Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday The 13th by Peter Bracke is the definitive retrospective for the most bad-assed horror franchise in history. An amazing tome that covered every aspect of the series, with no minutiae-fact or extra-actor not worthy of inclusion . Well, the Crystal Lake Memories documentary is finally coming to life as a 7 hour long retrospective brought to us by the team behind Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy. It kicked off the news by launching a companion website.
“I’m very proud that my passion (and obsession) with all things Friday the 13th, which started when I was 12 years old, has finally come full circle,” said writer/director Daniel Ferrands. “What started out as a pipe dream ten years ago when I first teamed up with Peter Bracke on his incredible book has taken on a whole new life with our companion documentary. I hope fans will be as thrilled as we are with this epic look back on the Friday the 13th series.”
For the last few years, Friday fans such as myself have had His Name Is Jason, a well done, albeit brief documentary about the series. We thought it was pretty sweet, even flaunting it a bit, until our friend A Nightmare On Elm Street showed up with the spectacularly ass-beating on all levels retrospective Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy. An over 4 hour long retrospective, it covered every single aspect about each film and the God-awful Freddy’s Nightmares. All of a sudden, Friday fans feel a bit slighted.
Well, now the same brilliant minds who made learning about Freddy’s Dead an absolute enthralling endeavor are giving the entire Friday The 13th saga the same treatment with the Crystal Lake Memories documentary. It’s fantastic news, because I think I speak for most horror fans when I say that the best parts of being a fan is the learning & discussion of our favorite franchises.
“I am thrilled that the show has come together so beautifully,” said producer Thommy Hutson. “After a year of production, so many amazing, new interviews, and locating incredible materials, Crystal Lake Memories will absolutely be the embodiment of ‘definitive’ when it comes to telling the story of the Friday franchise, not to mention bringing Peter Bracke’s amazing book to life. We couldn’t be more excited to unleash this incredible history of Camp Crystal Lake, Jason, and all that has gone with them over the last 30 plus years.”
According to the documentary’s website, the release date is set for August 27th, with pre-sale landing on July 8th. There won’t be any DVD releases, instead there will only be a region-free blu-ray. I can’t imagine this will upset very many people, unless you just upgraded to DVD last year and this seems too sudden.
The franchise has had its good and bad moments, but the franchise as a whole is very fascinating when you look at it in retrospect. I will definitely check this series out when it becomes available.
You know, I’m such a die-hard fan that I literally love every film. Oddly enough, with exceptions to the first.
Yeah, I even love when Jason goes to Manhattan AND space. I mean, even Jason on his absolute worst day is leaps and bounds above Freddy on his worse day [Freddy’s Dead].
Yeah, but I stand behind both Nightmare 3 and New Nightmare as the best of both franchises.
New Nightmare was very unusual because it was more of a satire than a legit sequel, but I learned to appreciate the film as I got older. I first saw it at age 6 and I was very confused. LOL
Yep. It was Scream before Scream existed
You’re a man after my own heart, Shawn.
Nightmare 3 is one of the greatest horror films ever, it’s absolutely brilliant. People often cite the original as the best, but 3 was more inventive, plus the acting was a hell of a lot better.
I collect action figures, and one of my absolute favorites is my figure of Freddy from when he was about to kill Tara, and has needles for fingers. Fucking awesome.
New Nightmare is brilliant too. Making Freddy straight up scary with little to no jokes, plus a new look was great. Also, Heather Langankamp had become such a better actor at that point. She was great.