Friday the 13th Part 5 : A New Beginning

Alternate titles : Friday the 13th : A New Beginning

Tagline : "If Jason still haunts you...You're not alone!"

Friday the 13th Part 5 : A New Beginning The previous film may have been titled "The Final Chapter", but it made far too much money for Paramount Pictures to let it stop there, and so just over a year later we have "A New Beginning".

Several years on from Part 4 and young Tommy Jarvis, who you remember killed Jason at the end of that film, is now 18 (played by John Sheppard) and currently residing at a halfway house for people with mental health problems. Having been plagued with constant nightmares of Jason returning from the grave,

Unfortunately, for Tommy, and the other kids at the institute, somebody wearing an Ice Hockey Mask has taken a disliking to them and started killing them off, along with some of the townsfolk, in an extremely brutal fashion.

As the bodies start to pile up, it becomes apparent that either Jason has risen from the dead, or a copycat killer is at work. Either way, it'll be a "sticky end" for them for sure (those who've seen the film will get the joke).

Whilst this isn't a bad sequel, it certainly isn't a particularly good one either. While the film did boast some inventive kills, they seemed to be losing their impact due to the series getting so overly long and I personally feel that they shouldn't really have carried on past Part 4.

Worth a watch, but perhaps one for fans of the series only.

Overall Marks : 5/10.

Terrifying Trivia

Director Danny Steinman previously directed the 80's exploitation pic "Savage Streets" starring Linda Blair and John Vernon. He was slated to direct a sequel to "I Spit on Your Grave" but the project folded.
Corey Feldman was approached to reprise his role as Tommy, however he was busy filming the Spielberg movie "The Goonies" at the time. The script was subsequently re-written to make his character older, so they could use him in a flashback sequence for the films intro, which he filmed on his day off.
The story was a reworking of a script that had originally been proposed for part 3, in which Jason follows Amy Steele's character Ginny to a mental hospital, where she's recovering from the trauma. This was shelved following her refusal to appear in another film. So the producers re-wrote this, with Tommy in place of Ginny and changed the hospital to a halfway-house.
Stuntman Ted White, who played Jason in the previous film, was asked to return to play the copycat killer in this, but declined as he had no love for horror films.
Stuntman Tom Morga played the masked copycat killer, as well as the ghostly Jason in Tommy's nightmares. Whilst Dick Wiend, who played Roy, doubled for the unmasking scene. However, as no actor was listed in the credits, for many years everybody thought it was actor Dick Wiend playing the killer.
The mask that Jason wears at the end of the film in Tommy's hallucination was the original stunt mask used in parts 3 & 4 re-painted. The mask worn by the Jason in Tommy's nightmares earlier on in the film was a recast, which is evident as the straps are threaded differently. Roy's mask (the impostor) was also a recast of the original, painted with different cheek triangles to distinguish itself from the "real" Jason.
Migual Nunez, who played Demon, and Mark Venturini who played Vic, both appeared in "Return of the Kiving Dead".
There were numerous cuts made to the film in order to gain an "R" rating in the US. Robin's machete death was originally shown, with the blade going through her chest and blood spurting out. There was more of a shot of the cleaver in Jake's face with spurting blood (this was cut because Paramount were dissatisfied with how it looked). There was a shot showing Junior's head being cut off. A more graphic scene of Joey's death with his innards shooting out of his back when stabbed. Violet was supposed to be killed by the machete in between the legs, however the board found it offensive and cut it from the script.
The original UK version suffered a further 1minute 22s of cuts, removing several scenes of female nudity and shortening several killings. The UK DVD released in 2002 re-instated these previously cut scenes.