Blu-ray Review Friday the 13th: The Complete Collection Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[Michael Elliott]

ANY time that I see someone say that, I know they've never actually watched these movies (I'm not taking a shot at you, you acknowledge that you haven't seen them). There's nothing further from the truth than saying that these movies are some kind of conservative lesson to or punishment for promiscuous people. For their time, these movies were generally hard edged, violent, dirty and profane low budget horror pictures. They simply found a formula that sold tickets (kill people in violent ways) and they kept pumping out movies until they stopped making money.The whole idea of 'sex equals death' or morality came into the public consciousness 10 or 15 years later from a joke in Scream but there's no moral and no preaching here.

People with any real knowledge usually just take a look in Leonard Maltin's guide and follow whatever he or other mainstream critics say.


I've started to watch The Cinema Snob and one of his best episodes talks about how "goody" reviewers are sickened by stuff like this or CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST or countless other horror films yet watching something like SALO and praising it. Or, just last week I went through all four of the DIRTY HARRY movies and they're a lot more violent than what we see in FRIDAY THE 13TH. Of course, the type of violence is different but those putting down this series should revisit themselves with MAGNUM FORCE, a movie made seven years before this one. People, not me, praise THE EXORCIST as art but it's basically just a shock fest.


The lack of knowledge also comes into play in another way. It's okay if you don't like these movies because they're not meant to be art. They're meant to be entertaining. They're meant to be filmed quickly and cheaply and bring back a big investment so that they can make others while the distributor can pump some of that money into art pictures. The knowledge also comes into play because if you honestly give these films a shot, they're a hell of a lot better than so many movies out there. If you think FRIDAY THE 13TH 4 is trash and poorly made then wait until you see GRADUATION DAY.


The problem with some of the criticism is that they bash everything YET someone like Tom Savini has never gotten his due. Take a look at the special effects he was doing during this period and he deserves every bit the credit as some of those in the mainstream.

 

[Michael Elliott]

But if either Siskel or Ebert was still around and saw someone who has a nice home theater set-up, like myself, putting a piece of crap like one of the Friday the 13th movies in my Blu-ray player, when there are 1500 better movies in my collection, he could easily get the impression that I'm a thumb sucking moron.

But Ebert would give you a thumbs up for putting THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT on. I'd say that's a lot meaner and cruel than anything from the slasher era. I'd also say it's more poorly made than most of the mainstream slashers. Not to mention, Siskel gave a *** 1/2 review to 10 TO MIDNIGHT. They both hated pretty much every slasher, every John Carpenter movie and they hated most of the Cannon films. They're critics so they have to right to give their opinions and rip these films apart. I'm just not sure they realized that people who go to these movies aren't wanting CITIZEN KANE. They're not wanting THE EXORCIST. Ebert should have known this considering some of the screenplays he wrote for Russ Meyer. Critics didn't pay Meyer any respect. They tore his films apart. Ebert would always defend that "type" of movie.

 

[Mike Boone]

But Ebert would give you a thumbs up for putting THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT on. I'd say that's a lot meaner and cruel than anything from the slasher era. I'd also say it's more poorly made than most of the mainstream slashers. Not to mention, Siskel gave a *** 1/2 review to 10 TO MIDNIGHT. They both hated pretty much every slasher, every John Carpenter movie and they hated most of the Cannon films. They're critics so they have to right to give their opinions and rip these films apart. I'm just not sure they realized that people who go to these movies aren't wanting CITIZEN KANE. They're not wanting THE EXORCIST. Ebert should have known this considering some of the screenplays he wrote for Russ Meyer. Critics didn't pay Meyer any respect. They tore his films apart. Ebert would always defend that "type" of movie.

Michael, you make a great point about The Last House On The Left. I don't know why Ebert's farcical 3 and a half star rating for House didn't spring to mind when I typed my post. I know for a fact that Ebert overrated that crap film with that outrageous rating because his stars are printed right on the back of the DVD box, that I admit is part of my collection. At least I don't recall it costing much. Along with those 3 and a half stars, the box has this 4 word quote from Roger Ebert: "Sheer and unexpected terror!" After I played the DVD, and knew that his rating was more shocking than the film, I became convinced that, for that time, at least, Mr Ebert had been bought.


And speaking of critics possibly being bribed, especially to help a movie open big, I'll always believe that the awful Speed 2: Cruise Control was definitely one case where a couple critics were bribed, because both Siskel and Ebert gave that turkey 'thumbs up".

 

[TravisR]

It's okay if you don't like these movies because they're not meant to be art. They're meant to be entertaining.

Yeah, I have no problem with someone else not enjoying these movies but I still find them to be entertaining. Virtually all of that enjoyment is based on the nostalgia of having watched them growing up and I can bet that if I hadn't gotten into the slasher formula as a kid, I wouldn't like them at all today. Personally, I don't see much difference between someone watching Friday The 13th and, say, some low budget 1950's monster movie. Neither are particularly well made but a specific group of people is entertained by them.

If you think FRIDAY THE 13TH 4 is trash and poorly made then wait until you see GRADUATION DAY.

And there's other slasher movies such as Don't Answer The Phone or Eyes Of A Stranger that are much more angry and vile to the point that they make the F13s look sanctified.

 

[Mike Boone]

Yeah, I have no problem with someone else not enjoying these movies but I still find them to be entertaining. Virtually all of that enjoyment is based on the nostalgia of having watched them growing up and I can bet that if I hadn't gotten into the slasher formula as a kid, I wouldn't like them at all today. Personally, I don't see much difference between someone watching Friday The 13th and, say, some low budget 1950's monster movie. Neither are particularly well made but a specific group of people is entertained by them.



And there's other slasher movies such as Don't Answer The Phone or Eyes Of A Stranger that are much more angry and vile to the point that they make the F13s look sanctified.

TravisR, I'm glad to see you indicate that if you hadn't gotten into the slasher formula when you were less sophisticated at judging quality, as a kid, then you would probably "wouldn't like them at all today".


But though, as an intelligent adult, you now admit that you probably would not like The Friday the 13th movies if you were an adult when first seeing them, on the other hand, like most other film fans, you would probably appreciate a film like Silence of the Lambs if first experiencing it as a sophisticated adult. One of the things that you could appreciate about SOTL is the amazing pair of performances from Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster. And here's a little quiz question for anyone who has seen the Friday the 13th series. Off the top of your head, without using Wikipedia or another source, from any of the Friday movies later than the first 2 in the series, point out a performance that was good, and the name of the actor or actress that gave it. I only left out the first 2 movies because I'm not sure if the actress who played Jason's mother was in both of them, but her performance in the role, was at least half way professional. Anyway, with all of those other Friday movies to choose from, I'd bet that most fans would draw a blank.


The question I presented was merely intended to point out that in contrast to a worthwhile movie like Silence of the Lambs, the entertainment value of the Friday movies, if you want to stretch the term by calling it that, seems to basically consist of the viewer being presented with a bunch of young characters onscreen so that he can try to guess, or figure out, the order in which those characters will be murdered. Actually, if you think about it, its very much like a game show, except it's one where most of the contestants are slaughtered, and the winner or winners, are simply, any people still left alive when the movie ends. Boy, I bet Charles Manson and Jeffrey Dahmer both found the Friday the 13th movies to be pretty entertaining.

 

[Michael Elliott]

But even THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS sunk in quality as the series went along and it did lead to a group of copycat films that were usually more about other things than quality.


Like Travis, I was introduced to these movies when I was young and no, I didn't know what a quality movie was or wasn't. As my knowledge grew and my horizons expanded, then I started to see what was "bad" about Jerry Warren as a filmmaker. With that said, the greatest film buff help I ever got was from Martin Scorsese. When Robbie Robertson wanted to get "into" movies, Scorsese refused to show him the great movies and instead gave him a list of some really, really bad movies. Instead of showing him a great Brando film like ON THE WATERFRONT he would give him something like THE FORMULA. Instead of giving him Newman's COOL HAND LUKE he'd give him WHEN TIME RAN OUT... to watch. The reason, to Scorsese, is that you needed to know what a bad movie was to fully appreciate great ones. I think it works both ways. I'm glad I can sit down and watching some "classic" while at the same time not be a snob towards THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2.


