The recent DVD contest that fridaythe13thfilms.com ran was a huge success. We received 125 entries and there were a lot of great responses on what your favorite scenes were between the two movies. Sadly, we did have to choose only one winner. The winner has been contacted by email, but we will not post the winner’s name here for privacy purposes. However, read below for that fans favorite scene in their words. I am truly impressed by their interpretation of the scene. If only the makers of the actual movie could have conveyed the same thoughts on screen.

Since Part 8 was my first Jason movie, taped off USA Network when I was in fifth grade, my favorite scene in this movie may still be my favorite scene in any of the movies. Julius the boxer, already shown as charismatic and full of leadership potential, sacrifices himself in a toe-to-toe match with evil incarnate.  As a too-young-for-R-Rated child, watching the swagger and overzealous confidence in his eyes during the beginning of the fight really made me cheer for him. Only now, more than a decade later, do I understand the fear in his eyes before the final blow sends our boxer to his fate. Julius has seen into the soul of unstoppable evil. Jason is beyond human, beyond natural. He is invulnerable to the attributes which Julius yields with the highest proficiency, namely attitude and physical endurance. Jason also possesses the same attributes, but in a much higher degree. Julius loses all hope of defeating Jason, and in his last brief moments it seems he may realize that at the very least he distracted Jason long enough to afford his comrades safe passage. Ironically, itis with this same attribute that Jason introduces Julius his maker (was it a Ford windshield, or a Chevy perhaps?)

 Everyone, thank you so much for entering the contest and for continuing to support our website and the entire Friday the 13th franchise.

This has been long talked about and the photo of the dead boxer with darts in his eyes has appeared in print ever since the release of the film in 1989. The scene itself is pretty long for a cut scene and follows a drunken deck hand stumbling through the bowels of the ship while Jason’s shadow seems to follow him. As the deck hand comes to a set of stairs the boxer bursts through a set of doors and falls down the stairs with the darts already in his eyes.

After Jason stabs Jim in the stomach with the harpoon gun, the camera stays with the shot for an extra 2or 3 seconds and shows a more graphic wound appear with more blood spirting out of the wound.

A wider shot of the dispatched Tamara shows numerous shards of broken glass stabbed into her body.

The scene where Jason prepares to be bombarded by toxic waste, he spits out water. During this sequence, a scene is shot that shows a young Jason trying to crawl out of the mouth of Jason, yelling “mommy, don’t let me drown”. The scene was cut due to technical problems. The end of this movie is the one thing in the franchise that really gets me mad. I hate the ending completely. That being said, with this cut sequence, you do see where the director was tring to go. Rob Hedden even mentions that he wanted a twist on the end of the movie. A way that audiences would think that Jason was really dead. And this does explain why Jason says mommy, “don’ let me drown”. It really isn’t him, it’s some half ass pure essence of Jason trying to escape.

Now, fans that thought Jason Goes to Hell had some crazy ideas, think about what could have been 4 years earlier!

There are some great on-screen interviews with actors that I have never seen outside of being on the big screen so it was very refreshing to see them in the current day discussing the movie and giving their thoughts from the production of the film. If you have not seen this yet, then enjoy my brief rundown. Please make sure to watch this at some point as it is a treat for the fans.

Kane taking a breather inbetween takes with Kelly Hu

Fred describes how working on this movie was more comfortable than Part 7 as he got to score this entire movie himself and also he felt that he built a rapport with the production crew since he had worked on 30 some episodes of Friday the 13th The Series.

Rob Hedden jumps into the shower and gets naked to ease Sharlene Martin’s nerves when preparing to shoot her shower scene. Hedden explains that the dailes of this film actually made it to the Paramount execs!

Sharlene explains how Rob Hedden was great to work for and was gracious in making her feel comfortable on set. Look what he goes through by viewing the above image.

Tiffany explains how her harpoon scene on the boat was a one take situation and that she had to stay completely still as they actually shot the harpoon arrow towards her head. She exclaims that she was genuinely frightened.

V.C. Dupree talks about how he showed up for filming and that Kelly Hu was so excited to be filming a Friday the 13th film. He thought he was filming a movie called Ashes to Ashes and was completely taken back by the revelation.

Tim Mirkovich talks about his time getting the makeup applied for the young Jason character and the time he spent in water. He also describes that scene at the end that was cut from the film. To be shown in another post!

