PopHorror Let's Get Scared
I remember watching music videos on MTV with my sister when I was in 5th grade (yes kiddies, they actually used to show videos on MTV at one time, believe it or not) and was utterly shocked when they showed the trailer for Friday the 13th: A New Beginning at one point. I mean come on; Jason finally got killed in the last movie! It was called The Final Chapter, for Pete’s sakes, so there was no way they were going to bring him back, was there?
I sat and thought about the possibility for the rest of the night and couldn’t wait to get my little butt into a theater as soon as possible to see this movie so I would know for sure. Part of my ten-year-old mind was telling me that it was going to be Tommy Jarvis this time around (I meant it was subtitled as A New Beginning after all) since he got all whacko at the end of the last movie so to stay I was excited was an understatement.
My mom took me to see it a couple of weeks later at the theater and I was so full of nervous excitement before the movie started that I could barely stand it. So, what was the final verdict? Did I love it, or did I go back home that day feeling totally disappointed?
Keep reading to find out, and keep in mind that there are some spoilers here that will ruin the movie if you haven’t seen it…
Friday the 13th: A New Beginning Synopsis
Several years after killing Jason, Tommy Jarvis finds himself in a halfway home for troubled young adults and before you know it the bodies start piling up again. Has Jason really returned from the grave to continue slaughtering anyone unlucky enough to get in his way, or is there someone else behind the hockey mask this time around?
Danny Steinmann directed the film. It stars John Shepard, Melanie Kinnaman, and Shavar Ross.
I’ll admit that I didn’t exactly love Friday the 13: A New Beginning the first time I saw it, but over the years I’ve come to appreciate it and dig it quite a bit. I didn’t like it at first because we eventually find out that it isn’t Jason after all and it’s just someone else dressed like him going around hacking people to pieces. When I was a kid, I thought that this was the goofiest thing in the world, and a lot of my horror-loving classmates thought the same thing. As I got older though, I have come to realize that it is a pretty awesome idea, and it works for a number of reasons.
The premise is basically what you would expect from a Friday the 13th movie, as it features a guy in a hockey mask brutally murdering people in all sorts of creative ways. It’s a fun slasher flick, but it also has the added element of mystery as you’re not sure who is responsible for the murders. Sure, we see Jason doing it, but there is also the possibility that it is someone else dressed like him or that it could be Tommy doing it as he is a little off his rocker in this installment and never seems to be around when this Jason is killing someone. I dig this added element and think that it makes the movie more enjoyable in general.
I’ve got to give the folks behind it some credit as they tried something a little different here and while some viewers out there may not like it, I think that it works.
I think that it is a fun movie, mainly because it has a huge body count, and the death scenes are brutal and creative. Roy, the guy disguising himself as Jason, is a vicious dude (maybe even more so than Jason himself to an extent) and he doesn’t mess around when it comes to taking out his victims. We get some pretty cool stuff such as a road flare to the mouth, hedge clippers to the eyes, fun with an axe and a machete, and my personal favorite that involves a guy’s eyes and head getting squashed by a leather strap (which is one of the best death scenes in the entire series if you ask me).
I’m still surprised by the amount of people who get killed in this movie, and at the time it was released it could boast that it had the highest body count of any of the other movies in the series so far. If you are into cool, unique death scenes that are just loads of fun then you’ve come to the right place as this movie has that in spades.
I also like the characters that appear in the film and think that the cast did a fantastic job bringing them to life. While he isn’t my favorite Tommy (that honor belongs to Thom Mathews in the next film) John Shepherd (Power Play, Bless the Child) does a decent enough job in the role. Melanie Kinnamon (Thunder Alley, I Spill Your Guts 2) also delivers as Pam and is one of my favorite final girls from the series. Even though he annoyed the crap out of me when I was a kid, I’ve grown to really like Shavar Ross (The House of Dies Drear, Booker) as Reggie the Reckless and think he is a fun character.
I also must give props to Miguel A. Nunez Jr. (Return of the Living Dead, Survival) as Demon and Tiffany Helm (In the Tall Grass, 13 Fanboy) as Violet. I wish both had bigger parts.
Final Thoughts
I dig Friday the 13th: A New Beginning a lot, and while some people consider it to be the “New Coke” of the series, it is better than a lot of folks give it credit for. Sure, it is painfully easy to figure out who the killer is, and the ending doesn’t quite work, but I think it is a lot of fun in its own strange way. Give it a shot if you haven’t seen it or watch it again if you haven’t seen it in a while and I think that you will agree that it isn’t a bad film at all.
Happy 40th anniversary, Friday The 13th: A New Beginning!
