Friday the 13th Part 7: The New Blood

                           Friday the 13th Part 7: The New Blood Directed by John Carl Buechler

As a kid, this was my favorite Friday the 13th. There is something about a hulking unstoppable murderer VS a telekinetic heroine that I really enjoyed growing up. This installment gives us a character who can fight Jason, one who can do real damage to our antagonist.

We begin with a bit of exposition and clips of Jason's various killings from all movies, especially part 6. Though we have had retellings in three out of the seven movies so far, this one is done more effectively than the other two. The scenes during the intro are touched up, with parts 1-5 having a slightly better quality to them. We get an outline of a hockey mask as beams of light course through the holes. The mask jaggedly splits in two and the title card comes up, written in red.

Our telekinetic protagonist, Tina

Some time has passed since part 6. We see Jason resting in the lake when Tina kills her father. After that beginning scene, Tina is now a young adult, about seventeen. So at least seventeen years have past since part six. There are a few houses by the lake, I assume it is no longer a camp for kids but a small community in a forested area.

The setting is Crystal Lake as usual. It seems the name "Forest Green" was changed back because the studio thought "eh, we can change it back now". The grounds are a bit different with houses taking the place of log cabins. No counselors either, as the lake (for this movie at least) is a small community. Maybe they moved the camp somewhere safer.

Right away, through her fathers death, we learn Tina has a special gift. One night, her mother and father where arguing. Her drunk abusive father strikes Tina's mom so Tina runs to the lake and high tails it in a motor boat. Her father, standing on the dock, pleads with her to come back. In anger, Tina snaps at her dad. Her latent psychic powers causes the dock to crumble, drowning her dad in the process. This power will be used to snap the chain restraining Jason at the bottom of the lake.

The main villain is not Jason but the mentally and emotionally abusive psych doctor Crews, who is trying to "help" Tina become "normal". Really, he is trying to understand how Tina's powers work and see if he can use them for his own gain. All he is interested in involves Tina having to move things with her mind and not having contact with the outside world. You can tell right away this guy is not a good person, and later in the movie you find out he is a downright scum bag.

Doctor Crews is the real bad guy.

Rounding out the cast is Tina's loving mother, Mrs. Shepard, handsome and caring guy Nick, the male lead, Eddie, the storyteller and writer, whose book involves space and protozoa, Russ, whose cabin the teens are using to throw a birthday party, Melissa, a snobby bitch, David a "cool stoner" type guy, Sandra the gold digger, and a few others who get little character development (like the nerd girl or Ben the black guy) before they get killed off.

Jason looks amazing in this installment. The decade underwater has not be beneficial to his skin. His hands are big, grey, and wrinkled, his head is a wrinkly miasmic grey mess. Half of his spine is exposed, poking out of his sunken in back, and his cloths are in tatters. We get to see his face near the end of the movie and my god is it beautiful in a grotesque fiendish kind of way. Props to the FX department for making Jason look as badass as possible.

Kane Hodder plays Jason, and he will stay the villain until Freddy vs Jason comes out. He is the actor people associate with the character, and for good reason. He gives Jason these little nuances that make him creepy. Hodder is a stuntman and, while playing the role, has done most if not all of the stunts. He is the most loved Jason actor and knows how to play the role as if he created the character.

Speaking of Jason and his quest to punish all who enter his domain, the killing in A New Blood comes from all angles: an ax, a metal spike, the trusty machete, and even a weed wacker are all used to dispense justice upon the cast. Jason even goes so far as to kill a girl with a party favor. The murders are varied but are not shown in great length like they were in part 5. It seems the studio wanted to tone back on the gore since then and while the different ways to execute people have been explore they lack the detail to make a real impact. Most of the deaths happen with a cut to Jason committing the deed then another cut away to another scene.

Tina holds her own against Jason, using everything in the vicinity against him. Jason takes a lot of punishment himself in this installment.  He gets electrocuted, lit on fire, gets his mask tightened around his head until it snaps, and has a house dropped on him, among other things. This movie shows us how much a zombie can be damaged, but he still keeps coming back. This movie really, unlike any other, show just how much damage you have to inflict and in the end, its never enough.

Maybe he is born with it, maybe its...

The ending is a little off-putting. Despite all we have seen in A New Blood, this is the most far reaching scene the Friday series has had. It's so unbelievable that it kills the whole finale. You'll understand when you see it.

