His Name Was Jason

I decided to buy the new documentary about the Friday the 13th films, His Name Was Jason, today at work. Yes, it comes out officially this up coming Tuesday but I decided to say 'fuck it' and buy it ahead of time. Danyell was going away and I wanted something new to watch (even though I have hundreds of films on my Netflix queue and a few hundred DVD's I'm behind in watching right now), so why not a documentary showcasing one of my favorite horror franchises?

All I can say it's a fantastic and candid look at the franchise, with great intertwining interviews with everyone from the directors, the Jasons, the victims and even fans of the series, ranging from other horror directors to horror website journalists. It's a great mostly positive look at the series and how it changed the face of horror. WhichI do agree with in some ways.


Before Friday the 13th, horror films were looked at as the black sheep of film. Fine, we had some fantastic horror films before 1980, but even films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Dawn of the Dead and Halloween were independent films that tended to be roadshow movies and/or not heavily advertised by their distributors until afterward when the crowds of people going to see them in theaters were fanatical about them. Paramount decided to take the film Friday the 13th and push it to the moon because they thought by the name alone (which was what Sean Cunningham) it would sell tickets and they were 100% correct.

If it wasn't for Friday the 13th we wouldn't have had the huge influx of great horror films, especially the Slasher uprising of the 1980's. As any movie fanatic would know, the slasher was first started with Alfred Hitchcocks's Psycho, then Bob Clark's Black Christmas and then tweaked to perfection by John Carpenter's Halloween. But it wasn't until they introduced Friday the 13th that they borrowed what they had learned from the previous films and threw in Tom Savini's gore effects and a revolution was born.

Of course we had a huge amount of shit that was produced because of this film, but that happens whenever something new and fresh comes into Hollywood. The copycats come along to take away what we know and love and distort it in a way we the viewer can't even recognize anymore. But we get a few gems here and there, films we can look back on with fond memory or discover again anew so many years later, like I've done with the original My Bloody Valentine, which was one of the better slasher flicks of the 80's. I'll be discussing that in another blog soon, probably when I get to check out the new one finally.

So go and buy the documentary this Tuesday, February 3rd. You won't regret it, especially if you're a horror buff like I am. But now I must sleep because tomorrow night I get to check out the remake of Friday the 13th in a very special advanced screening. Color me excited.

Til next time, the DVD player is shut down for the night.