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It’s Friday the 13th, and we have decided to celebrate by releasing a new episode of the What Happened to This Horror Movie? video series that digs into one of the more divisive entries in the Friday the 13th film franchise: the fifth entry, 1985’s Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (watch it Here), a movie that doesn’t have Jason Voorhees or his mother doing the killing. This time around, the slashing was done by a copycat – and you can hear all about it in the video embedded above.

Directed by Danny Steinmann, who also crafted the screenplay with Martin Kitrosser and David Cohen, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning has the following synopsis: Years after Tommy Jarvis murdered hockey-masked serial killer Jason Voorhees, he resides in a mental hospital and struggles with the trauma of the experience. When Tommy moves to an isolated halfway house, he has nightmares about Jason’s return,...

The Friday the 13th franchise has seen many revisions of Jason Voorhees' iconic outfit, with each movie revealing a different stage in his character journey. Not every costume is created equal, with some of Jason's looks being less impressive than others. The fake Jason in Friday the 13th: A New Beginning lacks screen time and doesn't live up to the real Jason's official look. Some of Jason's looks, like the one in Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, feature impressive makeup and visual design, showcasing a frighteningly rotten visage and distressed outfit.

In the Friday the 13th franchise, seeing the Jason Voorhees outfit in each movie reveals where he is at in his character journey. Though possessing an iconic look, no other slasher villain has gone through as many revisions as Jason. Except for the first movie, the franchise follows Jason Voorhees, who seemingly drowned as a...

The masks in the Friday the 13th series changed over time, reflecting the evolution of Jason Voorhees as a slasher killer. Each movie in the series featured a different mask, ranging from iconic to disappointing, but Jason's appearance remained one of the most iconic in slasher horror movie history. In some movies, the masks showed degradation and deterioration, symbolizing the loss of Jason's humanity and hinting at his demonic presence.

The Jason Voorhees masks changed little by little as the Friday the 13th series wore on, and it was easy to see Jason's humanity slipping away as the masks deteriorated. Friday the 13th began in 1980 when Sean Cunningham directed the first movie in the franchise about a mysterious killer taking out young people at a summer camp called Crystal Lake. However, that first movie wasn't about Jason, it was about his mother, Pamela Voorhees, killing counselors as she continued to...

Gutter Garbs has just unveiled a new line of merchandise inspired by the 1985 slasher Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (watch it Here) – and this line, which consists of a T-shirt, a poster, and an enamel pin, will only be available for order this weekend! If you don’t get your order in by 11:59pm Eastern time this Sunday, July 30th, you’ll have missed your chance to own these items. So go grab them at This Link!

Images of the shirt, poster, and pin can be seen at the bottom of this article.

Directed by Danny Steinmann, who also crafted the screenplay with Martin Kitrosser and David Cohen, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning has the following synopsis: Years after Tommy Jarvis murdered hockey-masked serial killer Jason Voorhees, he resides in a mental hospital and struggles with the trauma of the experience. When Tommy moves to an isolated halfway house,...

When you think slashers, your mind immediately goes to the Final Girl. While the term wasn't coined until 1992, it was a prevalent trope throughout the '70s and '80s, namely through such works as "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" (Sally Hardesty), "Black Christmas" (Jess Bradford), and "Halloween" (Laurie Strode). These trendsetting heroines cemented the idea that women could be the heroes of their own stories. In many cases, the Final Girl just happened to be the last woman standing through sheer luck; in others, they slashed their way to triumph all on their own. One of the franchises most known for its many Final Girls is "Friday the 13th," which dominated the 1980s and showcased some of the slasher genre's most iconic protagonists.

Throughout its run 一 from the 1980 original to the 2009 remake 一 the series' Final Girls have run the gamut. Some are tough-as-nails warriors from the get-go,...

“Jason Voorhees is dead! His body was cremated. He’s nothing but a handful of ash!”

