REVIEW – Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning

Published on: 16th December, 2009

REVIEW - Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning  | read this item

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It is interesting to note just how many fans of the Friday the 13th franchise loathe the fifth instalment, humorously titled A New Beginning. Following on from The Final Chapter, which was released the previous year and intended as the swan song to the series, Part V marked what many considered to be the start of a downward spiral that would continue until the end of the decade, when Paramount would eventually sell the rights on to New Line. But the most common criticism against the film is not whether it is good or bad but that the killer is revealed not to be Jason but some impostor. Any time the producers dared to toy with the formula the fans have been less than forgiving, without realising that Jason was also absent from the original movie. Although A New Beginning stretched what little credibility the franchise had to breaking point, as an exploitation movie and certainly as a mid-’80s slasher it is far superior to most.

Several years have passed since Tommy Jarvis (John Shepherd) butchered Jason Voorhees in self-defence and in that time he has been passed over from one foster home to another, before eventually finding his way to a minimum-security halfway house called Pinehurst. Placed under the care of Matt (Richard Young) and Pam (Melanie Kinnaman), Tommy is a recluse and almost catatonic, refusing to socialize with the fellow residents and being protective almost to the point of violence. But when the mentally challenged Joey (Dominick Brascia) is hacked to pieces by the psychotic Victor (Mark Venturini), a new wave of murders begin and the local sheriff (Marco St. John) becomes convinced that Jason has returned from the dead. But a more likely suspect appears to be Tommy, who has begun behaving very strangely and hullucinating that Jason is walking the grounds, determined to kill him once and for all.

Although critics often dismiss the franchise of being repetitive (something is most certainly was guilty of), each of the movies are different in tone and feel and this is mainly due to each of the films being made by a different director, with the exception of the first two sequels which were helmed by Steve Miner. With A New Beginning, the producers eventually settled on Danny Steinmann, whose career in x-rated movies (under the alias Danny Stone) was followed by the sleazy Linda Blair exploitation flick Savage Streets. With a background in sexually explicit and violent cinema, Steinmann took the series in a darker direction and shot ample nudity and gore, much of which was trimmed by the MPAA before granted the film a release. Thus, Part V is by far the most dirty and graphic of the films (a title that the recent remake tried to top), something which made the studio somewhat uneasy.

In the role of Tommy, Shepherd is the worst of the three actors to portray the role, lacking the cheekiness of Corey Feldman from The Final Chapter or Thom Mathews’ action hero turn in Part VI: Jason Lives. He is certainly intense and gives the role some depth, but the fact that he is mute and almost useless (the film seems to build up to some face-off between Tommy and Jason but it never comes to pass) makes his character pointless by the final act. Instead, the filmmakers chose to go for the traditional final girl approach, with Kinnaman dressed in a soaking white shirt as she fights Jason in the rain. She proves to be one of the more effective of the final girls (alongside Part 2’s Amy Steel and Jason Lives‘ Jennifer Cooke) and makes up for Tommy’s lack of action.

The supporting cast are made up of an interesing selection of bizarre characters, the most appealing of which is a young punk girl called Violet (Tiffany Helm), who seems to lack social skills but can do a mean robot dance. Some amusing support comes from Carol Locatell and Ron Sloan as Ethel and Junior Hubbard, the local rednecks with wicked tongues and a hatred for their ‘dumb’ neighbours. Brascia’s brief appearance a Joey is an effective performance, adding some depth to the role and proving to be convincing as the childlike teenager. Fans of The Return of the Living Dead, released the same year, will be pleased to see Venturini and Miguel A. Nunez Jr. in small roles, whilst those who remember the hit ’80s show Diff’rent Strokes may recognise Shavar Ross as the young motor mouth ‘Reggie the Reckless.’

A New Beginning is far from perfect, with a script (from Part 3’s Martin Kitrosser) that is full of more holes than one of its victims, and a rather bland performance from ‘Jason’ (stuntman Dick Warlock). The whodunit plot device is irrelevant as Steinmann makes it obvious by providing several close-ups of a minor character glaring into the camera. But, aside from its flaws (or maybe because of them), A New Beginning is most definitely a guilty pleasure and those who refuse to take it seriously may find much to enjoy. There is ample nudity (courtesy of the appropriately named Debisue Voorhees) and some truly inventive deaths, as well as an amusing appearance from Steinmann regular Bob DeSimone as the obnoxious and sleazy ambulance driver. Certainly not the worst of the franchise.

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