New Beginnings: The Making of Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (2009)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Director Danny Steinman, Shavar Ross, Tiffany Helm, Dick Wieand, Tom Morga, Henry Manfredini and Michael Felsher get the honor of appearing in this featurette, which takes a look at the most hated film in the Paramount series. I'll admit right off the bat that I've always found this film to be very underrated because it has some effective kills, bizarre black humor, tons of sleazy nudity and it just has a real trashy atmosphere. Felsher, best known for his documentary featurettes, agreed with me so it was refreshing finding another fan of the film. The director talks about a few restrictions that the studio put on him but he says for the most part they let him make the movie he wanted. He talks about the sex scene in the woods that the MPAA really cut down and also talks about the waitress' boyfriend as being cut down. He said everything else is pretty much as he shot it and says that the lack of gore in certain scenes was his fault. Helm, who played Violet in the film, tells a couple nice stories as does Ross who played Reggie. Manfredini admits that he was confused by the nature of the film and wasn't sure what type of music score he should deliver. Overall, this is a very fun look at the film no matter what your opinion on it is. It's clear that the filmmakers were trying to deliver something different, which is what they did but they've also been hearing from fans about it all these years.
