Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning (1985)
Directed by Danny Steinmann
I felt like with today being Friday the 13th, I had to review a Friday the 13th movie. I’ve already covered Part 2 and Jason Takes Manhattan. I looked at the DVDs last night and thought for a while, which one haven’t I seen in a long time, and which one could I talk about the most? Well in all honesty, I could talk about all of them in length, I love the franchise. I chose part 5 because it has so many differing opinions on it. So many people hate this entry, but it still has a cult following. Usually there is one main reason why it is hated, but I’ll get to that later in the review.
The plot is centered around the Tommy Jarvis character, he was played by Corey Feldman in The Final Chapter, this time he is played by actor John Shephard. Tommy is sent to live at a halfway home for trouble teens. The house has a handful of teens living there, along with an old man and his young grandson Reggie. The house is ran by Pam (Melanie Kinnaman) and Dr. Matt Letter (Richard Young). The other teens, really aren’t that important to the story, in fact I can only remember a select few by name. You get a hefty, slow minded doofus named Joey. There is Violet, the two-tone haired alt girl that has an odd dancing scene. Then there is Vic, and he’s basically a psychopath lol. The others are just a hodgepodge of alpha males, skanks, and bodies. Anyways, Joey ends up pissing everyone off trying to help with chores, he means well but he basically just ruins things and gets in the way. He attempts to help Vic cut wood, Vic basically tells him to fuck off, Joey gives him a candy bar and says he can have it for later. Vic freaks the fuck out and hacks Joey up with an axe. I guess that’s the appropriate response, right? I mean maybe Joey gave him an Almond Joy and Vic wanted a Mounds bar. Sometimes you feel like a nut, and sometimes you kill a person if they give you one. From then on, more people keep dying in the area by Jason. This time Jason is sporting a mask with blue marks on it, which is odd.
The acting in this movie? My lord it has to be some of the worst of the franchise. Most of the characters are wooden and painfully forced. There are two weird hillbilly neighbors that are beyond stupid, we’re talking the over the top Troma style acting that is completely absurd and annoying. Reggie surprisingly isn’t awful for being a child actor, he has a super high girly scream though that’s pretty funny. Pam is pretty solid as well, and she should be for the final girl. Tommy Jarvis though, ugh I can’t get over how clunky and awkward his character is, not sure if that was the idea or if the actor just failed so bad at it. Some of the bad acting might be highlighted by the terrible dialogue, but man it is just hard to handle at times.
The special effects are above average, some of the kills are kind of weak though. There is a scene where a couple goes into the woods to bang one out. The girl (actress Debi Sue Voorhees, funny) has probably the best set of boobs in the entire franchise…now that’s a title to be proud of, she’s killed with a pair of pruners in the eyes. The guy (who only lasts 20 seconds, tops) gets killed by his belt, wrapped around a tree and his eyes. Not sure if doing that would kill someone but I’m willing to go with it, although it is kind of lame. The blood is plentiful and the gore is quite solid. It isn’t the best in the franchise but I wouldn’t say it is the worst. A few of the kills are cut away, which is always disappointing but censors loved messing Friday the 13th up at this time, especially in part 7.
For the soundtrack, we get the typical style music from the previous movies so there isn’t much to complain about. The only beef I have is that they changed up the “ki ki ki, ma ma ma” sound that is in every movie. It is way overused and they added different sounds to it, it is odd and distracting if you have seen any of the other movies. There is an odd dance scene involving Violet, where she listens to a stereotypical 80s alternative song, its comical and worth noting. Another “song” in the movie involves Reggie’s brother taking a shit because of “those damn enchiladas” and his girlfriend is outside messing with the outhouse. They sing back and forth “oo baby, oooo baby” back and forth for what feels like 5 minutes, it gets stuck in your head and it is rather dumb to be honest haha.
Ok now the reason why everyone seems to hate this movie. SPOILER ALERT! The killer is NOT Jason. Yeah you read that right, its not Jason Voorhees but rather a guy dressed like him. I wont say who the killer is, I’ll let you watch and get that surprise. Initially it isn’t obvious, but if you rewatch the movie, you will see they were shoving it in your face the whole time. Let’s just say that the murder of Joey makes a little more sense at the end, but no its not Vic he’s just a psycho.
I can’t say that I truly hate this movie. No I didn’t care for it the first time I watched it, I was butt hurt like everyone else when I found out Jason wasn’t the killer. Upon further viewings of this movie, I tend to hate it less. It is ok, the acting is bad, the dialogue is bad, but it still has that Friday the 13th feel that I enjoy. Some of the kills are decent and the boobs are good, two of the main focuses of a Friday movie haha. I would only recommend this to people whom have seen all the others. Part 5 isn’t the worst, it is far from the best and it deserves a C-. It isn’t one I regularly watch, but hey it isn’t Jason X so that’s a plus in my book. Happy Friday the 13th, I leave you with this….
https://youtu.be/2t-gouAAOzI