Friday The 13th Part V: A New Beginning was supposed to screen Midnights this weekend at The Moolah Theater and Lounge (3821 Lindell Blvd, St. Louis, Mo 63108) as part of Destroy the Brain’s monthly Late Night Grindhouse film series but it has been postponed becasue of the weather until next weekend (January 20th and 21st).

Okay, so Friday The 13th Part V: A New Beginning is hardly a subtle, and tasteful work of sophisticated cinematic art, but it is so incredibly crass, coarse, and unapologetically trashy that it’s always entertaining and occasionally even downright sidesplitting in its gleeful go-for-it nastiness. Director/co-writer Danny Steinmann (also responsible for the terrific Linda Blair rape-and-revenger Savage Streets) deserves credit for effectively creating and sustaining an engrossingly sleazy atmosphere throughout and eschewing the by now exceedingly tiresome...

“Jason Voorhees is dead! His body was cremated. He’s nothing but a handful of ash!”

Friday The 13th Part V: A New Beginning screens Midnights this weekend (January 13th and 14th) at The Moolah Theater and Lounge (3821 Lindell Blvd, St. Louis, Mo 63108) as part of Destroy the Brain’s monthly Late Night Grindhouse film series.

Okay, so Friday The 13th Part V: A New Beginning is hardly a subtle, and tasteful work of sophisticated cinematic art, but it is so incredibly crass, coarse, and unapologetically trashy that it’s always entertaining and occasionally even downright sidesplitting in its gleeful go-for-it nastiness. Director/co-writer Danny Steinmann (also responsible for the terrific Linda Blair rape-and-revenger Savage Streets) deserves credit for effectively creating and sustaining an engrossingly sleazy atmosphere throughout and eschewing the by now exceedingly tiresome summer camp slaughter format for a fresh and different approach that’s essentially a vulgar...

Kevin Hart and Josh Gad, costars of the new comedy "The Wedding Ringer," have very famous pasts in live performance. Hart is arguably the most popular standup comedian on the planet, and Gad earned a Tony nomination for his starring performance in the original Broadway production of "Book of Mormon."  We interviewed both actors about the biggest stars they ever saw attend one of their shows. Gad reflected on times when both Oprah Winfrey and Barbra Streisand sat in the front row of "Book of Mormon." "You sort of freeze when you first walk out, especially with 'Book of Mormon' in the Eugene O'Neill Theater. You can see everyone in the audience, pretty much," he told us. "With Barbra Streisand, there were two or three times where I sort of fell apart and forgot my lines." Hart, meanwhile, says his best sighting was Shavar Ross, a.k.a. Dudley from...

Reviewed by Kevin Scott

Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning (1985)

Written by: Martin Kitrosser, David Cohen, Danny Steinmann

Directed by: Danny Steinmann

Cast: Shavar Ross (Reggie), Melanie Kinnaman (Pam), John Shepherd (Tommy Jarvis), Richard Young (Matt), Debisue Voorhees (Tina), John Robert Dixon (Eddie), Juliette Cummins (Robin), Jerry Pavlon (Jake), Dominick Brascia (Joey), Tiffany Helm (Violet), Mark Venturini (Vic), Miguel A. Nunez Jr. (Demon)

This film was the very first one that I wrote any kind review for on an online platform. That was the first brave step in my cause for championing this film. Albeit, it was a small step, because maybe two people probably stumbled across it. Either way, I did it and I’m not ashamed. Matter of fact, I’m taking it to the big show by including it here. All of my feelings for this bastard child of the series just happened to resurface...

There’s a general misconception among casual horror fans that any flick produced by a fellow fan, or amateur, isn’t worth the time it takes to type in w-w-w-.-y-o-u-t-u-b-e-.-c-o-m.

Bona fide horror hounds have been tuned in to these inspired projects for years, understanding and respecting the effort devoted to a genuine passion piece. The detractors tend (this isn’t a rule carved in stone, mind you) to be the guys and gals who catch a macabre flick once every week or so, wiling to confess their affinity for the genre, but perhaps not devoted enough to qualify as a certified freak for terror, who haven’t taken the time to study these ambitious pictures.

