horror, movie, movie review

October 20th, 2019 Movie – Friday The 13th: A New Beginning

friday the 13th 5

We now come to the part of the series that tends to be the most controversial of all of the movies. The 5th movie has kind of been shat on for years, not just from the critics but from the fans as well. The main reason for the fan’s negativity was obviously due to the fact that for the first, and only time, since the original movie, the killer was not Jason Voorhees. That irritated a lot of the fans. However the movie is also known for the high number of on screen kills, it’s explicit nudity and sex scenes, and onscreen drug useWith all of these factors, can this movie possibly be any good? Well let’s see as I watch today’s movie, Friday The 13th: A New Beginning.

The plot: On a stormy night, 12 year old Tommy Jarvis makes his way to the cemetery where Jason Voorhees is buried, staring at the ground to ensure that Jason is still buried there. Hearing someone approach, Tommy hides and watches in horror as two grave robbers appear and begin digging up the grave. After the casket is opened, a suddenly revived Jason kills the two grave robbers and then heads over to where Tommy is hiding. As Jason moves to kill Tommy, 17 year old Tommy awakens from the nightmare he was having as the bus for the mental institute he has been a patient at arrives Pinehurst Halfway House, where Tommy will now be residing. After meeting with Dr. Matt Letter and Assist. Director Pam Roberts, Tommy heads to his room to get settled in, only to be startled by Reggie, the grandson of George (a worker there). As Tommy and Reggie talk, a police car pulls up, with Sheriff Tucker dropping off Tina and Eddie, who had been having sex in the woods on the neighbor’s property. As Tucker and Matt talk, Ethel Hubbard and her son Junior ride up, with Ethel warning Matt and Tucker to keep the kids off of her property. Later that day, good natured Joey tries to help Robin and Violet with the laundry, only to get chocolate all over the sheets. He then goes to talk with Vic, who was chopping wood, and Vic ends up killing Joey with the axe, so the authorities are called in to take Vic away, while paramedics Duke and Roy deal with Joey’s body. The next day, Tommy is struggling to deal with the violence from the day before, as he is hallucinating seeing Jason. The other kids (Robin, Violet, Jake, and Tina) are also having problems with it and when Eddie uses one of Tommy’s masks to try and scare him, Tommy flips out and starts attacking Eddie until Matt is able to separate them and calm Tommy down. Meanwhile, Sheriff Tucker is overseeing the scene where two teenagers were killed the night before, with his deputy commenting that they have a maniac on their hands. That night, Billy, one of the workers from the Unger Institute of Mental Health, shows up at a diner to pick up his girlfriend Lana. While she is closing up the diner, someone kills Billy with an axe, then kills Lana shortly afterwards. The next day, the mayor is yelling at Tucker to figure out who is killing people and Tucker says it is Jason Voorhees but the mayor chastises Tucker, saying Jason was cremated, and storms out of the station. Back at Pinehurst, Tommy is still having hallucinations about Jason and is keeping to himself. Meanwhile, Tina and Eddie sneak off into the woods to have sex again, where a drifter working for Ethel sees them but as he turns to leave, he is killed. After they finish, Eddie heads down to the nearby pond to wash up and while he is gone, Tina is killed. When Eddie returns, he sees the body and backs away in horror, only to end up being killed himself. That night, Matt is worried about Eddie and Tina but Pam says that they will be back when they get hungry, then leaves to take Reggie to see his older brother, taking Tommy with them but after they leave, Matt and George decide to go looking for the missing teens. Pam and the others arrive at the trailer park and as Pam and Reggie visit with Demon and his girlfriend Anita, Tommy encounters Junior and ends up getting in a fight with him. Hearing the commotion, Pam yells out for Tommy to keep him from killing Junior and Tommy runs off, so Pam and Reggie leave so they can find him but after they leave, Demon and Anita are killed. When Pam and Reggie get back to Pinehurst, they learn that Matt and George are gone so Pam tells Jake, Robin, and Violet to take Reggie inside while she goes to look for them. Meanwhile, Junior heads home and is riding his motorbike all around the yard while yelling to Ethel about what happened when he is beheaded, then Ethel is killed shortly later. Back at Pinehurst, Reggie falls asleep on the couch while Robin and Jake watch a movie. Jake tells Robin he likes her and wants to sleep with her but when she laughs at him, he gets upset and leaves. Jake goes to talk to Violet but she is to busy listening to her music to pay attention to him and as she leaves her room, he ends up being killed. When the movie is over, Robin covers up Reggie, then heads to her room to go to bed but when she sees Jake’s body in her bed, she starts to scream only to be killed as well. The killer then heads to Violet’s room and kills her while she is dancing. As a storm rages outside, Reggie is woken up be some thunder and goes to see if Tommy is back, only to discover Jake, Robin, and Violet’s bodies in his room. As he backs away in shock, he is grabbed by Pam, who had just returned, and indicates Tommy’s room. When Pam sees the bodies, she grabs Reggie and they go to leave when a man wearing a jumpsuit and hockey mask bursts through the door. They quickly rush out the back and through the woods, where they find the paramedics car on the side of the road. Pam goes up to the car and yells for help only to discover Duke lying dead in the drivers seat. As the killer appears on the passenger side of the car, Reggie screams and runs back into the woods, with Pam following and yelling out for him. As Pam runs through the woods, she comes across the body of Matt nailed to a tree and when she finally reaches Pinehurst, George’s body is thrown through a window. Pam goes screaming outside only to encounter the killer, who stalks after her but before he can kill her, Reggie drives a tractor through the barn door and rams it into the killer. Pam and Reggie embrace and go to make sure the killer is dead when the killer suddenly grabs Reggie’s leg. Pam is able to kick the killer off and they go running into the barn, with the killer following them. Inside the barn, Pam attacks the killer with a chainsaw, managing to slash his arm, but when it runs out of gas, she throws it at him and runs. Tommy suddenly appears in the doorway and when the killer turns to face him, Tommy thinks he is just hallucinating again. When the killer slashes Tommy across the chest, Tommy realizes that it is real and stabs the killer in the leg with his pocket knife. Pam and Reggie yell for Tommy to climb up to the hay loft where they are and the killer follows him, In the loft, the killer sees Tommy lying motionless on the ground and, believing he is dead, turns his attention to Reggie. Pam attacks the killer and as she leads him away, Reggie jumps at him and knocks him out the open doorway. Pam and Reggie go to see if the killer fell when he suddenly appears and grabs onto Reggie’s leg, attempting to drag him out of the barn. As Pam grabs Reggie to rescue him, Tommy recovers and used the machete to cut the killer’s hand, causing him to lose his grip on Reggie and fall onto some spiked beams below. As the three look down on the body, they discover that the killer was Roy, the paramedic, who had dressed as Jason in order to kill people. Later at the hospital, Tucker talks with Pam and tells her that Roy was Joey’s father and seeing him killed caused him to snap and kill Matt and the others, as he blamed them for Joey’s death. Meanwhile, in his hospital room, Tommy wakes from a nightmare in which he kills Pam and sees Jason standing over him but Tommy is finally able to deal with his fear of Jason and the hallucination vanishes. Climbing out of his bed, Tommy pulls open a nearby dresser drawer and finds a hockey mask inside. Pam is heading towards Tommy’s room to check on Tommy when she hears the sound of breaking glass. Rushing inside, Pam sees the window is broken and believes Tommy has fled the hospital, unaware that Tommy was behind the door and as he closes it, he is shown to be wearing the mask and wielding a knife.

