Friday the 13th Part 3 3-D (Blu-ray)

Written by Tío Esqueleto

Released earlier in the year as a Deluxe Edition DVD, Paramount’s Friday the 13th Part 3 now makes its debut on Blu-ray, tying in with New Line’s home-video release of Friday the 13th (2009).

This installment centers around Chris and her friends as they make there way to her family’s cabin at where else, but Crystal Lake. Throw in some sex, some drugs, some really bad decisions combine with Jason Voorhees, his first use of the now-iconic hockey mask, (literally) eye-popping 3-D, and you’ve got Friday the 13th Part 3. While it isn’t necessarily the best in the series, it does have its merits.

The review of the Deluxe Edition DVD can be found here.

The third installment in the franchise literally comes at us this time, not only in 1080p high definition, but also in its original 3-D presentation. The 2-D version that most of us are familiar with is also on hand but it’s this special feature that, to me, trumps all others in the franchise. But before we visit this third dimension in terror, let’s discuss its more familiar incarnation.

The standard 2-D version, while still inherent with grain, is a drastic improvement on the previous Deluxe Edition DVD released earlier in the year. Again, the grain is part of the film and to ‘scrub’ this grain away would also result in losing detail. Add to that the trappings of a low-budget production taking place entirely at night, and you’ve got a film that isn’t ever going to look like the more polished studio releases of the day. Making matters worse, it was released in the early ‘80s when nobody gave a shit about film preservation, focusing more on the future of video. But I digress since who in the hell is going to watch this version when they can watch the real thing in 3-D?!!

The 3-D on the Deluxe Edition DVD was a failed attempt for anyone without a large, preferably HD-viewing area. I watched it on a standard TV and it looked awful, giving me mostly a headache if not actual nausea. It has to do more with the size of the viewing area than anything else. With that said, watching the Blu-ray experience on a true HD television is a dream come true (yes, I’ve actually dreamed about seeing this in 3-D someday).

It’s one thing to watch popcorn and juggled apples coming at you, but it’s definitely something to write home about when you’ve got eyeballs, legs, and even a doobie in your lap. Every trick works, even the ones you didn’t notice the first time around (the antenna on the TV, the knitting needle through the mouth, blood dripping from the rafters). And when things aren’t being directly projected at the screen, you can sit back and marvel at the fact that every scene has been carefully constructed for maximum effect. Technical supervisor Martin Jay Sadoff makes sure there is always a foreground and a background present, resulting in the deep focus necessary to pull of the effect. Being an extreme enthusiast of the 3-D format, I find this title to be one of the very best examples in that every shot exploits the process perfectly.

As for the Audio portion of this release, we are given an upgrade of 5.1 Dolby TrueHD lossless audio that unfortunately, like the recent Blu-ray of Part 2, suffers in the sound FX department. Don’t worry, the dialogue and now-classic score sound great, especially when compared with the original English mono, but I can’t help but think more should have been done with the rear channels. This of course is the same soundtrack it had in the theaters and I usually wouldn’t want it any other way but in this instance, it would have been nice to have the sound be just as alive as the picture. It’s 3-D so throw some shit at my ears too! Whatever. I could seriously watch this thing without sound and still be in total awe. For purists, there is also its original English mono soundtrack, along with Spanish and French mono.

Now those that scooped up the previous Deluxe Edition DVD probably did so just to see the film in 3-D. And I’m pretty sure, unless you already had an HD monitor, this was more than a disappointment seeing that ‘Presented in 3-D’ was its only special feature. The Blu-ray makes up for it this time out by adding a nice little round of extras that, while being somewhat brief, only sweeten the pot. Along with its original trailer there is also: “Fresh Cuts:3-D Terror” (12:42) discussing the making of the film and the 3-D process, “Legacy of the Mask” (9:33) which details the origins of the iconic hockey mask, “Slasher Films: Going for the Jugular” (7:09) which has some of the most embarrassingly pretentious remarks about the genre ever made, and “Lost Tales from Camp Blood – Part 3” which in keeping precedence with the other parts, I scanned through (fan-made and I’m pretty sure my dead cat could do a better job).