The truth is, anyone who can openly acknowledge their love for horror can potentially find some brilliant fan productions, regardless of how dedicated one may or may not be. Sometimes fans just...

Last year we ran a schedule of every TV/Cable network schedule we could find that could be construed as Horror or Halloween related for the month of October. Let’s just say it proved useful for our readers and even for our staff when they were looking to find something to watch, wanted to program their DVR’s or didn’t want to miss out on some great “live” Horror. Isn’t there something about having a movie fed to you on TV as opposed to watching it on Blu-ray or DVD or streaming? We may not like commercials, but the randomness that you can associate with a TV program itinerary is novel. It removes a little bit of control from the audience who is all to concerned with being in control these days (just look at the reasons behind publishing a piece like this).

So here’s the 2013 Halloween Seasonal TV Preview,...

We've seen Jason Voorhees stab a lot of people in the head... and everywhere else for that matter. That being said, the following video is something so ridiculously funny and hilarious that it's guaranteed to embed itself in your mind. Especially when your chillin' in an outhouse!

Somewhere right now director Danny Steinmann is smiling down on us all.

Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning Synopsis:

The murderous spirit of Jason Voorhees lives on in this horror sequel, although the plot hinges on the mystery of whether the killer's body actually survives. Opening with a nightmare prologue in which Corey Feldman reprises his role as Tommy Jarvis, the boy who killed Jason in the previous installment, the film jumps forward several years to when a teenaged Tommy (John Shepherd), haunted by visions of Jason returning to life, moves into a group home for mentally disturbed kids. Almost as soon as he arrives,...

A genuine mystery and all-around obsession arose in 1986 during the “discovery phase” of my relationship with horror in the mid-1980s. It would last until the early summer of 2008.

It was something I could not share with my friends or my family, and in those pre-internet days, information (such as the type I needed) was in short supply, and there was little hope that I would ever find the answers I was so desperately looking for.

The question at hand…

Who was Danny Steinmann?

He was the director of my personal favorite of the Friday the 13th films…the often-derided and misunderstood Part V: A New Beginning, released in 1985. He also had the action/exploitation flick Savage Streets to his name from 1984. But that was it, as far as I knew at the time. For months on end, I scanned the pages of Fangoria for word on Mr. Steinmann’s next film,...

The Friday the 13th series was never huge on recurring characters. For the most part everyone was killed off so there was obviously no need for redundance. There is one character in particular who wasn’t a throwaway recurrence like that of Alice (parts 1 & 2) or Crazy Ralph (again Parts 1 &2), but a feature character in three consecutive sequels; Tommy Jarvis.

We first meet Tommy Jarvis through Friday the 13th Part 4: The Final Chapter where he is played by Corey Feldman. This would be the start of Feldman being a formidable child star. At that time he had mainly starred in TV, but after this a succession of 3 films; Gremlins, The Goonies and Stand By Me would solidify his status in Hollywood. Tommy Jarvis in The Final Chapter is a precocious 12 year old boy who lives with his mother and sister near Camp Crystal Lake. There’s nothing that remarkable about...

So, Kobe Bryant got together with Robert Rodriguez and Nike to create something called The Black Mamba (Kobe’s nick-name, by the way). No confirmation on this, but I’m guessing it’ll just be a Nike commercial, although several folks across the web are saying that it’ll actually be a film. I’m going with the former.

Here’s the teaser for whatever it is (h/t Shavar Ross):...

Gary Coleman never had an easy road. Adopted at just one day old and diagnosed with an atrophied kidney as a toddler, the 4'8" Diff'rent Strokes star - who died at age 42 on May 28 after suffering a brain hemorrhage - constantly struggled to make peace with his faded fame, his failing health and his family pain, friends tell People in this week’s cover story. "I'd been dreading [losing him] for years," says Shavar Ross, who played Coleman’s best friend Dudley on Diff'rent Strokes, one of many ex-costars whom Coleman cut off in the early '90s as he sought to...

