Friday the 13th: The New Blood

Last time I blamed Tommy for causing the deaths of others after inadvertently raising Jason from 6 feet under. I must do the same here concerning Tina, the very cute Lincoln as a girl with powers to move things with her mind. Thinking shes moving her dead father from the same lake where Jason is stuck under water, she ends up snapping the chain attached to the rock holding Jason down and hes back in business. So like Tommy, shes kinda responsible for the batch of teens who get skewered. But missing from part 6 and really the rest of the other films, are the inventive murders. Jasons slams a girl into a tree, stabs a few, throws one outta window, its just a little too dull. Theres a couple decent ones like the party favor in the eye or the ol' axe to the face, but the rest are standard. And way too much time is spent on Lincolns character trying to get over her past at the lake and her would be romance with Blair. Most of Harry Mandredinis great music is stuff from previous films as either he and/or Fred Mollin unfortuntely decided to overuse a lot of "banging" sounds. And after being the lead character the last 3 films, Tommy Jarvis was dropped. Tack on a totally unsatisfying ending (Jasons pulled under a dock and disappears) and you've got only a fair follow up. At least its more watchable than 8 or 9.

Jason is stuck at the bottom of Crystal Lake after the events of the last movie. Luckily for him there's a telekinetic girl (Lar Park-Lincoln) who cries a lot and has Carrie fits. She inadvertently frees Jason, thinking he's her dead father! Jason immediately starts killing people, naturally. The series was clearly trying to move in a new direction here with more of a focus on the paranormal and supernatural. Terry Kiser from Weekend at Bernie's plays a shrink in this. He's better with comedy. Lar Park-Lincoln's performance consists of crying or being on the verge of crying at all times. My sister used to love this entry in the series because of the angle with the telekinetic girl and the handsome guy who looks like he belongs at a Superman audition.

First movie in the series where Kane Hodder plays Jason. He would be the longest-running Jason, playing him for the rest of the series. Frankly, I'm not a big fan of Hodder's Jason. He's too big and bulky, like a football player or pro wrestler. Plus they put him in some kind of suit where you are supposed to be able to see his exposed spine and ribcage. It's incredibly cheesy and just makes Jason cartoonish instead of intimidating.

Most of the people Jason kills in this one aren't particularly annoying or bad. The first couple seemed quite nice, actually. The whole vibe to this sequel seems off but it's still a watchable movie. Not the best of the series but far from the worst. There would only be one more decent one after this then it was downhill.

Another Jason movie, ah yes,takes place years after Tommy Jarvis, and it seems like he's gone, guess again, a girl with telekinetic powers tries to get her dad back, but because she wasn't aware of her power, and didn't know how to control it properly, she accidentally brings Jason back, and oh no he's at it again. Well there's something you don't get everyday, man. Why did they put someone like that in? Someone who is like Carrie, please, Jason does typical murders, while she figures out how to control her powers, and tries to find out who is this Jsaon person. And the way she fights him is kind of pathetic, she just throws stuff at him and rips off his mask, can't she do something better, like smash him or send him flying to space? But then again that would be too weird, and it wasn't that exciting either. But I'll stop there. It did have everything else you'd expect in a slasher film, but I wish they could have done something else instead of a telekinetic person. Watch it if you're into it, or if you would still watch it even though it's like that.

"Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood" is the moment. That singular moment that many media franchises reach where there is a bit of a rift. A fundamental change. Something that will forever alter the way the subsequent remaining entries are perceived.

Yes. This is the infamous moment in any series that can only be referred to as "jumping the shark."

This is where the franchise wholly committed to the concept of each movie injecting a quirky "gimmick" in order to drum up audience interest. Sure, I'd argue that the previous film (the excellent "Jason Lives") probably started the whole notion of the "gimmick entry" with its focus on self-aware, postmodern meta-humor... but this is the film that really solidified the fact that the remaining films would all have that silly, somewhat kitschy quality of relying on a singular contrivance to set it apart.

In this case of course, it's focus on the supernatural storyline of Jason fighting a psychic/telekinetic.

When psychic Tina Shepard returns to Crystal Lake years after accidentally causing the death of her father with her latent abilities, the opportunity to learn and perhaps heal is interrupted when she accidentally releases Jason from his watery grave. Now, she and a group of teen-aged party-goers next door must struggle to survive against the newly revived (and quite angry) hulking killer... leading to an insane and actually quite entertaining final showdown.

The most notable aspect of this entry is probably the introduction of fan-favorite Kane Hodder as Jason- a role he would continue to play for the next few entries in the series. Hodder arguably defined the role, and actually finally gave him a consistent sense of "character" through both physical presence and movement, and through his own behind-the-scenes exploration of what makes Jason tick. Interesting tidbit: Hodder actually refused to film a scene where Jason kicks a dog away from him, because he feels Jason would never actually hurt animals or young children due to his childhood trauma. Granted, this doesn't quite fit in with Part IV, but I like the idea- it shows that Hodder actually tried to build a sense of character and "rules" for Jason to follow.

The film is also quite a bit of fun at times. The whole psychic angle is stupid beyond belief, there's no doubt about it. But it allows for all sorts of cinematic mayhem to ensue, with explosions, nails flying through the air, furniture being flung around... it's great fun to see Jason finally face an adversary in Lar Park Lincoln's Tina that can truly stand up to him and perhaps give him more than he can handle.

But the strong entertainment factor aside, this is a pretty bland entry on the whole to me. It lacks the pure sense of "fun" that the previous film literally oozed alongside the blood and trades it in for what actually becomes a somewhat depressive feel for much of the screen time. Not only in terms of basic tone, but also in the writing and even in the music. It's just kind of... mournful. Many of the characters (especially Tina) seem to have a deep-seeded chip on their shoulder and it's not as compelling as it could be. And the others are all just... ho-hum and often grating, with characters like the generic nasty vain girl getting on your nerves very quickly. You just kinda feel bad for everyone even before they start getting axed off.

That being said, despite being a middling entry in the overall franchise, the good characterization in Jason and the wickedly wild and entertaining battles between Tina and Jason do make it worth a watch for slasher fans. Just don't expect the best entry in the franchise.

I give it a middle-of-the-road 5 out of 10.

The popular, money-making slasher series continues with Lar Park Lincoln (the best leading actress in the Friday films) as Tina Shepherd, a pretty teen with telekinetic abilities who accidentally uses her powers to release Jason (Kane Hodder) from his underwater grave. He lurks around (with exposed spine) and sets his sights on a group of young people who rent a cabin for a birthday party. To justify some of the murders, many of the characters, like shrink Terry Kiser (who plots to exploit Tina) and Susan Jennifer Sullivan (great blonde bitch) obviously deserve to die.

Gore-wise we have a decapitation, a hand thrust through a chest, a party horn stuck in an eyeball, an axe to the face (twice), a drowning, a body thrown out a window and, the best murder, well I won't ruin it by saying it involves a sleeping bag and a tree, but it's a hoot.

The make-up FX are great, the women look good (and several of them have nude scenes) and there's a surprise ending you may not expect, but still not much plot. Kane Hodder went on to become the only actor who played Jason to receive a little fame for this thankless role. This was the number one box office draw at movie theaters the week it debuted.