Friday the 13th Pt VII: The New Blood (1988)
Directed by John Carl Buechler
The Friday the 13th series owned the 80s and by the time the late 80s rolled around, they were kind of running out of ideas. We had Jason die, a Jason imposter, and Jason resurrected as a zombie. Where else could we go? Well the seventh installment tried a new fresh approach, by giving the final girl telekinetic powers like Carrie. Is it preposterous? Yeah. Was a horrible idea? Not really, but hell lets dive in.
This movie revolves around Tina, a teenage girl with telekinetic powers returning to a lake house she stayed at as a child until her powers ended her father’s life. Tina is accompanied by her nutty mother and her psychologist, whom is basically trying to take advantage of Tina’s ability. Next door there is a house full of randy teenagers on vacation, so nothing new there. Tina quickly becomes attached to one of the guys, whose name is Nick. Tina has a bad experience and runs to the dock that her father fell off and died on, her powers become strong and she raises Jason out of his watery grave from the previous film. Hooray for continuity because that doesn’t happen often in the genre. Tina quickly passes out and Jason goes on a killing spree, per usual. Now as Jason mows through all the cardboard teenagers, will Tina be able to ward Jason off and destroy him once and for all?
The acting in this movie is what you would expect honestly. It is pretty hammy in parts and wooden in others. Tina is kind of a downer but being locked in a mental institution for years after she inadvertently killed her father, it is kind of understandable. Tina’s mom is a nutcase, she frantically runs around looking for Tina half the movie, just running around the woods in circles screaming “TINA!!!” It is pretty hilarious, and she looks like a female gym teacher so that only accentuates it. The psychologist is a slimy jerk and you wait most of the movie waiting for him to get his. Along with him being a jerk you get the quintessential rich bitch Melissa, who is probably the best in the movie. Her acting is pretty good, you really grow to hate her and her facial expressions are on point.
The special effects and kills are lacking but not because of the director, because of the MPAA. Part VII was greatly hacked up by censors and many of the deaths are cut short. The sleeping bag death is a prime example, the original cut had Jason slamming the sleeping bag into a tree multiple times, after cut it was only once. The earlier installments show much more blood and gore than the later movies, which is sad because this movie had so much potential and lots of innovative kills. Even sadder? The original cut barely exists, a few of the segments are lost and others are so grainy and choppy that they’re hardly watchable. Another interesting factoid is that this movie was suppose to be a crossover with A Nightmare on Elm Street but with rights and licensing issues that quickly fell apart and we would have to wait nearly 15 years for that dream to come true.
Tina’s powers really add a new element to the movie, she seems less vulnerable than previous final girls and she really deals out a lot of damage to Jason. Jason is burned, crushed, and battered with numerous items. Jason’s mask is broken off his face and we see a zombified face of the bad guy in full. Jason looks pretty cool in this movie, he’s decaying pretty badly and you can see parts of his skeleton showing. For the first time Kane Hodder plays Jason, and he’s a very menacing and mean-spirited Jason. Hodder himself can be a rather intimidating guy so him playing as Jason really took the character to a new level.
The end? Wow I don’t want to spoil the movie but damn it is 30 years old so whatever. Tina has her battle with Jason which leads down by the lake, on the dock where Tina’s father died before. Tina uses her powers to summon her dead father to come up out of the water and grab Jason, pulling him down in to the lake. It makes no fucking sense and man it is bad. Tina is roughly 17 or 18 now and when her father died she was probably 6. So, this dude has been in this small lake for 11 or so years? No one pulled him out of the damn lake? Also, he would not be as pristine as he is, dude looks like he just went for a night swim, he’s wet and has some seaweed on him, no signs of decay and his skin is a bright fleshy healthy glow. I think they really could have done a better job here honestly.
Part VII isn’t the worst, but man it isn’t the best. You can see the seeds planted for what was to come in the series. When Jason Takes Manhattan came out, the series really showed that it was basically washed up. The New Blood tried something new, it wasn’t really a great new but I commend them for trying. That ending though maybe the worst in the series. It is so out of left field and laughably bad that you can’t help but roll your eyes and chuckle. It makes you long for u older films and wish they did more with Tina’s ability. I love all the Friday the 13thfilms, just at different levels. If you have seen a lot of these, then watch this. It does have some redeeming factors but it isn’t great. I would give this a C. While the ending is bad and the acting is wooding and my lord the haircuts are atrocious, it does attempt to take the series in a new direction which you have to give them credit for.
