th: From Crystal Lake to Manhattan

5 Discs. 8 Films. No Mercy”!

They’ve got that right. After barebones DVD releases of each individual film, Paramount consolidates their chunk of the Friday the 13th franchise (excluding Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, Jason X and Freddy Vs. Jason, all owned by New Line Cinema) and releases this set on October 5th , perfect timing if you ask me, considering the upcoming spooky holiday.

First of all, much thanks to Dan Deevy for this assignment. I love horror movies and for the first couple of days, rediscovering this series was a real treat. Then”¦ well, I kept watching”¦

Okay, we’ve all seen the movies. We know if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen ‘em all. Let’s skip to the reason a fan might want to buy this set to begin with”¦ the bonus features.

The fifth bonus disc in the set offers three and a half hours of interviews, behind the scenes insights, alternate takes and deleted scenes, plus all 8 trailers.

“The Friday the 13th Chronicles”, an 8-part featurette featuring interviews with:

Larry Zeiner (Shelly, Part III), William Butler (Michael, Part VII), Lar Park Lincoln (Tina Shepherd, Part VII), Corey Feldman (Tommy Jarvis, Part IV and V), Joseph Zito (Director, Part IV), Adrienne King (Alice, Part One & II), Tom Savini (Special Effects)
Amy Steele Pulitzer (Ginny Field, Part Two), Sean Cunningham (Director/Creator), John Carl Buechler (Director, Part VII) Rob Hedden (“Director”, Part VIII) among others”¦

This feature is huge. There are definitely some gaps in terms of the interview footage and behind the scenes stories for some of the movies in the series, particularly Part V, but the nuggets offered up in this featurette are really fascinating. One in particular that wasn’t common knowledge to me was the use of an advance one sheet poster for F13: Jason Takes Manhattan, that featured the I HEART NY symbol with Jason tearing through it with a knife. I’m currently the high bidder for that item on ebay! For 8 movies, they pulled together an hour and forty five minutes worth of interview time, with sketches, storyboards and behind the scenes stories. Good stuff.

The “Crystal Lake Victims Tell All“ uses interviews with the same cast members from the Chronicles featurette to talk about their experiences on the film. It runs 15 minutes.

“Secrets Galore Behind The Gore“ offers an in depth look at most of the deaths in Part One and Part IV, with Tom Savini, one of the geniuses of modern day horror effects, guiding us through the work it took to create the makeup and body parts to be severed. We also get a glimpse at his school of Special Effects.

We also get to see the work John Carl Buechler put into the Jason design for Part VII, which I have to say, was the first movie to really break ground

with the Jason design. We’re introduced to Kane Hodder, who is seen amongst fans as the definitive Jason. Jason’s face has never looked as demonic as it did in this one and the body costume is grotesque, complete with exposed ribs and spine.

“Tales from the Cutting Room Floor“ (16 minutes) (SPOILERS AHEAD!)

Part One:

“¢ A split screen feature on which you can view the final cut of the death scenes along side extended cuts, including a take of Betsy Palmer’s decapitation in which you can see her hands grasping for the head that isn’t there anymore. HYSTERICAL!

Part IV: The Final Chapter

“¢ Two deleted scenes that were included in the network TV version of F13, Part IV.

Part VI: Jason Lives

“¢ Again, extended takes on the death scenes with the split screen to compare the alternate cuts from the final cuts.

Part VII: The New Blood

“¢ Raw footage from the movie, no split screen feature, with a commentary track on which we hear Kane Hodder and John Buechler. Notable moments include a much more graphic take on Tina’s mother’s death, as well as some random intestinal shots. Another alternate death in particular from “F13 Part 7″, in which some poor woman is zipped into a sleeping bag and smacked up against a tree SIX TIMES! In the final cut, one smack was all it took. Also, an alternate ending.

Sixteen minutes of deleted footage for eight movies is rather paltry, but bear in mind, if it wound up on the cutting room floor, all the better. Deleted scenes in slasher movies tend to be completely useless. The budgets on most of these movies are so low that they seldom waste the money it takes to create a murder scene by leaving it out of a movie.

Also included on the disc is a seven minute featurette on various toys being marketed for movie fans, as well as original memorabilia created by super devotees, including a custom made guitar featuring the cover art of Friday the 13th Part VI, Jason Lives, autographed by every actor to have played a F13 killer, including Betsy Palmer.

