Review: Mario Kirner's Friday The 13th Props Museum Book

There are fans of the Friday The 13th franchise that have dedicated a major part of their life to preserving and collecting the numerous items that have been created to not only make the films, but also to promote them. I have met a large number of people over the years that definitely own their fair share of unique and valuable items from film productions, video store promotions, as well as movie theater advertisements. I own a few rare keepsakes from the films myself, such as scripts, call sheets, and a movie prop. However, there is one person that has managed to amass such a large collection of film used props, costumes, call sheets, scripts, and promotional items, that he decided to pull everything together for the first time into one table top book that would finally showcase all of these beautiful items in the Friday The 13th Props Museum in one place.

At one time, Mario ran a website that curated the items he owned from the films, but many years ago the site was infected with a virus and everything he had put online was lost. Since that time, I have worked with Mario to put his past and newly acquired items on this site to show to the fans. Eventually, Mario created a Facebook page dedicated to showing these pieces of history to the world, which includes very detailed information about each of the items, such as how they were used in the production of the films.

Last year Mario decided to produce and release the definitive book about his large collection of Friday The 13th props and other items. The publication discusses items starting with Jason Lives: Friday The 13th Part VI and finishes with the 2009 sequel/reboot film, with mention of the Peter Bracke book Crystal Lake Memories and Friday The 13th: The Game. Some may wonder why this Props book only starts with items from Part VI. Quite honestly, there are very few props and costumes that have survived from the earlier films in the franchise. Those props that have survived (Mrs. Voorhees head from the original film, Jason torso prop from The Final Chapter), reside in other fan's collections. Mario did acquire Chuck's shirt from Part 3, but after the book went into publication.

Starting with Jason Lives, each movie has a chapter dedicated to the props and production items used during filming, with shooting schedules, call sheets, scripts, and behind the scenes pictures utilized to tell the stories of how each item was used to bring that film to life. It is an extraordinary visual and written history of these films, which will never be able to be shown or discussed anywhere else. For instance, most of the films that are reviewed begin with a pull out of an actual screen-used Jason Voorhees costume used in that respective installment of the franchise.

Take a look at images below from the book to see the plethora of information given for the props and costumes of the films.







With 143 pages of in-depth information and rare photos of production-used props and costumes, Mario Kirner's Friday The 13th Props Museum book is a must own for anyone who is a fan of the Friday The 13th franchise.

You can purchase the book on Amazon and Ebay right now. If you own the book already, we would love to hear from you in the comments section below and let us know what you enjoy most about this historical document of the Friday The 13th films.