Filmic Friday 244: Crystal Lake Memories

In Which I Watch A Documentary About Movies I Can't Watch

The Friday the 13th franchise is one of the holy trinity of horror, and I just... I can't watch them. Yes, I know it's fake. Yes, I know that these movies are not based on true stories. Yes, Jason Voorhees is essentially a superzombie.

I just can't take the gore effects.

Which is really sad, because I am a great lover of special effects. And the kill effects in this series are some of the best.

So instead, I watched the nine hour documentary on the whole franchise up to Freddy vs Jason and the 2009 reboot.

And it's brilliant!

So, I have a confession: I've been trying for a few hours to get the pictures to work on Blogger, and I think I've fixed it, so apologies if they're still broken.

Without further ado, here are my thoughts on this wonderful documentary:

I love the framing device they use for this

The framing device for Crystal Lake Memories is that a group of young people have gathered around a campfire at Camp Crystal Lake. Cory Feldman begins to tell the young people stories of the franchise and its history, culminating in a fantastic epilogue, so definitely watch the whole doc if you can!

The BluRay is, of course, broken up in several parts, which makes the documentary very easily digestible over several viewing sessions. That's how I watched it, curled up against the Couch Fort with my partner and very comfortably experiencing this series through its trials and tribulations.

If you've ever had any questions about the behind-the-scenes moments of any one of the Friday the 13th movies, this documentary will almost certainly answer them. It's fantastically well put together, and I learned so much about how the studios worked and how each individual film was made. I liked being able to hear the writers of some of the... lesser films (Jason Takes Manhattan, for instance) justified their choices and how the producers explained the pressures they were under.

Even as someone who cannot really handle slasher flicks, this documentary made me a fan of the Friday the 13th movies, which is pretty neat, so if you're a fan, you'll probably get even more out of it.

I love the bits where they talk to Kane Hodder and Derek Mears, who both clearly love the role so much.

To be honest, this documentary kind of makes me want a movie where Kane Hodder's Jason fights Derek Mears' Jason, which I'm not sure how that would work, but it'd be awesome.

Maybe Kane's Jason would be the "real" Jason and Derek's Jason would be an actor playing Jason in a biopic or a documentary or something? That could be so awesome!

So yeah, if you like these movies (or even if you just like documentaries and/or spoops) definitely give Crystal Lake Memories a go - you'll learn a lot, laugh a lot, and you'll get the inside scoop on everything Voorhees!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC