Friday the 13th is over, but he still haunts us all.
I wanted to do a segment for a long time, but horror is strange thing. Talk about a crowd of mixed emotions. There are fans who hate certain movies and fans who loves certain movies. I wanted to talk about movies people hate and try to understand why. The thought comes from most people’s views on Friday the 13th V: A New Beginning. There is so much hate out there for this movie and I, in the past am guilty for giving this movie so much hate. Many call this A New Beginning the worst Friday the 13th. I don’t think so, not even close, that honor goes to Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. In my review, I will try and explain to those haters out there why A New Beginning is not so bad and how it is closer to the original than any of the others. I know, bold statement.
After The Final Chapter, Jason Voorhees is dead, but Paramount Pictures wanted to make another movie. Many thought the next movie would be Tommy Jarvis taking the mask and becoming the next Jason. But Corey Feldman was contracted to make another movie, Goonies. So that idea was scrapped, in a way. I have read A New Beginning was the beginning of a trilogy that would see different copycat Jason’s and possibly not only at Crystal Lake. This could all be rumor or speculation, but I am glad it did not go there.
The movie picks up and Jason is dead for sure and it seems like everything is well. Tommy has grown up and being sent to a halfway home for crazy kids. But it is not long before one of the kids is murdered by another, Vic was really out of line. The only time we see Jason, Tommy is having hallucinations of Jason. So, when Jason finally appears, some may wonder if it is a hallucination or real life. But, the mask is different, rather than the iconic red, it now has blue markings.
A bunch of people die and we see little of Tommy Jarvis. He is shown to have a short fuse and doesn’t say much. I think we are supposed to think it is Tommy, he does disappear from time to time, but I never had the impression it was Tommy. I never thought that thanks to seeing Jason Lives previously. I had no idea who it could be, I knew it was not Jason.
Everyone shown in the movie was dying off, Fake Jason makes his way to the halfway house and kills everyone in the house, except Reggie the Reckless and Pam. It comes down to Pam and Reggie running through the rain and into a barn. To this point, it is almost obvious that it is Tommy Jarvis, until…Tommy shows up in the same place as Jason. So, again, it brings us to, who is Jason, he is dead. The mayor of the town even stated he was cremated and is nothing but ash, which turns out to be false. Jason Lives proved he had a grace in a cemetery.
The fight is on, Pam, Reggie, Tommy vs Fake Jason. Pam and Tommy knock Jason out of the barn and he falls on some kind of spiked rack and it revealed who was the man behind the mask. Roy Burns…who? Roy was the ambulance driver who was on the scene when Joey died. Turns out Joey was Roy’s son and it drove him mad. Roy went on a killing spree as Jason, killing anyone connected to the death of his son in some way. I believe he wanted to blame it on Jason and possibly Tommy Jarvis.
The end of the movie is kind of a cliff hanger, which the next movie Jason Lives erased. Tommy somehow has Roy’s mask in the hospital and he puts it on and looks like his may kill Pam. That is where the movie ends.
Fans do not like this entry. I do. I think it bridges a gap between human Jason to dead supernatural Jason. If you think about it, with the Paramount movies, Jason is the killer in 6 of 8. The first is a “whodunit” as is the 5th. Jason is the killer in 2, 3 and Final Chapter and A New Beginning was set the change everything, but everyone wanted Jason back. So, Jason returned for 6, 7 and 8. Before being movie to New Line Cinema. A New Beginning is very much like the original, Jason is dead and gone, there is a killer on the loose and no one knows who it is.
While it is not the best of the series, it is not the worst. I like it and I think most fans should get over Jason not being in the movie. Do you hate the original? A New beginning had the biggest kill count at the time and some really good kills, some were also cut of course. Overall it is a good addition to the series.
IMDB.com has a rating of 4.7
I give it a 6.0, it is not terrible.
Don’t forget to check out our Friday the 13th podcast, it is available in a few places. Follow on Podbean and Subscribe on YouTube, not to mention follow all of the Horror Syndicate on Twitter and Facebook.
I was never a fan of the poster art, the mask is way off base and makes it look like a Friday the 13th rip off.
