Review of Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985) by Humunguschungus — 04 Aug 2019

As far as I'm concerned Jason should have stayed dead and buried until 1986 when Tom McLoughlin gave us one of the best films in this roller coaster of a franchise. After four films the fifth decided to present us with a new beginning of the franchise.

.. by doing exactly what the previous films did only with inferior results. If I recall correctly A new beginning actually has the highest body count of any film in the franchise, this is apparently because some of the higher ups felt that there should be a scare of some sort every few minutes.

This results in most of the death scenes feeling incredibly rushed and put together haphazardly in the name of exploitation. Obviously the previous films were made with similar intent, but for my money they were better in nearly every aspect.

With so many kills all back to back the tension of Jason being on screen is quickly diminished. It doesn't help that he is killing off some of the worst characters in slasher movie history. Thank god most of them die because I never want to see them again.

Even Tommy Jarvis, who is meant to be our heroine in this film, is horribly acted and not at all convincing. The film's ending only makes these problems even worse. I suppose I shouldn't spoil it but rest assured you will be disappointed.

Perhaps the biggest sin is that with a better written movie with more convincing characters such an ending could have been very effective. I would hope that no innocent man, woman, child or pet goldfish would ever watch this film with any expectations whatsoever.

But what bothers me more so than the film itself is that I've hear some call it a hidden gem, a film so horrendous that it is actually entertaining. I call it trash.