Crystal Lake Memories (2014, Dir. Daniel Farrands)
Synopsis:
Extensive feature-length documentary on the Friday the 13th movie series, from the original, the many subsequent sequels and the 2009 reboot.
I began a tradition on the blog last Halloween with my post on three underrated American horror films of doing something special to mark that particular holiday — this year I’ve decided to do something different: a documentary on one of the most successful horror franchises.
After last year’s post and my two part look at the film’s of Dario Argento, you could be forgiven for thinking I’m a horror movie fan. Actually, I’m not…at least not anymore, though I clearly was as a teenager and still hold a certain affection for some movies as a genre.
Ironically, the horror movie series that this superb documentary examines, Friday the 13th, was not among those like Halloween or Nightmare On Elm Street that I avidly watched as a teenager. By the time I first saw the original Friday The 13th movie I was almost 20 and my interest in horror films was beginning to wane. I didn’t see any of the sequels until a few years ago I was struck by sudden urge to reacquaint myself with the original film, and on a whim bought the first 3 sequels as well…. I discovered I really enjoyed them and their unrepentant trashiness.
Unlike Halloween or Nightmare, where the original film can truly be said to be masterpieces of their genre, Friday The 13th will always only be a slightly inferior, albeit fun, “knockoff”. In some ways this has been the series saving grace, as unlike the other franchises it had “less far to fall”. I became so fascinated by the series that I bought the superb, lavishly illustrated coffee table book: “Crystal Lake Memories: The complete history of Friday the 13th” and when I discovered that this documentary, by the same people who made the definitive history of the Elm Street movies: Never Sleep Again, I immediately bought it as well.
If you’ve read this far, you may be asking: “Ok, but why on earth would I be interested in a 5 hour documentary about a series of movies that weren’t that great to begin with? Surely that’s for hardcore fans only?” Well, “yes” and “no”: Hardcore fans will probably get more out of this than the average viewer, but even if you’ve only ever seen the original movie, there’s so much insight here into how movies, especially low-budget movies, are made that if you are any sort of film enthusiast (not just horror films) or especially if you interested in making low budget movies yourself — this is a must watch.
The original film was made for just $500,000 dollars and has since made over a billion dollars. Name another series, where the original villain was killed off at the end of the first film (which should have effectively ended any possibility of sequels) only to then create countless other sequels using a different villain, whose popularity would become so huge that viewers forgot he was not really in the first film.
The original creators washed their hands of the franchise after the first film, in more or less the same way as Halloween and Nightmare did, but unlike those films which constantly tried to re-invent the idea of their franchises by adding to the mythology of the series, and subsequently lost hardcore fans because of that; Friday just repeated the formula every time, cranking out a film a year like the horror equivalent of the Carry on or Police Academy films to more or less equal success…at least to start with.
Perhaps, unsurprisingly, the stories behind the making of these movies are far more fascinating and entertaining than the movies themselves. From the admission, by director/creator Sean S. Cunningham that the whole idea was inspired the combination of seeing Halloween’s incredible box office success and thinking up a similar title; to Composer Harry Manfredini talking about how actress Betsy Palmer’s phrasing of the sentence: “Kill her Mommy” made him take just the consonants and record himself chanting them through an Echoplex — thereby creating the series’ signature musical motif; to the countless tales of behind the scenes silliness, on-set injuries, and evolution of the famous hockey mask, this documentary truly does cover every aspects of how these movies were made. It also tells some less familiar anecdotes, like the surprisingly successful but now largely forgotten short-lived tv spin off tv series or Alice Cooper’s involvement on the soundtrack of part 6; plus the many battles the filmmakers had with the MPAA ratings board and even amongst themselves.
Ultimately, fan or not, this documentary has enough entertaining anecdotes to hold the interest of even the most casual observer of the Friday the 13th franchise and story of each of the films productions will undoubtedly add to your enjoyment of even the most schlocky of them — it’s certainly more entertaining than some of the films themselves. If, like me, you retain some affection for the series then this is an essential purchase.
