WARNING: This Review contains spoilers about the films conclusion.
Recently I had a conversation (and an agreement) about Jason being a ghost and being able to possess people as part of his persona. I even wrote about it in my review of the first film. We all know in JASON GOES TO HELL that his soul travels from one person to the next taking over their bodies and like I said about the first film, I think A NEW BEGINNING foreshadows the events in JASON GOES TO HELL, just like I feel it did in the first film with Jason mother. With this theory of mine I also believe that Jason has the ability to go back into his own body as well. But as for A NEW BEGINNING one can argue that Jason is at work in this form in this film as well.
In A NEW BEGINNING we are thrust into the future a bit where young Tommy Jarvis is now older. He is psychotically damaged by the events that plagued him when he was younger and the fact that he is the one that was responsible for killing Jason. Tommy is sent to live in a home for troubled youths with psychological disorders. Upon his arrival however people start to go missing and many fear that Jason is back for more revenge. But Tommy thinks that he is the one responsible as he begins to have episodes bought on by his medication where he thinks he see’s Jason stalking him. In the end it all spirals down to where one of the people in the house is acting as an imposter, or are they?
A NEW BEGINNING actually has a pretty decent script, with a lot of unpredictable deaths, as well as too many pointless ones as well. It’s not a perfect script but as far as the series goes I think this script gave the studio some time to think about where they wanted the series to go from here, and why not have a script where Jason is not the killer but someone else is pretending to be him. I will say one thing though, there are a lot of good very well written characters in this movie even though the majority of them have limited screen time.
The film has some pretty decent production value and the acting although a bit rocky is not half bad. Some of the acting fits right in there with the b-movie type of the 1980’s, its that typical eighties horror movie acting. With the cheesy one-liners really bad music and Michael Jackson wannabes. I also like the girl doing the mister roboto dance. What a classic scene. So in a nutshell some alright acting, decent production value and plenty of original kill scenes. There is not much gore, in fact there is very little but the scenes are effective which involve murders.
The DVD Special Features include commentary with director/co-screenwriter Danny Steinmann along with members of the cast and crew, a few featurettes which include Lost Tales from Camp Blood – Part 5, The Crystal Lake Massacres Revisited Part II and New Beginnings: The Making of Friday the 13th: Part V A New Beginning. The DVD also includes the original theatrical trailer as well.
Overall, while this film has it’s flaws it is very entertaining for the most part. There is a good mix of horror and comedy, but the story only uses the comedy bits to break up the tension a little bit before a murder is about to take place. It’s one of the more entertaining films of the series and this DVD presents it in an HD format that looks great.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
