"FRIDAY THE 13TH: DELUXE EDITION DVDs
WAVE 2"
DVD Review
by Kevin Carr
When the remake of “Friday the 13th” came out earlier this year, Paramount Pictures released Deluxe Edition of the first three films in the original series. Now that the remake has hit DVD and Blu-ray, Paramount has delivered the next three films in the series with new Deluxe Editions.
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"FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER" DVD Review by Kevin Carr MOVIE: *** (out of 5 stars) DVD EXPERIENCE: **** (out of 5 stars) STARRING Kimberly Beck as TRISH JARVIS E. Erich Anderson as ROB DIER Corey Feldman as TOMMY JARVIS Barbara Howard as SARA Peter Barton as DOUG Lawrence Monoson as TED Joan Freeman as MRS. JARVIS Crispin Glover as JIMMY Rated R Directed by: Joseph Zito Back to DVD Review Home |  |
By the time they were making “Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter,” Jason Voorhees had become a horror icon. He’d only had his world-famous hockey mask for one other film, but he had become legend, and the mask could be used to brand the film on movie posters across the country.
Billed as “The Final Chapter,” this fourth film was originally meant to be the end of Jason Voorhees. It introduced a new troubled young boy named Tommy Jarvis (Corey Feldman) and still set the stage for future films. In this movie, Jason Voorhees is brought to the morgue after being declared dead following the Crystal Lake massacre. However, he awakes and escapes, heading back to his home to finish the kills that he started.
“Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter” did close the book on the original Jason, which was presented as an almost human creature for the last time (before lightning strikes resurrected him to rise from the dead, travel to Manhattan, Hell and eventually outer space). It is the last film that kept the purity of the start of the series, if you can handle that description.
While the slasher film aspect of the movie was rather rote, in retrospect, this film was a lot of fun simply for some of the stars that would go on to bigger and better things. A young Corey Feldman does a fine acting job, presented at the beginning of his popularity. Also, Crispin Glover has a hilarious turn as the sex-obsessed nerd trying to get the girl but succumbing to Jason’s blade.
There’s enough characters that won’t be missed when Jason kills them, but enough focus is put on Tommy and his sister Trish to keep the audience loosely focused on their characters. Plus, the final confrontation between Tommy and Jason is quite gorgeous, at least in the horror movie term of gore-geous.
This new DVD has a nice slate of bonus features, improving upon the dwindling material presented in the Deluxe Edition DVD of Part 3. Director Joe Zito, screenwriter Barney Cohen and editor Joel Goodman provide a retrospective commentary. There’s also a fan commentary by Adam Green and Joe Lynch, which might be more interesting to fans of the series since it comes from a viewer’s perspective.
Typical features include deleted scenes, the original theatrical trailer and the original ending of the film. New features include another installment in “Lost Tales from Camp Blood,” a short film series created for the DVD set featuring a modern slasher story. There’s also a humorous spotlight on Crispin Glover’s herky-jerky dance moves from the film.
A new documentary called “Jason’s Unlucky Day: 25 Years After Friday the 13t: The Final Chapter” gives a comprehensive retrospective of the film, including the plans to make this the last in the series. There’s also a tongue-in-cheek mockumentary series started on this disc called “The Crystal Lake Massacres Revisited: Part I.” While its cool in concept (i.e., interviewing experts and townsfolk as if Jason Voorhees were a real person), it is not terribly well executed. But it does get an A for effort.
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"FRIDAY THE 13TH PART V: A NEW BEGINNING" DVD Review by Kevin Carr MOVIE: ** (out of 5 stars) DVD EXPERIENCE: ***1/2 (out of 5 stars) STARRING Melanie Kinnaman as PAM ROBERTS John Shepherd as TOMMY JARVIS Shavar Ross as REGGIE Richard Young as MATTHEW LETTER Marco St. John as SHERIFF TUCKER Rated R Directed by: Danny Steinmann Back to DVD Review Home |  |
I remember when “Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning” came out in theaters. Kids in school were furiously debating whether Jason would be back, of if he had passed the machete to Tommy Jarvis. Of all the installments of the original series, it was Part V that was the most unique, at least in what it delivered. This was both good and bad. Good because it offered something a little fresh. Bad because it really wasn’t that original or well written.
