September 25, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES I & II • Page 17 ‘Friday the 13 th ’ is a horror fan’s dream release by Dennis Seuling When “Friday the 13th” hit movie screens in 1980, few suspected that this low-budget horror flick would be the genesis of a hugely successful franchise. Now, Warner Bros. and Paramount have joined forces to offer an impres- sive 10-disc Blu-ray set, “Friday the 13th: The Complete Collection.” “Friday the 13th” focuses on Jason Voorhees, who drowned as a young child at Camp Crystal Lake because of the inattentiveness of the camp counselors. Many years later, the camp becomes the scene of several murders, all of which are either committed or motivated by the avenging Jason, who forever lurks at Crystal Lake with his machete or other sharp weapons in hand. The key to the franchise’s success is the elaborately staged killings, one more grisly than the next, as a series of attractive but dumb teenagers insist on venturing into secluded places, investigating mysterious noises, and lin- gering alone in unfamiliar territory. With Michael Myers from the “Halloween” movies and Freddy Kreuger from the “Nightmare on Elm Street” series, Jason completes the famous trilogy of modern-day “mon- sters,” ranking in popularity with Dracula, the Franken- stein monster, and the Wolf Man from previous decades. The “Friday the 13th” horror series is one of the longest- running and most successful in film history. This collec- tion includes all 12 films, with seven titles making their Blu-ray debut, and a bonus disc of special features on the making of the famous franchise. The set is packaged in a sturdy tin case with 11 hours of previously released fea- tures and a 40-page book excerpted from “Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th,” the The masked Jason Voorhees is featured in the new Blu-ray release, ‘Friday the 13th: The Complete Collection.’ definitive volume on the series. It contains highlights from 200 interviews, 600 photos, storyboards and concept art, and a Camp Crystal Lake embroidered Counselor Patch. “In the House” (Cohen Media Group) is a suspense drama from director Francois Ozon. Sixteen-year-old Claude Garcia (Ernest Umhauer) is a student in a writ- ing class taught by bored, middle-aged Germain (Fabrice Luchini). Germain becomes fascinated with a story Claude has written about how he has schemed his way into the house of a schoolmate, Rapha (Bastien Ughetto), and seen things not meant for outsiders’ eyes. Germain at first scolds the boy, but then becomes seduced by his ongoing tale, in which he reveals his attraction to Rapha’s mother (Emman- uelle Seigner) and details Rapha’s father’s problems. The film is reminiscent of “Swimming Pool,” with its cinematic treatment of a writer’s creative process, as it deals with the theme of reality as filtered through the imagina- tion. The characters are well drawn and the performances are uniformly effective. Blu-ray features include a making- of featurette, bloopers, and deleted scenes. The film is in French with English subtitles. “Redemption” (Lionsgate) stars Jason Statham as Joey Jones, who returns from the Afghan war a shattered man. Broke, homeless, and lost in a haze of drugs and alcohol, he attempts to piece his life together with the help of Sister Cristina (Agata Buzek), a nun who works in an inner- city parish. Joey’s expert training as a soldier marks him as a valuable asset to the mob and he soon finds himself employed in the dark web of London’s criminal underworld. When Joey finds out his girlfriend was brutally murdered by ruthless kingpins, he seeks revenge, even if it promises to destroy him completely. As Statham movies go, “Redemption” is ambitious, though the plot is all over the place. The Steven Knight script attempts to explore the ambiguity of a broken man seeking redemption who cannot leave behind the vio- lence he has known and is his only talent. The relationship between Jones and Sister Cristina never rings true when he (continued on Crossword page)