Written by Martin Kitrosser And David Cohen And Danny Steinmann
Directed by Danny Steinmann
Mayor Cobb (to Sheriff Tucker): "Jason Voorhees? You outta your fucking mind? You been out in the sun for too long. Jason Voorhees is dead."
Given that the fourth movie went from being an intended closer for the franchise but instead managed to breathe further life, you can't blame the writers for having a spring in their step. With Final Girls such as Alice, Ginny and Chris not staying the course, they had something else up their sleeves.
Yes, the something being a Final Boy and yes, I'm talking about Tommy Jarvis. Briefly appearing in a nightmare sequence, we got to see Corey Feldman one last time as Tommy. Then Tomy woke up in a car, years had passed and he was now played by John Shepherd.
The fact that years had passed was an indication that this franchise knew it needed to shake up it's format. Of course given the reputation of this movie, it's not the only thing that got shaken up. Let's just say what this movie does with its big threat will be replicated in another horror franchise nearly forty years later.
Tommy finds himself at a halfway house run by Dr Matt Letter (Richard Young) but it's his assistant Pam Roberts (Melanie Kinnaman) and a young boy named Reggie (Shavar Ross) who form a trio of protagonists with Tommy against "Jason". As for everyone else, you know the drill: cannon fodder.
Again, it's a mix of oversexed young adults and teens, a hillbilly mother and her dimwitted son as one by one, they're killed rather brutally by Jason. Well, that's the thing though. For once, it's not actually Jason doing the killing. Second time really.
Instead it's a paramedic named Roy Burns (Dick Wieand) whose motives for the mass killings are straight from Pamela Voorhees playbook. Unfortunately he's not developed enough as a character to make this plot really come alive. However he's afforded a death scene as gruesome as the ones he subjected to various characters throughout the film.
As for Tommy Jarvis, I do think John Shepherd does a good job portraying a darker and more tortured version of the character. There are multiple times in the movie where it felt like even Tommy would be a danger to the group on a bigger scale before his escape at the end.
- Tommy's penchant for monster masks came up with both Reggie and another guy playing around with them. Reggie's brother being called Demon was funny though.
- One of the actors in this movie was Deborah Sue Voorhees who played Tina. Also this movie had more sex and violence than the last one.
- Not only was this the first movie since the original not to have Jason as the killer but even the numbering isn't here.
- Chronology: A few years since the events of the previous movie.
Friday The 13th: A New Beginning might be a tiny step down from the previous movie but I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. The kills are great, it doesn't overstay it's welcome and while the Roy Burns reveal is clumsily handled, it didn't ruin the movie either.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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