Looks like a no-brainer folks. Trust me, if I could find a way to make my text jump out and throttle you into making this purchase, I would. We’ve waited 25 years to see this film the way it was intended and now we finally can thanks to the advances in technology. Hopefully the success of this 3-D release will usher in the rest of the early ‘80s titles that sit in the shadows, handicapped by weak 2-D transfers. In fact, the only thing that might possibly trump 3-D Jason is 3-D Bruce (Jaws III).

Holding breath now...

Friday the 13th Part 2 (Blu-ray)

Written by Tío Esqueleto

Released earlier in the year on standard DVD as a Deluxe Edition (and I thought we had lucked out then), Paramount’s Friday the 13th Part 2 now makes its debut on Blu-ray, tying in with New Line’s home-video release of Friday the 13th (2009).

Released in 1981, Sean Cunningham handed director duties over to producer and longtime friend Steve Miner. The film’s prologue opens two months after the horrific events of the original and introduces Jason as he seeks revenge for his mother’s death. The story then jumps ahead five years where he takes over her role terrorizing teenagers in the hands-down scariest installment of the franchise.

The review of the Deluxe Edition DVD can be found here.

Part 2 has a widescreen 1080p presentation is a considerable improvement and even boasts a new aspect ratio at 1.78:1 (all previous releases were 1.85:1). It should be noted that there is still a considerable amount of grain present but this is to be expected with its low-budget production and almost all of its running time taking place in low-lit situations. Newbies to the format, expecting a crystal-clear image, may find this troubling but it’s exactly how the film would have looked in the theaters. With grain comes detail and needless to say, it’s never looked better.

On the audio side, Part 2 boasts a new 5.1 Dolby TrueHD lossless upgrade and, while being an improvement on previous releases, it still could have used a little more work in the rear channels. The dialogue and score come across fine, a significant improvement to anyone that’s only heard it in its original mono form, but the sound FX channels are considerably weak. Again, it was a low-budget film and I’m sure that the intended sound design was little more than “crickets” or “heavy thunder”. With that said, I’d rather have what is here than a soundtrack with stock sound FX added. Other sound options on this Blu-ray are its original English Mono, along with Spanish and French Mono.

Unfortunately, the Blu-ray format brings nothing new to the table as far as extras go. All extras from the standard Deluxe Edition have been carried over and as the only plus, all but one are now presented in HD. These include “Inside Crystal Lake Memories,” “Friday’s Legacy: Horror Conventions,” “Lost Tales from Camp Blood Part 2,” “Jason Forever” (not in HD), and the original theatrical trailer.

Considering the fact that there is nothing new in the name of extras, purchasing this release may seem like double-dipping to some. But if you’re either a fan of the format or just a fan of the franchise, there’s little doubt that the presentation is the best it’s ever looked and therefore a justified purchase. I recommend it without hesitation and consider us extremely lucky that the franchise is getting the Blu-ray treatment this early in the game.

Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives

Written by Puño Estupendo

Oh man, I'm just going to throw out the stinker alert right now and get it over with. Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives is not on my list of any horror movies I would recommend to a friend that asked me for suggestions on what to watch. Actually, I think it has now made my list of "films to never bother to watch again." Even if all you're looking for are the staples of formula that everybody makes jokes about, you're going to be very disappointed. People getting picked off, yes. Teenage sex, sort of. Counselors and Crystal Lake, yeah, it's got that too. But what this film absolutely doesn't have are naked people, any kind of scares, or (worst of all) any gore!

Tommy Jarvis continues his participation from Parts IV and V, heading for the cemetery that is the burial place of Jason Voorhees. He wants to know for sure that Jason is dead so he digs up the grave and proceeds to stab the body repeatedly with a rod from an iron gate. Look out though, there's a storm that's moved in. The fence rod that is stuck in Jason's corpse is hit with lightning, and damn if that lightning doesn't bring that guy back to life.

Jason's machine must also be coming up triple 7's because Tommy, and the pal he brought with him, also brought Jason's hockey mask with them. I'm telling you, if Voorhees had even given a shit, he would have bought a lotto ticket, bet on some horses, sat in at a high-stakes poker game, and had all the unprotected sex he could manage, cuz everything was coming up Jason that night.

