Friday the 13th: 8-Movie Collection
Overview -
His name is Jason and his birthday is every Friday the 13th. Everyone’s favorite mother-loving camper murderer gets another collection on Blu-ray. After Scream Factory’s excellent 2020 release, Paramount gathers up their original core films for the 8-Movie Collection. The first four films use the new video transfers and audio mixes, but V through VIII are on the same two discs that date all the way back to the 2013 set. If you don’t want the mega box this is pretty good, but, nowhere near as complete. Worth A Look
Get ready for the only Friday the 13th of the year on August 13th with this to-die-for collection, which includes newly remastered versions of the first four films in one of the most influential and successful horror franchises in cinematic history. This must-have set for fans of heart-stopping horror is gushing over with hours of previously released special features including slashed scenes, making of featurettes, killer commentaries and much, much more. The set also includes access to digital copies of all eight movies, including the “uncut” edition of the original Friday the 13th.
Return to the terror of Camp Crystal Lake and re-experience all the screams, scares, and creative kills. From the too-often ignored warnings of Camp Crustal Lake’s “death curse,” through an ever-increasing body-count that culminates on the streets of New York City, the hockey-masked mayhem is unleashed and unstoppable.
The eight films in the collection are: Friday The 13th, Friday The 13th Part 2, Friday The 13th Part 3, Friday The 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter, Friday The 13th Part V: A New Beginning, Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, Friday The 13th Part VII: The New Blood, and Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan.
Storyline: Our Reviewer's Take
We all know the story; mother loves son, son maybe drowned, derranged mother kills campers for letting son maybe drown, campers kills mother, son is still alive keeps mothers’ decapitated head, mother’s head tells son to kill campers, campers think they kill son, son kills more campers until campers finally do kill son for real, then son is resurrected into zombie son and kills more campers until he dies again and kills more campers until he comes back to life again and kills kids on a boat. It’s a tale as old as time and a relatable parable for our modern era.
For in-depth coverage of the films found in this 8-Movie Collection, take a look at our coverage for Scream Factory’s Friday the 13th: The Ultimate Collection Part 1 & Part 2.
As a kid of the 80s who grew up watching these films edited for content on broadcast television, I have many fond memories of this series. As such they’re difficult for me to rank in any meaningful order. So I’ve worked up a couple of random charts:
Overall Filmmaking Quality Best to Worst
Friday the 13th - 4/5
Friday the 13 Part IV: The Final Chapter - 4/5
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives - 4/5
Friday the 13th Part II - 3.5/5
Friday the 13th Part 3-D - 3/5
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood - 2.5/5
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan - 2.5/5
Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning - 2/5
Commitment To Fine Acting & Performances - Best Actor or Actress:
Friday the 13th - Betsy Palmer as Mrs. Voorhees
Friday the 13th Part II - Amy Steel as Ginny
Friday the 13th Part 3-D - Larry Zerner as Shelly
Friday the 13 Part IV: The Final Chapter - Kimberly Beck & Corey Feldman as Trish and Tommy
Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning - Carol Locatell as Ethel
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives - Tony Goldwyn as Darren
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood - Terry Kiser as Dr. Crews
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan - Peter Mark Richman as Charles McCulloch
Best On-Screen Death Of Each Film
Friday the 13th - Kevin Bacon, Arrow through neck whilst getting high
Friday the 13th Part II - Tom McBride, Machete to face + wheelchair roll downstairs
Friday the 13th Part 3-D - Paul Kratka, 3-D Crushed head + expelled eyeball
Friday the 13 Part IV: The Final Chapter - Crispin Glover, corkscrew to hand + machete to the face
Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning - Ron Sloan, decapitated while riding motorcycle
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives - David Kagen, snapped in half backwards
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood - Debora Kessler, smashed to death in sleeping bag against tree
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan - Peter Mark Richman, drowned in barrel of toxic waste
Jasons In Order Best To Worst
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood - Kane Hodder
Friday the 13 Part IV: The Final Chapter - Ted White
Friday the 13th Part 3-D - Richard Brooker
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan - Kane Hodder
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives - C.J. Graham
Friday the 13th Part II - Warrington Gillette / Steve Dash
Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning - Johnny Hock (opening scene specifically)
Friday the 13th - Ari Lehman
Well, that’s enough of that fun stuff. Friday the 13th has a dedicated legion of fans who buy the movies, snap up the high-end action figures, and played both games. Sure, it’s not the best series of films ever made, but they’re damned entertaining. Especially this core 8-Movie Collection representing the best of the series. Once the franchise was sold off to New Line it’s never been quite the same. As fans wait and hope for another entry in the series (I have ideas on that Paramount if you want a willing writer to work cheap!), we’ll just have to keep revisiting our favorites.
Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray
Jason stomps around Blu-ray again in this new 8-Film 6-Disc Blu-ray + Digital set from Paramount. All of the discs are housed in a blood-red 6-disc case, each disc gets its own tray without being stacked. Films 1 through 4 get their own newly-authored BD-50 disc to occupy. The last four films are the same 2 BD-50 discs from the 2013 Blu-ray set. The first Friday the 13th is the Unrated Cut, even though the artwork indicates it’s the R-rated version! and Friday the 13th Part III is only the 2-D version of the film, the 3-D version seen in the Shout Factory set is not included on this disc.
