Dr. K's Waiting Room

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Long considered to be an unlucky day due to superstitions involving the number thirteen and religious connotations, Friday the 13^th is perhaps equally as well-known as the title for a long-running series of slasher movies. Naturally, this is clearly the best opportunity to take a look at the Friday the 13^th (Various, 1980 to 2009) horror series and to commemorate this unlucky and dreaded date.

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Released: 22 March 1985
Director: Danny Steinmann
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Budget: $2.2 million
Stars: John Shepherd, Melanie Kinnaman, Shavar Ross, Carol Locatell, Tiffany Helm, Dick Wieand, and Tom Morga

The Plot:
Several years after murdering hockey-masked psychopath Jason Voorhees, a grown-up Tommy Jarvis (Shepherd) is interned at a halfway house for recuperation. However, when Jason (Morga) seemingly returns and a fresh batch of bodies start piling up, Tommy must face his demons head-on once more.

The Background:
Following John Carpenter’s Halloween (Carpenter, 1978) and the birth of the “slasher” genre, Friday the 13^th (Cunningham, 1980) was a surprising box office success and this led to equally financially successful sequels. However, just as producer/director Sean S. Cunningham distanced himself from the franchise, so too did Paramount executives become embarrassed by their shlock franchise. Thus, Friday the 13^th: The Final Chapter (Zito, 1984) was developed to bring the series to a definitive end…before it proved to be a commercial success widely regarded as one of the best in the franchise. Consequently, a fifth entry followed only a year after the “Final Chapter”, one that was unusually deceptive in both it methodology and approach. Both stars John Shepherd and Dick Wieand were disappointed to find they’d been duped into a new Friday film and even the director was disgusted by how much footage was excised by the ratings board. Although child actor Corey Feldman could only return for a cameo, the film seemed to be setting Tommy up as the new killer of the franchise but A New Beginning’s disastrous critical reception and audience backlash saw Jason return for real in the very next film. As if being one of the lowest-grossing Friday films of the time with its $22 million box office wasn’t bad enough, A New Beginning is widely cited as one of the worst entries in the franchise.

The Review:
Jason may very well be one of the most, if not the most, prolific killers in all of horror cinema. His reputation as an unstoppable, merciless masked killer is well deserved not just because of his brutality but also because he categorically refuses to stay dead, even when film studios try to do him in! Branding The Final Chapter as the last-ever Friday the 13^th was a bold claim, especially as the film ended with the pretty explicit suggestion that killing Jason had a negative effect on young Tommy. The film’s final, haunting shot suggested that Tommy would take over as the franchise’s killer and, honestly, I almost wish we’d seen that happen, at least for one or two movies. Not content with this blatant misdirection, A New Beginning opens with the suggestion that Jason is far from dead. In an opening that’s basically foreshadowing the next, far superior movie, young Tommy watches on, terrified and helpless, as Jason (here played by John Hock) rises from his grave in a zombie-like state to begin his killing spree anew. Sadly, we’d have to wait another year for this to come to pass and this promising opening is quickly revealed to simply be a vivid nightmare of the now grown-up Tommy. Yes, rather than following the traumatised youngster as he deals with the fallout of his actions and a newfound bloodlust rising within him, A New Beginning jumps ahead to find Tommy as the most mid-twenties-looking seventeen-year-old you’ll ever see in cinema but no less disturbed by his encounter with, and recurring visions of, Jason several years prior.