Tommy escapes, his friend doesn't, and when he tries to warn the local yokel sheriff about Jason's return, he gets thrown in jail for his troubles. Add some camp kids and counselors, and a pretty hefty secondary cast of characters to kill, and you've got one pretty lousy movie. Nobody believes poor Tommy except for the sheriff's daughter. Yeah, the sheriff's daughter...the only thing that separated the sheriff and his daughter were about five years and a mustache. She frees Tommy from his imprisonment and they set out to stop Jason.

At this point, Jason has already built himself a sizable nest egg of kills, but they all sucked visually. Some of the set-up was okay for the deaths, but there was no gore at all! Boy did that piss me off. The only thing you could have enjoyed about this movie would have been the gore, but seriously, there is none. One of the few scenes where they actually showed something other than blood splattering on to the surface of something, it was a knife stuck in somebody's head. If it had been a throwing star instead, it would have matched the gore level of an old kung-fu flick.

There are also a bunch of little visual gags like Jason walking past the camp signs that say "virtue, friendliness, etc." This just showed me that even the director didn't take this shit seriously, so why bother watching it. There's kill scenes with no gore and sex scenes where people seem to manage to stay clothed. The acting is bad (even for a movie of this kind) and it just isn't fun in any ways I could figure out. Stick with the first four but leave part six alone. Tie a boulder around it's neck and drop it in the middle of a lake, only this time, make sure not to come back to it later.

Friday the 13th - The Final Chapter

Written by Puño Estupendo

At the risk of letting the cat outta the bag here, I'm guessing that most of you realize that Friday the 13th Part IV is not the final chapter that it promised to be. This was the first of the 13th movies I saw in the theater and it holds a warm spot in my heart because of it. In a lot of ways, this really is the final chapter in the fact that the films that followed it in the series set the tone for what most people think of when they envision Friday the 13th. The cliche set-ups, the stupid kids, an undead Jason that just gets more and more ridiculous as each movie came out, but this one tried it's best to make up for the ridiculousness of it's 3-D predecessor and gain a little dignity as it thought it was closing up the franchise. I think it did. I think that if it had been the final film in the series people would have a completely different regard for the films and they wouldn't have ended up being such a joke.

I'm of the opinion that Friday the 13th Parts I and II are completely solid, awesome horror films. They're well made and not cliche at all. Younger or first-time viewers see them as having all of the cliches, but should realize that some of those formulas weren't so played out when those movies hit. Those are two of the horror films of the time period that created (what came to be) the formula because so many people ripped them off. I still think that if the series had stopped here, people would have some jokes about the third movie being pretty hokey, but rave about the series overall and not with their tongue in cheek.

Breaking from the mold it had set, The Final Chapter centers around the Jarvis family: a single mom and her two children, a son and a daughter. Sure, the daughter Trish is a cute blonde teenager (somebody has to be) but her little brother Tommy (played by Corey Feldman no less!) adds an element that hasn't appeared in the series before this: kids in the firing line. Tommy isn't a party-ready teen looking to get some; he's a 12-year-old kid with a talent for making masks. Even by today's standards that isn't something we're used to seeing. You get a bunch of young twenty-something actors and maybe a few older ones, but it's fairly rare to see a serial killer chasing a 12-year-old kid around.

The house next door to the Jarvis' is hosting what you've come to expect. Filled with drunk horny teens, you immediately know that there's the cannon fodder you've been waiting for. This brings us to the real treat of the film, the return of the gore master who pioneered spectacular onscreen deaths, Tom Savini. His effects and outrageous creativity of all things horrific were a huge part of what made the original 13th such a phenomenon and to get him back for this installment was the best thing the filmmakers did here. The showdown between Jason and little Tommy at the end of the movie could not possibly have been as great without the skills of Savini. The man uses a machete like a paintbrush and his finished artworks are masterpieces on morbid canvases.

