Making Friday the 13th

Who would have thought, with so many movies released on a shoe-string budget, with (mostly) no-name actors and directors, and repetitive plots, that the "Friday the 13th" series would have so many stories and so much history behind it? "Making Friday The 13th: The Legend Of Camp Blood" covers just about every bloody detail of the popular, but critically scorned horror series that started in 1980, and pretty much stayed a steady course the whole decade, before hitting troubled waters. Everything you ever wanted to know about "Friday The 13th," it's sequels, and even it's short-lived TV series, is contained within this book. If you grew up on this series, such as I did, and can forgive the corny plots and bad acting, just out of pure love, than this is one history lesson worth taking. Author David Grove takes a respectable approach to telling the story of this awesome, but troubled horror franchise. The book begins with the origins of the original "Friday the 13th" movie, and deals with the story of how producer/director Sean S. Cunningham came about in the movie business. From there, he goes into detail with each of the eleven movies, naming off the entire cast, and usually describing in detail how each are dispatched, along with funny anecdotes from just about everyone involved. Not only does Grove dig deep into the plot, but he also goes at lengths sometimes to study the ground-breaking special effects used in the original movie (and some of the later sequels). Each movie is given a fair portion of the book, although obviously some movies get more space than others (the original movie, for example, takes up almost a quarter of the book). Although he does sort of skim through the later movies, even the climactic "Freddy Vs. Jason," it's still nice to hear from someone who actually LIKES these movies. As we all know, and as it is documented in the book, the critics absolutely buried this franchise. After listening to so many people treat these movies that me and so many others treasure, it's good to have a professional point of view from someone who actually gives a damn. Although the book is very thorough, it still has some flaws. Aside from Grove's overall apathy for the later movies, he also tends to repeat himself a bit too often, sometimes within the same chapter! Plus, I can't help but be bothered by various typos throughout the book. The trash-talking between some of the crew members and some of the bitterness they harbor tends to drag down the affair. Take, for example, Adam Marcus, director of "Jason Goes To Hell" who states that "Nobody liked 'Jason Takes Manhattan'" (uh, speak for yourself) and that his film is only connected to the original movie and "parts" of the second (where did Jason get that hockey mask, then?). And then of course, we have the bickering about just who exactly played Jason in "Part 2," don't even get me started. Regardless, Grove still takes a fair approach when criticizing the movies, as he is obviously a fan

David Grove's book, Making Friday the 13th, is one of the most thorough and extensively-researched film books I've ever read. This book covers everything - not just regarding the Friday the 13th film series but the horror era in general. I couldn't believe some of the stories in the book. Highly recommended.

This is a great book on the making of the Friday the 13th film series and a unique era in film history. The book details everything about the Friday the 13th films series - from the series' conception to the creation of the hockey mask(which I was shocked to read about)to the state of the franchise today. Great read. Excellent resource.

Making Friday the 13th is a great document of the making of the Friday the 13th films, very informative. I couldn't believe some of the things I found out about the films in the book, especially about the making of the first film and the way in which the hockey mask was first conceptualized. If you're a Friday the 13th fan, this book is a must have; if you're not a fan, the book tells an interesting story(about 125,000 words) about a unique chapter in film history that's sadly, gone forever. Where have the '80s gone?

David Grove did a FABULOUS job at the writing and producing of this spectacular book outlining the Friday the 13th films. His unique views and probing questions, brought forth the stuff in writings that real Friday Fans want to know about. I'm a huge fan of the first film, and there are many things I didn't even know about in the production of the first film. I can't say enough great things about this book. It's a book that details the production histories of each film - very extensive research of a book that was much anticipated among the Friday fans. It also offers really nice, high quality photographs (a ton of them in this book!) that are in color and black and white. Many of the photographs are ones the fans haven't seen yet because they come from private collections of the producers involved. This is a very successful book from David Grove - GREAT JOB!!