Customer Reviews

Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday The 13th

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the kind of book about the "Friday the 13th" series I hoping to read when I was a kid growing up with these films. I became a serious fan around the time I saw "Part III in 3-D (1982)." And I curiously read everything I could get my hands on about the people and stories behind the franchise. Back then all we really had were the articles in Fangoria Magazine. And I remember Famous Monsters ran a few, including an article on "Part III." I would have killed to get my hands on something like "Crystal Lake Memories," which presents the histories and behind the scenes stories of these movies with a great deal of enthusiasm. It contains information from over 200 interviews. And there are more than 600 photos (most in color) in this 320 page book, which every entry in the slasher series from the 1980 original up to and including "Freddy Vs. Jason (2003)." What's most impressive are the interviews from the casts and crews. So many interesting things came out of them.

In the original film, there's a country song playing in coffee shop at the top of the show. Composer Harry Manfredini said he whipped that up, and revealed its significance. Some of the kill scenes cut from "Part II" were kind of intense. Make up man Carl Fullerton showed some of the footage to KNB's Greg Nicotero, who was shocked by the uncut scene where the couple get speared in bed. And it wasn't because of the blood effects. Some photos of an alternate ending for "Part III" were unearthed and published here. Intriguing. I wonder how that sequence would have played on a big screen (and in 3-D). The story of how "Mrs. Jarvis (Joan Freeman)" was supposed to have died in "The Final Chapter" is included. The reveal was also supposed to be part of a dream sequence, which kind of reminded me of the end of Joseph Zito's film "The Prowler." The section on "A New Beginning" discusses Director Danny Steinman's obsession with on screen nudity. "Part V" had the most. And there's even a photo illustrating some of that here. And John Shepherd, who played "Tommy" in that film goes on to explain why he didn't do "Jason Lives." Get ready for some shocks when you read about the behind the scenes relationships -- from personality clashes to gay affairs -- during the filming of "The New Blood." There's a cool photo of the "Jason" make up for "Part VIII," and you'll see why one key player said it's not so cool. The magic of what made Kane Hodder such a great "Jason" is revealed in interviews for "Jason
Goes to Hell." It involves method acting and Metallica. Jim Issac, director of "Jason X," talks about the kind of music he wanted for the film. And it wasn't really the Manfredini score. Of course the hellish road through the process of bringing "Freddy Vs. Jason" the screen is here, and so are some of the criticisms of the film from writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift.

The book concludes with some random reflections on the series from cast and crew. Ted White, who played "Jason" in "The Final Chapter (1984)," talked about how he was working on John
Carpenter's "Starman," and kids would come up to him for autographs because he was "Jason." This book, by the way, tries to maintain objectivity by filling its chapters with quote after
quote. I thought this approach was quite good. Another reason I liked that was because when I read it, I kind of felt like I was eavesdropping on a conversation.

I read this book from cover to cover. And some day I'll pick it up again. Like everybody involved with these films, including the millions of fans, I have my own Crystal Lake memories. And this incredible addition to my home library will always help me bring them to the surface.
(...)

Peter Bracke has put together the most detailed and exhaustive book about Friday the 13th that could possibly be written. Bracke, and those he interviews, do not look at the legacay of the maligned and long running slasher series with rose tinted glasses. Many of the people who worked on the films did not like, nor seem to enjoy, doing so. The always quick and dirty shoots would, more often than not, be plagued by problems both technical and personal. Everybody clamors to take credit for the "good stuff" in the movie and, except in rare cases of professional candor, are quick to place the blame for a paticular failure at the feet of others. It is an eye opening read that takes the mythical romance out of film production and reveals it for what it is - a lot of blood, sweat, and tears creating something very few people appreciate, much less enjoy. Whether you are a fan of Friday the 13th or not, Crystal Lake Memories is an essential read for anyone interested in a candid look at lo budget film making. Highest recommendation.

This is quite simply.....a beautiful book and a very necessary read for Friday The 13th fans!

I have not been able to put it down since I aqquired it. I really appreciate the way this book was written: from the point of view of the actors, directors, writers, & collaborators of the film franchise.

It also has wonderful pictures and is just highly insightful....

More than reccommended! A must have for any fan!

I'm very grateful to have this encyclopedia of the Friday The 13th series in my collection!

Bracke's presentation of Crystal Lake Memories is a beautiful book with loads of pictures and massive amounts of interviews. The book is broken up into a chapter for each movie and the interviews are from producers, screenwriters, make-up artists, directors, actors, musical scorers, and many others. The interviews are broken up into 1-3 paragraph formats on topics that largely deal with behind-the-scenes events, casting problems, personality clashes, and production problems. I learned quite a bit from this book and it was quite enjoyable to read. The pictures are fantastic and some of the problem people are not whom I expected. The issues with terrible stories and direction are covered and were pretty humorous after all these years of trying to figure out why some of them were so bad.