The Final Chapter isn't a great movie, but it still hits all the beats and it does so with a dignity that the rest of the series seemed to have lost after it. If you need it, there's even a bit of fun factor going not only because of the Corey Feldman factor, but a young pre-freakshow with his life Crispin Glover. There's flubs galore if you pay close attention, but the end pays off large. You may be jaded to onscreen killings by this point in cinema, but this finale is still something to behold.

Friday the 13th (2009)

Written by Hombre Divertido

In 1980 when Sean S. Cunningham produced and directed the admitted Halloween rip-off Friday the 13th, he did not expect it to foster 10 sequels and a 2009 remake that hit theaters on February 13th.

For the 2009 film, Mr. Cunningham (executive producer) teamed up with producer Michael Bay; director Marcus Nispel, who helmed Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003); and writers Damian Shannon, Mark Swift, and Mark Wheaton (Shannon and Swift wrote Freddy vs. Jason) to create what is actually more of a new story than a re-telling of the original.

The 2009 version opens with a newly filmed scene, in which the vengeful Mrs. Voorhees (Nana Visitor) is decapitated as she was at the end of the original. This adds little to the film, and appears to be nothing more than justification for the title, as this new outing contains more plot points from the second and third installments then the first.

The first twenty minutes of the film consists of a group of teens going out to Crystal Lake in search of a marijuana field. They unfortunately cross paths with Jason, and all but one of them are killed. The opening credits don’t roll until after Jason is done with this first group. Since the first segment has all the components of the classic slasher film, including sex, drugs, and heads that roll, they certainly could have rolled the closing credits as easily as the opening. Instead, Clay Miller (Jared Padalecki who channels a young David Keith in many scenes) comes looking for his missing sister. Clay encounters the local town folk, a new group of teens up for some fun at the lake, and of course, Jason.

Our storytellers have certainly created a new Jason. One that is faster, stronger, more creative (He puts one victim in a sleeping bag and hangs her over the campfire), and cunning. They have also given us more nudity and prolonged sex scenes than in previous Friday the 13th films, and a higher body count, all of which should be music to the ears of true fans of the franchise. Unfortunately, it is the music that really let’s us down. The original film, scored so perfectly by Harry Manfredini, was enhanced by the intense music worthy of classic horror films such as Psycho. Steve Jablonsky adds nothing to the film with his score, and we get little of the classic “Shoo Shoo Shoo Shoo” that let’s us know that Jason is coming.

It is not only the music that is failing here. The writers fail to create the edge-of-the-seat moments so prevalent in previous Friday the 13th endeavors. For the most part, Jason’s kills come too fast and obvious. The audience is also let down by never getting to see anyone killed with the wood chipper that we are shown early in the film.

SPOILER ALERT:

As in the original, Jason ends up in the lake. He again manages to come up out of the water and attack our heroine. Unfortunately, what was a classic moment in the genre (though a rip-off of Carrie) when done in 1980, gleaned nothing more than snickers from the audience in 2009. The references to the original film that open and close our new version do nothing but weaken the final product.

Recommendation: Friday the 13th continues to be a profitable venture, and this new more energetic and creative Jason could certainly give us plenty of screams in better stories. This particular story fails to provide enough tense moments to be worthy of your ninety-seven minutes. Wait for the DVD.

Friday the 13th Part 3 3-D (Deluxe Edition)

Written by Tío Esqueleto

Friday the 13th Part 3 picks up directly where Part 2 left off. Actually, Part 3 and The Final Chapter (Part 4) are direct continuations of the second installment, each one picking up where the last left off. I realize that that has them taking place on the completely not scary Saturday the 14th and well into the week of Monday the 16th but, really, if your going to scrutinize the timeline of this series, you had better just press “Eject” now. Suspend disbelief, embrace the clichés (it’s all part of the formula), let yourself get scared, and have a damn good time. This is Friday the 13th Part 3…IN 3-D!!!

