A boy drowns at Camp Crystal Lake, and no one notices. It’s a tough thing to live with if you’re a camp director, and even tougher if that ‘boy’ decides to come back from the dead and wipe you and all your camp helpers out in a gigantic, bloody slash fest. It’s even tougher that he does it over eight filims.
But! That’s what Jason Voorhees does throughout all eight films, and he did it remarkably well.
Friday the 13th was one of the more successful ‘borrowed’ ideas from John Carpenter’s Halloween. The difference is that the killer in Friday the 13th wasn’t simply a psychotic man wearing a William Shatner mask. Rather, it was a deranged, dead man that was coming back for endless vengeance. In hindsight, it’s the same type of person, but the addition of the woods backdrop and an isolated camp from civilization made the the entire situation that much more terrifying. Audiences got rhyme to Jason’s reason for killing (though, he wasn’t technically the killer in the first film), which is something that we just didn’t get with Michael Myers in Halloween. Does that make Jason better? Not necessarily, but it does separate the Friday the 13th films from the other goofy imitators of that genre. Halloween will forever reign as the king of slashers, but Friday the 13th isn’t far behind, as it’s certainly ahead of A Nightmare on Elm Street.
And, if you’re reading this review, you already know this stuff. So, let’s talk about what you get with this set.
The Friday the 13th: Ultimate Collection is a remarkably good set. it’s not good because of the films, as the first four films are the best, and after that they start declining. The first film really establishes the story, the second film introduces Jason’s role in the story, and then films three through eight just open up the book for every way to kill a group of people. The last film takes our favorite hockey masked killer into New York. It’s goofy, but it’s delicious around this time of year. Anyway, let’s get back to the set.
The set comes in a beautiful box that contains an honest-to-God nice replica of the hockey mask worn by Jason. it’s durable, it’s not cheaply made and it will fit on anyone’s DVD shelf quite well. You can also physically wear the thing, which is fun when you have kids (yes, I’m a mean parent). What I found to be the most impressive portion of this release is the DVD case that all eight films fit into.
Each film has it’s own sleeve page inside a hardback book-esque DVD container. Each movie’s page has the synopsis of the film at the top, a list of special features on that movie’s disc, ‘Friday Facts’ about the film, a replica movie poster, and a ‘Body count’ and ‘Weapons Used’ count at the bottom (you’ll know how many people ‘get it’ in the film and what weapon of choice the killer uses). It’s potentially one of the coolest produced DVD sets that I’ve seen to date. It really helps to make up for the fact that movies five through eight aren’t that great. Most production companies will simply say, ‘Hey, this is a set. You get all these movies. You don’t need anything special’, and that’s not the case with this one. Paramount did a superb job with giving the audience just a bit more. Heck, you even get cheesy 3-D glasses for the third film; what more could you ask for?
As for specific features, here’s what you’re looking at:
Disc One
– Commentary by Director Sean S. Cunningham
– Fresh Cuts: New Tales from Friday the 13th
– The Man Behind the Legacy: Sean S. Cunningham
– A Friday the 13th Reunion (that is pretty cool)
– Lost Tales from Camp Blood – Part 1
– Theatrical Trailer
Disc Two
– Inside ‘Crystal Lake Memories’
– Friday’s Legacy: Horror Conventions
– Lost Tales from Camp Blood: Part 2
-Jason Forever
– Theatrical Trailer
Disc Three
– 3-D glasses
– Lost Tales from Camp Blood: Part 3
– Theatrical Trailer
Disc Four
– Commentary by Joey Zito, Barney Cohen and Joel Goodman
– Fan Commentary by Adam Green and Joe Lynch (really fun to hear)
– Lost Tales from Camp Blood – Part 4
– Slashed Scenes
– Jason’s Unlucky Day: 25 Years After Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
– The Lost Ending
– The Crystal Lake Massacres Revisited Part 1
– Jimmy’s Dead Dance Moves
– Theatrical Trailer
Disc Five
– Commentary by Danny Steinmann
– Lost Takes from Camp Blood – Part 5
– The Crystal Lake Massacres Revisited Part 2
– New Beginnings: The Making of Friday the 13th Part V – A New Beginning
– Theatrical Trailer
Disc Six
– Commentary by Tom McLoughlin
– Lost Takes from Camp Blood – Part 6
– The Crystal Lake Massacres Revisited Part 3
– Jason Lives: The Making of Friday the 13th: Part VI
– Meeting Mr. Voorhees
– Slashed Scenes
– Theatrical Trailer
Disc Seven
– Commentary by John Carl Buechler and actors Lar Park Lincoln and Kane Hodder
– Jason’s Destroyer: The Making of Friday the 13th Part VII – The New Blood
– Mind Over Matter: The Truth About Telekinesis
– Makeover by Maddy: Need A Little Touch-Up Work, My A**
– Slashed Scenes Intro, and scenes
Disc Eight
– Commentary by actors Scott Reeves, Jensen Daggett and Kane Hodder
– New York Has A New Problem: The Making of Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
– Slashed Scenes
– Gag Reel (YES!)
As you can tell there is enough here to keep any hardcore fan of the Friday the 13th series quite occupied well after the movies have stopped. These features lend more credence to the ‘ultimate collection’ tag on the box. You get plenty of insight, wonderful commentary and great featurettes on nearly all the films. Not bad for a collection that only costs $55 (cheaper on Amazon).
So what’s the downer? Well, you know that all the movies aren’t great, which is something most fans of the series have accepted. For me, the real downer of the collection is that they’re not all on Blu-ray yet. The set would have been so much better had the films been in HD. The DVDs certainly aren’t bad, and I’m sure that kept the cost of releasing them down, but I would love to have this set on the Blu-ray format.
Anyway, that’s my only complaint. Overall, this is a pretty damn nice set.