Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Fresh and Exciting

A different way of telling a story

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Friday the 13th Chronicles (2004) *** (out of 4) This eight part series takes a look at each of the films in Paramount's original series. We start off with Friday THE 13TH and we get interviews with Sean Cunningham, Adrienne King, Betsy Palmer and Tom Savini. We start off hearing about how the film got the money to be made then we go onto the casting, special effects, the controversy and the eventual release of the movie. Friday THE 13TH PART II is next and we get brief comments from Cunningham and King before going to Amy Steel and Warrington Gillette (who plays Jason). Once again the subjects include how a sequel got off the ground and what they were trying to do this time out (other than make money). Friday THE 13TH PART III features Larry Zerner and Gerald Feil, the cinematographer, and the big discussion here is of course the 3-D effects. Feil talks about what he thought he could do with the format and what he thought of the end result. Friday THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER features interviews with Joseph Zito and Corey Feldman. Both men are extremely entertaining as they tell their stories. Zito talks about what he wanted with this film and how he believed it was going to be the last one so he wanted to go all out with it. Feldman talks about how he landed the role and why his size at the time almost made him lose it.Friday THE 13TH: A NEW BEGINNING once again features Zito and Feldman. Zito talks about the ending to part four and how it led to this. From here on we hear from Feldman who discusses how originally he was going to be in the entire movie but he was filming THE GOONIES. He also talks about shooting his one scene and how he felt about the series and character going on without him. Friday THE 13TH PART VI is up next and we get interviews with Tom McLoughlin and C.J. Graham who plays Jason. Both men offer up some nice stories including Graham discussing how he got the part and how he was the second actor. McLoughlin discusses the type of humor he wanted to bring to the part, how after the first screening they added three additional death scenes and his overall opinion on how the film turned out. Friday THE 13TH PART VII features Kane Hodder, Lar Park Lincoln and director John Carl Buechler. Hodder discusses how he ended up getting the part of Jason while Buechler adds what he wanted to do with the female lead in order to make it believable that she could take on Jason. Some of the best stuff deals with Hodder talking about the dangerous stunts and even Lincoln gets to tell a story about her damaged knees. Friday THE 13TH PART VIII features director Rob Hedden and Hodder. Hedden talks about the fans disappointment that not too much time was spent in NYC but he explains that this was due to budget reasons. He also talks about various production issues that came up during filming. Hodder talks about filming in Time Square and how it was his best time playing the character.Overall this is a good featurette but there's no question it certainly wasn't what fans wanted when the original box set was announced. While what's here is quite good you still can't overlook how much isn't here. There's not too many cast members involved. Part V doesn't feature anyone who had a major part in the film. Part VII doesn't even talk about the MPAA butchering of the film. There are so many topics that aren't discussed that you can't help but look at this as a failed opportunity. While die-hard fans will enjoy it for what's here it's recommended to them but everything has pretty much been replaced by the HIS NAME IS JASON documentary.