Horror fans are very devoted people and more times than not I find them to be more willing to try out different genre movies. I mean, you can go to a FRIDAY THE 13TH website and have a better time getting them to watch a Bergman film than you could go to a Bergman board and get them to watch a film by Jess Franco.


As for Warner, they'd be stupid to not re-release this set at some point. From what I've read, it's getting hard to find but with another movie in the works, I'm sure we haven't seen the last of this. It is funny that "A" list non-horror titles get a Blu-ray release while many "B" films don't. Yet, with the horror genre, we get the A, B, C. D, E, F grade films and they're continuing to come out weekly.

 

[TravisR]

But though, as an intelligent adult, you now admit that you probably would not like The Friday the 13th movies if you were an adult when first seeing them, on the other hand, like most other film fans, you would probably appreciate a film like Silence of the Lambs if first experiencing it as a sophisticated adult. One of the things that you could appreciate about SOTL is the amazing pair of performances from Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster.

Silence Of The Lambs is a legitimate classic movie on multiple levels so that's a pretty tough comparison for a series of low budget slasher movies. Silence Of The Lambs is a far more graphically violent movie than any of the 1980's F13s. Personally, I also find SOTL to be more scary and disturbing movie than any F13 movie because it's pretty realistic while F13 certainly isn't.

And here's a little quiz question for anyone who has seen the Friday the 13th series. Off the top of your head, without using Wikipedia or another source, from any of the Friday movies later than the first 2 in the series, point out a performance that was good, and the name of the actor or actress that gave it. I only left out the first 2 movies because I'm not sure if the actress who played Jason's mother was in both of them, but her performance in the role, was at least half way professional. Anyway, with all of those other Friday movies to choose from, I'd bet that most fans would draw a blank.

I'm sure I'm in a minority even amongst F13 fans and I probably should be very embarrassed to admit that I can definitely name the actors in the F13 movies (picking one from each of the first 8 movies: Walt Gorney, Stu Charno, Dana Kimmel, Barbara Howard, John Shepherd, Jennifer Cooke, Lar Park Lincoln, Peter Mark Richman). Of course none of them have the acting chops of Hopkins or Foster but they also don't have the script that Hopkins and Foster had to work with either. That being said, most of the actors in those movie do as well as any actor could with the material given to them. The actors that are lousy stick out like sore thumbs but I doubt anyone is watching the F13s to see the acting.


And for what it's worth, Betsy Palmer is pretty hammy in her role in F13. Rest her soul and I'm sure she was a nice lady but she was just getting a paycheck rather than worrying about her performance. Ironically, it became her most famous role.

The question I presented was merely intended to point out that in contrast to a worthwhile movie like Silence of the Lambs, the entertainment value of the Friday movies, if you want to stretch the term by calling it that, seems to basically consist of the viewer being presented with a bunch of young characters onscreen so that he can try to guess, or figure out, the order in which those characters will be murdered.

For me, the entertainment value is in seeing the special effects and, in the case of the good F13s, I appreciate the suspense & anticipation of the characters getting killed. I realize that that's not everyone's idea of entertainment but they don't have to watch the movies if they don't like it.

Boy, I bet Charles Manson and Jeffrey Dahmer both found the Friday the 13th movies to be pretty entertaining.

If that's the case then I'm sure they'd be bigger fans of the more violent and disturbing Silence Of The Lambs.

 

[Mike Boone]

But even THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS sunk in quality as the series went along and it did lead to a group of copycat films that were usually more about other things than quality.


