The Friday the 13th box set contain all 8 of the Paramount Friday the 13 movies.  Afther Jason's little trip to New York, New Line bought the rights to the series.  I've had the box set for some time now but could never bring myself to sit down and watch any of the movies.  I did make it though the specail features in just a few hours though.  But Halloween came up and I didn't have anything to do and I need to recognize the holiday some how.  I came up with the idea for a movie marathoon.  So I grabbed some Doritos and opened a fresh case of Mountain Dew and set down for 8 back to back movies.

The First set up the series main formula.  A young boy drowns and his mother sets out to get revenge.  Jason is also introduced at the end.

Part 2 - Brings Jason into the light as the primary vilian of the series.  Jason runs around and kills people but it doesn't really feel like Jason until he gets his mask in...

Part 3 - But that’s about the only think this one brings to the series.  Since the film was shot in 3-D it’s a little odd to see things in front of the camera at almost every moment of the movie but it not jump off the screen.  The gimmick might have been great in theaters but it just doesn’t work at home.

Part 4 – Is “The Final Chapter” for the mortal Jason.  It also introduces Tommy Jarvis who is the only character in the series to stand up to Jason more then once without dying.  However it does cause him to go a little crazy.

Part 5 – I one of the weaker films in the series because there is a noticeable lack of Jason.  There’s a guy with a hockey mask but he’s just pretending to be Jason.  His son was killed in a mental institution by one of the other crazy people while he was chopping wood.  This is also where a now crazy Tommy is being treated.  I like that they tried to do something different by doing the same thing and they kept the revenge formula but its not the same with out Mr. Voorhees behind the mask.

“Jason Lives” again in part six.  Tommy seems to be doing a lot better after facing the fake Jason in part five but now wants to make sure Jason is gone for good.  So he digs him up to make sure he’s still there and then decides destroy the corpse.  He stabs a metal pole though Jason’s heart and is about to cremate when the metal pole is hit by lightning reviving Jason.  Now an unstoppable zombie of evil Jas no longer cowers when others fight back.  He keeps going as people fight back until he gets the job done or until Tommy chains him to a rock and drowns him in Crystal Lake again.

Part 7 – Starts off about a young girl named Tina with special powers, telekinesis, which she accidentally uses to kill her farther.  Instead of accepting that you can’t bring people back once they die she tried to use her powers to get her dad back.  She brings Jason back by mistake who goes about killing teens at a house near by where a birthday party was planned to take place.  Thanks the Jason the guest of honor never made it.  Tina then uses her powers against Jason while he continues to kill everyone else in sight.  I really enjoyed this on and the fight between Tina and Jason was pretty good.

Part 8 – Didn’t make as whole lot of sense to me.  It was late by the time I got to it but it had something to do with a girl being attacked by a boy Jason while she was trying to learn to swim.  And I’m not so sure about a lake in the woods being connected to the ocean.  None the less Jason boards a cruise ship to take care of the one that got away years ago.  He dispatches the crew and most everyone on board before they finally reach New York.  I felt this one was a little lacking but the scenes in New York were pretty amusing.  I do feel when you have to resort to throwing toxic waste at Jason the idea well has really run dry though.

Overall I feel this is a pretty solid collection.  Some of the first movies are a bit hard to get though and they’re all campy but that’s to be expected.  They probably could have done more with the special features too.  However if you’re a fan of the series or just the slasher genre at all this is a good by.  Its pretty easy to find cheap now and it’s defiantly worth it if you do.  Personally I feel six and seven are the best the series has to offer.  The paint ball scene is six is hilarious and feels like the definitive Jason movie.  But seven brings Kane in as Jason who plays the role in four of Jason’s outings plus this movie has the best look for Jason then any of the others.  Plus all of the movies have a fair amount of nudity for those into that sort of thing.  I recommend this set as a good addition to any DVD collection.