Audio 8/10
The score is beautifully crafted, but it is lacking the modern music of the last two films. One of my all time favorite scores in any horror movie. It has a certain charm to it. Harry Manfedini uses a horror themed music set when Jason is afoot and a separate music set when Tina is using her powers, then he mixes them during the Tina vs Jason fight. It feels pleasing to the ears.

Video 8/10
There are not a lot of problems with the video. It looks great. The POV shots of Jason sneaking around have been in all Friday the 13th movies he has been in. This time we do not get a massive rain storm in the end, but we do get a single crack of lightning, I wonder if they thought of making a storm and dismissed it halfway though because the one flash of lightning with out a follow up is really weird.

Effects 9/10
From Jason's horrid clothing and festering body to the reveal of all the deceased in the movie, it looks fantastic. Having Kane Hodder play Jason makes the effects department be able to do more then they normally could. There is an explosion, Jason is lit on fire, and so much more that makes me tip my hat to the special effects workers on this movie. Very little CGI is used. I believe when Jason's mask gets ripped off, it is one of the few cases of CGI in A New Blood.

Story 7/10
There are a few plot holes in the story, like what did Dr. Crews want to do with Jason. He obviously knew about him since Tina and Nick find news paper articles about the Camp Blood Massacre in his drawer. This is never explained. Adding a telekinetic girl was a stretch, but it makes such a good foil for the unstoppable beast that is Jason in this movie. Originally, part 7 was going to be Freddy vs Jason but I think New Line dropped out, so they made Tina have powers since the script was already in place.

Not having Crystal Lake be a camp is also a big departure from every movie, except for the next film, where we go beyond the lake. Speaking of the lake, remember my small rant in part 6? Well that was rectified in this movie as the lake is much deeper in A New Blood.

Overall 89/100
Again, this is my favorite Friday the 13th film. There is something about the brains over brawn theme this movie has going for it that I enjoy. Although the ending, I feel, is a cop out and there would have been many better ways to end Jason's massacre in this movie, I would most definitely add this to your "to watch list", even if you don't like Friday the 13th.

Jsaon Lives: Friday the 13th part 6

                                      Jason Lives: Friday the 13th part 6 Directed by Tom McLaughlin

Kill Or be Killed

We open up with Tommy Jarvis riding with a friend named Hawes to go check Jason's grave and make sure he is still in his grave. They venture out to a cemetery we assume is on the Crystal Lake grounds. Upon finding the grave site, Tommy says he has to be sure and he proceeds to dig. They strike wood and Tommy insists they open the coffin. The coffin gets open, however, upon seeing the body Tommy goes running to the nearest gate in the cemetery. He rips off a metal bar and proceeds to stab the rotten, maggot infested corpse of his once pursuer, ending with him running the metal rod through Jason's chest and leaving it there... in a thunderstorm. Well, lighting strikes the pole and Jason is resurrected, with Tommy barely escaping the cemetery with his life.

Jason newly revived and ready to spread terror 

The intro is different. No title explosion. Instead, we a double 07 intro with Jason walking in on the right. He stops, turns, and slashes to bring the title up in blood.There is also no flashback intro. John Shepard is not acting the role Tommy Jarvis in this movie which is a shame. In his place, we get Thom Mathews.

Tommy comes off as more of an obsessed child who needs people to pay attention to him rather then a survivor with mental health issues. Both New Beginning and Jason Lives seems to forget about Tommy's resourcefulness, In part 4 we had a smart kid beating Jason by outwitting then murdering him, now all grown up he has lost a lot of intelligence and charm. Replacing the charm is a weird almost stalker vibe. 

The setting in part 6 is a forested area called "Forest Green", a new name given to Crystal Lake to help people forget about the massacre that took place a decade ago. There is a lot going on here. The camp is actually open. There is a corporate retreat complete with competitive paint ball games. The police are chasing after Tommy and Tommy is trying to find a way to finish Jason off.  As per normal, Crystal Lake has the most awkward weather of nice sunny days followed by rigorous nightly thunderstorms.

Casting in this movie feels right with the exception of Tommy. The sheriff who takes no guff from Tommy does a great job in particular, his trigger happy deputy does not get a lot of lines but we can at least get a sense of his personality from his actions. Drunk grave keeper also was cast great rather then reporting the open grave he reburies it not wanted to get in trouble, we feel for him as the town drunk and the actor looks like he would have a serious alcohol problem.Camp counselors don't get too much character development or even character at all. Sissy is the black councilor, Cort is the only guy, Paula hangs out with Sissy, and Megan is the sheriffs daughter.

Left to right: Megan, Sissy, Cort and Paula

There is much less sex in this movie then part 5 maybe the studio realized people are not watching Friday for soft core porn, though there are a few sex scenes, its no where near as much as part 5. The dialog is the opposite of part 5 as well with more substance then random cussing.

In this outing we actually get to see campers, little kids who come for the outdoors. There a bit of a side story with the kids, one girl in particular who see Jason outside her window a few times. Paula and Sissy address her fears that there is a monster outside. The girl shows up later scaring Paula awake with a bloody knife but Paula still thinks its a joke from Cort. The children have little dialog and are mainly there to make the audience think if Jason would really kill little kids. Spoiler he won't

Megan plays an integral part of the story as the female lead. She is the only one who believes Jason is back, and is also Tommy's love interest much to the chagrin of her dad, the sheriff. She is wily and adventurous. Megan is a counselor but is never really at the camp, mid day we see her give a speech to the kids about how much fun they will have then she leaves to talk to her dad, I guess it was a long talk because she does not head back to camp until it is late night. Megan helps Tommy pick up the supplies he needs to stop Jason and gets him back to the camp, she also plays a large roll in defeating Jason.

Undead Jason is suppose to be neigh unstoppable, though he takes little punishment in this installment. A few shotgun blasts, handgun shots, and few blows to the head with a rock. In the end, its not about him dying as it is about him being restrained. I feel they could have made him more powerful simply by having him take more damage.

You can not drown to death twice.

This movie is pretty lax on the kills as well, its not that we don't get enough of them its how they are executed. While the deaths are on the screen its more of a Jason swings, jump cut to a wider angle, heads roll off kind of this. There is little gore to kills and quite a few take place off screen. A new Beginning had so many kills and most of the deaths happened in front of our eyes, take the leather strap kill, we see the strap go around the guys head, then "Jason" turns the strap. Cut back to the guys head as it is getting squeezed, back to Jason turning more, back to the guy bleeding, then he dies. This movie does not have that kind of feel to it, though one person does get folded like a wallet.

Body count-18

Audio 8/10
More rock music was added to this installment and I have to say, I like it. Teenage Frankenstien by the Alice Cooper was a good choice. The score is amazing as well and it took Jason 6 movies to get a right proper theme. Harry Manfredini has been the composer of all the friday films thus far and has been making progress with each movie.

Video 8/10
The quality of this movie looks good it has a very mid 90's feel to it despite being made before the decade began. there are a few times they reuse shots.

Effects 5/10
Considering how much the craft has advanced and how well the visuals of part 5 where there was no reason this movie should have had less. Nikki (a girl who is in the movie for 3 minutes) getting her face indented against the RV was a nice effect but there are not enough of those moments to make me score it higher, especially when part 5 had such great visuals. Jason looked great but the lack of practical effects on kills is mind blowing. there are a few kills that you only know happened because of the sound effect like neck snapping or head crushing..

Story 6/10
Tommy comes back to make sure Jason is gone for good, why does it take him him so many years? The better question is how did he even get out of the mental hospital? We assume part 5's ending is not canon or is a dream, so I'm not sure how you can let this mentally and emotionally scared man out of rehabilitation. This is the 2nd movie with Tommy and we still do not know what happened to his sister, for some reason this really bothers me.
 The camp is actually open, adding kids was a nice touch as the other movies happen the day before the camp opens. There is side stories with the kids and the sheriff's ever growing hated toward Tommy, they add depth to the "cabin the woods" overarching story. A plot device I have a problem with is how they make crystal lake shallow, lets say Jason is 7'1 tall, during the finale Jason is able to reach up and grab Megan's leg whilst being at the bottom of the lake. This would mean the lake is only about 10 feet deep, one of the shallowest lakes in the world, but crystal lake is incredibly big in all the movies and I can't see a mile long lake only being 10 feet deep.