Like Travis, I was introduced to these movies when I was young and no, I didn't know what a quality movie was or wasn't. As my knowledge grew and my horizons expanded, then I started to see what was "bad" about Jerry Warren as a filmmaker. With that said, the greatest film buff help I ever got was from Martin Scorsese. When Robbie Robertson wanted to get "into" movies, Scorsese refused to show him the great movies and instead gave him a list of some really, really bad movies. Instead of showing him a great Brando film like ON THE WATERFRONT he would give him something like THE FORMULA. Instead of giving him Newman's COOL HAND LUKE he'd give him WHEN TIME RAN OUT... to watch. The reason, to Scorsese, is that you needed to know what a bad movie was to fully appreciate great ones. I think it works both ways. I'm glad I can sit down and watching some "classic" while at the same time not be a snob towards THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2.


Horror fans are very devoted people and more times than not I find them to be more willing to try out different genre movies. I mean, you can go to a FRIDAY THE 13TH website and have a better time getting them to watch a Bergman film than you could go to a Bergman board and get them to watch a film by Jess Franco.


As for Warner, they'd be stupid to not re-release this set at some point. From what I've read, it's getting hard to find but with another movie in the works, I'm sure we haven't seen the last of this. It is funny that "A" list non-horror titles get a Blu-ray release while many "B" films don't. Yet, with the horror genre, we get the A, B, C. D, E, F grade films and they're continuing to come out weekly.

Michael, your point about Martin Scorsese's method of teaching film appreciation, is certainly a fascinating one.


Also, your mention of Jess Franco got me to google the late Spanish filmmaker because one of the DVDs that used to be in our 1500+ movie collection was a Franco creation. And amazingly enough, out of Mr Franco's 180 odd movie directorial achievements, what is the first film listed when I happen to

click on Jess Franco Dies At 82 — Cult Director Of Erotic Thrillers at deadline.com but none other than the one Franco film I've ever owned, (for a couple days) his so called erotic cult film from 1971, Vampyros Lesbos. About 6 or 7 years ago, I saw the Vampyros Lesbos DVD at Best Buy, and since I have the pretty typical level of interest in lesbian erotica that the publishers of Penthouse discovered is so appealing to most men, I figured the DVD was worth a shot. Well, long story short, what a phony reputation for being an "erotic thriller" has somehow managed to be attached to that putrid movie. If I'm remembering accurately there was nothing in Vampyros Lesbos that was even as explicit in indicating attraction between women as the famous kiss that Madonna planted on the lips of Britney Spears during that music awards show. So Vampyros Lesbos earned a dubious award of its own by causing me to make it the first and only movie ever selected from more than 1500 movies, to be awarded its own special place in one of our garbage cans.


Actually, if Jess Franco had made any of the Friday the 13th movies, I think it's likely that many horror fans would have either walked out in the middle of such creations, or have fallen asleep, which is actually more likely.

 

[Mike Boone]

Concerning the performers in the Friday the 13th movies TravisR said: "I'm sure I'm in a minority even amongst F13 fans and I probably should be very embarrassed to admit that I can definitely name the actors in the F13 movies (picking one from each of the first 8 movies: Walt Gorney, Stu Charno, Dana Kimmel, Barbara Howard, John Shepherd, Jennifer Cooke, Lar Park Lincoln, Peter Mark Richman)."


Personally, I don't think that a fan of any movie or series of movies should be embarrassed about having knowledge concerning them, as it really just indicates a valuable ability to retain information, regardless of whatever qualities those movies may or may not have. The actual reason I reprinted TravisR's quote is to highlight the names of the actors and actresses he listed from the Friday the 13th series. I'm wondering if TravisR, or any of our fellow HTF members who visit this thread, happen to be familiar with any of these performers. Since I don't watch any TV series, other than 60 Minutes, it is very possible that one or more of the folks from the Friday the 13th movies could either have roles in TV shows or have had some success getting roles in other movies, after some casting director might have seen Jason menacing them.


I'm honestly very curious to know if some, or any, of the Friday the 13th movies might have served as a springboard to help launch some young performers toward a more permanent career in acting. That would give such movies additional value, right there, for having allowed people to show qualities that others may have recognized as real potential.

