Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th

I wasn't blown away by the Friday 13th franchise, I think they were ground breaking and positively genre defining but none of them exactly blew me away.

I recently watched the Friday 13th documentary His Name Was Jason (2009) and wasn't exactly impressed with what I saw.

How can a person like myself who found the franchise lackluster enjoy a documentary about the material? Well, I did. This documentary is so in depth, so thorough that I was positively fascinated. Giving around 30 minutes of stories, background and factoids about each movie the documentary stands at over 5 and a half hours so isn't swift viewing.

With countless interviews from the creators and cast to unseen footage and deleted scenes this is one of the most competently made fan service documentaries I've ever seen and is a must watch for any fans or even just horror addicts like myself.

Want to know why some of the movies were so cut? Interested to find out why Kane Hodder didn't play Jason in Freddy Vs Jason? Eager to discover which movies succeeded and which bombed? This documentary covers these questions and so much more.

Brilliant viewing and that's coming from someone who as mentioned doesn't consider the franchise as critically acclaimed as most others.

The Good:

Corey Feldmans opening and closer

Essential viewing for fans of the series

Extremely in depth

The Bad:

Uses the same interview segments as His Name Was Jason (2009)

Some key figures weren't interviewed

Things I Learnt From This Documentary:

You can make a good documentary about anything if you just handle it right

Across all 12 movies and a total of 120 potential points on IMDb they only garnered 63 from me

If there's one word to describe 'Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History Of Friday The 13th (2013)', it's "comprehensive". That's a good thing, too, because this taking-head documentary clocks in at a whopping six hours and forty minutes. Working its way through all twelve 'Friday The 13th' films and even spending some time on the anthology television series of the same name, the franchise retrospective oozes enthusiasm and somehow keeps you entertained and informed for its entire duration. It spends an equal amount of time on each picture, and it isn't biased towards one over the other; it treats even the most universally derided entries with the same care and attention, never unduly focusing on their flaws (although never outright ignoring them, either). Almost everyone interviewed seems down to earth, friendly and grateful to have been part of the iconic series. That's even more surprising considering that the documentary manages to nab an incredible amount of people, seemingly almost everyone with even a small connection to any of these movies. Actors, directors, editors, composers, producers, and special effects wizards all show up to say their piece and it truly feels like - outside of a handful of notable exceptions that include but aren't limited to Kevin Bacon, Crispin Glover and Steve Miner (although most significant missing people, alive or dead, are mentioned in some capacity by the other interviewees) - anyone who's anyone in this space is given time to reminisce and enlighten. Following a consistent structure, the film successfully navigates its chapter-based structure. Its narrative flows fairly seamlessly within each of its segments, despite one or two slightly jarring transitions here and there, and it pretty much never takes a tangent that isn't interesting to some degree. It's remarkably compelling, although a certain degree of restlessness is inevitable when you're sat in front of the television for as long as this requires. The information presented is as intriguing as it is entertaining, presented by mostly charismatic people (including narrator Cory Feldman, who also features in the piece itself) who each bring their own perspective to proceedings (sometimes, the same events are covered from different points of view). Even someone like myself, who's already seen multiple behind-the-scenes featurettes and interviews, will likely discover plenty of new and unexpected tidbits. If you're a fan of this series, this is kind of essential. It's definitely the most complete retrospective I've come across, and not just in terms of this series. It's really fun and filled with the kind of stuff that I delight in, both as a fan of the franchise and of films and filmmaking in general. It's worth mentioning that I've never given a single 'Friday The 13th' film more than 6/10 here on IMDb, yet the series has enough charm to it that I happily watched this almost seven hour documentary. Imagine how much you'd love this if you'd given even one of these movies 10/10...

When studios make DVD extras they hire people who most of the time are not "Fans of the Film" that they are working on. The First Release "Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me" is an example of a passionless produced product.

That is not the case here. "Crystal Lake Memories" is a professionally produced product that happened to be made by people who love the films and that comes across hear "LOUD AND CLEAR".

Each film is covered here. There is interviews of the cast as well returning to certain locations.

I found the most entertaining segments were the ones devoted to "Friday the 13th Part IV" and "Friday the 13th Part VII"

I have no complaints about this documentary. I just wish that the fans could raise the funds and restore the gore that was edited out of each film.

You don't need the actors to come back. Body doubles and insert shots is all we need.

I just saw the whole thing last night and here are my thoughts.

This is a must have F13 DOC for all the die hard fans.

2 DVD's and 2 blu rays in which we get the whole story of the franchise splited in 14 chapters running from 20 to 40 minutes each chapter.

As u can imagine we begin with part 1 (long night at camp blood) and we end with the remake film.

in more detail

DVD 1 and BLU RAY 1 have 7 chapters full of cast interviews and thoughts of the movies plus a lot of scenes from the movies some of them presented in their deleted // extended form.

1) LONG NIGHT AT CAMP BLOOD

2) PART 2

3) PART 3

4) FINAL CHAPTER

5) A NEW BEGINNING

6) JASON LIVES

7) F13 THE TV SERIES

DVD 2 and BLU RAY 2 have the rest chapters from part 7 to part 12 plus a bonus chapter containing more interviews from the cast members....

IN more detail

8) THE NEW BLOOD

9) JASON TAKES MANHATTAN 10) JASON GOES TO HELL 11) JASON X 12) FREDDY vs JASON 13) THE REMAKE 14) REFLECTIONS ON WATER

Also we have an intro narrative by corey feldman who also appears at the very end of the project closing in a great way that project.

As i said this effort is great but not complete.

Unfortunately the alice cooper's videos from part 6 are absent from one more official F13 DVD release and what is strange is that we also don't get the 12 F13 trailer park which they should have been included in this specific release (although they are separate available).

Apart from that this is a must have for all die hard f13 fans as we all get to see for the first time all 9 actors (and their stundmen) who played JASON all over the years plus we get to see most of the cast from the movies including scenes of those who could not make it to appear alive in this DOC.

good work guys and now it's time for a HELLRAISER and a CHILD'S PLAY complete doc after those we had of JASON, FREDDY and MYERS.

GREAT documentary about all the "Friday the 13th" from the 1980 original to the terrible 2001 "re-imaging". They talk to actors, writers, producers, composers...basically anyone who worked on the movies. Even better they show footage that had been cut out and explain why. Also the documentary has interviews with some of the actresses who hated their directors (for good reason) and they don't hold back. It's refreshing to see a documentary where people are telling the truth.

It's well-narrated by Corey Feldman and it is very long (6 hours and 40 minutes) but if you're a fan (like me) you'll love it.