The Underrated One - Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning - Film Review
Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning is directed by Danny Steinmann and stars John Shepherd, Melanie Kinnaman, Shavar Ross, Dick Wieand as Not Jason, and Corey Feldman.
Plot
Still haunted by his past, Tommy Jarvis (John Shepard) - who, as a child, killed Jason Voorhees - wonders if the serial killer is connected to a series of brutal murders occurring in and around the secluded halfway house where he now lives.
Review
You saw the title, didn't you? Well, that's what I think. I think Friday the 13th Part V is the Halloween III of the Friday the 13th series, they were hated when they came out because they didn't have the series' main killer and fans have started to warm up to it over the years.
I do think this movie is quite good, and I personally enjoy it a bit more than the original Friday the 13th. Some of you think that the original is better, and it might be, but I have more fun with A New Beginning. Roy Burns (Dick Wiend) isn't my favorite killer of the series, I don't hate him, but I think people were a little too upset over the fact that he was just a man in a Jason mask rather than Jason. I personally am OK with the reveal, but I know that some people weren't. The surprise isn't who the killer is, but the who the killer isn't.
This film has some pretty entertaining kills in the movie, like when Vic (Mark Venturini) kills Joey (Dominick Brasica) over the candy bar, and it is funny when Joey is trying to help those two girls do laundry only to make it worse. This scene is why Roy dresses up as Jason and goes on his rampage. He kills everyone except the guy who killed his son, he even kills people who had nothing to do with the killing, like Lana from the diner, and those two guys with car problems. Also Vic chops wood wrong. You're not supposed to lay it down and chop, you're supposed to stand it up and chop.
Another is when that redneck guy is riding around on his motorcycle and he is killed by Roy. There's also when those two teens are out doing it in the woods and the guy is killed by Roy strapping his head to a tree with leather over his eyes and tying it. I don't know if it'll kill you, but it will definitely hurt.
One of my favorite kills is when Demon (Miguel A. Nunez Jr.) is killed in an outhouse by Roy.
This also has one of the highest body counts in the series, 21, I counted. Most of the kills are offscreen or implied because of the MPAA, but they have made Paramount do this a few times to the series to get the films their R-ratings.
This film also has some non-violet entertaing parts as well, like when those Robyn and Jake are watching tv and he says that he loves her, she laughs at him and then he gets angry. They die later.
Violet's robotic dance moves before she dies are pretty cool.
Let's talk about the characters, the characters are really fun and entertaining, but there's four characters I want to talk about. Let's talk about Tommy Jarvis. You can't talk about a movie with Tommy Jarvis and not talk about him. Tommy Jarvis is my favorite non-Jason character in the Friday the 13th series. In this film, he is haunted by the events of The Final Chapter and he barely says a word throughout the entire film. There is a scene in the beginning with Tommy as a kid played by Corey Feldman where he visits Jason's grave and Jason kills these two grave robbers. Corey Feldman could only film that one scene because he was busy with The Goonies and they filmed the scene in his backyard.
I wasn't a huge fan of how they teased him as the next Jason for the second time. Tommy Jarvis is good in this movie, but I like him better in Jason Lives.
Melanie Kinnaman is good as Pam, a worker at Pinehurst who tries to help Jason and is friends with Reggie the Reckless (Shavar Ross). I guess she could be the final girl of the movie, but she didn't take the killer alone as she had help from Reggie and Tommy.
Shavar Ross is good as Reggie, he's fun, entertaining and likable. They wanted Shavar and Melanie to appear in Jason Lives alongside Tommy, but John Shepherd turned down his role because he became a born again Christian and didn't want to be in the series again. It would've looked weird if they had Reggie and Pam without the same actor for Tommy.
Dick Wiend isn't bad as Roy, but most of the scenes where he's in the Jason outfit, he's probably played by a stuntman. I pretty much mentioned his motive several paragraphs ago, but why didn't he tell anybody that Joey was his son? Just seems a little weird to me.
Overall, Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning is a rather underrated entry in the series to me. It got a lot of hate when it came out, but fans have warmed up to it over the years.
I'm going to give Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning a 7.5/10
I can not wait for tomorrow's review of Jason Lives, my favorite of the Friday the 13th series. Also, on an unrelated note, I am reviewing Cowboy Bebop: The Movie in honor of Cowboy Bebop turning 20 recently so stay tuned for that.
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Next review - Friday the 13th Part VI: The Final Chapter
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