A New Beginning for cynicism

Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning



With Jason done in "once and for all" at the end of "The Final Chapter," the producers of this now iconic series found themselves in a quandary - the villain was vanquished, but these films were still making a great profit on the turnaround. What to do? This is how we find ourselves staring down the gaping maw of "A New Beginning."

Our film starts with a reasonably done dream sequence, shot in Corey Feldman's backyard, in which he reprises his role as Tommy from Part 4. Some random teenage idiots dig up Jason's grave, while little Tommy Jarvis watches from the trees. Jason, who just happens to be buried at ground level, clad in his hockey mask and grasping a weapon in each hand, awakens and makes quick work of the disrespectful douchebags who dared to disturb his sleep. Noticing Tommy in the treeline, he hefts his machete, and approaches in his usual menacing way. Tommy stares, horrified, while the rain mists his glasses, and finds himself unable to move. As Jason looms, he begins to scream...and I've now described the only scene in this entire movie worth seeing. The rest of the flick follows a teenage Tommy as he arrives at his new home, and people start dropping like flies, as per the formula.

It's true that these films are formula pictures, but don't let that fool you; done correctly, a formula can be quite entertaining. I refer here to your James Bond or Rocky-type flicks: we all know what to expect, and that often is part of the fun. But "writers" Martin Kitrosser, David Cohen, and Danny Steinmann seemed to have missed the point; the fun, corny dialogue of the previous films is replaced with vulagarity, the novel "jump scares" of the first two films are replaced with gore, and the subtle sexuality of the teens in the originals is traded in for gratuitous T&A. That campy humor I so loved in the early sequels? It became gross overgeneralizations of unwholesome, disgusting characters, and that's what we're left with for our comic relief. A prime example are the white trash Ethel and her son Junior, who utter such memorable lines as "He hurt me, Ma," and Ethel threatening the sherrif by screaming "I got a bomb on me!"



This is supposed to be funny? It hurts my soul a little.

Practically 2/3 of the characters in this movie are pathetic examples of human beings, and we're exposed to their depravity from the very beginning. The aide that delivers the teenage Tommy Jarvis to the Pinewood Youth Development Center (some kind of strange home for disturbed and wayward youth, where most of the "action" takes place) does this disturbing thing with his tongue behind actress Melanie Kinnaman's back...and that's just in the first five minutes. From the paramedic who laughs at a teenagers dismembered corpse, to the antics of Ethel and Junior, and even to the slimey Mayor himself, no sense of common decency goes unchallenged in this movie. While the first movies were sort of potboiler/thrillers that loved to pay off a gag with what they called "a magic trick," this one just revels in all the wrong things. Knowing that co-writer/director Danny Steinmann had a background in the adult film business, I more liken this outing to something I refer to as "murder porn." The fact that it was pretty much butchered by the MPAA upon release is only the more upsetting, considering that what made it to the screen was already more than over the top. Also, seriously lacking in this film are the strong females we'd so loved in the previous films. There wasn't really a heroine to cheer on, unless you count the 12 year old kid. No, I contend that Pam survives out of sheer luck, and the rest of the women are only here to be naked for a bit, and then to be dead for a bit.

A lot of people dislike this one because (spoiler) it's not Jason at all, but a copycat killer. I happen to think that was a great idea, a fun bit of misdirection, but the people wanted their masked slasher, God love 'em. No, what bothered me was that the guy behind the mask had no motive whatsoever. So, your candy bar obsessed kid was chopped up
with an axe by a woodchopping lunatic? Great, go get him! Oh, wait, he's in jail. I guess I'd better off two greasers working on their car! Yeah, that makes sense. Hell, Jason himself had better reasons for his rampages than that!

I'm hard on the director, but there were two shots (aside from the opening) that I did genuinely enjoy: One is a closeup of Junior's snot and blood-covered face as he rides manically around in circles on his bike, and the other is when the camera is mounted behind a flashing police light, "Naked Gun" style. Yes, this is the work of a true autuer.



And that's about the best acting in the whole movie...nah, the Doctor (played by the guy that gives young Indy his hat in "Last Crusade") really wasn't that bad. I also must give kudos to composer Harry Manfredini, who once again turned in an incredible score. It's just too bad they had NO IDEA where to place it! I refer here to a driving scene, with suspenseful strings behind it...but there's no tension. There's no kill. They're driving a car, and it's scored like a chase scene.

Ultimately, this movie raises more questions than it answers. Where the hell did Tommy learn Kung Fu? Why is the killers mask, which should be evidence, in Tommy's bedside drawer? For that matter, why is there a butcher knife in a hospital room? Why does the punk rocker chick do a pop and lock/mime dance to a synthpop song? And why, during the traditional "cat jumps out and scares you" scene, did they feel it necessary to fling a cat, from offscreen, headfirst at a table? And finally, why did I pay money for this sleaze?

I contend that this movie should be scoured from the Earth, and the producers agreed - the inevitable sequel completely ignores the fact that it ever existed, and so should we all.