recommended

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

With the influence of Halloween: 25 Years of Terror, a group of filmmakers set out to make a Friday The 13th retrospective documentary on the entire franchise.Sadly,these filmmakers failed.First of all, this documentary is all over the place.Rather than explore all the Friday The 13th movies in order, we get several rants from obnoxious horror filmmakers giving their dumb opinions on the films.They barely let anyone who actually worked on the movies talk.There were certain people who did not need to be in this documentary like Steve Barton,Seth Green,Joe Lynch,Adam Green,Jeff Katz,Ryan Turek and tons more people.They do not offer anything about the making of the franchise so what's the point of having them interviewed? Also the heavy metal music is so annoying and painful to listen to!! It was just so horrible to have that music blarring in the background. Also Tom Savini's hosting is very cheesy and annoying. Honestly, he's tries to be funny and entertaining but he fails every time.The special features on the second disc were actually better than the documentary itself. At least we get to hear the cast and crew actually speak!! This was just a horrible documentary that could have been so much better.But as horrible as it was, it was still a slightly entertaining look back on the Friday The 13th franchise. But if you want a real retrospective on the series, get the CRYSTAL LAKE MEMORIES book instead!

This I bought just before going to go see the remake and I have to say that for being a... partial fan?.... this was extremely eye opening for me. I learned crap that I had no idea even took place. The fact that The whole thing went so in depth was just icing on the cake for me. The interviews were great and it went though great deaths, the origins of the series, and whole bunches of crap that really just grabs your attention. I will say this however, because along with everyone in the world saying it and this little thing saying it, Friday The 13th did NOT invent the slasher genre. It may have pushed the envelope and made some of the rules that we see in all modern day slasher flicks but it sure as hell did not create the genre. Did everyone forget that Halloween came out two years before? Did everyone forget that there was a little film called Psycho that influenced both of these movies. Either way this documentary was great and for any fan of the series I recommend picking it up!

I was about to enjoy this documentary at least as much as I loved the 20 minutes bonus featurette on the first DVD edition of "Friday the 13th" Part 1. Alas, even if it has some irresistible elements (Tom Savini tremendous hosting, all the cast and crew reunited, occasional nice info...) I began to get quite irritated by some pretty obvious flaws half way through: what is it all about this horrible and distracting heavy metal score endlessly spoiling the viewer's pleasure? It sounded as if I had an inconsiderate neighbor having his stereo playing out loud just to p*** me off.At times, I could also get fed up with the bloody effects systematically interrupting the interviewee just when he or she was about to tell us something interesting. Will anyone tell me what guideline exactly the editor used to do his work? It is as if the interviews had been put together pretty much at random, for all I could understand. Finally, the last 10 minutes outrageously promoting the so called remake recently released (which I didn't much like by the way, but that's another story!) was the last straw. And I ended up almost hating what I was bound to love in the first place. So paradoxically, I put 5/10 because the good elements just couldn't be overlooked. But, please Mr Farrands, try to be a little more modest next time. YOU'RE NOT the interesting part of the show, the SUBJECT IS. Be a little more at the service of it, not the contrary. When you get that, try and make another documentary.

In this exciting documentary for the true fans of the series. Which it has honest interviews with the cast & crew from each film including fans & journalists. Hosted by Tom Savini, who worked in the original "Friday the 13th" and "Friday the 13th:The Final Chapter". He takes you inside into the entertaining horror series. Which the cast and crew tells you how much fun they had making these movies including hard work, difficulty on the set and the motion picture association of America (MPAA). Which the rating board wanted the studio Paramount or New Line Cinema to trimmed down some of the memorable death sequences.Directed by Daniel Farrands (Screenwriter of "Halloween 6:The Curse of Michael Myers) made an amusing documentary for the ultimate fans of the series. This is a much bigger improvement comparing to the "Friday the 13th" box set from 2004. Which the bonus disc from that edition was certainly lacking in bonus features. This new documentary interviews most of the memorable characters of the series, including each actor/stunt man who played Jason as well.The two-disc set from Anchor Bay. Disc one has an decent anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1) transfer and an good Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. DVD extra on the first disc are the extended interviews on the actors/stunt man who played Jason. Disc two includes "Final Cuts" interviews with the directors of each film (expect Steve Miner, who directed "Friday the 13th Part 2 & 3" and Ronny Yu, who directed "Freddy Vs. Jason"), "From Script to Screen" interviews some of the screenwriters of the series, fan films, two hidden features and much more. "His Name Was Jason:30 Years of Friday the 13th" is a much better documentary than you expect to be. You could tell the filmmakers behind this... including the actors, fans and journalist had so much fun doing this. It was certainly an labor of love for Sean S. Cunningham, who directed the original "Friday the 13th". Non fans of the series will find some of the interview segments intriguing and hilarious. Don't miss this one. (****/*****).