HIS NAME WAS JASON

There have been a few great horror franchise retrospective docos released over the past few years. I recently reviewed 'The Psycho Legacy' and the brilliantly epic 4 hour film 'Never Sleep Again'... I've just watched 'His Name Was Jason', obviously a Friday The 13th examination. There is a lot of cool stuff for horror fans but unfortunately there's more to dislike about it than there is to love. Annoying from the getgo is Tom Savini's series of interludes. He acts as a sort of crypt keeper who pops up throughout the film to make crappy jokes. Unnecessary!! Then for the most part the doco is full of has-been actors blowing smoke up their own arses, discussing the Friday the 13th movies like they're Fellini or something. Half of these middle aged actresses keep saying stupid shit like "I hope to return to the franchise one day" as though it might happen. Massive LOLS for that!!! The structure of the film is also disjointed and it pin-balls between instalments in random order... one second they're talking about part 3 and the next they're discussing part 8... then 5 etc... following the lineal structure of the Never Sleeps Again doco would have made it easier to watch. SO.... get past all of that bullshit, move past the actor's opinions and you're left with the good stuff. Discussions and observations from the directors, writers & most importantly the pop-cultural journalists and mag editors (etc) manage to provide some new information and back stories to the franchise. One segment actually focuses on the constant absurdities and in-continuities which was a particularly welcome confession, especially after hearing the actors bang on about Jason Voorhees being the original masked killer that defined a genre... these fuck-knuckles obviously missed Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween. Anyhow, its an overall disappointing documentary that probably belongs as a bonus feature in the box set collection. It most definitely doesn't hold up on it's own like this.

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