Friday The 13th: A New Beginning was panned by the critics, holding a 16% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. While there isn’t a critical consensus on the site, the critics mostly felt that the gore and increased T&A do little to mask the unoriginal plot and lame reveal at the end. Initially, the plan was for this movie to be the start of a new trilogy of films featuring a new killer, but after the disappointing reception from fans, along with a decline in box office receipts compared to the previous two entries, the decided to bring Jason Voorhees back for the next installment. While it didn’t earn as much as previous movies, the movie was still a box office success, earning $22 million off of a $2.2 million budget.

At this point, the lack of originality in the series is definitely working against these movies. This isn’t that terrible of a movie, its just that it was nothing more than a copycat killer so it didn’t add much to the story. The acting was ok, with John Sheppard doing a good job as the traumatized and subdued Tommy. Melanie Kinnaman (Pam), Shavar Ross (Reggie), and Carol Locatell (Ethel) were also good in their roles, but everyone else didn’t really stand out. The story was ok, with the idea of someone using the story of Jason to try and explain his killing spree being a decent idea. The problem is, and I know this is going to sound a little twisted, but after a while, it gets boring seeing people killed the same way time after time again. Really the only original kill was when Roy shoved the flare in the kid’s mouth. I also didn’t care for the fact that they tried to make Roy the unstoppable machine that Jason was. I mean, he got hit by a tractor and was able to get back up and keep going with seemingly no effect? I’m sorry but that really is pushing the believability factor. The special effects with the deaths weren’t too bad but there wasn’t much else to rave about in that regard. Again, this isn’t a bad movie but it is somewhat of a disappointment compared to the others.

Rating: 2 out of 5