I've just had the pleasure of unwrapping the long awaited Friday the 13th The Complete Collection Box Set for Warner in the US. It's a very attractive package if steel tins are your thing. It includes my very own Camp Counsellor patch and a condensed version of the Crystal Lake Memories book. Not to mention everyone of the greatest slasher franchise of all time in glorious HD. Ok so that being said why is it not complete? Well the reason is four fold.
1. Does not include ALL the special features from previous releases. To be honest that's not come as much of a surprise and seems to be quite common these days. Be it due to apathy or rights issues many catalogue title Blus are left without previously released special features and in this sets defence it has got a large amount of them. For me personally its not a massive blow. I watch every extra I can but they take up way to much time for me.
2. No Theatrical Cut of the original Friday the 13th. Some fans like what they grew up with and have watched for years. Some fans just feel the extended sequences hamper the pacing and effectiveness of the scenes. For me though I prefer the extended scenes in the unrated cut. However what I'm not a fan of is the zoomed in cropping that the unrated version has. There have been various arguments I have read that suggest that this might have have been the intended framing but if the film was released originally with wider framing then losing that extra image is not cool by me. In an ideal world this disc would have contained both versions of the film in its original aspect ratio. Otherwise though it should be noted but I think the original movie's picture quality on the Blu-ray disc is outstanding.
3. Friday the 13th part 3 is still not in real 3D. This would have been a real selling point for this box set. For the first time ever on home video to have the classic 3D slasher in real eye popping 3D that it was intended to be seen in. Instead Warner have repackaged the previous disc, included the old cardboard red and green glasses again and left fans with the anaglyph 3D and 2D versions.
4. Jason Goes To Hell is the R Rated version! Not cool. The only other Friday the 13th film bar the first that has been available from the get go in its unrated version as standard is for some reason in this box set the MPAA butchered R Rated cut. This is the biggest disappointment for me. Its the film I least like in the series and its just been made worse in my opinion. This irritates me because should the unrated version ever get a BD release I'll be compelled to buy it. (more fool me) Not only that but to rub salt on the wound there IS a HD transfer of Jason Goes To Hell unrated cut that is regularly played on TV and available to purchase online. So they could have easily used that transfer for the BD and actively chose not to. Really not cool!
All that being said I'm otherwise thrilled by the set. Many people online will no doubt think I'm mad for that but seeing these films in glorious HD has been something I've looked forward to for the last 5 years. These are great, great movies and it's my all time favourite slasher franchise by a long shot. I could see it being a harder sell if your not a die hard fan and already have some of the previously available titles but if your a fan then this is a must have of the highest order providing the transfers are as good as those previously available Friday the 13th titles were. Hopefully I'll be able to make a start watching the set tonight so I can find out for myself.
As always you can view:
My Slasher Movie Blu-Ray Collection A-Z here
and see
Slasher Movies available on BD that are NOT in my collection here
Please email me or drop a comment if you know of any available I've not got listed on either of the two lists. Maths was never a strong suite of mine but by my calculations the collection now contains 152 different slasher movies. Not bad aye!
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