Now a disturbed, withdrawn youth, Tommy has bounced around numerous psychiatric hospitals and been subjected to every treatment and drug available short of electroshock therapy. Regardless of how poorly his treatments have taken, he’s been transferred to Pinehurst Halfway House, run by kindly Doctor Matt Letter (Richard Young) and his assistant, Pam Roberts (Kinnaman), in the hopes that he can be reacclimated back into society. Tommy is a very different character here; no longer the chirpy, enthusiastic, curious little boy, he’s sullen and moody and highly aggressive, carrying a nasty-looking flick knife and carrying a seething rage beneath his brooding exterior. Tommy is seen to be massively unstable, liable to flip on a dime and send Eddie Kelso (John Robert Dixon) hurtling through a table and mercilessly pummel anyone who touches him or riles him up with a sudden aggressive outburst. Yet, at the same time, Tommy still has some of his sentimental and playful side. He still carries a photo of his family and is still proud of his homemade masks, but he’s constantly on edge and triggered into violence by the slightest hint of hostility towards him. A New Beginning features two Jasons for the price of one; thanks to his childhood trauma, Tommy hallucinates and has nightmares of Jason, clad more or less in the same attire as he died in, despite it being explicitly stated that Jason was cremated after his death (a plot point later abandoned). The second Jason, though familiar, is noticeably different; not only is he dressed in different clothes, but his hockey mask also features prominent blue triangles rather than red and he’s very much real compared to the ghost that haunts Tommy. This Jason is just as brutal and superpowered as the last, easily manhandling his victims, crushing their bones, and surviving horrific injuries, lending credence to Tommy’s fears that Jason has returned from the grave.

In a change of pace from previous (and most other) Friday the 13^th films, A New Beginning includes a gaggle of eclectic teenage misfits rather than horny camp counsellors, though Pinehurst’s residents are no less promiscuous and cliché. Functioning as an extremely lenient halfway house where the residents are free to do whatever they want thanks to the “honour system”, Pinehurst shelters Eddie and his lover Tina McCarthy (Debi Sue Voorhees), insecure stutterer Jake Patterson (Jerry Pavlon), goth Violet Moraine (Helm), blank slate Robin Brown (Juliette Cummins), compulsive eater Joey Burns (Dominick Brascia), and the violent and unstable Vic Faden (Mark Venturini). As you’d expect, the film wastes little time in establishing each character’s one defining trait and makes very little effort to expand them beyond that before they’re unceremoniously offed. Jake is humiliated when Robin mocks his affections and his corpse ends up in her bed, but she’s immediately killed before properly processing her remorse and grief. Indeed, all we really know about Robin is that she’s into films and a natural with kids. At least Violet has a unique look, her love for music, and her tendency to snap at people…but she’s knifed in the gut before she can do anything other than showcase her slick dance moves. Arguably, the most prominent members of the group are two who are barely even in the film. A loud and child-like teen, Joey desperately tries to be useful and make friends with everyone, only to constantly make a fool of himself. When he tries this with Vic (who really shouldn’t have had access to an axe), he ends up chopped to pieces, horrifying his fellow residents and leaving everyone shellshocked, particularly Tommy and oddly disturbed paramedic Roy Burns (Wiead). With Tommy’s sister, Trish (Kimberly Beck), reduced to a simple photograph, we’re left relying on Pam as our main girl. Of everyone in Pinehurst, Tommy is most receptive to Pam’s influence and persuasion, potentially because he reminds her of his sister or perhaps because of confusing sexual feelings towards her, but she has no idea what he’s seen or of the horrors Jason is capable of since she’s used to just dealing with unruly kids.

In place of the smart-mouthed, resourceful young Tommy, we have standout character Reggie “The Reckless” Winter (Ross), son of Pinehurst’s grandfatherly cook, George (Vernon Washington). Reggie’s a lot like Tommy was as a child; he enjoys pranks and going where he’s not meant to and cheekily acting like he’s twice his age, especially with the ladies. As memorable and entertaining as Reggie is, he’s got nothing on his older, rockstar brother “Demon” (Miguel A. Núñez Jr.) In a film stuffed with aggravating and forgettable characters, Demon is a breath of fresh air. From his pimped-out van, his smooth tongue, and his meme-worthy singing voice to his devotion to his little brother and his energetic charisma, it’s a real shame when Demon gets skewered while on the crapper. While Matt’s heart’s in the right place, Pinehurst has ruffled a few feathers with the townsfolk, specifically loudmouth hic Ethel Hubbard (Locatell) and her simpleton son Junior (Ron Sloan). Ethel’s outspoken and aggressive not just to Matt and his residents, but even the ineffectual Sheriff Cal Tucker (Marco St. John) and her own son, who she berates constantly, and isn’t afraid to threaten Matt’s horny and disruptive residents with violence when they trespass on her property. As aggravating as Ethel and Junior are, they definitely make the most of their roles; Ethel excels as a suspicious and infuriated redneck, barking colourful swears and treating everyone like dirt, even her simpleton son. Other notable and strangely fun side characters include greasers Pete Linley (Corey Parker) and Vinnie Manalo (Anthony Barrile), who are murdered while experiencing car trouble but make a bizarre impression with their banter and Vinnie’s amusing singsong about his broken-down car! However, this is merely the appetiser for what Demon has in store for us! A charismatic mixture of Prince and Michael Jackson, Demon woos his girlfriend, Anita (Jere Fields), with an infectious melody of “Ooh, baby!” but even his charm has kinks in it. He exhibits uncharacteristic anger when Anita winds him up and ends up struggling with his bowels after eating one too many enchiladas.

The Nitty-Gritty:
I think a good way to describe A New Beginning would be to simply sum it up as a waste of potential. I firmly believe there was a good idea buried in here somewhere; I can’t say if it would’ve been any better or worse if it had taken more cues from Halloween and reframed Tommy as the franchise’s new killer, but it certainly might have been more interesting than this awkward game of whodunnit. Revenge has always been a prominent theme in the Friday the 13^th franchise and it’s alive and well here. Like Pamela Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) before him, Roy is driven to madness by a murderous lust for revenge but he’s clearly more unhinged (or the writing just wasn’t as good) since he slaughters his victims seemingly at random rather than targeting those actually responsible. In many ways, A New Beginning mirrors the first film; there, it was pretty damn obvious Pamela was the killer since she showed up at the last minute when everyone was dead, and it’s also pretty obvious that this Lou Ferrigno lookalike is our man since Roy hogs the camera and interjects himself into conversations that are nothing to do with him whenever he’s onscreen. It’s actually very comical; this nobody, who you could easily forget, just randomly pops up and may as well have a big sign over his head saying KILLER. Yet, rather than focus on his grief and descent into madness and appropriation of Jason’s legacy, the film focuses on running the genre’s cliches into the ground with nonsensical padding and zany side characters. The likes of Ethel and Junior and the wacky Pinehurst residents really drag the runtime and make this one of the most boring and tedious entries when really we should be focusing on whether Jason is really back, if Tommy is unknowingly possessed by or acting out the kills, or who the real culprit is but there’s precious few red herrings offered to us throughout.

Of course, Friday the 13^th is a franchise known for three things: Jason, gore, and sex…and A New Beginning certainly has its fair share of the latter. Without a doubt, this may well be the horniest film in the franchise; everyone’s either catcalling, leering, or out-right drooling over each other, especially the girls. Randomly, the film detours from the main plot to up the boobs and body count with waitress Lana Ardsley (Rebecca Wood) and moustachioed ladies’ man Billy Macauley’s (Bob DeSimone) sordid antics. However, while Lana flashes her tits with glee, she’s got nothing on Tina, who basically puts on a softcore porn in the woods with Eddie. While the killing starts when Tommy’s nightmare Jason makes short work of two foolhardy grave robbers (Todd Bryant and Curtis Conaway), this is sadly a double-edged sword as A New Beginning includes several gruesome kills but, thanks to meddling censoring, many are decidedly toothless. However, in some cases this actually works quite effectively; Joey’s hacked-up body is only briefly seen but there’s enough gore and astonished, horrified reactions to tell that Vic really did a number on the lad, and a quick shot of Pete being force-fed a flare is suitably wince-inducing. Unfortunately, Vinnie and Anita’s throat slashes leave a lot to be desired, as does Roy’s axe attack on Billy and Lana, and Roy’s offing of the random drifter (Sonny Shields) is so sudden that you’d miss it if you looked away for half a second. From here, it’s all a bit hit and miss; as gory as Tina’s gouged-up eyes are, I have to believe that she was originally decapitated by those shears, and Eddie is simply crushed to death by a belt across the face. There’s some tension as Roy toys with Demon and a surprisingly explicit shot of him being impaled, and I was more than grateful when Junior’s obnoxious wailing was literally cut off at the neck and Ethel got her head split open, but it’s all so toothless and fleeting and random.

Interestingly, it’s Reggie who ends up finding all the dismembered bodies in the final act. Since Tommy’s missing and the bodies are all in his room, Reggie and Trish assume that he’s gone on a killing spree and flee from the masked psychopath into the storm-swept night. “Jason” pursues the two with superhuman persistence, again echoing the finales of the previous films, before being run down by Reggie in a tractor! However, when they stupidly stop to inspect the body, the wounded “Jason” springs to life and corners them in the barn, where Pam briefly fends him off with a chainsaw before Tommy makes a dramatic entrance. “Jason” seems as captivated by Tommy as Tommy is horrified by “Jason”. Thanks to his traumatic childhood and crippling hallucinations, Tommy hesitates and is nearly killed, but strikes a piercing wound with his knife. This lures “Jason” to the barn’s upper level, where Reggie, Pam, and Tommy fight “Jason” once more and drop him onto a bed of spikes below where they get a look at his unmasked face and are stunned to find that it was meek, unassuming Roy all along! However, it’s a little difficult to really get all that invested in Roy’s motivations. It’s mentioned that Joey is an orphan, whose father “took off” when he was little, severely undercutting my emotional investment in Roy’s killing spree. Sheriff Tucker delivers some stilted exposition about Roy’s character and motivations, speculating that he was driven to murder after abandoning his son as much as grief over his brutal murder. It’s pretty obvious that he’s more than just a forgettable side character by the glare he shoots Matt and down the camera after Joey is killed, but it’s easy to forget about him amidst the sex, kills, and Tommy’s apparent descent into madness. Speaking of which, despite facing and conquering his demon once more, Tommy continues to be tormented by nightmares; he envisions himself killing Pam, then Jason standing over his bed ominously. Although Tommy seems to force the apparition to disappear once and for all, the film ends with the suggestion that Jason’s spirit has taken root in Tommy’s body. He dons Roy’s mask (no idea why it was in Tommy’s hospital room) and prepares to kill Pam, with even the iconic “Ki ki ki, ma ma ma” subtly altered to suggest Tommy will be the killer going forward.

The Summary:
Although it tries to play with the formula of the franchise, Friday the 13^th: A New Beginning ends up playing things far too safe. The whole reason Jason was killed off in the first place was because of how repetitive and derivative the films were becoming, and changing the setting to a halfway house does little to alter that. Instead, the film goes out of its way to avoid featuring or expanding on the Pinehurst kids and needlessly drags out the runtime with a bunch of random kills that aren’t even fun to watch since the gore is so horrendously butchered. The potential to try something new is here but lost behind a thinly veiled attempt to remake the first film, hit all the cliché expectations of the genre, and pretend like Jason is still alive when he clearly isn’t. In another life, with a stronger script, A New Beginning would’ve taken place mostly in Pinehurst and seen the residents and staff picked off one by one, with Tommy being positioned as the killer only to reveal that it’s actually Roy. At least that would’ve made more sense than Roy targeting random civilians rather than those actually (well, partially) responsible for Joey’s death. Though, ideally, Roy would’ve been dropped entirely (or existed only as a red herring) and Tommy would’ve been positioned as the franchise’s new killer, now horribly traumatised from his experiences and driven to murder, we were sadly left with this mess of a plot. Ultimately, considering the next film basically pretends like this one didn’t happen, you’re best off skipping A New Beginning. It adds nothing to the franchise and stands out as a failed attempt to try something different mired in an insistence on repeating the same tired slasher formula.

My Rating:

Terrible

What did you think to Friday the 13^th: A New Beginning? How do you feel it holds up against its predecessors and its many sequels? Did you guess that Roy was the killer, and if not how did you miss the blatant foreshadowing peppered throughout? Were you disappointed that Tommy didn’t become the new killer and what did you think to his characterisation? Which of the kills was your favourite? What did you think to all the wacky side characters? Which of the Friday the 13^th movies is your favourite? Do you consider Friday the 13^th to be unlucky? Are you watching a Friday the 13^th movie today? Whatever your thoughts on Friday the 13^th (the movie, franchise, and day), go ahead and leave them down below or drop a comment on my social media and be sure to check in again for more horror content in the near future!