The big question is, of course, why the films (particularly New Blood) are still sans the bloody kills? Buechler says that the negatives for that footage are probably forever lost. “Ours was one of the single fastest movies ever made. I had my signed deal to make the movie in January, and it was in the theaters on May 13th.” Because of the rush to get the film in theaters, the usual careful cataloging and storing was presumably rushed as well, and thus the footage may no longer exist as studios occasionally destroy unclaimed footage rather than sort it out. The DVD (read our review HERE) does have some of the footage courtesy of a low-quality VHS cut of Buechler’s workprint, but even that is incomplete. “It was actually an assembly that I made prior to doing additional photography, so even if it were restored and you found that negative, it still wouldn’t be the whole movie.”

Various other “wish-list” items, such as Manhattan’s hilarious teaser, are also absent, but that is mainly due to a lack of space on the disc (hardly anything to complain about – a full disc is a GOOD thing). Blu-rays for 4-8 have been brought up, but Farrands tells us that nothing is set in stone yet. On the plus side, that means that they weren’t holding back for an eventual double (triple?) dip. Says Farrands: “There would be more room on the Blu-ray discs, so maybe there’s an opportunity to find more material. A lot of this depends on how the DVDs sell, and what the fan reaction is, but there’s always interest in doing more. If there’s more to be found, they will give it to us; I know for a fact they weren’t holding back on, like, let’s reserve this for Blu-ray. They never took that attitude, and if it was there, we put it in.”

Speaking of that teaser (featuring Jason standing on New York harbor, looking at the water while a Sinatra tune plays over shots of screaming yuppies and commuters), Kane drops an interesting tidbit – that’s not even him! “We were shooting in Vancouver when they shot it… I don’t know who it is… he looks kind of small. I don’t know why they didn’t just wait until we got to New York. My Jason wouldn’t turn like that!”

Replacements and stand-ins seemed to be the order of the day for the 8th film. Not only was Vancouver used instead of New York (except for the Times Square scenes, which Kane claims was “the single most amazing thing I’ve ever experienced in film – being in Times Square in the full costume”), but the script sent out to actors was disguised as a generic slasher film to keep fans from raiding the set. VC Dupree tells us that his script was titled “Ashes To Ashes”. Laughing, he tells us about the script’s rather goofy attempts at tricking people. “I guess they had the name changed from Jason Voorhees to Ethan Dearborn; Crystal Lake was changed to something else, just so you could plug the letters in there.” It was co-star Kelly Hu that tipped him off, a tale he recounts on the DVD’s retrospective piece (which features several co-stars, as well as writer/director Rob Hedden, editor Steve Mirkovich, and composer Fred Mollin – read our review HERE).

Dupree and Hodder also waxed nostalgic about their boxing match, easily Manhattan’s highlight and according to Kane, “one of the kills I get asked about the most.” According to Hodder, Dupree was really hitting him through most of the punches (“66 punches”, Hodder claims, using the number provided by a fan), and despite wearing a catcher’s pad, he was pretty bruised up. The scene took a toll on Dupree as well; he tells us his knuckles really were all cut up from punching the hockey mask.

These two films didn’t perform up to par at the box office, resulting in Paramount essentially ending the series and selling the rights to New Line (who gave us Jason Goes To Hell, Jason X, and Freddy Vs. Jason), but it’s clear that they are held in high regard by both fans and their creators. Buechler recalls his film with a big smile on his face: “I’m pretty proud of the film; I think the fact that we had a full-blown subplot of a telekinetic girl kicking Jason’s butt was lots of fun. I got to do a lot of cool stuff with the makeup effects – we designed and engineered something that I thought was unique at the time – that was all just fun stuff that we got to do, and the fact that we got a great guy inside of it to play the role, we both were of a single mind. We wanted this to be a more energetic, more dynamic version of the character than we had seen before, and I think we accomplished that.”

With the new discs giving the films their best representation ever, there has never been a better time to see if you agree. The new discs are in stores; complete your collection and get rid of that old boxed set once and for all!

U.K. Cover

Japanese Cover

Mexican Cover

 The New Blood

Not only is the color much improved, but I was shocked to see how much picture information the 2004 releases were missing. In the shot of Jason in the kitchen, notice the decoration on the left side of the frame that is completely missing from the identical frame on the old release. And in the forest shot, notice the sharper detail in the trees and on Jason’s ratty clothes (and again, far more picture information).

As for the extras, Kane Hodder and John Carl Buechler’s old commentary is gone, but the pair have recorded a new commentary, this time joined by (a separate) Lar Park Lincoln. It’s not a bad track; Hodder and Buechler repeat some of the stuff they said on the last one, but Lincoln’s thoughts are obviously new, and thankfully she takes up the bulk of the track (unless you haven’t listened to the old one, in which case you might want to hear more from the guys). And Buechler admits that the story isn’t up to par, which I don’t think he fessed up to on the last one.

