Beaks here...

Last night, I headed out to The Bungalow Club in Hollywood to attend a release party for the brand new, extras-packed DVDs for FRIDAY THE 13TH PART IV: THE FINAL CHAPTER, FRIDAY THE 13TH PART V: A NEW BEGINNING and FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI: JASON LIVES. This is the second round of reissues (the first batch arrived back in February prior to the opening of the FRIDAY THE 13TH remake), but these releases look to be much more fan-friendly than the first three thanks to the efforts of producer Daniel Farrands, who contributed to the discs a clever little mockumentary titled "The Crystal Lake Massacres Revisited".

Clocking in at around an hour (and broken up into three parts), Farrands's film purports to examine Crystal Lake's alarming, Detroit-like murder rate spike during the 1980s. Featuring interviews with experts, conspiracy theorists, townies, family members of the victims, and garden variety wackos, the mockumentary is largely a spot-the-reference contest that's more rewarding the more you know about the FRIDAY THE 13TH movies (and horror movies in general). There are cameos from filmmakers like Stuart Gordon and Tom Holland (who plays a gentleman named "Charles Brewster"), and lots of amusing ideas about who carried out this killing spree. Some rationally argue it was a rash of copycat killings; others wildly assert it was all carried out by an unstoppable murder machine named Jason Voorhees. While it was fun watching some of my online colleagues stretch their acting muscles to play the part of Crystal Lake know-it-alls, the highlight for me was the Reggie the Reckless memorial rap (with Staci Layne Wilson's robot dancing tribute to Violet running a very close second).

While some may bristle at the thought of triple-dipping on FRIDAY THE 13TH movies, at least Paramount has spent some money to make it worthwhile for the fans. Along with the mockumentary, there are new featurettes and, for THE FINAL CHAPTER (my personal favorite in the series), a fan commentary from horror directors Joe Lynch (WRONG TURN 2) and Adam Green (HATCHET). Thankfully, I skipped the last box set, so I don't mind upgrading from the first set of bare-bones releases (though I might wait until I get a Blu-ray player to pick these up - and, by the way, the first three movies just became available on BD, which means IV, V and VI are probably three months away).

Wanna see some pictures from the party? Sure you do!

No, I didn't ask Shavar Ross if he's been bicycle shopping recently.

It's Camilla and Carey More from THE FINAL CHAPTER! Guess which one of these lovely ladies danced with Crispin Glover.

That's Vincent Guastaferro on the left telling Brian Collins (of the must-read Horror Movie a Day) and some asshole with a pasty, bloated face (me) how he uses his performance as Officer Pastore in SHOCKER to teach his acting students how to be brilliant. By the way, Universal, when you're ready to do a fan commentary for your badly-needed SHOCKER Special Edition, start with Mr. Collins. By the way, that's David Kagen aka Sheriff Garris with his hand on Mr. Guastaferro's shoulder.

FRIDAY THE 13TH IV, V and VI are available for purchasing at the retailer of your choice.