Friday the 13th: A New Beginning

Starring: Melanie Kinnaman, John Shepherd, Anthony Barrile, Suzanne Bateman, Corey Feldman
Directed by: Danny Steinmann
Rating: R
Genre: Horror
1985

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A number of teenagers living in a halfway house begin to get murdered, one-by-one- much like Jason Voorhees used to do when he was alive. As the survivors become fewer and fewer, Tommy (John Shepherd) is forced to confront the truth- has Jason risen from the dead?

Review:
Tim: I certainly appreciate when franchises take some risks, especially when you start to get up to 4 or 5 entries. I really like some of the changes in Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, but other changes threatened to destroy this movie. Writers and producers needs to understand that while there are certain changes that you can make, there are others that you just need to stay away from (I won't say more for fear of spoiling this movie, but I'll say the changes I didn't like involve Jason himself). As a result, the few thrills and chills that this movie does generate feel like wasted effort, because the movie's conclusion is pretty terrible. As a result, it sinks the entire film.

While this movie is certainly a Friday the 13th film, complete with a number of outlandish and gruesome deaths, it also departed a bit from previous films. We have the continuation of a character- Tommy, this time grown up from the last time we saw him. I really like when horror movies bring characters along through several films- it helps to create a story and mythology, and helps to prevent the franchise from feeling like an endless stream of remakes. I also liked that the victims here were not at a summer camp, but a halfway house for troubled and disturbed teens. This is a slight change of pace, although the setting itself doesn't matter as much, because the actions and dialogue could pretty much be interchangeable with previous films. Still, I appreciate the effort. At this point, we've seen pretty much every way a teenager could possibly be killed by a deranged psycho (or so it feels), so many of the deaths felt too familiar. We did get a few new creative ones, which helped differentiate this movie a little.

Even without the stupid ending to this movie, it was still on pace to be the worst film in the entire franchise. However, the last fifteen minutes or so really hurt this movie- it cost it major points in my book. Friday the 13th: A New Beginning is not a good movie at all. It is stilly, redundant, and ultimately, a bit of a blemish on a franchise already overwhelmed with blemishes.



Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 4



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Friday the 13th, Friday the 13th: Part 2, Friday the 13th: Part 3, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge