The preceding was the final chapter, so why am I writing this review? Well, you can’t keep Jason down…or can you? Does old hockey face really appear in the film? Stay tuned to find out though I think you already know the answer.
Tommy Jarvis (John Shepherd) has been moved from one mental institution to the next. Tommy has grown up into a sulking, nearly silent young man who still has dreams of being pursued by Jason (leading to a Corey Feldman cameo) and is being transferred to the Pinehurst Halfway House.
The facility is run by Matt (Richard Young) and Pam (Melanie Kinnaman) who operate it on the honor system with lax security which angers their hillbilly neighbors Ethel (Carol Locatell) and Junior (Ron Sloan). Tommy arrives at the facility and makes friends with Reggie (Shavar Ross), who hangs around because his grandfather is the cook at the halfway house. One day an annoying kid at the facility named Joey (Dominick Brascia) is chopped up by another resident.
The sheriff (Marco St. John) and paramedics arrive. One paramedic makes a big joke out of the killing, this angers the other paramedic (Dick Wieand), but they clean up the murder scene. Little do they and Tommy know that Jason will soon be prowling the area once more are there’s going to be much more blood to clean up.
Okay, this is just as bad as when a whole season of Dallas was negated by it being a dream. Jason “appears” in this tepid sequel but it’s really more like a dream sequence and he technically is shown to have not been the killer after all. I’ll not tell you who the killer turns out to be, but note some different designs on the hockey mask to differentiate between the “real” Jason and the faux one.
It would always imagined that Tommy Jarvis would take up the hockey mask and continue the killing spree of Jason (as hinted at the end of The Final Chapter) but in this sequel he finds that Jason is not too dead and stalking him one more time. Now we all know that it really isn’t the real Jason, but Tommy doesn’t know that till the finale.
A New Beginning is the film that most Friday fans love to hate and I’d tend to agree. It has to do with the plot twists, but I really hated the backwoods, hillbilly neighbors too.
A New Beginning is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include a commentary track with director Danny Steinmann, John Shepherd, Shavar Ross, and moderated by fan Michael Felsher. The 7 minute “Lost Tales from Camp Blood Part 5” continues the short film.
The 10 minute “Crystal Lake Massacre Revisited Part 2” continues the faux documentary. The 11 minute “New Beginnings” details the making of the film and you also get the 2 minute theatrical trailer. Sadly, though they talk about the cuts in the making of doc, we don’t get any “slashed scenes.” This one also seems to get a bit less special features but it might be the “red headed stepchild” nature of the film amongst fans.
A New Beginning didn’t begin much for Jason, not that he was in the film. He would arise from the grave to headline the next one, but this film is tepid at best. This new DVD adds some nice features but it doesn’t make the film any better.
Friday the 13th, Part V: A New Beginning (Deluxe Edition) is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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