 

[TravisR]

I'm honestly very curious to know if some, or any, of the Friday the 13th movies might have served as a springboard to help launch some young performers toward a more permanent career in acting. That would give such movies additional value, right there, for having allowed people to show qualities that others may have recognized as real potential.

A handful of people succeeded in spite of being in a F13 movie. I deliberately listed unknown actors earlier but if you're looking for notable names, I'd say that Kevin Bacon (Friday The 13th), Corey Feldman, Crispin Glover & Bruce Mahler (Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter), Tony Goldwyn (Friday The 13th: Part VI- Jason Lives) have all had some success after being in a F13 movie but none of that success came from being in a F13. Kane Hodder (who played Jason four times) managed to make a career as a low budget horror star using Jason as a springboard. A few older actors were on their way down- like Betsy Palmer and even my previous example Peter Mark Richman (who might not be well known but was a consistent TV guest star from the late 50's through the 80's)- when they did a F13.


And from the later movies, Freddy Vs. Jason has Jason Ritter (from Parenthood) and some solid younger Vancouver character actors like Brendan Fletcher and Katherine Isabelle (who have been in just about everything that shoots in B.C.). The remake has Ben Feldman (who played Ginsberg on Mad Men) in the opening prologue.

 

[Mike Boone]

A handful of people succeeded in spite of being in a F13 movie. I deliberately listed unknown actors earlier but if you're looking for notable names, I'd say that Kevin Bacon (Friday The 13th), Corey Feldman, Crispin Glover & Bruce Mahler (Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter), Tony Goldwyn (Friday The 13th: Part VI- Jason Lives) have all had some success after being in a F13 movie but none of that success came from being in a F13. Kane Hodder (who played Jason four times) managed to make a career as a low budget horror star using Jason as a springboard. A few older actors were on their way down- like Betsy Palmer and even my previous example Peter Mark Richman (who might not be well known but was a consistent TV guest star from the late 50's through the 80's)- when they did a F13.


And from the later movies, Freddy Vs. Jason has Jason Ritter (from Parenthood) and some solid younger Vancouver character actors like Brendan Fletcher and Katherine Isabelle (who have been in just about everything that shoots in B.C.). The remake has Ben Feldman (who played Ginsberg on Mad Men) in the opening prologue.

TravisR, because it's been decades since my only experiences with the Friday the 13th series, which consisted of seeing the first 2 of the series on The Movie Channel, I was saying WOW to myself when I saw your post. With my viewing being more than 30 years ago, (when I was at the beginning of my 30s) I guess it's to be expected that I wouldn't have remembered that Kevin Bacon was in the original Friday. Of course he had already done a small role in Animal House about 2 years before. And I was really surprised to learn from your listing, that Crispin Glover was in "The Final Chapter", as he also played the pivotal role of George McFly, the father of Michael J Fox's character, in Back To The Future, which was the #1 box office hit of 1985. (and what a great movie). Then I noticed you mentioning Tony Goldwyn, who I always thought did a great job of playing Richard Nixon's older brother, Harold, in Oliver Stone's "Nixon".


So, thanks for your post TravisR. I think it's extremely interesting.

 

[Oliver Ravencrest]

I always considered these movies to be the movie equivalent of camp fire tales, like Bill Murray in Meatballs telling the CITs the story about the killer with a hook for a hand or John Candy in The great Outdoors and the Bald headed killer bear of Claire county story. The Friday the 13th movies are good to watch at Halloween. I own the Four Film Collection and that's enough. I considered buying more but just can't do it.


The first one is good at building tension and the Killer had a good motive, the Killer didn't just kill people, she stalked them too. Harry Manfredini's score really elevates the movie. Jason is an iconic villain and the reason these movies are so successful but the gore effects, while well done, can be a big turn off. I don't usually like watching people getting violently killed in movies, depends on the movie, but he first 2 movies are fairly scary and I like some of the characters, especially Shelly from part 3. I can understand people liking and hating these movies, i'm somewhere in the middle.