His Name Was Jason: Les 30 ans de Vendredi 13

In spirit of the upcoming (reboot? remake? re-imagining?) of Friday the 13th comes a ninety-minute retrospective of the series thus far. What the fans get is a mixed bag of interesting interviews and fascinating tidbits of one of the largest franchises and yet critically maligned series in the history of cinema.

pros: The cast/crew that they gathered is very impressive, covering a good portion of the series. Anchor bay, the DVD's distributor, was able to use footage from all of the films, so it's fun to view the footage as it's being talked about. The whole experience is nostalgic for die-hard fans and for others as well.

cons: The documentary itself comes off as tacky at times. One would wish they would stick to a topic instead of going off on a few different rants all at the same time. Tom Savini's hosting was just fine, but the whole 'ride' device was distracting and unneeded. The funnest bits end up being the extras on the two-discs.

Ultimately, it's enjoyable for what it is: an hour and a half reliving the history of Jason Voorhees and thirty years of his body count.

If you grew up watching these films, you will be pleasantly surprised to see many faces you probably won't recognize, all characters from each film. Love him or hate him, Jason became THE face for horror slashers. Such a great piece of work bringing everyone back together to celebrate Mr. Voorhees life...or um death. Tons of extras, even $5 bucks off the remake which comes out next week. This documentary will sit beside each Friday film, proudly. Don't worry about cheap edited shots or school room interviews. Nothing is edited here, you see most of the deaths again from every film. Don't worry about this being nothing but a rehash of the films as a cheap way to fill minutes. You get interviews with every Jason actor, the victims, they go back to certain sets and key locations. This documentary is pieced together very well, and will be something to watch over and again just like all your favorites. I imagine this being a staple on the Sci-fi channel every Halloween for the next 10+ years easily.

"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.

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.

In 1980, a little film called 'Friday the 13th' was released and it changed the horror genre forever. Now, thirty years later, director Daniel Garrands has gathered some of the most important members of the 'Friday the 13th' crew. . . and some random people (like the dude from 'Psych' (?)). . . to discuss the series as it is, was, and will be.

Approaching a documentary like this and giving it a review is difficult. The main reason is because, well, it's just not all THAT informative. The majority of the film is made up of the opinions of cast & crew & random useless people. The main plus of the film, as with many of his horror films, is Tom Savini. As the host, he commands the typical creepiness with the mixed-in humour well. He's a good relief when the sloppy editing and occasionally trite discussions get to be too much. . . luckily, that doesn't happen a whole lot. Technically, the documentary does look a little cheap. I liked that Savini's scenes take place at the Universal Studios Horror Nights set for Jason, and the effects they used during his scenes were quite fun. However, the other Powerpoint-ish effects used for title cards and name tags were a little low-grade. As said previously, there really isn't that much information that a fan of the series won't know. This lack of information really puts the documentary in a weird purgatory. . . there's not enough information to make it informative for the casual viewer and there's not enough new stuff for a hardcore fan (like myself). I would've liked to see some more behind-the-scenes segments showing the productions of the various films, or maybe revisit more sets (they did once) to show us how the places are now. It was nice, however, to see a gathering of the old stars and crew, but the most entertaining parts with them weren't shown until the credits when they were all repeating their most famous lines and having fun. Also, it seemed that the majority of them were treading lightly as to not insult anyone (though I did like when one person comments on 'Jason Goes to Hell' as his not having a clue what the plot was (because, really, who the hell did?)). Overall, the documentary is entertaining and a good watch for both casual viewers and hardcore ones, but there's not enough for either group to make it great. Is it worth the $14 that it's currently listed at? Not the movie itself, but the features might be worth a look.

Final verdict: 7/10.

-AP3-