Video Review
Here’s the good news - the first four films are sourced from the same new 4K restorations that Scream Factory used for their release - so if you didn’t pick those up, that’s at least a plus. The downside is for the final four films, these are the same discs that have been in circulation for quite a while now. Even though the Scream Factory set didn’t offer up new transfers, they at least had their own discs with a terrific array of bonus features.
Since there’s nothing really new here to report, I’ll defer to my colleague M. Enois Duarte’s assessments for more details read here and here.
Friday the 13th (1980): 4/5
Friday the 13th Part 2: 4/5
Friday the 13th Part 3: 3.5/5
Friday the 13th - The Final Chapter: 4/5
Friday the 13th - A New Beginning: 3.5/5
Friday the 13th Part VI - Jason Lives: 3.5/5
Friday the 13th Part VII - The New Blood: 3/5
Friday the 13th Part VIII - Jason Takes Manhattan: 3.5/5
Audio Review
Again, like the video transfers, these are the same audio mixes as previously available:
Friday the 13th (1980): 4/5
Friday the 13th Part 2: 3.5/5
Friday the 13th Part 3: 3.5/5
Friday the 13th - The Final Chapter: 3.5/5
Friday the 13th - A New Beginning: 3/5
Friday the 13th Part VI - Jason Lives: 3.5/5
Friday the 13th Part VII - The New Blood: 3/5
Friday the 13th Part VIII - Jason Takes Manhattan: 3.5/5
NOTE: Friday the 13th is missing the DTS-HD MA mono track found on the Scream Factory Disc. That's the only oddity I noticed when comparing discs of the first four films.
Special Features
The nice thing to see is that a healthy chunk - but not all - of the bonus features from the original 2013 set and Scream Factory’s big collection have been included in this set. For the first four films, you’re getting the meatiest bits worth digging through. However, oddly Part I through Part III don’t have any of the audio commentaries but Part IV did. A little weird but not a deal-breaker. And since Part V through Part VIII are the same two discs as before, there’s a lot of good stuff - but a bunch of material from the Scream Factory set was not ported over.
Friday the 13th
- Fresh Cuts: New Tales From Friday the 13th
- The Man Behind the Legacy: Sean S. Cunningham
- Friday the 13th Reunion
- Lost Tales From Camp Blood Part I
- The Friday the 13th Chronicles: Friday the 13th
- Secrets Galore Behind the Gore
- Theatrical Trailers
Friday the 13th Part II
- Inside Crystal Lake Memories
- Friday’s Legacy: Horror Conventions
- Lost Tales From Camp Blood: Part II
- Jason Forever
- Original Theatrical Trailer
Friday The 13th Part III
- Fresh Cuts: 3-D Terror
- Legacy of the Mask
- Slasher Films Going for the Jugular
- Lost Tales From Camp Blood Part III
- Original Theatrical Trailer
Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter
- Audio Commentary featuring Joseph Zito, Barney Cohen, and Joel Goodman
- Fan Commentary featuring Adam Green & Joe Lynch
- The Friday the 13th Chronicles: Friday the 13th Part IV
- Secrets Galore Behind The Gore: Friday the 13th Part IV
- Lost Tales From Camp Blood Part IV
- Slashed Scenes w/ Commentary By Joseph Zito
- Jason’s Unlikely Day: 25 Years after Friday the 13th Part IV
- The Lost Ending
- The Crystal Lake Massacres Revisited: Part 1
- Jimmy’s Dead Dance Moves
- Original Theatrical Trailer
Read our 2013 Set Review for full bonus features for Friday the 13th Part V - VIII
Final Thoughts
Given that we just got an incredible set from Scream Factory that’s still readily available, Paramount maybe didn’t need to churn out their own 8-Film set since they didn't upgrade any of the films to 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray. But, for fans of only the original eight films, this is a solid cost-effective way of picking these films up. However, there are caveats, you’re not getting all of the bonus features, you’re missing out on the 3-D version of Part III, and as a whole, that Friday the 13th Collection Deluxe Edition is just a hell of an attractive set. It may be a few bucks more, but it’s the best way to go… until Paramount or someone else licenses these films for 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray and we’re back at square one again.
This Friday the 13th 8-Movie Collection isn’t bad, but if you already have previously available sets there’s nothing new here worth picking up again. If you don’t have any of the films on Blu-ray or only need the Original 8, it’s a pretty good set, but not the best option on the market. Worth A Look
-
Neon Conceives The U.S. Blu-ray Release of 'Immaculate' Starring Sydney Sweeney June 11 German 4K Mediabook July 18By: -
Happy IRS Day! - Spend Your Refund with HDD's 4K UHD & Blu-ray Shopping Guide, Apr 15, 2024By: -
Redeem Those Points! Universal All-Access Rewards Closing June 30th 2024By: -
Picnic at the Empire State Building - HDD's 4K UHD & Blu-ray Shopping Guide, Apr 7, 2024By:
