Disclaimer: Spoilers for the story of the film are in this review.
Could it really have been any other movie series for today’s review?
Arguably the most well known slasher of all time, Jason Voorhees has hacked his way through 12 movies over the last 40 years, drawing fans in by following a simple formula. A group of young people show up, Jason shows up with a sharp object and then profit.
The fifth film in the franchise, “A New Beginning” sticks pretty closely to this formula, but with one major change; this time the killer isn’t actually Mr. Voorhees.
Much like “Halloween III: Season of the Witch” is colloquially known as “the one without Michael Myers,” this movie can probably best be described as “the one without Jason.” Instead, the movie returns to the original film’s use of a mystery killer.
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Unfortunately, it also mimics the original in not being a particularly good murder-mystery. Whereas the 1980 film didn’t do enough to justify the killer’s identity, part five makes it so obvious the mystery aspect doesn’t really work.
Our main suspect is Tommy Jarvis, portrayed by John Shepard, the protagonist of the previous film, the in hindsight hilariously titled “Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter.” Since that film ended with Jarvis yelling “DIE” as he hacked up Jason, it’s not too surprising he’s spent the time in between movies in various psychiatric facilities.
In the present, he’s being moved into a halfway house for troubled youth with a wonderful cast of characters whose personalities could be described in single words like “stuttering”, “dancing” and “fat.” Unfortunately for “fat”, he gets on the bad side of “ax murderer”, who decides it’s time to live up to his name.
On paper the setup isn’t bad, the implication being the clearly unstable Jarvis being triggered by the act of violence into taking on the Jason persona. In actual practice they do so much to imply this any reasonable viewer would expect it to be the red herring it is.
This isn’t helped by the fact the actual killer, a paramedic named Roy who just so happens to be the long lost father of the kid who just got ax murdered, is clearly hinted to be the real killer in one of the two scenes he’s in before the big reveal. Played by Dick Wieand, Roy intensely stares at the camera with a “I’m the killer” music sting.
Technically this is still more set up than we got with Pamela Voorhees in the first film. But whereas Betsy Palmer’s performance is arguably one of the best parts of her film, Wieand literally does not have a single line of dialogue.
Outside of that, the rest of the film just isn’t particularly good, even by slasher standards. The dialogue and characters have never been “Friday the 13th’s” strong suit, but in this film it’s particularly egregious.
The dialogue sounds like it was written by a middle schooler who just discovered he can curse without his parents finding out, with f-bombs being thrown left and right. A lot of characters feel like they’re there solely because the director thought they were funny and no one had the courage to tell him otherwise.
The far more disappointing part is the movie’s kills and effects.
Part five had the highest body count of the series so far, but their quality doesn’t match the quantity. In a franchise built on spectacular gore effects, having almost all the kills cut away before the most gruesome part feels like a let down.
It doesn’t help that the director, Danny Steinmann, was more interested in the nudity than blood and guts. At least half the female cast ends up getting at least partially naked at some point.
In the documentary “Crystal Lake Memories”, editor Bruce Green said filming the movie’s sex scene felt more like they were shooting a pornographic film than a horror flick. In fact, Steinmann wanted nudity in the film so much they shot extra gorey death scenes so they could cut them as a bargaining tactic with the MPAA.
That’s not to say there’s nothing positive about the movie. Shavar Ross, who plays the young Reggie, is an absolute delight and arguably the best part of the film. The use of blue paint on the iconic hockey mask is a nice touch that indicates it’s not the real Jason, who always has red decals on his mask.
A polarizing movie, some claim “A New Beginning” as the worst film in the franchise while others say it’s one of their favorites. While there is a certain charm to it in places, it fails in too many spots to be called a decent slasher, or much less a decent film.
If the concept of another person taking on the Jason persona interests you, you may want to seek this movie out. Otherwise, it’s hard to recommend watching it outside of a series marathon around Halloween.
