Movie Info
Movie Name: Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Genre(s): Horror
Release Date(s): March 22, 1985
MPAA Rating: R
I’M BACK!!! Ok…maybe just for a short flashback dream sequence…
After his killing of Jason Voorhees, Tommy Jarvis (John Shepherd) is struggling with life. Years of shuffling through foster homes have landed Tommy at a rehabilitation center where patients are free to go and do as they please. When a patient kills another patient with an axe, a series of murders commences. As the police search for the new killer, the fear that Jason Voorhees has returned could be true.
Directed by Danny Steinmann, Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning (sometimes just called Friday the 13th: A New Beginning) is a horror slasher movie. Following Friday the 13th Part 4: The Final Chapter in 1984, the film entry was one of the biggest panned entries in the series, but like its predecessors, fared well at the box-office.
Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning is what I would equate to the Friday the 13th’s series Halloween III. Halloween III was pounded for not being a Michael Myers horror movie and Friday the 13th Part V isn’t a a Jason movie. ******Spoiler Alert****** Due to the style of Friday the 13th Part V, there will spoilers throughout.
I’m…back too?
The big problem with Friday the 13th Part V is the story which is ironic since most of the Friday the 13th movies have been criticized for not having a story. Here, the movie attempted to returned back to the “who is the killer” story of the first film, and it made for a boring movie. At this point in the series, you go to a movie to see Jason kill…not some paramedic (though it is a bit of a throwback to the original film and the mystery killer).
The ending of the film reveals that the murders tie to the axe murder at the beginning of the film and that the murdered boy’s secret father snapped. Throughout the film, Tommy Jarvis is presented as a red herring, but the end of the movie has him snapping and potentially becoming the new Jason…which is completely (thankfully) forgotten in Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives.
The cast for the movie also doesn’t excel. Like previous entries, the cast is flat and dull. The movie does feature the return of Corey Feldman for an opening sequence. Feldman was shooting The Goonies and shot his scenes in a day when he was off.
…and a classic “Who’s that guy?” moment
The movie doesn’t have much style and the kills were allegedly toned down. I do find it interesting that the opening axe murder sequence is almost an identical set up to the low budget Don’t Look in the Basement (or The Forgotten) from 1973. The basic concepts for the insane asylum are the same in Friday the 13th Part V…with toned down inmates.
Friday the 13th Part V is potentially my least favorite entry in the Friday the 13th series. That says a lot since there are many clunkers (Jason Goes to Hell is the biggest rival…and might be worse depending on the day). The movie isn’t “so bad it is good”. It is just bad. Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning is followed by the return of the real (now zombie) Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th VI: Jason Lives in 1986.
Related Links:
Friday the 13th Part 4: The Final Chapter (1984)
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
