Friday the 13th: Part VII- The New Blood
Starring: Lar Park-Lincoln, Kevin Spirtas, Terry Kiser, John Otrin, Susan Blu, Kane Hodder
Directed by: John Carl Buechler
Rating: R
Genre: Horror
1988
Times Seen:
Tim: 1
Summary: When a girl (Lar Park-Lincoln) with telekinesis travels to Crystal Lake, she unwittingly resurrects Jason (Kane Hodder), who continues his bloody rampage once again.
Review:
Tim: After the shockingly better-than-expected Friday the 13th: Part VI- Jason Lives, the franchise returns to its disappointing ways with this film. I don't necessarily believe it is difficult to make a decent horror/slasher film. It just takes a little bit of intelligence and a desire to do things a bit differently. With Friday the 13th: Part VII- The New Blood, we have the same old probles that have plagued this franchise for years. This film is nearly indistinguishable from all the others. This is a disappointment.
Like in previous films, we have Jason resurrected by some supernatural means that are never fully explained. Jason then continues his quest for blood, and there happens to be a number of teenagers within reach for easy killing. As you might expect, Jason methodically picks them off one-by-one with little no difficulty, until he faces off with the most developed characters, who will probably manage to defeat him. We've seen this all too many times before, and director John Carl Buechler is only too happy to follow this tired old path.
Like most of the movies in this series, the teenagers are mostly cliches, devoid of any character development. We don't need to know anything about them, besides the fact that they are going to die in a variety of different ways. Our protagonist this time isn't Tommy Jarvis (weren't we getting tired of him anyway?). This time around, we have the mostly dull Tina Shepherd, played in a lackluster fashion by Lar Park-Lincoln. Tina apparently has telekinesis, but she can also get flashes of the future, and apparently can resurrect the dead. Her powers are very ill-defined, and seem to run the gamet of supernatural powers. I suppose I appreciated that Jason faced off against someone else with supernatural powers, but this was a minor strength.
This movie suffers because of all the problems associated with it. It was originally supposed to feature Jason going against Freddy Krueger, but when that fell through, the film was rewritten (you can tell). In addition, the movie suffered an enormous battle with the censor board to get an "R" rating, which required the cutting of many of the more gratuitous scenes. These factors give the film a jumbled, messy feel to it.
The real problem with these movies is that there just isn't a reason to care. The teenagers and adults are all stupid and poorly written, so we have no reason to become invested. The vast majority of them are going to die anyway, so their disposable aspect hurts the film. Our heroine isn't very engaging, so it is difficult to care about her. We also know how the film is going to end, without watching a second of the film. This Friday the 13th film follows the same format as all the others, which means at this point, it is tired and predictable.
I really like Jason as a horror movie villain, but I desperately wish there was some intelligence and creativity in this film. This franchise badly needs ome originality infused in it. As is, Friday the 13th: Part VII- The New Blood is a stupid, weak entry in a franchise that has already had too many disappointments. I could barely stay interested, and I am rapidly losing my patience with this frachise.
Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 5
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, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, Friday the 13th: Part VI- Jason Lives, Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street