We also get about 15 minutes’ worth of deleted footage. The footage isn’t in particularly good shape – it seems to be taken from a VHS tape with a bad tracking problem, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the damn cassette had been stored in someone’s flooded basement. It’s an even split between excised character stuff and kills, some of which were on the boxed set. Of most interest is a deleted epilogue in which Jason resurfaces from the water, which would have been nice to have (the theatrical cut of New Blood is one of the only films in the series that doesn’t end on a scare). Of course, we also get the usual retrospective with cast and crew, though it runs a bit shorter than usual and skimps over the more interesting things about the film’s production (such as its origin as Freddy vs. Jason). Then there is an interesting look at “real” telekinetic cases, as well as how realistic the film is at portraying this power (spoiler: it isn’t).

 
Jason Takes Manhattan

While not as striking as the difference between the transfers for New Blood, it’s still obvious just at a glance that the 2009 version is superior to the 2004 boxed set counterpart. The color seems a bit off (Jason’s mask seems yellow in the boat pic) at times, but the detail is vastly improved, with much clearer definition (look at the wood on the boat) and, again, the 2009 version restores previously cropped out visual information (look at the Olympus sign on the left side of the Times Sq. screenshot). This is just one of the many benefits of not squishing two films on the same side of a disc, as they did last time.

A more striking improvement is the amount of extras on the disc. Rob Hedden’s previous commentary has not been held over (why?), but there is a brand new one with Scott Reeves, Jensen Daggett, and Kane Hodder (who is recorded via conference call, as he was in Utah shooting Adam Green’s Frozen). It’s a surprisingly fun track, as the two leads mock their performances and clothes, and Kane provides a lot of interesting production info. Reeves could have taken the time to at least glance at the IMDb before leaving for the recording studio (he first asks Kane if he played Jason in any of the other films, then asks him if he has done any other horror films in general! Christ), but it’s a hell of a lot better than Hedden’s track, at any rate.

Of more interest, I am sure, are the “slashed scenes”. Gorehounds might be disappointed to see that only two or three of the kill scenes are extended (one of which is the aftermath of the long sought-after “dart” kill), but fans of the film will enjoy all of the little character beats and such that are presented here, as well as a minor subplot about how their graduating class was going to be the last, as the school was closing (I’m sure this tied into the notion that the film was intended as a series finale). A few more excised moments can be seen in the largely unfunny gag reel (only Peter Mark Richman’s goofs really amuse, as well as a prank Kane pulled on Tiffany Paulson in the opening sequence), so check that out for a few more. Rounding things out is the traditional 20 minute-ish retrospective piece on the film, with Hedden, Hodder, and a decent number of the cast, plus composer Fred Mollin and editor Steve Mirkovich (and his son, who played young Jason). By now you know how these things go, but as the film was always considered one of the weakest, it’s also been covered the least. Thus, you probably haven’t heard all of these stories a million times.

To read his full reviews visit the links below.
BD “The New Blood” Review
BD “Jason Takes Manhattan” DVD Review

If you’re interested in double dipping and upgrading your DVD copy of Freddy vs. Jason to Blu Ray, or if you never owned the DVD to begin with and have added a Blu Ray player to your entertainment system, then you’ll likely want to head on over to your local Wal Mart. Freddy vs. Jason has hit the HD market and store shelves nationwide and Wal Mart has the Blu Ray sitting there with the beautiful price of a measely $10! Whether you’re a fan of the film or not (and I am), you can’t deny that this is a great price for another chance to see that hockey mask in high def! Also keep in mind that this is Freddy’s first entry into the Blu Ray market and at a  complete steal!

The picture on the disc is phenomenal. Though the regular DVD isn’t nearly old enough to be considered dated, the Blu Ray disc is a noticeable improvement when you take into consideration how colorful this film is. The colors are vibrant on the disc and the sound is great. Well worth this price. If there are no Wal Mart stores in your area, you can get the Blu Ray on Walmart.com for just a little more at $11.32.  New Line will also be releasing the 2003 remake of  “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” on Blu Ray on September 29th. This disc will also be released at a discounted price.

1. Name.
2. Your Physical Address
3. Email Address
4. Your one favorite scene from either movie.

No one scene will be judged better than the other, but only entries that include your favorite scene will be considered. The winner will be drawn at random and contacted via email. The winner will be receiving both U.S. NTSC Region 1 Deluxe Edition DVD releases. Contest ends Wednesday September 30th, 2009. Good Luck to everyone!