So Part 2 ends in Jason’s terrifying shack in the woods, where Ginny whacks him a good one with the machete, and she and boyfriend, Paul, flee into the night. Omitted here is the “just when you thought it was safe” scare where Jason blasts through the window. Instead, Ginny and Paul leave the shack where we cut to Jason still lying on the ground. He reaches over, picks up the bloody machete, and begins to wriggle his way across the floor and towards the door. Pan up to Pam Voorhees’ rotting, severed head, sitting on the table, and it is right into the in-your-face credit sequence

The story (body count) for Part 3 centers around Chris (played by the wonderfully awful Dana Kimmell) and her friends as they make there way to her family cabin at where else, but Crystal Lake. There are seven of them in all, including a pregnant girl and her boyfriend (who’s prone to walking on his hands), a stoner couple, a feisty Latina, and a chubby prankster. Then there’s a couple of local storeowners, a trio of bad-ass bikers, and Chris’ boyfriend Rick (who’s already at the lake). Throw in some sex, some drugs, some really bad decisions, and, of course, Jason Voorhees, and you’ve got the next Friday the 13th movie. Throw in, for the very first time, a hockey mask and (literally) eye-popping 3-D effects, and you’ve got it in 3-D.

Steve Miner returned for his second stint in the director’s chair, for this third installment in the series where 3-D was the clear gimmick of choice. A pitchfork, a harpoon, a yo-yo, popping popcorn, a hot poker, a passed joint, a striking snake, and eyeballs popping out are just some of the scares thrown directly in your lap now that we’ve added this new dimension, this third dimension, in terror. Duck!

Also of note with Part 3 is the introduction of the now-iconic hockey mask. Whether or not they knew what they were doing, remains to be told. All I know is that part way through the movie Jason walks out of the barn, now wearing a hockey mask, and the rest is history. It isn’t on the poster. It wasn’t marketed as the new face of Jason, or anything like that. It just all of a sudden was, and it was and remains perfect.

Part 3 seemed to ramp the gore factor up again. While it wasn’t quite back to the level we saw in Part 1 (and, eventually Part 4), it was definitely a step in the right direction with some of the nastiest scenes to date.

The 12 kills are:

• meat cleaver to the temple
• knitting needle to the back of the head
• pitchfork impalement through the neck
• pitchfork to the stomach
• throat slashed
• spear gun to the eye
• chopped in two while walking on hands
• knife through the chest from underneath
• electrocution
• hot fireplace poker to the stomach
• head squeezed until eyeball pops out
• hit with a pipe; hacked with machete

The handstand halving is something to behold all cleaned up and in 2.35:1, as well as the after shot of him stacked one half on top of the other. Certainly, most of the kills were designed with 3-D in mind. The spear to the eye and the head crushing with the eyeball popping out into the camera are the most notable. They were talked about on the playground, on the bus, and just about anywhere else young boys with a taste for this sort of thing got together, as was usually the case with any recently released Friday film at the time. It was movie lore until you finally saw it for yourself, and this head crushing/eye popping scene was quickly becoming the Holy Grail.

While Friday the 13th Part 3 isn’t necessarily the best in the series, it does have its merits. First off, it is the birth of the Jason we’ve come to know and love, but just before he becomes the clichéd caricature of himself in the sub-par Friday films following The Final Chapter. We’ve added the hockey mask and, overall, Jason just seems more intense in this one. Where in the last one he seemed a bit more oafish and childlike, in this one he is fast and precise and seems to have only one thing on his mind and that is killing young kids like the ones who killed his mother. This time he is on a mission. There will be no slipping on Mom’s sweater and reasoning with this new Jason.

Friday the 13th Part 3 is also the only film in the series that is widescreen, 2.35:1, and that’s certainly a leg up in my book. Again, the handstand death is the first thing that comes to mind. Gorgeous.

The newly released Deluxe Edition DVD of Friday the 13th Part 3 is actually in 3D. Well,…kind of. Yes, they’ve included the 2-D version and the 3-D version (both on the same disc), as well as two pairs of traditional red-and-blue lens 3-D glasses. Does it work? I think that depends on the viewer and, possibly, the TV it is viewed on. I viewed it on a standard 27” screen, and after 20 minutes of trying (I tried it sitting way up close, way far back, and right in the middle, as well as with my eyes crossed, squinted, and slightly rolled back) I almost threw up and had acquired quite the headache. Technically, I could get the 3-D moments to work, but there was a lot of pain involved, and even with my Goldilocks-seating method, the screen was always either a little reddish, or a little bluish, but never quite rightish. In the end I just went back and watched all of the kills in 3D and that was enough, I guess. I finally got to dodge the eyeball as Jason squishes Rick’s head and it was worth it just for that.