This new film opens with Tommy Jarvis witnessing Jason crawling from the grave and killing more people. Turns out, this is a dream, and the grown-up Tommy Jarvis is heading to a mental health facility in the woods near Crystal Lake (which you’d think would be a bad idea, but no one else in the film realizes that). Soon, a series of gruesome murders take place, featuring a killer in a hockey mask, and everyone is sure that it is Jason returning from the grave.
By the fifth film, fans weren’t looking for anything terribly original. Rather, they were looking for sex, violence and creative kills. This was delivered, including a pretty risqué and quite awesome sex-in-the-woods sequence, which was actually trimmed by the censors of the day. However, even with some plot twists, this movie really was one of the least of the bunch.
The plot twists may offer something different from the series, actually having a little more in common with the first film than any other. However, this wasn’t that original. It hid key plot points from the audience, springing the surprise on everyone without giving people the chance to figure it out themselves. Still, {Part V gives us a last look at a human killer before Jason was resurrected a dozen times over.
The special features on the Deluxe Edition DVD are pretty decent, including a commentary by director/co-screenwriter Danny Steinmann with some members of the cast and crew. The original theatrical trailer is also presented, along with a new documentary retrospective called “New Beginnings: The Making of Friday the 13th Part V – A New Beginning.” This is easily the most interesting bonus feature because it gives the history and the background of the film, although it does contain major spoilers for anyone who hasn’t seen the movie.
Rounding out the special features is another weak installment of “The Crystal Lake Massacres Revisited” as well as “Lost Tales from Camp Blood – Part 5,” which is shaping up to be a really nifty mini slasher film.
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"FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI: JASON LIVES" DVD Review by Kevin Carr MOVIE: *** (out of 5 stars) DVD EXPERIENCE: ***1/2 (out of 5 stars) STARRING Thom Mathews as TOMMY JARVIS Jennifer Cooke as MEGAN GARRIS David Kagen as SHERIFF GARRIS Kerry Noonan as PAULA Renee Jones as SISSY BAKER Tom Fridley as CORT C.J. Graham as JASON VOORHEES Rated R Directed by: Tom McLoughlin Back to DVD Review Home |  |
“Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives” marks the turning point for the series. Where the first five installments dealt with a nearly indestructible albeit human foe, this episode was the first to truly bring Jason Voorhees back from the dead. While Tommy Jarvis never became the knife-wielding psychopath that many expected from the fourth film, he is responsible for unleashing the immortal Jason on the world.
The movie opens with Tommy (Thom Mathews) digging up the body of Jason Voorhees (C.J. Graham) in order to burn it to a crisp and free the world from his evil forever. Unfortunately, in the process, Tommy accidentally plants a steel spike in Jason’s heart and a bolt of lightning resurrects the killer with a taste for new blood. The rest of the film follows Jason as he slaughters people around Crystal Lake while Tommy tries to convince the bitter, old sheriff that the Crystal Lake monster has come back to life.
Although the first four sequels had their own brand of tongue-in-cheek horror, Part VI marked the first step into overt campiness of the series. Mixed with the first blast of supernatural elements, we saw Jason take a turn from scorned, deformed child to a modern-day Universal monster. The body count hits epic proportion, and the kills become extremely creative and borderline on ridiculous.
There is a strange purity to this film since it’s Jason’s first supernatural turn. He’s not reaching total silliness like traveling to New York (as in Part VIII), going to hell (as in Part IX) and heading into outer space (as in Part X). As a teenager, I liked the supernatural element to Jason, although as an adult, I do have an affinity to the more visceral horror of the real-life deformed mountain man.
Still, I did enjoy Part VI, even if the boob count dropped to zero. At least we get to see Horseshack get his heart ripped out and actor-turned-director Tony Goldwyn get killed after his futile effort of pulling a gun on Jason Voorhees.
Continuing the tradition of the Deluxe Editions of Parts IV and V, this DVD includes a commentary track by director Tom McLoughlin with select members of the cast and crew. There’s a slate of deleted scenes, the original theatrical teaser trailer and a recreated storyboard scene where we would have met Mr. Voorhees.
Rounding out the special features are more of the series we’ve seen in previous editions. “The Crystal Lake Massacres Revisited” has another so-so installment, and “Lost Tales from Camp Blood” carves out another excellent bloody episode.
