The man behind the mask this time ain't our favorite facially-deformed mass murderer, but an impostor. For that reason, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning is often labeled the black sheep of the series.
As a fan of the Friday films, it took me a long time to get over Jason's absence (while he does appear in a dream sequence, does that really count?). I mean, you wouldn't make a Rocky film without the Italian Stallion. But once I put that disappointment aside and judged this work on its own merits, I was pleasantly surprised.
Of course A New Beginning is far from perfect. Most of the characters are one-dimensional and unappealing, and the thrills are few and far between. When people complain about the senselessness of gory movies, this is the sort of effort they're talking about. Yet for all its faults, A New Beginning boasts a fairly interesting (by genre standards) storyline, as the maniac slashes his way through a facility for troubled youth. Among the tenants is Tommy Jarvis, still plagued by nightmares of hacking up Jason years earlier. There are even a couple of unintentional laughs amid the corny dialog, and the exciting barn finale (yes, they've done a barn finale before, but bear with us) is a highlight that holds up well.
The biggest failure here is the attempt at a Scooby Dooish mystery element. The writers perhaps envisioned the audience gasping in the final frames when Roy the ambulance driver's face is revealed beneath the goalie mask. But did anyone actually remember this guy? I had no idea who I was looking at until the dialog revealed his identity. Roy just wasn't prominent enough for us to remember. The producers' desire to go in a different, Jason-less direction showed they didn't really understand their audience. These fans ask for something a bit different each time, but they certainly don't want the wheel reinvented (as the failure of Jason Goes to Hell again illustrated eight years later).
More than twenty years after its release, A New Beginning remains the most controversial entry in the series. Many still feel betrayed by the impostor gimmick, but if they can set that aside and try to enjoy this like any other low budget horror flick, they too will be pleasantly surprised.
As a fan of the Friday films, it took me a long time to get over Jason's absence (while he does appear in a dream sequence, does that really count?). I mean, you wouldn't make a Rocky film without the Italian Stallion. But once I put that disappointment aside and judged this work on its own merits, I was pleasantly surprised.
Of course A New Beginning is far from perfect. Most of the characters are one-dimensional and unappealing, and the thrills are few and far between. When people complain about the senselessness of gory movies, this is the sort of effort they're talking about. Yet for all its faults, A New Beginning boasts a fairly interesting (by genre standards) storyline, as the maniac slashes his way through a facility for troubled youth. Among the tenants is Tommy Jarvis, still plagued by nightmares of hacking up Jason years earlier. There are even a couple of unintentional laughs amid the corny dialog, and the exciting barn finale (yes, they've done a barn finale before, but bear with us) is a highlight that holds up well.
The biggest failure here is the attempt at a Scooby Dooish mystery element. The writers perhaps envisioned the audience gasping in the final frames when Roy the ambulance driver's face is revealed beneath the goalie mask. But did anyone actually remember this guy? I had no idea who I was looking at until the dialog revealed his identity. Roy just wasn't prominent enough for us to remember. The producers' desire to go in a different, Jason-less direction showed they didn't really understand their audience. These fans ask for something a bit different each time, but they certainly don't want the wheel reinvented (as the failure of Jason Goes to Hell again illustrated eight years later).
More than twenty years after its release, A New Beginning remains the most controversial entry in the series. Many still feel betrayed by the impostor gimmick, but if they can set that aside and try to enjoy this like any other low budget horror flick, they too will be pleasantly surprised.