Movie Review: Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)

Synopsis: Five years after brutally killing Jason Voorhees, Tommy Jarvis is released from a mental institution and sent to live in a rural halfway house. Even though Jason is dead, he continues to haunt Tommy's dreams and, before too long, people, once again, begin getting murdered by someone wearing a hockey mask.

Who's in it? The movie stars Suzanne Bateman, John Shepherd, Carol Locatell, Richard Lineback and Juliette Cummins.


Review: My wife and I spent most of yesterday helping my parents with their garage sale and, by the time we finally got home last night, were pretty tired out. However, since it was still relatively early, we ended up watching this movie while our daughters were in their rooms reading/settling down for the night.

After watching and being disappointed by the fourth installment of this film series, I did have some doubts about whether or not to watch any more. However, we already had this recorded and I figured it couldn't be any worse than the movie that preceded it. As it turns out, this movie proved me wrong about that.

There are quite a few things that are wrong with this movie. But, since I don't have time to go into every single one of them, I'll focus on the main one, the overall plot. From the very start, it was obvious this was going to be one of those films with a "surprise" twist at the end. In other words, it wasn't overly difficult to figure out it wasn't really Jason Voorhees wearing the mask. And, even though the movie did an OK job hiding the killer's true identity, the fact it wasn't a crazed lunatic who, once again, returned from the grave, did take something away from this movie.

The movie, to its credit, doesn't focus as much on nudity and sex as the fourth installment did (though there's still quite a bit of that). But, much like the fourth film, the murders are a little too easy for "Jason." Maybe it's just me, but I just don't think a killer is very menacing when he kills people by sneaking up on them or stabbing them while they are on the toilet, especially since he was, once again, defeated the second any of his intended victims stood up for themselves. I honestly think Jason Voorhees (along with his impersonators) is one of the wimpiest serial killers ever and, so far, these movies aren't proving me wrong.

Final Opinion: I had some doubts about this film from the start and, after watching it, I'm disappointed about the fact it justified those doubts. It was definitely a movie that was not worth watching.

My Grade: F



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