Shavar Ross is 39 today. Those who’ve been reading this blog for awhile will know that Shavar is also a reader and posts comments occasionally. Most will probably remember him as Dudley from Different Strokes in the 80s. But he’s done a lot of other TV work since then – notably parts in Magnum Pi, Designing Women, Amen, Growing Pains, The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air, Chicago Hope, and a few others. He also played a young Booker T Washington in the 1984 made-for-tv movie Booker, which Curtis recently profiled on this blog (read that post Here). Shavar has his own website which you can check out Here.

Mykelti Williamson is 53 today. He was last seen in Black Dynamite and The Final Destination, both in 2009; he also has a recurring role on Fox’s 24. He can next be seen in a WWII drama titled, Algona, currently listed as being in pre-production.

I consider myself fairly versed in Black/Black cast films, especially obscure tv ones, so it came to my surprise to find Booker, a 1984 movie about Booker T. Washington’s youth in the South at the end of the Civil War and after, directed by now-super Director/Producer/Exec. Producer Stan Lathan and starring no other than ‘Dudley’ from Diff’rent Strokes, regular S&A commenter Shavar Ross. Also starring some of my favorite actors like LeVar Burton, Cch Pounder and Julius Harris, it also starred notables like Thalmus Rasulala, Shelly Duvall & Judge Reinhold.

coincidentally, the best image I could get is from Shavar Ross' website

The synopsis and some history, as quoted from Booker’s IMDb listing:

Set in the 1860’s South, Booker is the impassioned story of the boy who struggled through slavery to found the Tuskegee Institute. Through the eyes of nine-year-old Booker T. Washington, viewers...

Chicago – The reboot of “Friday the 13th” was another financially successful notch in the belt of Platinum Dunes, the film company behind the remakes of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” “The Hitcher,” and “The Amityville Horror”. Making $90 million worldwide and more domestically than any previous Jason Voorhees movie (that didn’t include Freddy Krueger), “Friday the 13th” has a following that will be ecstatic with the excellent Blu-Ray release for the slasher title.

Blu-Ray Rating: 3.5/5.0 The Blu-Ray of “Friday the 13th” delivers everything fans could ask for. Not only do they present a longer and better cut of the film in the 9-minutes-longer “Extended Cut,” but the special features enhance the “Friday the 13th” experience and the technical transfer is nearly flawless.

Friday the 13th was released on Blu-Ray on June 16th, 2009.

Photo credit: WB

As for the film itself, my response to “Friday the 13th” is mixed at best. I love...

Last night FEARnet editor Lawrence Raffel and I got down and boogied at Hollywood's Bungalow Club with the stars of Friday the 13th, Parts IV through VI. We joined them and DVD producer Dan Farrands in celebrating the films' new Deluxe Edition DVDs. All three titles arrive in stores today, June 16th (from Paramount Home Entertainment), with more cool special features than you can swing a machete at. (We got a sneak peek at these extras on a big screen at the event, and all of them look pretty terrific.) Hit the jump to check out more pics from this swinging bash. Joining FEARnet and Farrands were Barney Cohen (screenwriter of The Final Chapter), Shavar Ross (Reggie from Part V), Camilla and...

Cast and crew members of the Friday the 13th films gathered in Los Angeles last night to celebrate the release of Parts IV-vi on DVD in all-new Deluxe Edition DVDs. Barney Cohen, screenwriter of The Final Chapter, Shavar Ross, "Reggie" from Part V, Camilla and Carey More, "Terri" and "Tina" from The Final Chapter, composer Harry Manfredini, David Kagen, "Sheriff Garris" from Part VI, and Larry Zerner, "Shelly" from Part 3, showed up at The Bungalow Club for a screening of DVD special features and talk to select members of the press.

