Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th (2013) **** (out of 4)Honestly, what can you say about a documentary that clocks in at six hours and forty-minutes? This look at the FRIDAY THE 13TH series is without question a dream come true for fans of the horror series since, for the longest time, Paramount really didn't do too much in regards to special features for the series.Although Paramount finally came around and delivered some extras, this here is basically all you F13 fans will need when it comes to details about the series. I eman, the first two hours are devoted to the first four films so that tells you how much detail is given to each one of them. What's so great about this series is the fact that it looked at all of the films and even the television series and thankfully most of the cast members and directors are here.I'm not going to list all of the actors and directors that were interviewed but lets just say that Steve Miner is the only one that really stands out as being missing. Oh yeah, Kevin Bacon too but did we really expect him to talk about the film? The interviews are rather priceless because you're hearing from a lot of the actors for the very first time unless you were able to catch them at a convention. All of them are obviously happy about getting to discuss the films, their work in them and what it means to be involved in the series.We get great stories about all aspects of the production. We learn about ideas that weren't used. We learn about the box office take as well as the various issues with MPAA. We learn about alternate endings as well as scenes that were shot but deleted or other scenes that were never shot. All of these stories are just what F13 fans have wanted and to have them in one film, all together is just wonderful.CRYSTAL LAKE MEMORIES is a very long documentary but the second time I watched it I watched it in on sitting and I must admit that I loved every second of it and wished it had been twice as long. If you're not a "fan" of the series then you might just want to watch this film-by-film. In all honesty, if you are a fan I really don't see what you'd complain about here.

When studios make DVD extras they hire people who most of the time are not "Fans of the Film" that they are working on. The First Release "Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me" is an example of a passionless produced product. That is not the case here. "Crystal Lake Memories" is a professionally produced product that happened to be made by people who love the films and that comes across hear "LOUD AND CLEAR".Each film is covered here. There is interviews of the cast as well returning to certain locations. I found the most entertaining segments were the ones devoted to "Friday the 13th Part IV" and "Friday the 13th Part VII" I have no complaints about this documentary. I just wish that the fans could raise the funds and restore the gore that was edited out of each film. You don't need the actors to come back. Body doubles and insert shots is all we need.

Admittedly, I was a huger fan of the Nightmare on Elm Street films, but when I purchased the box-set of the 12-film Friday the 13th series, I truly fell more in love with these movies.Once I finally recapped the entire series, taking more notes during this screening than I have ever during any movie, I turned to Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th, a filmed documentary in the same style as the Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy documentary.The Freddy one was a mere 240 minutes, whereas the Jason chronicles is an astounding 400 minutes! (660 minutes if you include the unfinished 4-hour extra scenes that were cut from the original documentary on a separate disc.) Granted, there's more Friday the 13th films than the Nightmare series, but 11 hours is really pushing it. Not to mention, there's audio commentary on top of the original 7 hours!Forgetting about the length, I watched the whole (initial seven hours) thing through. I am a fan, after all. I learned some interesting things, and had a nice recap of how audiences took to the individual films as well as the box office. But the question is, as a true fan, did I learn really all that much with spending 7 (or 11 with the extra disc) hours on this documentary? Not really.Sure, there were a few things that I was shocked at, or took from this documentary, but NOT enough to spend this much time with these interviews.That all said, if you're a Friday the 13th fan…yeah, I would recommend this very long documentary on the series. But, just once. You won't gain too much knowledge than you already had.Going back to Freddy… That was a 100% AMAZING documentary and had a much more interesting host in the form of Heather Langenkamp over this documentary's Corey Feldman. Not that he wasn't great, he was just okay, whereas Heather was thoroughly interesting and absolutely invested in the series. Corey was merely reporting, especially since he only appeared in one and a tenth of the series.Is it worth getting all 11 hours of the documentary? No. The seven initial hours were just fine. The additional four, well, let's just say, I turned off an hour and a half through since they were so rough and unfinished. Watch the seven-hour one…but only once.

I just saw the whole thing last night and here are my thoughts.This is a must have F13 DOC for all the die hard fans.2 DVD's and 2 blu rays in which we get the whole story of the franchise splited in 14 chapters running from 20 to 40 minutes each chapter.As u can imagine we begin with part 1 (long night at camp blood) and we end with the remake film.in more detailDVD 1 and BLU RAY 1 have 7 chapters full of cast interviews and thoughts of the movies plus a lot of scenes from the movies some of them presented in their deleted // extended form.1) LONG NIGHT AT CAMP BLOOD2) PART 23) PART 34) FINAL CHAPTER5) A NEW BEGINNING6) JASON LIVES7) F13 THE TV SERIESDVD 2 and BLU RAY 2 have the rest chapters from part 7 to part 12 plus a bonus chapter containing more interviews from the cast members....IN more detail8) THE NEW BLOOD9) JASON TAKES MANHATTAN 10) JASON GOES TO HELL 11) JASON X 12) FREDDY vs JASON 13) THE REMAKE 14) REFLECTIONS ON WATERAlso we have an intro narrative by corey feldman who also appears at the very end of the project closing in a great way that project.As i said this effort is great but not complete.Unfortunately the alice cooper's videos from part 6 are absent from one more official F13 DVD release and what is strange is that we also don't get the 12 F13 trailer park which they should have been included in this specific release (although they are separate available).Apart from that this is a must have for all die hard f13 fans as we all get to see for the first time all 9 actors (and their stundmen) who played JASON all over the years plus we get to see most of the cast from the movies including scenes of those who could not make it to appear alive in this DOC.good work guys and now it's time for a HELLRAISER and a CHILD'S PLAY complete doc after those we had of JASON, FREDDY and MYERS.