Friday the 13th, Part 2 (Deluxe Edition)

Written by Tío Esqueleto

Friday the 13th, Part 2 opens two months after the horrific events of the original. We see Annie, the heroine and sole survivor from Part 1, is still living in the town of Crystal Lake trying to put her life back together. A phone call from mom and a quick shower later, Jason is jamming an ice pick into her temple as she stares at the rotting, severed head (her own handy work form the climax of the previous film) of Jason’s mother, Mrs. Voorhees. Revenge has been served, establishing our new killer, setting the tone for the next 80 minutes.

Now, why Annie didn’t leave Crystal Lake (or New Jersey, altogether) is the first thing to come to mind, but if you’re looking for convention and logic in this series, or any fine slasher film for that matter, then you should probably just leave the room and make it easier on the rest of us who are well aware of what we are in for, and eager to play along.

So, now it’s five years later and a new group of kids has gathered at a near by camp to train as counselors for the upcoming season. Paul, the guy in charge, assures everybody that the past is the past: Jason drowned, his mother was killed, and “Camp Crystal Lake is off limits.” The only thing he’s right about is Jason’s mother being dead.

What ensues is a killing spree as Paul and half of the team goes out to the local bar, while the other half stay back to fuck and get high. Teen stuff. The staples of the genre. Paul and Ginny, his girlfriend and this chapter’s heroine, return to find the carnage and the masked man responsible. Before we know it, we are in Jason’s all-too-creepy ramshackle shack, deep in the surrounding woods, for the final showdown and eventually Jason’s first ever unmasking.

Released in 1981, Part 2 saw Sean Cunningham handing director duties over to producer and longtime friend Steve Miner, who would also go on to direct the series’ next installment. With the tagline “The body count continues,” Friday the 13th, Part 2 was to be bigger and bloodier than the last, and apparently it was, until the MPAA got a hold of it. They had been gearing up for it since the last one, which they had obviously slept through the first time around. What results are ten delightful kills where the payoffs remain on the cutting-room floor. Unlike the cut scenes from the first film, these scenes are not included here, are said to be lost forever, and will likely never be seen again.

The 10 kills are:

• ice pick to the temple
• barbed wire strangulation
• claw hammer to the head
• upside-down throat slitting
• stabbing
• machete to the face
• double impalement
• knife to the stomach
• One presumed death (Paul)

The most notable of these being the Jeff and Sandra sex-kabob, and of course wheelcahir-bound Mark’s machete to the face and push down the stairs in the pouring rain. Now Texas isn’t the only place where wheelchairs aren’t off limits.

While it’s hard to pick a hands-down favorite in the franchise, I do feel Part 2 is the scariest. With this sequel we see the birth of Jason Voorhees as our killer. He’s not the unstoppable killing machine we’ve come to know over the years. You’re not rooting for him the way it came to be around the sixth installment in the F13 franchise (where it all went downhill in my opinion). In this one he’s terrifying as fuck and you just want him to go away. Say what you will about his now-iconic hockey mask, but Jason has never been scarier than with the potato sack, with the one eye cut out, over his head.

The newly released DVD, sadly, isn’t anything to rush out for. The transfer looks suspiciously similar to past releases and the featurettes are pretty goddamn rotten. It does have the infamous theatrical trailer with the continuing body countdown (“14…15…”), which is a real treat, but nothing new to past purchasers. There is one featurette with the author of Crystal Lake Memories, Peter M. Bracke. While the feature itself is pretty worthless, it is a great plug for the book, which I cannot recommend enough. It is a must -have for any fan of all things Friday. It really is the definitive companion, and a huge resource for this review. In fact, don’t spend your money on the new DVD (keeping in mind it has nothing to do with the film, rather this particular release), and instead save up for this book.