Overall: 59/100
While the story was alright and the audio was superb I want to see people get killed in horror movies I want newly risen unstoppable Jason to kill people with the ridiculous power he has. This installment fails to deliver the scream factor and the kills are lacking. what was a solid production visually, auditory and story wise is sadly a step back from the practical effects. aside from the reverse folding of a human being (which the act kind of  happens on the screen) and the RV crash there is not much that is visually pleasing about the murder that take place in front of the viewers eyes. I think the original plan was for Tommy to die in this movie because he is not in the last chapters. This is probably the 3rd worst movie in the franchise for me I would recommend others to see it as they may have a different opinion but I'm not a big fan of this chapter

-Rosanderman. 

Friday the 13th: A New Beginning

                                      Friday the 13th Directed by Danny Steinmann 

If Jason still haunts you, you're not alone!

The fifth movie in the franchise is the one I like the least, aside from Jason X. This is more of a "who done it" kind of movie where we are lead to believe that Jason is dead and Tommy is going crazy, or that maybe Jason is back. Either way, this movie deals with psychological trauma. It is set ten years after The Final Chapter. Look at the poster.  It sets the tone for the whole movie.

After the dream sequence, we find out Tommy Jarvis is now in a halfway house. Then BOOM hockey mask into title with more explosion than you can shake a stick at. I don't understand why they keep using the intro. F13 is not an action series.

I must say the actor does look like Corey Feldman grown up. Speaking of Feldman, he is only in the movie for the intro. Feldman was off making the Goonies. Tommy still feels like Tommy. He makes masks and carries around a picture of his sister, mother, and dog, but his intelligence is played down. Where is the kid who can restart a car engine or reroute electricity? On the plus side, John Shepherd, the actor playing Tommy, does a great job acting as a psychologically damaged adult. We are also introduced to the main cast: Reggie, "the reckless" a boy around Tommy's age in part four, who is visiting his grandfather and likes playing pranks on the patients; Pam, the female lead and assistant to the doctor that runs the rehabilitation home; Joey, a fat, orphan slob of a teen with mental issues; Vic, a musclebound insane man; Violet, the punk; and Robin, a slightly ditsy girl. Joey does not last long and is killed by Vic 3 minutes after we meet him. Vic gets carted away by the police. This is important because it sets up the "who done it" story line.

Slob Joey on his way to meet death

Our first "Jason" killing comes right after the scene where Joey dies, with two greaser kids getting killed after their car breaks down. There is a lot of supporting cast: the redneck mother and son duo that live around the town, the policemen and EMT's picking up the killer's dirty work, the people at the halfway house, and Reggie's Prince-esque brother Demon, who lives in a trailer park. There are a lot of people in this movie. I personally think there are a few too many people in the cast for a horror movie. I know they are setting up who the killer could be, if not Jason, but there are so many characters that it is hard to keep track. Halfway into the movie, we are still being introduced to new people.

There are a lot of jump scares, almost on par with today's horror. There's the big toy spider that gets dropped down, a cat that falls right in front of the screen, multiple practical jokes that involve appearing out of nowhere with scary masks, and the old "the killer is about to grab you but its actually your friend" trick. The New Beginning is chalk full of jump scares. It feels out of place with the rest of the series. Well, this movie is out of place with the rest of the series, so I guess it makes sense.

Tommy's psychological trauma is shown in detail. There are scenes where Jason shows up behind him in the mirror or in a field outside of the house. The movie uses this to remind you that you're watching a Friday the 13th movie and not a random slasher flick. The psychosis only gets worse as the movie progresses and the body count piles up. They keep bringing Jason back in the form of hallucinations or flashbacks from The Final Chapter.

Is Jason really there or is this another hallucination? 

The dialog in this movie appears to be written by multiple people, with one of them not taking his job seriously. For the most part, the lines work, especially for the redneck mother who swears like a sailor, and they are delivered competently. But then there are scenes where some of the lines are barely there, like "she's going to kills us, fuck you" "yes... fuck me, *whispers* fuck me". The finale is literally ten minutes of screaming and incoherent yelling, The script feels like it's written by multiple people at the same time and, well, it is, but those three or four people had different takes on the feel of the movie and I'm guessing they never sat down to address the issues.

Ethel is the most colorful character in the movie.

