Friday the 13th Part 5: A New Beginning (1985)

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As I mentioned before, Part 5 is one of the most memorable ones to me. If I had to rank them, Part 3 would probably be my favorite, then Part 5, then Part 4, with my least favorite being Part 8, since the idea of Jason in the city just seemed bogus to me, but I’ll get the honor of revisiting and reviewing it, and maybe even appreciate it later. Not that Part 5 is really better than Part 4, but it all boiled down to the time and place in which I viewed it.

Part 4 leads you believe that it was the end of Jason’s reign and finito to the Friday the 13th series, but realizing just how profitable this maniac was, a new one was released a year later. Now on it’s 4th director, Danny Steinmann, who also gave us The Unseen (1981) and Savage Streets (1984), Jason comes back with a different swagger and a blue striped hockey mask.

We pick up this time with an aged Tommy Jarvis, who’s still battling his demons over Jason Voorhees, and hanging out with the other loonies at the Pine Hurst mental facility, basically just a house in the woods with a couple of therapists. Much like Shelly from Part 3, fat-ass Joey (another white dude with a mini-fro), is an annoyance to everyone, and when he bugs temperamental Vic while chopping wood, he gets an axe in the back (a scene familiar to Don’t Look in the Basement). Within the first 26 minutes, we have five confirmed kills.

There’s really not a whole lot of character development in this one, yet so many people seemed familiar. Stuttering Jake reminds me of Duckie from Pretty in Pink, even though Part 5 predates it, Reggie’s brother, Demon, is a mix between Michael Jackson and Rick James (I’m Rick James Bitch!!), Pam looks like Ginny from Part 2, Violet is a clear reference to Blondie (and can break down a wicked robot), and Reggie looks like Little Red Riding Hood (and screams like a little girl when he sees the big bad wolf (Jason)).

After rewatching this, I think I may have figured out why I like this movie so much, it’s because of all the humor and the wide array of colorful characters. This was the first one that actually made me laugh, and Ethel and her retarded son, Junior, brought the most chuckles. This movie also hailed a couple of the most memorable kill scenes for me. When Jason wraps the strap around Eddie’s head, and then cranks it until it breaks, and when Ethel’s son is beheaded while erratically riding his motorcycle through the yard after getting his ass kicked by Tommy.

This movie will lead you to believe that it's possibly Tommy doing the killing (even though the size doesn't match up), but in the end, we find out that it’s Roy, Joey’s paramedic father, who after witnessing his slain son, puts his grief behind the mask with intent on massacring everyone. And, he does a good job of it until Reckless Reggie hits him with the front-end loader, he has a knife/chainsaw fight with Pam, and then he falls out off the barn window onto a bed of spikes with the help of Tommy. But, the last moments still leave open the possibility that Tommy may one day become Jason, or is it all just a bad dream?

So, Part 5: A New Beginning is clearly that, it’s a bit of a different direction for the franchise, but also a clear statement that they were in it for the long haul, eventually beating out every other killer in the genre in film count. And, out of all the other Friday films up to this point, it had the highest body count, totaling like 20, or one every 4.5 minutes, and also had the highest boob count, totaling 6, or 3 sets. I couldn't help but say, Damn, look at those fun bags, when Tina's donned the screen, and felt my lips pucker in a suckling motion.

As Smokeskrene pointed out, some may argue that it is not really a Friday the 13th film because it's misleading and wasn't actually Jason killing, well, I disagree, and think it's a fine addition in the series, and even though it's heavily flawed, and maybe even moreso than the others, it's still in my top 3, and very worthy of being in my collection.

So, if you are a TRUE fan of the series, you gotta pick it up. The reason I put the DVD link to the older release, rather than the reissue on June 16th, is because you can get the same content at a fraction of the price. And, if you don’t already own these movies, shame on you, and I highly recommend you buy the boxset which has Parts 1-8 and all the Killer extras. If you were wondering why you can’t get them ALL in one set in the U.S., it's because two different movie studios have the rights (Paramount and New Line), and neither want to sell. Screw making it easy for the fans when the all mighty dollar is at stake, but if done right, that would make a sweet collector's piece!!

ACTING --2-- HUMOR --3-- BLOOD/GORE --3-- NUDITY --3-- CINEMATOGRAPHY --3-- BODY COUNT --5--

OVERALL RATING --4--