DVD Review: Friday the 13th:From Crystal Lake to Manhattan

What follows is a brief look at each of the disks in the recently released Friday the 13th: From Crystal Lake to Manhattan box set. Warning, some may contain spoilers.

Disk 1:
Friday the 13th. It has been a long time since I've seen this. As I watched it, it was like it was the first time. There were a few moments that I remembered, of course, but there was so much that didn't strike up a memory. Overall, it was actually a pretty good twist on the early slasher films. Very Psycho-esque, on a more base scale. But I guess most of you reading this are already familiar with this movie, so I won't go into a drawn out plot description, not that there is much there to begin with.
The acting is uniformly sub-par, but goes with the territory, you do get treated to an early screen performance from Kevin Bacon. It was directed by Sean Cunningham, who does a pretty good job at making the script interesting. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the top notch make up effects work of Tom Savini, always good to see his work.
Audio. Presented in it's original mono, it sounds decent enough, probably as good as it did when it was first released.
Video. Presented in it's original aspect ration of 1.85:1 and anamorphically enhanced, it looks serviceable. It is dark and there are a few segments where the detail is lost, but this is probably the best it has looked since the theater, they were on a rather small budget.
Extras. None.
Bottomline. Decent start to the long running series that would end up a shadow of itself, but has not yet reached it's peak.

Friday the 13th Part 2. A decent sequel, not quite up to the Halloween II level, but still respectable. Jason makes his triumphant screen debut as a masked, well here it's hooded, killer of kids. Jason takes to the task in a sack with a single eye hole in it, using whatever pointed items he can find to carry about his duty of keeping the Crystal Lake Camp's gates closed. I like how he kept a shrine to his deceased mother, which ends up leading to his undoing by our daring heroine.
The acting is a step up from the first, although still high on the cheese factor. Steve Miner, who was an associate producer of the first film, slips into the director's chair to make his big screen debut, and does a pretty good job of it.
Audio. On par with the first, presented in it's original mono, it does a decent job.
Video. Similar to part 1, but a little brighter making it a better image all around, but still has the same soft look to it.
Extras. None.
Bottomline. Successful sequel which actually improves on the story threads that were laid out in part 1. In many ways this is a better film, but we are still building towards their high point.

Article Author: Chris Beaumont

Christopher Beaumont spends much of his time writing about music and movies when he isn't indulging in them. He is always ready to talk about his favorite form of entertainment and offer up recommendations. Follow: Twitter and Tumblr. Visit: Critical Outcast. …

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