“Friday the 13th makes its way to Blu-Ray with a presentation that would make a mother proud. It is chop full of features with a crystal clear presentation.”
TITLE: Friday the 13th Part 1 (1980) Blu-Ray
COMPANY: Paramount
RATED: UNRATED (This motion picture was previously released in a version rated R. This UNRATED version contains 10 seconds of footage different from the original R-Rated version)
DURATION: 95 minutes
RELEASED: February 9, 2009
Produced and Directed: Â Sean S. Cunningham
Written:Â Victor Miller
Executive Producer:Â Alvin Geiler
Associate Producer:Â Stephen Miner
Music by Harry Manfredini
Director of Photography:Â Barry Abrams
FX Makeup: Tom Savini
Starring:
Betsy Palmer as Mrs. Voorhees
Adrienne King as Alice
Jeannine Taylor as Annie
Harry Crosby as Bill
Laurie Bartram as Brenda
Mark Nelson as Ned
Robbi Morgan as Annie
Kevin Bacon as Jack
Rip into a chilling new Uncut Edition of Friday The 13th. With the addition of unrated footage, and insightful special features, plunge deeper into the film that spawned eleven sequels and the genre’s unstoppable bad guy, Jason Voorhees. A new owner and several young counselors gather to reopen Camp Crystal Lake, where a young boy drowned and several vicious murders occurred years earlier. They’ve ignored the locals’ warnings that the place has a death curse…and one by one they find out how unlucky Friday the 13th can be as they are stalked by a violent kill
In what is clearly and admittedly a take off on the success of the John Carpenter Halloween, Friday the 13th is a film which distills the horror gore genre to its pure and simple roots. Take a group of randy young folks, put them in a setting where no one can help them, and then slowly kill them off in new and interesting ways. And that is the recipe for the start of an 11 film franchise.
Please make no mistake, the plot is only thinly there to provide a framework for the real star of this movie: makeup effects maestro Tom Savini. Mr Savini is one of greatest the spokesman and master on the Special Effects Makeup genre after the death of Stan Winston in June 2008. Tom along with Rick Baker and Dick Smith, literally wrote the book on modern horror makeup.
And this disc’s wonderful video presentation clearly shows off Tom’s handy work. The transfer is absolutely gorgeous considering that this is a 1980 release. The picture is very solid and clean and shows a nice amount of grain and detail. This is a very dark film as most of the action takes place at nice and even still the video holds up rather well to scrutiny. It is not a disc that one would use as a showcase picture quality title, but it is likely the best this film has ever looked.
The packaging is a standard Blu-Ray case with the jacket only printed on one side. There are no inserts other than the standard leaflet that states you may need to upgrade your firmware.
And for bonus material, this release has it is spades. In particular the footage of the cast and crew are a treat -especially Betsy Palmer. Also, I learned that Harry Crosby was the son of the legendary Bing Crosby. I love it when you learn neat trivia from watching the special features. Too bad there is not any footage of Kevin Bacon waxing nostalgic on this film.
This release also includes some newly show Jason murders as bonus material which are ok but made me just want to run out and shoot my own footage to post on YouTube.
And last but not least, the sound is simply stellar. The soundtrack is mesmerizing and has never sounded better. Voices are clear and up front. The silences are punctuated by the music that plays only when someone is being stalked or killed. The music stabs and surrounds wonderfully.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
1080P High Definition with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1
Subtitles:Â English, English SDH, French, Spanish
English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD
English Mono Dolby Digital
French Mono Dolby Digital
Spanish Mono Dolby Digital
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- Commentary By Director Sean S. Cunningham With Cast And Crew
- HD -Fresh Cuts: New Tales From Friday The 13th
- HD – The Man Behind The Legacy: Sean S. Cunningham
- HD – Friday The 13th Reunion
- HD – Lost Tales From Camp Blood – Part 1
- The Friday The 13th Chronicles
- Secrets Galore Behind The Gore
- HD – Theatrical Trailer
*Special Features are presented in standard definition except where noted HD
When this first came out, I must admit I had no intention of buying this but when they announced that part 3 was coming out and would be in 3D this completely changed my mind quite quickly as I am a sucker for 3D movies. I could not simply just have part 3 with out having parts 1 and 2 so I ran right out picked up this Blu-Ray and decided to check it out. Sure the plot is painfully simple and it is really just a film to showcase gory special EFX but I was totally impressed with the overall package -especially the nice set of special features.
Solid recommendation to any modern horror/slasher fan. So if you read Fangoria, if you don’t already own this run out and get this now before you die.