On the whole, I think the bonus disc is generous enough to keep Friday fans staved off, but only for a day or so. I got through the entire disc in a single morning. I know how devoted F13 fans are, so I’m not sure what bits of this footage and secrets aren’t already common knowledge. I do know checking this disc out was a bit more fascinating than watching the actual movies.

Okay”¦ truth time. Friday the 13th ain’t at the top of my list. It didn’t even make the top five. Of all the major franchises of the 80′s and 90′s, I place this one beneath A Nightmare on Elm Street, Child’s Play and Halloween, because there are so many of these F13 movies, and most of them suck it with teeth

and a super sensitive gag reflex! BADLY! Now, among many audience members, bad equals good, so the flaws I point out may be your reasons for loving these movies, but really, when forced into watching them back to back, they become glaringly obvious and irritating.

Let’s start with the original. We love the originals. Typically, you can ask any horror fan about a franchise and they’ll tell you “I loved the original.” The original F13, as compared to the original Halloween and Nightmare movies, is a complete hackjob, retreading all the territory laid out in Halloween. However, while not treading any new ground, it is successful in creating a suspenseful atmosphere, and the deaths are fresh. The characters are less flat than in later films. They have cute scenes together, and you get the sense that this movie would’ve turned out to be a sweet summer coming-of-age story, if not for the psycho killer lurking around the campsite. The director, Sean S. Cunningham, paints a beautiful picture and hacks it to pieces. The villain is unseen and when revealed, disturbing on first viewing, and just really, really funny after repeated viewings. And that ending. No one will ever, EVER forget that ending! Or the sight of Kevin Bacon in a speedo. :-D

Then, we get these god-foresaken sequels. Before the opening credits of many of these flicks, there is a montage of death sequences and a rehashing of the Jason storyline, and only the hardcore fans would be able to discern which victim came from which movie. In each, we get a different set of fly, sexy teenagers who spend most of their time running around tickling each other, getting wrecked, throwing badly written insults at one another, smoking doobies and ultimately getting picked off one by one. How many times did we have to see a guy die after shaking it off and zipping it up in the woods? And how about those drunk-ass buck nekkit Playboy rejects who decide a midnight swim in the lake is a good idea?

Countless victims get a hatchet, machete, arrow, meat cleaver, ax, or drill to the head or chest. Sometimes, a victim will get tossed out a closed window. Even more predictably, they’ll get tossed into a closed window (after they’re dead) as a scare tactic to the one woman left alive and wearing a wet white shirt. Said woman will almost always encounter a dead body at every escape point of the house she’s trapped in before the final battle. The point is, these filmmakers use the same tactics over and over again, racking up a high body count instead of building suspense. If the murders were creatively put together, that’d be one thing, but for every unorthodox killing, there are five or six simple stabbings or decapitations, and the characters getting it are more often than not

complete assholes, so there’s no terror, just the fun of watching a special effects team do their duty.

The most disturbing murder in this entire series took place in Part IV: The Final Chapter. A girl watches Jason kill a hunter in her basement. First of all, someone bears witness to the murder. She has to watch. This makes it more harrowing than if the victim were to have died alone and naked. Secondly, the lighting in the scene is very dim, so you can’t see the guy getting stabbed repeatedly, but you can hear it. You hear the knife penetrate every time and you can hear the victim pleading for the onlooker to run for her life. Not so much of a gross-out, but so much scarier than watching someone’s throat get slit in broad daylight.

Other moments that stuck out to me were the ones where Jason actually chose to use the doorknob instead of crashing through a door. What made him decide to take the subtle approach? Ask Kane Hodder.

Here’s a rough breakdown of the dialogue”¦

“¢ 75% devoted to sex talk. They’re trying to get it, they’re philosophizing about it, they’re climbing off and sighing about it afterwards, whatever.
“¢ 10% to the origins of Jason, because there’s always someone around with a small stack of newspaper clippings to rehash the details and inform the person who’ll ultimately go on to “kill” Jason at the end.
“¢ 5% to *cue sound of snapping twigs and Jason wheeze*
Girl: Bill? Is that you? I know you’re out there. Are you coming swimming or what? Come on, quit playing around. Fine, jerk! I’m going for a swim. Your loss!
(Booby shot within seconds and death within minutes. Guaranteed. Every time.)
“¢ 5% to screaming and taunting Jason.
“¢ 5% to character development.

These films come closest to success when they try to deviate from the formula of the series, regardless of whether or not they succeed. Part 3 was presented in theatres as a
3-D flick in theatres, but presented on video and DVD in 2-D. The effects of a movie shot in 3-D look completely ludicrous in 2-D and are hysterical (think eyes popping out from skulls and overhead shots of guys juggling apples) and not to be missed.

There were a couple of factors that saved Part IV, The Final Chapter (NOT!) in my eyes. It has all the typical stock characters. The guy with the lousy love advice, the geek who listens to him, the slutty girl, her man, the girl who wants to be slutty but won’t admit it AND a set of triflin’ ho-bag twin sisters who dress alike and act as a team of homewreckin, sexual havoc wreaking, c**kblocking wonder women. LOVE THEM! Crispin Glover plays the geek and his presence in the movie whose kookiness is so refreshing. Part IV also featured a young,

pre-drug phase Corey Feldman as Tommy Jarvis, whose flipout at the end makes this movie. The Jarvis family is impossibly happy which under normal circumstances would make me barf, but again, we’re treated to the sight of a happy family that’s about to get seriously busted up, and we sympathize. Jason also suffers the best death in the series in this particular film. Good Stuff.

In true Hollywood fashion, we get Part V, the New Beginning. The absolute worst movie in this series. Tommy Jarvis is grown up, and sent to a halfway house for troubled teens where there are, get this, no rules! Why not just hand the kiddies a crackpipe and save them the trouble of going to town to get it themselves!? The filmmakers decided to actually leave Jason in the grave this time out and give us a copycat killer who we picked out the camera focused on him. Boo! In Part VI, we’re treated to the return of Jason, a la lightning bolt, and the killing starts again. Mm Hmm. Part VII should’ve been called Jason Vs. Carrie, because his nemesis is a teenage girl with telekinetic powers. Sadly, with much of the budget devoted to giving Jason a new look, the effects implimented for the telekinesis left me pining for the days of Carrie, when somehow, ten years earlier, filmmakers could do a better job of making objects look like they were moving on their own.

With the exception of The New Beginning, Crystal Lake is the setting of most of these films, but Part VIII dispatches with the Crystal Lake setting altogether and bogusly dares to be dubbed “Jason Takes Manhattan“. More like “Jason Takes the Love Boat!” A two day shoot in Times Square ain’t gonna cut it. All the other exterior shots set in this faux Manhattan scream VANCOUVER! I, as a native New Yorker, I am not amused. And another thing”¦ Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think the definition of “lake” is a body of water surrounded completely by land. I ask you”¦ how exactly were they planning on making it over to Manhattan if they were embarking from Crystal Lake?

Okay, okay, I know what you’re thinking. “They’re horror movies! Who gives a flyin’ f*ck? They’re supposed to be bad!” And you’re right, they are. On opening weekend, when the anticipation of the release of one of these horror flicks was building, audience members are just glad to be along for the ride. Despite the bad dialogue, flat characters and formulaic storylines, the screaming and laughter would be enough. I was there in line for the opening weekends of all three Scream movies, Halloween H20, Urban Legends, I Know What You Did Last Summer, even Bride of Chucky, for christ’s sake. And let’s not even get started on Freddy Vs. Jason. That was monumental! I

still love a lot of these movies.

I liked the Friday the 13th movies when I was a kid in grade school. They were the ultimate guilty pleasure, after a day of swimming in the backyard pool to pruned perfection, the best solution to boredom was to get all the neighborhood kids into one living room and pop one of these bad boys into the VCR. But watching them now, at home and not in a theater, after having seen a lot of fresh new horror movies created by other, more talented crews, these are just tired. The fans obviously don’t feel that way and that’s why they’ll go out and shell out their cash for this boxed set despite what ANYONE will say. But I still maintain that if they go ahead and greenlight another Friday the 13th movie, they should save the money spent on doubling the body count and hire a half decent story editor and set this series to rights, once and for all.

Movie Grades:

Friday the 13th: B-

Friday the 13th Part II: C-

Friday the 13th Part III: D-

Friday the 13TH Part IV: The Final Chapter: B-

Friday the 13th Part V: F

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives: C-

Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood: D

Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes The Love Boat: F

DVD Grade: B-

Overall Grade: C+