Review of Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985) by Foreverfinalgir — 20 Dec 2021

I remember not digging Friday the 13th A New Beginning the first time watching it. There are two main reasons for this. One is the twist at the end. Wasn’t a fan. It seems like a lot of slasher franchise’s go through this at least once. Yes, I’m trying to tiptoe around the spoiler even though this movie has been out for 36 years! The other reason is the character of teenage Tommy was just bad.

PLOT.

Our survivor Tommy, from Friday the 13th The Final Chapter, has a dream of Jason being resurrected by two idiots. Luckily it was a dream, or was it? We have a 17 year old Tommy sent to a home for troubled teens. After one of the teens kills another resident, more brutal killings happen in and around this home. All clues lead to Jason having returned.

MY THOUGHTS.

Oh boy! Where to begin with this one. Up to this point in the series, A New Beginning has the most kills and the most nudity. We get 21 kills (including the two kills in Tommy’s dream). The issue with the kills is that most of the violence of the kills are off screen and we only see the after effects. The kills consisted of slitting throats, stabbings, and a couple of eye gouging. I didn’t find any to be something outstanding. I did like Junior’s head being severed just because he was so annoying!

Next up is the nudity. Three of the actresses show off their breasts in this movie as well as some butt shots. Supposedly the sex scene between Tina (Deborah Voorhees) and Eddie (John Robert Dixon) was 3 minutes long but the director was forced to cut it down to 10 seconds because of the MPAA (Boo!).

The acting and characters were average at best. I liked Reggie (Shavar Ross). Usually kids in horror movies are annoying and I didn’t find him annoying at all. And Violet (Tiffany Helm) has a dance that rivals Jimmy’s (Crispin Glover) from The Final Chapter.

My biggest issue with the acting is John Shepherd as Tommy. I know that Tommy would be suffering from PTSD after his experience. And I know that John Shepherd spent a lot of time researching how people would react, but I just didn’t like how he portrayed Tommy. A possible reason is that Tommy (excluding when Corey Feldman is on screen and anytime Tommy laughs or screams) only says 24 words in the entire movie! I felt like this portrayal is one of the main reasons I rank this movie as low as I do.

Now comes the other main issue I have with Friday the 13th A New Beginning. The killer. The movie heavily implies that Tommy Jarvis is so traumatized by his experience, that he starts killing people as Jason. But after watching the ending we know this not to be true. No real clues throughout the movie to hint at the killer. We just get a picture in the wallet with the Sheriff explaining it. Maybe if they had put more clues throughout the movie (and not so subtle you can’t pick up on it) it wouldn’t bother me as much. Don’t get me started with the second ending of the movie with Tommy becoming Jason. I’m so glad they dropped that plotline in the rest of the movies.

This is the first film in the series where Jason is actually referred to by his full name: Jason Voorhees.

The film takes place in 1989, 5 years after Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter.

Coincidentally, Deborah Voorhees shares her real surname with Jason.

Mark Venturini and Miguel A. Núñez Jr. co-starred in The Return of the Living Dead (1985), another 1985 horror movie.

The hockey mask in this film has blue markings on it instead of red ones, foreshadowing that the real killer isn’t Jason at all.

If you want to see my other Friday the 13th reviews, click here: Friday the 13th Franchise.

Let’s get into the rankings:

Kills/Blood/Gore: 3/5.

Sex/Nudity: 4/5.

Scare factor: 2/5.

Enjoyment factor: 2.5/5.

My Rank: 2.8/5.

IMDB: 4.8/10.

Rotten Tomatoes: critics: 1.8/10 audience: 2.6/10.

Letterboxd: 2.