Following a cocktail reception where fans and press met with members of the cast and crew, DVD producer Dan Farrands formally greeted attendees and introduced the screening of bonus materials, the centerpiece of which is a multi-part featurette titled "The Crystal Lake Massacres Revisited."Filed under: Horror, Fandom

Continue reading Friday the 13th Victims Resurrected In Los Angeles

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Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning gets a bad rap from series loyalists. If you don’t know anything about it, I won’t spoil it, but there are certain aspects of it that irk people immensely. The major criticism the film gets doesn’t really bother me at all, but I still don’t enjoy the film. It’s a slow, murky and very mean-spirited film that doesn’t really fit in with the series all that well. Gone is the brutal but fun-loving spirit of The Final Chapter and the action movie bonanza of the later entries is nowhere in sight. What we’re left with is a black sheep and, for what it is, it just doesn’t work all that well. It’s a cruel movie with unlikeable characters and unwarranted deaths, and it just can’t pull that combo off like some of...

Every slasher fan has their own choice as the best in the original Jason Voorhees film series, and mine is Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. From its opening title that winks at the James Bond flicks, this entry provided a welcome sense of knowing humor to the by-then repetitious proceedings, without making fun of Jason himself. (As writer/director Tom McLoughlin has often stated, and does so again on the new Deluxe Edition DVD, that was one of franchise producer Frank Mancuso Jr.’s directives when McLoughlin took this gig.)

Those light touches, and the general panache McLoughlin brings to the film, were a refreshing change from the crudities of the previous A New Beginning (which doesn’t actually sport a Part V on screen—and, as mentioned on its own Deluxe disc, was actually called Repetition during filming). Director/co-writer Danny Steinmann does bring a rude energy to this entry,...

Well, it’s been seven years since Jason Voorhees chopped up foolish teens exclusively. Sure he shared screen time with Freddy Krueger in 2003’s crossover Freddy Vs Jason, yes he accumulated quite the body count in the film, yes it was a lot of fun, and yes the film was pretty damn successful, but diehard fans such as myself certainly missed that special “alone time” with Mr. Voorhees. Now Jason is back, solely stealing the spotlight and the lives of reckless youngins, and despite a mostly negative critical response and dismal box office staying power, he's still one massive murdering machine.

Over the last 29 years Jason has claimed more victims than even imaginable. From random teens, to strange drifters, to diner employees, Jason has eliminated just about everyone to (unluckily) grace the big screen with the masked menace. As a result of Voorhees’ obnoxious kill rate, fans have pondered the...

Jason Voorhees took Burbank, California. Make that multiple Jasons; many of his victims, and final girls, too. Last night, Dark Delicacies (4213 W. Burbank) held a signing event for this week's DVD release of His Name Was Jason ( review ). The guest turnout - a mixture of cast and crew from twelve Friday the 13th films (that includes the reboot) - was so large, Dark Delicacies enlisted the help of Emerald Knights, a comic book store across the street, to hold everyone. The fans didn't seem to mind, braving the line outdoors, and the plunging temperatures, to meet the likes of Kane Hodder, Amy Steel, Cj Graham, John Fury, Shavar Ross, Judie Aronson and many more. Spirits inside were high and the "Jasons" appeared to get along just fine, although one bailed out early...

Anchor Bay Entertainment gave Fango the word that it will release the documentary His Name Was Jason: 30 Years Of Friday The 13th on DVD February 3, 2009. The exhaustive saga of Voorhees cinema will then have its broadcast premiere on Starz Friday, Feb. 13.

Directed by Dan Farrands (screenwriter of The Girl Next Door and Halloween: The Curse Of Michael Myers) and produced by Anthony (Halloween: 25 Years Of Terror) Masi and Thommy Hutson, His Name Was Jason is hosted by Tom Savini (pictured, who created the trendsetting gore FX of the 1980 original Friday and returned to the series for 1984’s The Final Chapter. The docu showcases interviews with dozens of contributors to the Friday saga, including actors Betsy Palmer (the original), Adrienne King (the first and second films), Larry Zerner (Part III), Bonnie Hellman, Judie Aronson, Lawrence Monoson and Camilla More (The Final Chapter), Shavar Ross and Debbisue Voorhees (Part V...