- Also known as Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning
- Directed by Danny Steinmann
- March 22, 1985
- Based on characters created by Victor Miller
A teenager is institutionalized at a halfway house because of nightmares of mass murderer Jason Voorhees whom he killed as a child.
Friday the 13th: A New Beginning is set a few years after the events of Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter and opens with one of those ridiculously shallow burials that’s either a dream sequence or aiming for drama over plausibility. The hook is waiting to see if you will get a jump scare or the story is really starting.
Like any offering from lesser-known horror series, this engages in barely unbelievable situations and even less believable characters. The strange thing is it would not have taken that much for this to become something far more serious with either a little bit more talent or a little bit more personal investment by the actors. There is the basis for something truly special not only for the series but for the time of release here.
Like so much bad horror from the time, director Danny Steinmann tried to pack this movie with as many bare boobs as possible. Fine if you’re a horny teenage boy which was most of the intended market of A New Beginning. Scantily clad campers were certainly something young men want to look at. Throw in the more attractive ones topless and you had guaranteed rentals if your parents didn’t find out. Remember, ladies and gentlemen, this was in the days before the Internet meaning you could not find naked pictures regardless of your age. Video rentals were the easiest source of bare breasts.
Two-dimensional characters with barely existing personalities akin to children’s programming populate this movie mixed with the hammiest of ham acting making it even harder to deal with. That is in contrast with some real effort like subtle hints throughout that despite appearances, the killer is not Jason Vorhees. That alone makes this among the more artful of the series. In the hands of just barely better actors (or a sober crew) this could have been much better.
Some of the kills are interesting with the killer running briefly with a theme of eyes. One instance there’s a pair of gardening shears that go through a victim’s eyes and their lover who had wondered off to bathe while they were out in the middle of nowhere gets a leather strap over his eyes that secures his head to a tree. There are the usual blunt instruments or general objects thrust into a person that poke out but it’s all rather tame. You might see a little moistness, but we don’t get to see much internal stuff. Without gore or jump scares you start to question why exactly you are watching.
While certain things were needed to make the movie happen, how these people came to such a place is never covered. Like how were some of these people were let out of their assorted asylums to hang out at a summer camp with no noticeable security of any sort? That is saying nothing about the nearly nonexistent staff. Tommy (John Shepherd) clearly has violent tendencies that everyone is aware of and other psychological issues that most if not everyone is aware of based on what happened in the previous film.
Then there are patients Eddie (John Robert Dixon) and Tina (Debisue Voorhees) who are into boinking each other and have been doing so for some time. No secret among the staff. Seems like a real breach of protocol in a mental health facility. How does it pass the sniff test to allow two patients under your care to have sex? And why would you give a patient an axe to chop wood like they did with Vic (Mark Venturini)? These all have some kind of self-control issue and you hand an axe to one of them?! Something bad is bound to happen! Never mind about violent Tommy having a pocketknife which comes in useful conveniently later on. Nobody gets checked?! As much as I love my ‘80s horror movies I can’t be okay with any of that in A New Beginning.
Most of the Tommy stuff makes sense in the context of the fiction that they present. What doesn’t make sense as much is the reveal of the father doing at least some of the killings. The groundwork for that wasn’t firmly laid. Joey (Dominick Brascia), whose death spurred the killings, is largely forgotten in the film. Nothing is ever done to remind the audience or characters he existed. Life proceeds so normally after his death you forget he ever existed.
The writers had a good idea but no ability to execute it well. Some of the poor quality can be placed at the feet of the director and the cast who certainly were not up to the task of performing the material or handling the material well enough to aid in such a reveal. A shocking twist became a dud. Could be the drugs that were said to be rampant on set.
The climax itself with its rain-soaked action that tapers off at the right time to make practical effects much easier to do feels like nothing special. It’s not too thrilling or too exciting or even frightening. Then again, they completely waisted their strongest asset and I am not talking about Jason.
Miguel A. Núñez Jr. is a well-known genre actor. There was a time he was the cool black guy in just about everything. Or so it seemed. Talented and always entertaining he appears in this as Demon Winter who is the older brother of Reggie Winter (Shavar Ross). Maybe five minutes worth of screen time and he’s one of the better characters but dies pointlessly after being introduced. It was just such an underwhelming disposition.
The man based on his talent, should’ve been used in more of the movie. Not because his character was anything special, but because he makes the viewer care about a character. His death further down the line would’ve caused me and other viewers to feel something. It was a missed opportunity to have some real impact in a film that otherwise packs no punches.
Núñez and Ross were an acting highlight of this movie. You could believe they were close and you could see why the grandfather (Vernon Washington) might disapprove of the relationship with Demon coming off as not the best role model but also a role model that genuinely cares about his brother. Not pairing them more in the movie after the introduction was another missed opportunity to give this movie a little more meat. Again, they wanted more boobies rather than more substance.
That’s perhaps the ultimate sense of this movie. There’s plenty here that could’ve been used to create a standout of the horror genre of the time and of the series. Even with the bad acting and contrivances in the script to make things happen there could’ve been something more here. Instead they just went for the easiest and cheapest route.
Friday the 13th: A New Beginning was a bit of a disappointment for me. It lacked gore or the enjoyable cheese of the time. It was more focused on getting topless women onto the screen than it was in having a horror movie that was aimed at fans of the genre. Not a complete waste, but certainly a nadir for the Friday the 13th series. I think you could skip this one.
