Friday the 13th: A New Beginning
Friday the 13th: A New Beginning
Still haunted by his past, Tommy Jarvis, who, as a child, killed Jason Voorhees, is sent to a secluded halfway house in the countryside, where the killing of a young man triggers a brutal series of murders in the area.
Jacob O’Neal reviewedJune 13, 2025
There’s lots of bare flesh on display for Jason to rip apart with his machete in Friday The 13th: A New Beginning. Notice how I phrased that sentence. If you haven’t seen the movie, consider it a clue. The movie opens with Corey Feldman once again playing Tommy Jarvis literally in his own backyard. They had one night with Feldman before he was leaving for Stand By Me, if memory serves. If I’m wrong, my apologies. It could have been Goonies. But I digress. Wait, can I digress if there was no direction to this paragraph? Ugh. Forget it. Back on task…
After Tommy witnesses the resurrection of Jason and the murder of a couple random thrill seeking grave robbers he begins to be strangled by Jason and wakes up a now late teens Tommy played by John Shepherd. Tommy goes to a home for mentally challenged and crazy youth. The first true death in the movie is not committed by Jason, but one of these asshole teens killing a man whose name I don’t want to say. If you know his real life connection Corey Feldman and Corey Haim you know why. Anyway, he was playing Simple Jack before Simple Jack. Then he gets axed for too many questions (bad joke. Sorry). After that, more killing start and the dumb random victims start dropping at the hands of…Jason? But he’s dead…right? That Jarvis kid done kilt ‘im. Maybe not. Or maybe it’s a copycat. Hmm. Could they be trying to make lighting strike twice in the same franchise with the mystery killer routine? Yes. Yes, they could.
Danny Steinmann, the director, packed the movie full of blood, boobs and one scene with a two pump chump while lying with a Vorhees pretending to be someone else for the movie while some stuntman plays the actor playing a man pretending to be a Vorhees. I shouldn’t say “some stuntman”. His name is Tom Morga and he’s a very sweet guy. He signed the action figure of him I have. Steinmann trees in more nudity per capita than any other film in the franchise (maybe the reboot rivals it. We’ll see), presumably because in the early 80’s people would get naked in PG movies. It was no big deal. So the MPAA was cracking down more on violence. We had great kills, very little gore…but wait, here’s more boobs! Maybe he cracked a formula. I used to think there was a 10 minute rule when a producer knows a movie sucks - boobs every 10 minutes will keep a guy watching and waiting for the next pair. But does it save this doomed sequel that tried and failed in so many ways? Are we judging it solely upon the best in the franchise came right before it and put the final nail in Jason’s coffin? That’s a hard act to follow. I say yes and no. It’s better than most people think it is. And it’s better than 9 for sure.
One last complaint. Sorry. The mask to head ratio needs to show more head. If the mask were smaller then Jason would look bigger. They got it more right in the later sequels.