Being a huge fan of the "Friday the 13th" franchise and finding Jason Voorhees to be the ultimate of all slashers, then of course I would eventually find my way around to sitting down to watch "His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th". Oddly enough it wasn't before now in 2017 that I actually got around to doing it.

"His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th" offers an extensive insight into the franchise through numerous interviews with directors, actors and actresses who performed in the movies (either as victims or as Jason himself),producers, and other such people whom has been tied in with the franchise in one way or another.

This documentary didn't really reveal much of anything new that I wasn't already familiar with to the franchise. Although it did offer some nice enough experiences from cast and crew working on the "Friday the 13th" movies. And it was fun enough to hear about their experiences, but it hardly gives you anything new to bring to the movies when you watch them.

Whether or not if you have seen "His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th" or not, then it doesn't really change the way you perceive the franchise, nor does it give you much of any kind of enlightenment of issues and questions that you might have for the this long-running franchise.

Sure, this was entertaining enough for what it was, however this is a niche documentary, that caters only for fans of the "Friday the 13th" franchise. If you are not a fan of this franchise, then there is very little of any worth or interest for you to have by sitting down to watching it.

Having seen it now, I doubt that I will return to watch it a second time. I could have wanted for a more in depth look at the production of the movies as well, with focus on the special effects. Sure, it was there, but not just as elaborate as I would have liked.

This 2009 documentary hosted by Tom Savini scores a 6 out of 10 stars from me.

Tom Savini hosts this documentary on thirty years of "Friday the 13th", complete with some cheesy segue scenes of girls getting killed by a stalking killer. Just about anyone who was anyone in the film's history (besides Crispin Glover and Corey Feldman) make appearances to talk shop.

If you're a fan of "Friday the 13th" (and I am),you'll probably enjoy this documentary. It's fast-paced, covers plenty of ground, catches us up with "stars" we haven't seen in a while. If you don't know the stories behind the films, this is a great way to learn them in a fairly short time.

If you're not a "Friday the 13th" fan, I'm not sure why you're watching this one. Is your boyfriend making you do it? Most of the information covered is something you won't care about unless you're familiar with the movies. Does the casual fan care what some minor character from part six thinks? I doubt it. But the more serious fans will eat it up like rice pudding.

That's really all one needs to know here. After you've purchased all twelve movies in the latest special edition, this film acts as sort of a nice summary piece. They even have a feature that sums up the entire series in four minutes (sadly not so much focusing on death scenes as on Joe Lynch ranting). With two discs of special features, there's really no way you can expect more "Friday the 13th" love... if you need more, you're beyond help. Go to a convention and have Kane Hodder strangle you or Ari Lehman make a "rock" pose with you. That should do the trick.

His Name Was Jason takes a serious (or self-serious and half-kidding) look at the horror icon, Mr. Voorhees (son of that old friend of the Christie's),and the saga of Friday the 13th and its impact on film and culture. It goes quickly through the stories and events of the films through 1980 to 2003 (since it was released on the day the remake came out- and they knew better- they left the most recent one out),and then it goes on to dissecting everything Jason. Who is this character? Why does he kill? And does he even have a soul? The cast and crew talk about Jason like he's a misunderstood being, and as well the notorious villain that he is and his status of being just another kid looking for revenge in his twisted mind (hence seeing his mother from time to time). Then it goes into talking about the legacy - the actors telling their stories, the make-up people (i.e. Tom Savini, who also graciously and wonderfully hosts) discussing techniques of killing people, and its status in popular culture.

While His Name Was Jason has merits in terms of some, if not most, of the interviews accumulated from cast and critics and other filmmakers (the director of Wrong Turn 2, oddly enough, becomes something of an authority),and seeing the clips brings some nostalgia, nobody comes clean with certain things. For one thing, Sean S. Cunninghamn practically says that Friday the 13th invented the slasher genre, without noting a certain movie called Halloween a few years before (or just as inspiration),and that everyone ripped the series off as it if was, you know, always a good thing. And while everybody is quick to heap praise on certain scenes and kills and effects (some warranted if only in the slasher realm) nobody is seen criticizing anything - A New Beginning, come on! - and there's a constant nu-metal soundtrack accompanying the clips and the interviews. It almost defeats the purpose of a tribute when you can barely have the noted "Ccch-maaaa" sound effect that is the franchise's trademark.

There's also the danger of having information in here that is nothing really new for die-hards of the series, whom this is marketed to most, but this isn't too much of a concern. If there is a problem with the information accumulated it's that it doesn't always have a clear focus: a topic is started up by Mr. Savini, and there's some time devoted to it (i.e. how kills are done, who Jason is) but then it trails off into something else. Some interviewees are interesting, like Kane Hodder and Savini himself. Others look like they could really use some work and desperately want anything, let alone to reprise their old characters... although an idea mentioned about bringing the surviving women from the 80's series together is a nifty idea. Certainly would be right up there in guilty-pleasure world like the bikini-girls hallucination in Jason X.

So, it's not essential, and some horror fans that just find Jason "ok" may be insulted by some of the super-high adulations made to a series that is even admitted by its makers to be formulaic fantasy. But as a propped-up DVD extra, it's not too painful to watch.