Hot on the heels of ‘The Final Chapter’ (last film my backside) ‘Friday the 13th Part 5: A New Beginning’ Is basically the movie I really kind of wanted after ‘Part 3’. A film that uses the previous entries more as a launching point into just making an end product that does what it’s trying to set out to do. It doesnt *always* succeed in that. But it actually TRIES rather than just resorting to boobs and Crispin Glover.

I always liken this entry to ‘The Dream Warriors’ in the sense that both this film and that one are PAINFULLY 80s in style and tone, and the plots do have a lot of overlapping ground. Only, this one predates ‘Dream Warriors’ by two years…so I guess its a trend setter?

This entry picks up in the modern day of 1985 (a time skip of about 5 years as the first 4 entries more or less happen over a 12 month window from summer ’79 to summer ’80) Tommy Jarvis is now in his late teens and has spent much of the last 5 years in and out of mental health facilities being drugged up to the point of near sedation. At some point along the way he’s also managed to learn martial arts…But im not gonna probe too deep on that one.

The film opens with Tommy being transferred to a open door mental health facility for troubled teens based near Camp Crystal Lake. Just before his arrival, one of the teens under the care of the doctors at the location gets pushed too far by another inmate and hacks them to death.

This sets the rest of the teens on edge and when Tommy arrives and finds out the news, he finds it all rather triggering. A short time after arriving strange things start to happen, people in the surrounding area start to go missing, teens under the care of the doctors head into the woods and never come back. Initially the dissapearences are put down to runaways or are rumoured to be the result of a local hillbilly mother and son team getting pushed one too many times by the locals. But Tommy has the unshakeable feeling that Jason Vorhees has something to do with these dissapearences…But Jasons dead…OR IS HE!?

And i’ve got to say, I always forget just how razors edge this film rides when it comes to the line of being a campy and very over the top horror picture, and just being screechingly irritating. It regularly tips over into full blown annoying terratory for me, but only for seconds at a time, before flinging itself right back into good time campy gouging.

Almost all the issues I’ve had with Parts 1 to 4 here have been more or less resolved. Whereas previously our victims through the film were either very bland ‘all american’ types who spent 50 minutes of the film titting about in the woods before meeting a grizzly end, OR in the case of part 4, they were so inexplicably horny you expected their heads to burst ‘Scanners’ style, in a film so sexually repressed it actually forgot it had to have a point!

Part 5 introduces a wide range of diverse and interesting characters. Because the emphasis is off ‘group looking to get laid’ or ‘group setting up a summer camp’ it means the majority of the plot actually becomes more of a character piece with a bit of a ‘Nightmare on elm street’ twist to the formula. Its refreshing, these characters have complicated backgrounds, complex lives and the film isnt afraid to show mental health issues for what they are…for the most part (I stress).

I guess what im trying to say is that, because the film fundamentally relies on it’s characters, and because they’ve actually BOTHERED to make their characters more than just sacks of meat with a countdown clock stapled to them. It means I as an audience member feel more invested in them as people. I care when they get killed, and furthermore because the film then doesnt have to rely so heavily on Jason setting the tone and atmosphere, it means they can bring back that ‘whodunnit’ aspect of film making that was so present in the first couple of entries. Only this time it’s not a huge waste of time like the first movie, or totally obvious like the 2nd. Theres actually a genuine challenge to figure out why these teens are vanishing and who’s responsible.

Of course, as mentioned a lot of these characters have VERY strong personalities, and as such. Some work, some dont. the hillbilly couple in particular went WAY too far in my opinion in terms of trying to play larger than life figures and came damn close to derailing the whole movie for me. luckily (and mild spoilers here) but they get picked off in the 2nd act meaning I got my fill of them, without well and truely losing the will to live.

The script itself is fun, a little wobbly in places…but fun. While our core cast get a nice layer of definition to work with that carries the main weight of the production. it does seem like the writers did the exact opposite when it came to characters they knew would only be in the film for 10 minutes tops. there are a few in this who seemingly only had the instruction ‘Your loud and get in the way. GO!’ or ‘Your a strong silent type…GO!’ before being trundled out onto the set for a ‘1 take and done’ affair.

The plots solid, with some nice twists and turns I didnt see coming, the act structuring is pretty perfectly balanced and they transition across those acts decently. One issue I did encounter is how this film chooses to spend its time, there are some plot holes (basically whenever Tommy goes AWOL) where it maybe would have been nice to try and tie those off, rather than having them just dissapear into the ether for 20 minutes. At the same time, there are some scenes here that do overrun a little bit, which I feel could have been trunkated quite significantly, if not cut all together.

That being said, im glad its chosen a lane here tonally, and im even happier that they’ve actually bothered to try and bring some animation and life to the story after 4 entries of characters just mooching about till they’re taken out.

The direction gets a nice boost here too, we have a very stylish, neon bathed 80s a thon for this entry, colour gets a real dial up vs the previous entries and its clear that close attention was given to the cast and crew as everyone seems to know where to be and what to do. It does have an heir of being a bit cheaper looking than the previous F13 films. But at the same time, the personality embedded into this films direction and cine is a massive leap over the previous attempts. So it kind of balances out.

The cine is solid too, it’s maybe less Iconic than the previous entries, but those previous entries also had inconsistent work scattered across them. This film knows what it is, knows what it’s trying to be and pretty much delivers on the brief. the sequences are decently cut with plenty of experimentation and breathing room…If anything I feel like, had some of these scenes been truncated or removed entirely, with the film clocking in at around 10-20 minutes shorter (or reassigned that time to some more character development), it’d have probably managed to win out as my favourite F13 film.

The performances are all larger than life (a kid runs someone over with a digger in this thing…instant sign of quality to me) they’re highly animated, not afraid to contrast campy slapstick with more melancholic inducing moments. and as I mentioned earlier, all the characters here pretty much dance the razors edge of being entertaining and engaging and unbearably irritating. where it works, it works brilliantly…where it doesnt? well…its short lived.

Add to that, that FINALLY the scores been updated, we still have some of the classic themes, but we do have some more modern sounding tracks thrown into the mix that compliment the original pieces wonderfully.

All in all? this film, to me? feels like someones FINALLY come into this franchise, blown the dust and cobwebs away, scraped off the mould, given it a lick of paint and dragged it kicking and screaming into the modern slasher era. And I am HERE for that. great fun, seldom dull. it could have maybe done with a bit of tidying up, and the ending does end up getting a *little* bit convoluted. But ultimately, this is one of my favourites of the series.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/friday-the-13th-a-new-beginning/