His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th

Now that I've watched every Friday 13th movie I can confidently say that though they are certainly entertaining and undoubtedly genre defining they really aren't for the most part that good.

This documentary does not really follow the movies per say, its more about Jason himself and bounces around across his 12 outings at random through interviews with both cast, creators and celebrity fans.

Sadly for a documentary it really isn't very enlightening, it recycles information you'll already know if you've seen the films and the interviews are surprisingly tame.

A few revelations came up regarding difficulties in production and censorship issues but outside of that I was very unimpressed.

Kudos to Tom Savini for playing host but truth be told the whole thing felt extremely rushed. How do you make a documentary about such an iconic household name that spanned 12 movies in one 90 minutes documentary?

For Friday 13th fans I'd say this is a logical watch, for everyone else I'd pass.

The Good:

Tom Savini hosts

A few interesting tit bits

The Bad:

Feels like an advert for the 2009 remake

Comes across as rushed

Very little new content

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

The twins from part 4 are even dumber in real life than they were in the movie

If you are a real Friday The 13th fan or if you want to know more of one of the earlier slashers then I surely recommend this documentary. Especially disc one is extremely well done. You will have first of a one hour and a half about the whole franchise, even the remake. All you want to know you will know, secondly, all actors who played Jason are giving their view over their version.

Disc two is more about entertainment. Here and there there are some interesting things to learn but there are also some stupid things on it. Luckily the items on disc 2 are all shorts. The only thing that I regret is the fact that when some actors are talking about some scene's they aren't shown, so if it's a while since you have been watching the movies you will have some questions about what they are talking about. But still, if you have the book and this DVD, I guess there's isn't more to learn.

"His Name Was Jason" is a recount of all of the "Friday the 13th" movies with some of the actors, directors, writers, and producers. It's a gory walk down memory lane. You get to learn some trivia such as when Kane Hodder became Jason Voorhees, when Jason donned the hockey mask, and the fact his name was going to be Josh. Mostly, it's many of the various participants giving their take on Jason, the franchise, and what it all meant.

Free on YouTube.

I was about to enjoy this documentary at least as much as I loved the 20 minutes bonus featurette on the first DVD edition of "Friday the 13th" Part 1. Alas, even if it has some irresistible elements (Tom Savini tremendous hosting, all the cast and crew reunited, occasional nice info...) I began to get quite irritated by some pretty obvious flaws half way through:

what is it all about this horrible and distracting heavy metal score endlessly spoiling the viewer's pleasure? It sounded as if I had an inconsiderate neighbor having his stereo playing out loud just to p*** me off.

At times, I could also get fed up with the bloody effects systematically interrupting the interviewee just when he or she was about to tell us something interesting.

Will anyone tell me what guideline exactly the editor used to do his work? It is as if the interviews had been put together pretty much at random, for all I could understand.

Finally, the last 10 minutes outrageously promoting the so called remake recently released (which I didn't much like by the way, but that's another story!) was the last straw.

And I ended up almost hating what I was bound to love in the first place. So paradoxically, I put 5/10 because the good elements just couldn't be overlooked. But, please Mr Farrands, try to be a little more modest next time. YOU'RE NOT the interesting part of the show, the SUBJECT IS. Be a little more at the service of it, not the contrary. When you get that, try and make another documentary.

His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th (2009)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Entertaining documentary covering the nearly thirty-years that Jason has been stalking movie goers and cutting up film critics along the way. Fans will certainly see this as a dream come true considering the large number of people they've gathered from all the movies. The only noticeable people missing are Steve Miner and Corey Feldman. I'm really not sure why Feldman wasn't involved since he was interviewed on the Paramount disc from the box set but a few of the interviewees take a couple pot shots at him. It's also worth noting that there's really not too much discussion dedicated to parts four and five but then again I'm sure fans could take 90-minute documentaries on each film and not just the entire series. On the whole this is a fun documentary as we get to hear from countless victims, fans, producers, directors and so on. Tom Savini hosts the doc and does a good job, although they could have left out all the newly filmed horror sequences, which usually just features cheap death scenes and women screaming. Some of the best moments deal with the surviving women trying to give their ideas on all all-star revival of them going after Jason. If you're a fan of the series then I'm sure you've already heard or read these stories countless times but it's nice to have all of them together.