Vote for Voorhees! FRIDAY THE 13TH DELUXE EDITIONS parts 1-6 have been nominated @ The Reaper Awards, which are described as “the first awards campaign dedicated entirely to horror on home video.” The series of DVD editions are up in two categories:

“Best Re-Release” – while the earlier films in the DELUXE stable could certainly use the encouragement, it’s the second half – parts 4-6 – that really shined, with mouth watering supplementary material put together by Dan Farrands (Director, HIS NAME WAS JASON, and also up for an award in the ghost category with THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT).

“Best Packaging” – regardless of their lack of original poster use, they were very striking which was needed to have them ‘pop’ out among the clutter in stores, and they did maintain a consistency with the covers that made them stand proud on home DVD shelves everywhere! A win would certainly be encouraging for Paramount and a boast for FRIDAY fans everywhere.

Also up:
“Best Boxed Set or TV Series” - Friday the 13th — The Series: The First Season
“Best Slasher” - The Jason Slasher Collection from Warner Home Video

Voting runs Sept. 1 through Oct. 1. and you should hit the link below and show your support! Do it for ol’ puss face! (I mean Jason, not me!)

http://www.reaperawards.com/vote

The Pick Axe fits perfectly on the cover for Part 2 as this weapon appears in the final confrontation between Ginny and Jason in Jason’s shack. Jason thrusts the pick axe into Ginny’s leg as Ginny tries to trick Jason into thinking she is his mother.

Although the Pitch Fork was used in a tense scene in a cabin in Part 2, I will always remember the pitch fork in all of its 3-D glory. As the biker Loco climbs up to the top of the barn to find Fox, Jason brings the 3-D pitch fork into the audience and stabs Loco through the stomach.

 

This cover shows that the people behind the cover art did their homework. This is my favorite cover as Jimmy’s (Cripsin Glover) death is one fo the best of the franchise. As Jimmy gloats over his conquest to Ted, he wonders into the kitchen to get a bottle of champagne, “to celebrate”. As he screams to Ted asking where the corkscrew is, Jason rams it into his hand on the kitchen counter and then slams a meat cleaver into his face.

Another example of people knowing this franchise. The hedge clippers were only ever used for killing in this vastly underrated installment. This instrument of terror was used twice. Once onscreen and once offscreen. Onscreen Tina lays naked in the forest as Pseudo Jason Roy gouges out her eyes with a quick stab and cutting motion.

Jason’s main weapon of destruction in Jason Lives. The machete sits in his holster around the belt he lifted off of company exec turned paint baller Roy. Shortly after Roy’s demise Jason uses his favorite weapon in a triple decapitation of three other paintballers

 

The only cover that baffles me. Not one single person in The New Blood was killed by a meat cleaver. This device was used in numerous other Friday movies, but this was not even shown or mentioned in any frame of this movie. The weapon I would have chosen for the cover would have been the gas powered saw that Jason used to kill Dr. Crews. It was unique to this movie and would have looked awesome on the cover art.

 

It’s suprising that out of all the movies the distributor would have chosen to place an axe on the cover art, they would have chosen Jason Takes Manhattan. Most would not even think of an axe used in this movie as pretty much no classic instrument is used against Jason’s victims in this movie. There was a sauna rock, rock guitar, heroine needle, shard of glass, harpoon arrow, a barrel of toxic waste, and Jason knocking Julius’ goddamn block off. Well I stole that line from Return of the Living Dead, but you get the point.

There were very unorthodox weapons used in this movie. However, there was the axe that was thrust into the Crazy Ralph like deck hand offscreen. He appears in one scene with it sticking out of his back. Later Sean sees Jason standing at the edge of the boat holding an axe in hand. The axe does work for me in this cover, but I would have personally liked to have seen the guitar!

Friday the 13th Part VII – The New Blood

-2.0 Surround, Mono, 5.1 Surround
-English, French and Spanish audio/subtitle options
-Portuguese subtitles
-Commentary: – Killer Commentary by director John Carl Buechler and actors Lar Park Lincoln and Kane Hodder
-Jason’s Destroyer: The Making of Friday the 13th Part VII
-Slashed Scenes with Intro
-Mind Over Matter: The Truth about Telekinesis
-Makeover by Maddy: Need a Little Touch-Up Work, My Ass

Friday the 13th Part VIII – Jason Takes Manhattan

• -2.0 Surround, Mono, 5.1 Surround
• -English, French and Spanish audio/subtitle options
• -Portuguese subtitles
• -Commentary: – Killer Commentary by writer/director Rob Hedden and actors Jensen Daggett and Kane Hodder
• -New York Has A New Problem – The Making of Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
• -Slashed Scenes
• -Gag Reel

Today is an important day for Friday The 13th fans as a slew of discs are released…

• Friday The 13th (2009) – Killer Cut – DVD/Blu-Ray
  
• Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives – Special Edition
• Friday The 13th Part V: A New Beginning – Special Edition
• Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter – Special Edition
  
• Friday The 13th Part 3 – Blu-Ray
  
• Friday The 13th Part 2 – Blu-Ray

There’s something for everyone today – if you purchased or viewed any, sound off below!

