Celebrity Nooz: Friday the 13th Part V A New Beginning

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

Movie Title: Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning

Year Released: 1985

Rated: R

Runtime: 1h 32m

Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller

Director: Danny Steinmann

Writer: Martin Kitrosser, David Cohen, and Danny Steinmann

Starring: John Shepherd, Melanie Kinnaman, Shavar Ross, Dick Wieand, Dominick Brascia, Deborah Voorhees, Richard Lineback, Tiffany Helm, Miguel A. Núñez Jr., Carol Locatell, Corey Feldman, Ron Sloan, Marco St. John, Vernon Washington, Richard Young,

Review: After surviving the traumatic terror of Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) Tommy Jarvis (John Shepherd), now a little older and a lot more messed up, is sent to a troubled teen halfway house in the woods. That's nice. But then a series of brutal killings begin to occur and could it be that hockey-masked murderer Jason Voorhees is back from the grave? Could it be Tommy continuing Jason's work? Or could it be a copycat killer compelled to continue the chaos courtesy of convoluted causes? Who knows?! Prepare for the next chapter in this slasher franchise - Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning.

I haven't seen this sequel in a long, long time, but man, oh man, is it pure sleaze! The nudity, drug use, profanity, and violence is dialed to a level that this series had never dreamed of reaching. Most involved with the picture have director Danny Steinmann, and his "filmmaking" background, to blame for that. It feels like a Skinamax movie with some slasher stuff added in. And all the worst aspects. The direction is bad, the writing, acting, editing - everything is bad! The only time it feels like a Friday the 13th movie is in the last 15 minutes, and even that isn't good.

One of the other problems is there are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy too many characters in this flick. Some are introduced and then killed in the same scene. Either to raise the body count from the previous movie or to keep the audience from getting bored, which I was. None of the characters are interesting. Poor Tommy Jarvis is deeply traumatized but nothing is ever addressed or done to help him deal with his altercation with Jason in Part 4. I just felt bad for him and the movie doesn't do anything but have him freakout in almost every single scene he's in. Most of the other characters are cartoonish, vulgar, and stupid, which is typical in these movie, but here they set a new bar. It's like filmmakers wanted everything and everybody in this movie to be unlikable and irritating. If so, mission accomplished.

Even the reveal at the end is really lame, both the murderer's identity and what becomes of Tommy. Super lame! Be sure to skip this sequel. Unless you're into sleazy '80s movies, this sequel is shamefully gross. They should of just named this one: Friday the 13th Part V: Pure Trash! (You'll Probably Want to Shower After It's Over). Just rewatch Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) instead. It's the best one by far!

Stars (out of 4):

Fun Fact: Without counting the laughing or yelling, the Tommy Jarvis character says only 24 words throughout the entire film.

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