Friday the 13th Part 7 : The New Blood

Alternate titles : None

Tagline : "Jason is back. But this time someone's waiting."

Friday the 13th Part 7 : The New Blood Now this is more like it! Still imprisoned in chains at the bottom of Crystal Lake (note that the name has changed back from Forest Green), things in the area have been quiet for some time, with Jason in his watery grave.

But the eerie silence is about to be shattered with the arrival of young Tina Sheppard (Lar Park Lincoln), who's staying at one of the lakeside holiday homes (presumably the same ones from part 4), who posseses telekinetic powers and can see into the future. She has travelled back to Crystal Lake with her therapist doctor Crews (Terry Kiser), to visit the place where her father drowned years earlier.

Doctor Crews however, has his own secret agenda. He isn't really interested in helping her get over the loss of her father, but to exploit her telekinetic abilities. This turns out to be a bad idea, as Tina try's to raise her fathers body, but instead accidentally resurrects Jason from the watery depths.

And so the seen is set for yet another Bloodbath as Jason goes around hacking up passers by, along with the holidaying teenagers who are staying at the house opposite. After finishing off the other youths, he eventually comes after Tina, but hasn't reckoned on her special powers and the ultimate battle of brain versus brawn ensues.

Often referred to as "Carrie Vs Jason", this is a good gory horror with some fantastic special effects. Whilst the casual viewer may find the film a bit on the silly side, it's also great fun and certainly the best of all subsequent the later sequels.

Overall Marks : 7/10.

Terrifying Trivia

Director John Carl Buechler elped produce several of the previous sequels before deciding to have a crack at directing himself. He's probably better known for his effects work in this field, having worked on the "Ghoulies" films, "From Beyond" and many of the "Halloween", and "Nightmare on Elm Street" sequels.
The narrator at the beginning of the film was Walt Gorney, who played Crazy Ralph in the first 2 films.
CJ Graham was originally going to reprise the role of Jason, however the director lobbied Paramount to let him use stuntman Kane Hodder instead, who he had previously worked with on the film "Prison". Kane would subsequently play Jason in 3 more films.
Jennifer Beiko, who plays the young Tina, also played the young girl in Leatherface's family in "Leatherface : Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3".
The producers had originally wanted to do a "Freddy vs Jason" film, but the rights holders at New Line Cinema couldn't come to an agreement with Paramount pictures on how to combine the franchises, so they reworked the plot with a "Carrie" type clone instead.
Harry Manfredini was unable to score the soundtrack this time round, so the vast majority of it was made up of stock music he'd composed for the other films, with additional music by Fred Molin who also scored the music for the spin off TV series.
Terry Kiser, who plays Dr Crews, also played Bernie Lomax in the comedy "Weekend at Bernie's".
The original cut of the film was much, much gorier. But they were forced to edit the movie so to achieve an "R" rating in the US. These shortened virtually every kill scene, the most notable of which being the couple camping in the woods, in which the guy is disembowelled and the girl repeatedly bashed against a tree in her sleeping bag.
The fire-fighter who picks up the broken Jason mask near the end of the film was played by the Director.
The houses used in filming were specially constructed exteriors which they built next to a small river in Alabama. To make it look like a lake, they dug out a section of bank and allowed the water to fill round.
Horror actor Bill Butler is Jason's first victim in this, he also starred in "Leatherface : Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3", Ghoulies 2 and the 1990s remake of Night of the Living Dead.