Check out the HorrorDVD website to see all of the reviews for the upcoming DVD’s. I have to say that after I read the reviews I am real excited for these releases. I might even have to double dip on the DVD before I get the Blu-Ray.

The Final Chapter Review Snippet
The big ticket here is “The Lost Ending” (3:20), and it definitely does live up to the hype. It’s another dream sequence in the tradition of the previous three Fridays, including a shot of Jason sans mask. The sound elements are long gone, but it’s assembled well and Joseph Zito and Kimberly Beck provide some nice commentary.

A New Beginning Review Snippet
All of Paramount’s Dolby Digital 5.1 remixes haven’t been as stellar an upgrade as the images, but of the bunch, this one is definitely the best. There’s finally a sizable amount of bass, with this remix really coming through with depth and oomph. When cars start up, axes hit or bodies get impaled, the sound really registers on the low end. Dialogue is exceptionally clear and crisp, without any hiss whatsoever. I’ve always been a fan of Manfredini’s work on A New Beginning – the mysterious sort of shimmering and those questioning woodwind riffs really expanded the soundspace of the franchise, which had sort of been on autopilot for the previous three films. It’s captured wonderfully here, and like with the other mixes, it’s basically the only thing that gets pushed around to the rear speakers.

Jason Lives Review Snippet
First up is the commentary with Tom McLoughlin, editor Bruce Green and actor Vincent Guastaferro. This represents a sort of balance between the fact-heavy filmmaker commentary on The Final Chapter and the jokey one found on A New Beginning. McLoughlin and Guastaferro really keep this going, bouncing memories off of each other throughout, with Bruce Green mostly quiet, but occasionally chiming in with interesting editing anecdotes. McLoughlin shares a lot of great tips on directing techniques and also really remembers every minute detail of the film. McLoughlin previously went solo for the commentary track on the box set, but with Guastaferro there to keep up the levity, this is an even better track than before.

“Paramount Home Entertainment has provided us with two sets of their latest wave of Friday the 13th DVDs. They include the new special editions of : Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning and Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. To try and score a set, send your full name and mailing address to RyanRot@gmail.com. Be sure to include “FRIDAY CONTEST” in the subject header. We’ll draw two names at random and announce the winners on June 16th.

I hope everyone enters and gets themselves the new movies. We all hate double dipping and maybe winnging these will lighten the load. Good Luck everyone!

“We told them we needed every single frame from these movies, and Paramount literally sent us any scrap of Jason film that they still had in their vaults from all over,” said Farrands. “Boxes were being delivered to me and Andrew [Kasch, who served as editor for all the bonus features] for weeks on end, and we pored through every single second of it.”

One of the long-time controversies that always surrounds the Special Edition DVD phenomenon is that studios release them, and then a few years later they somehow come up with new and better material to entice fans. Farrands wants to ensure fans that this isn’t the case with these editions.

Farrands said, “The reality is that back when these movies were being made, home video was just getting started so no one had the foresight to think that all this extra film was going to be of use in the future. DVD hadn’t even been dreamt of yet, so unfortunately a lot of the materials from some of the Friday flms were either tossed out of the vault or destroyed.”

To read the whole article, visit Dread Central

On a side note. This comment is to the fans of the series that come to this website. For those of you that saw this in the theater and felt burned, please give this movie a second look with the killer cut. I mean, if you’re a true fan, then you have to like enough about this movie to enjoy it a second time and have it grow on you. I know for a fact that there are people I know who hated movies in the original series from the 80’s and now fully appreciate the films for what they are.

I love the series and know there are crappy scenes, dialogue, direction that have been bestowed upon us in past movies. To me it doesn’t matter. I to this day am still so pissed off about the end of Jason Takes Manhattan, that it’s still hard to discuss with people. However, I like the rest of the movie for what it is. If I only got 1 minute of Jason in Time Square then it’s better than not having him there at all. There’s nothing cooler!

Anyways, enjoy the new movie in a couple of weeks. Happy Friday the 13th!