A Dark Documentary

Well I watched, not a horror movie today, but a documentary about a horror franchise. That film was His Name Was Jason, hosted by Tom Savini who took a rather sadistic approach to introducing the different portions in a Camp Crystal Lake themed haunted house. Before the documentary even started there were the previews, which strategically were all modern day slasher films. Out of the four trailers I had already seen two of the movies both of which were hilarious and awesome in their own respects Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon "I would never keep a pet I couldn't eat" and Hatchet with one of my new favourite actors Joel D. Moore.

Amazing how much variety you can get with just a hockey mask.

The film begins (after an introduction by the enthusiastic Tom Savini) with people involved in the films and filmmakers who are fans of the series summarizing what happens over the course of the franchise (not including the "remake" because it had yet to be released). They of course covered the fact that Jason wasn't the killer until the second instalment and that he also wasn't the killer in the 5th instalment. I was glad to find out that I wasn't crazy in thinking that Jason does however show up at the end of the first film he's just still quite scrawny back then. I did find it interesting that in the second instalment he doesn't don the iconic hockey mask yet and just has a potato sack. Do you think it would be creepier or less creepy if they had just kept that as his mask for the franchise? Also fun fact Kevin Bacon gets killed in one of the movies and because Jason doesn't have a star on the walk of fame, for the documentary they shot a scene of Jason destroying Kevin Bacon's star with a machete.

Back to the segways between segments of the documentary which along with Mr. Savini feature some girls running around as if Jason was really there... and playing strip Monopoly. It would be rather strange to have an acting credit for a documentary. One of the actors had some advice for actors from his experience on set. Don't get stoned to play a stoned character. That just ruined all of my acting strategies now, no allergy medicine for me! Someone else who acted in a Friday the 13th Movie was Corey Feldman, he even killed Jason in it and he was only a little kid. SERIOUSLY!?!? Jason got taken down by the Feldmiester, something about that just seems wrong.

Gotta love the Jason memes

We also got a tutorial on the Friday 13th formula and one of the points I found most interesting was that there could not be any helpful adult authorities, in contrast to the Halloween franchise. One of the filmmakers also reminded me of a great point, Jason is the best form of contraception because in his world Sex = Painful Death. The final point I want to talk about from this documentary is Kane Hodder, who has played Jason the most times of any actor (parts 7, 8, 9 & 10) and also played Victor Crowley in the Hatchet franchise. After hearing him interviewed he seems to me like a legitimately nice and fun guy. I really hope that I someday get to work with him on a horror film just because he seems to love what he does.

And thats it for the informative documentary His Name Was Jason.