Some of the mental patients are vaguely mental, in the sense that they seem to have no problems. Violet is a moody teenager.  Robin is in no way a mentally handicapped woman. And the only problem with Tina and Eddie is that they do things without thinking. And are in love. That's a handicap right? There is a young adult with a stutter, but that's not a mental condition.  Why are there so many normal kids at this halfway house?  Tommy is affected by trauma, Vic is insane, Joey was mentally handicapped and an orphan, and Jake has a stutter. Only four of the nine people in the rehabilitation house actually suffer from mental disability. Maybe it's because Paramount was against the killing of mentally disabled people.

Lets talk about said killing, There are a gratuitous amount of kills in this movie and they come in all forms, be it ax, machete, gardening shears, or even just a plain leather strap. People fall left and right in this installment. Midway though the movie, we get 3 deaths in under 2 minutes. That's value. The life taking in A New Beginning is also fleshed out. Practical special effects were at their peak in the mid eighties, so any horror movie around this time will look great. The variety of ways to murder is on full display here and most of them are colorful and well executed. 

New meaning of "see no evil"  

Nudity has always been a staple of horror since it made the transition from black & white, and A New Beginning has it in spades. No woman in this movie wears a bra. I am not kidding. Be it the girl at the diner, Robin, or Tina, every female says no to support. There is as much nudity in this installment as there is swearing and this movie sets the bar. It's a trend we will see in a lot of horror flicks from the 70's onward. I was surprised by the amount. I don't remember seeing this much. I was a kid the first time I saw this, so I guess it went over my head. It's easy to forget about something as trivial as boobage when you're that young, especially when people die every 5 minutes.

Now for the finale, the main reason that a lot of Friday fans, including me, are not big fans of this movie. You can easily discern that the imposing figure is not Jason and, with a bit of scouting, you know exactly who it is during the mud chase. The hockey mask has blue lines instead of the usual red. Coupled with the person's obvious human-colored skin, you know he is alive. Tommy left in a huff earlier, so the film makes you believe it is Tommy but this guy is way too tall for that. The motive the killer has is pretty strong but there is no way he put all of his plan together in one day. The ending was an idea the studio thought of and might have worked if fans didn't passionately want Jason and I, for one, am happy they brought him back to stay. 

Its Red Herring!

Body count: 19 (22 with dream sequences)

Audio 9/10

For a movie I don't enjoy, I must say the score in this one is exceptional. The scary parts have a great ambiance to them. The song that plays while Violet is dancing in her room, "His eyes" by Pseudo Echo, is my favorite track in any Friday the 13th movie. The studio got with the times and added some new wave and it worked out perfectly with Violet's character. Some of Pam's screams are out of sync, and she screams a lot for the last 10 minutes of the film, but it's a minor bother when the music is this good.

Video 7/10

The video quality stands the test of time. Likewise, the setting and atmosphere are well balanced. I could not point out a single glaring problem in the cinematography. There are a few times they reuse shots, like Junior the redneck riding around on his motorcycle or when Pam and Reggie are racing back to the house in the truck. 

Effects 7/10

With the rise in quality of special effects and makeup, this movie looks great. The deaths are articulated. The series has come a long way and with it has come the advancement in technique. Kills are varied and fully fleshed out, the blood looks real, and the storm actually looks and sounds like a thunder storm.

Story 6/10

I may be judging this installment too harshly, but people came to the theater to see Jason and what we got was a copycat. The studio will play with this idea again in Final Friday, but that's for a different time. The inclusion of Vic and the death of Joey plays an integral part in the plot. You'll understand when you see the ending. We know three quarters of the way though the movie that we won't be getting Jason but with so many characters thrown at us we start to guess, and Vic is the most obvious choice. I don't like that they never once mention Tommy's sister, Trish. She survived, and at least one line could have been used to let the audience know what happened to her. A New Beginning has its strong points, especially when it comes to dealing with trauma and the hardships it brings.

Overall 70/100

I said I did not like this movie, and that it was my second least favorite. That latter still holds true but I do appreciate it more now that I have seen it recently. I still do not like that Jason was excluded save for the hallucinations. I give much praise to John Shepherd for playing a traumatized character well. I docked 4 points for the lack of the main antagonist. I feel I should have taken more points away but I'm being generous. The film was going for a different approach and setting up Tommy Jarvis to take his place, I get that but the ending could have hinted that Jason was still out there, even if they had no plans to bring him back.

.-Rosanderman