Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Friday the 13th Part 5: A New Beginning Movie Review






Friday the 13th Part 5 is a 1985 horror movie and the fifth in the series. It is directed by Danny Steinman and stars John Shepard and Melanie Kinnaman.


The movie begins with young survivor Tommy Jarvis(Corey Feldman) visiting Jason's grave and witnessing him being dug up by two men. Jason comes back to life and comes for Tommy. It is just a nightmare and the older Tommy(Shepard) wakes up. He is being taken to Pinehurst Halfway House, a treatment facility as he has lots of problems caused by his ordeal with Jason in the previous movie.
He meets the director of the facility, Pam Roberts(Kinnaman). She knows all about Tommy and she wants to help him. He also meets the doctor, Matt Letter(Richard Young). The facility is to prepare him to reenter society. Tommy has flashbacks about his mother and his sister. He keeps a knife under his bed. He meets a young guy called Reggie(Shavar Ross) and they get on well.


He meets some of the other kids there too. A local weirdo called Ethel comes to complain about the kids. She wants the place shut down. Two people get killed when their car breaks down. It seems that  Jason HAS come back to life after all. Tommy thinks that he sees Jason. Jason goes on a rampage and he kills anyone who comes into contact with him. The cops wonder what is going on. The Sheriff thinks that it might be Jason Voorhees. Reggie's brother and his girlfriend get killed by Jason. Weirdo Ethel and her oddball son meet Jason and he takes care of them. Jason makes his way to Pinehurst and he comes for Tommy, Pam and Reggie.


They get separated and Jason chases Pam. Reggie saves her when he drives a digger into Jason.
 Of course, Jason is not dead. He chases them into the barn. Pam gets a chainsaw and fights him. She manages to injure him and then Tommy shows up. Jason sees him and wants him dead. Tommy stabs him in the leg. Jason will not die!Tommy and Pam push him out of the barn window and he dies. But the shocker is that it was NOT Jason at all, but the dad of a kid who was killed at Pinehurst when another inmate turned violent. He used the guise of Jason to kill everyone in sight. Tommy is relieved that Jason has not come back to life and banishes Jason from his mind. The movie ends with Pam coming to see Tommy in hospital only to find his window open and he has seemingly escaped. He is hiding behind the door wearing the infamous hockey mask. What the hell???


I liked this film. I didn't like it as much as the others because there was no real Jason in it. The ending was a bit silly too. I enjoyed it for the most part and it was good fun on the whole. They probably could have come up with a better story for this one involving the REAL Jason, I felt. It seemed like a missed opportunity to me. I do think that this is a must for Jason fans, though. It is not as bad as some of the later sequels, so I recommend it to fans of the series. I will give it a 5/10.

2 comments:

Susan Leighton said...

I think this was an attempt at psychological horror from a pure slasher perspective. That is what makes it awkward. This film series is meant to be slice and dice not a deep, introspection. Good review, Jigs.

Amanda said...

Thanks Susan, I agree, this was a weird one for me. What was it- a study of a traumatised person haunted by what happened or a standard horror movie? I still haven't figured it out. And no Jason in it was very disappointing. I wanted a proper face off between the two, but it never really happened. Of course, I still enjoyed it up until the end!

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