Paramount made a big deal over the fact that 1984's Final Chapter would really and truly be the end of the Friday franchise. They may even have been sincere. But when a movie rakes in ten times its budget, it's hard to leave all that lovely money on the table. So here we are, back again for more machete slashing action.
I'll give the creative team this much: they recognised that they couldn't just go to the "but wait, Jason's not dead after all!" well for the third time running. Instead we get a tease of a theme that will return in Part VI before leaping six years into the future to the now adult Tommy Jarvis.
At the age of 12, Tommy helped to finally kill Jason Vorhees. Now 18, he's being shuttled from one psychiatric hospital to another, where it is hoped they will have better luck treating his tendencies toward being a loner, fits of violent rage, and hallucinating that Jason Vorhees is still around.
Of course, when a violent death at the hospital leads to a series of murderous attacks across the community, the question has to be asked: is Jason Vorhees back? Or is Tommy even crazier than anyone thinks he is?
Friday the 13th: A New Beginning has lots of violent death (more than any film in the franchise thus far) and several attractive women who remove their clothes or spend a long time in a wet and see-through white shirt, which you might think is all a slasher film needs to be 'good', at least in the eyes of its intended audience of teenage boys. However, the script is so witless and lacking in tension or engagement that only the most uncritical of slasher fans is likely to be entertained. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's not the worst Friday film (not even the worst so far - that'd be Part 3), but trust me, avoiding the title of 'worst Friday the 13th' is nothing to be proud of.
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