This is a great book for fans of the series, but it's largely about production problems they cast & crews had to deal with. Still recommended highly.

I FINALLY found a copy of this at my local Barnes & Noble (still waiting on my Amazon order) and couldn't pass it up. It's great. Brings back memories of watching these movies for the first time and gives lots of insight into how they were made and the troubles each ran into, which were a lot. Now some of the things that bothered me in the movies don't so much now after seeing what all they went through just to get them made. In fact, it's amazing the first one was made at all. For maximum enjoyment of this book, I'd recommend reading the section for each movie and then watching that movie before moving to the next section. It really makes you see the movie in a whole new way. I know Peter Bracke said he wouldn't want to do another anthology book on any other horror film series but I hope this inspires others to go out and give it a try. I'd love to have one on the complete Nightmare On Elm Street series and one on all of the Halloween movies. Those would be great reads and would look great on the bookshelf as a set.
Really, the only reason this book gets 4 stars rather than 5 is because of the editing. Get ready for TONS of typos and grammatical errors.

Buying this book was some of the best money I've ever spent. Yes, I'm a fan of the insipidly stupid, formulaic and spectatorial Friday the 13th series and I don't care. This book is essentially the Bible of all things Friday the 13th, and should be considered the standard by which compendium books are written and packaged. The book is printed on a beautifully thick quality paper, with a gorgeous dust jacket, 2 introductions and each chapter discusses each film chronologically.

THE GOOD: You would think a book like this would be a puff piece of slim length. WRONG! 300+ PAGES in length with over 600 photographs, a whopping 85% or more of which are in full color! Each photo includes captions indicating context and backstory, and most of these have never been seen before in any publication. Best of all, many of these photos include various foreign posters and footage of deleted scenes that aren't available anywhere as of yet. Also, the interviews tell everything in the most minute detail, including the disastrous editing fiascos on part 7 and the questions of cast abuse on part 4.

THE BAD: The format of the book is entirely interview excerpts, so this can get a bit repetetive. No call sheets or script excerpts.

THE WORST: No CD including Harry Manfredini's music or DVD containing deleted footage of note. But, maybe that's asking for a cherry on a 13lb. triple-decker chocolate sundae.

THE BEST: The book basically makes up for the dismal special features of the Friday the 13th DVD boxed set, which icluded a poorly constructed gathering of deleted scenes (editing bay edits) with NO digital remastering! Also included are interviews from cast members who have been reticent to discuss their involvement in the past.

In conclusion, if you're a fan of Friday the 13th, this book is everything you could ever hope for. If you're not, it'll be just way too much information about something you don't really like.

If your a big fan of all eleven "Friday the 13th" films then this big-ass coffee table book, entitled "Crystal Lake Memories", is definitely for you. Then again, if your a super die-hard fan then there really is no new ground to cover & it's more of a nostalgia trip than anything else.

Every film is covered from the first "Friday" all the way up to "Freddy vs. Big J". The book is full of photos & interviews with cast, crew, & creators to the Voorhees legacy. "Memories" weighs roughly about 4 & a 1/2 to 5 lbs. & if Old Hockey Puck does make a housecall while your reading it, it makes a great weapon (or at least show him the picture of his mom while you run off in the other direction).

The cover art to the dust jacket is classic (someone should make a poster of this). The pages are high-gloss stock (think high school yearbook style paper) with the photos mostly color with a few black & white thrown in.

I'm not a big fan of the "Friday" films (I do have the DVD box set from "Paramount"), but when I saw that there was a strict print run of 5,000 copies worldwide from Sparkplug Press & the price that Amazon was offering at the time (14.95!!), I couldn't pass it up.

Like it or not, the "Friday the 13th" saga has a place in cinema history, albeit a dark one, & I'm actually glad that Bracke has taken the time to put together the definitive guide to "Friday the 13th".

Nothing like the books of the past! Weighing in at a hefty five pounds this compilation is jam packed full of everything you ever wanted to know (and didn't know) about each and every movie- from Friday the 13th to Freddy vs. Jason!

With in depth information on every film- from production notes to special effects secrets, it's a DVD with a dust cover. High resolution photos, specialty quotes from several of the actors and actresses, along with many of the directors, writers and producers. This will be the pinnacle of your Friday the 13th collection!

Markus James
www.markus-james.com

I purchased this book in 2006 and just got done re-reading it and realized I had never written a review for it. If you are a Friday The 13th fan like I am, this book is an amazing item. I STRONGLY recommend this to you.

This book is amazing. For awhile I didn't pick it up because it was 30 dollars. But after thinking about it too much I just bought it, and boy am I glad I did. This book is just FULL of great pictures and interesting stories.