TRASH IN MY EYE No. 27 of 2025 (No. 2033) by Leroy Douresseaux
Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)
Running time: 92 minutes
MPAA – R
DIRECTOR: Danny Steinmann
WRITERS: Martin Kitrosser & David Cohen and Danny Steinmann; based on story by Martin Kitrosser & David Cohen
PRODUCER: Timothy Silver
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Stephen L. Posey
EDITOR: Bruce Green
COMPOSER: Harry Manfredini
HORROR
Starring: Melanie Kinnaman, John Shepherd, Shavar Ross, Richard Young, Marco St. John, Carol Locatell, Ron Sloan, Tiffany Helm, Jerry Pavlon, Jere Fields, John Robert Dixon, Miguel A. Nunez, Jr., Debisue Voorhees, Dick Wieand, Dominick Brascia, Bob De Simone, Vernon Washington, and Corey Feldman
Friday the 13th: A New Beginning is a 1985 slasher horror film from director Danny Steinmann. It is a direct sequel to the 1984 film, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, and is the fifth movie in the Friday the 13th movie franchise. A New Beginning focuses on a young man who has a connection to Jason Voorhees and who is now living in an area beset by a series of brutal murders that resemble the work of Voorhees.
Friday the 13th: A New Beginning begins with 12-year-old Tommy (Corey Feldman) facing the monster, Jason Voorhees, again. Now, in the present day, teenage Tommy Jarvis (John Shepherd), still haunted by his past, has departed the “Unger Institute for Mental Health.” He is being transported to “Pinehurst Youth Development Center,” where he will receive treatment.
Managed by its director, Dr. Matthew Letter (Richard Young), and assistant director, Pam Roberts (Melanie Kinnaman), the center works on the “honor system” and gives its patients more freedom in their mental health journey. Tommy learns just how different Pinehurst is when he encounters a kid, Reggie the Reckless (Shavar Ross), who hangs around because his grandfather, George (Vernon Washington), is the center's cook.
Not long after Tommy arrives, however, a shocking and savage killing occurs at Pinehurst. That seems to kick off a brutal series of murders in the area. As the bodies pile-up, the area's top law enforcement official, Sheriff Tucker (Marco St. John), believes that Jason Voorhees is the killer. But Tommy Jarvis, as a 12-year-old boy, killed Jason (as seen in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter), didn't he?
Friday the 13th: A New Beginning was apparently going to be the first in a new trilogy of Friday the 13th films featuring a different villain. Disappointing box office returns, however, meant that Jason returned as the villain in the series' sixth film, Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986). Thus, A New Beginning remains only the second film in the series in which Jason Voorhees is not the main villain. The original film, Friday the 13th (1980), features (spoiler alert) Jason's mother, Mrs. (Pamela) Voorhees, as the killer.
Like the fourth film, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, A New Beginning has a high body count. I counted at least 15 people murdered. Like many of the films in the series, A New Beginning has an interesting menagerie of eccentric characters, many worth exploring, but all of them exist in the story in order to be murder victims or almost-murder victims.
This film's plot and narrative bounces around so that various characters can be killed. For me, the most interesting thing about this film is that it features some character actors whom I encounter in film and television from time to time. They are Shavar Ross, Marco St. John, and Miguel A. Nunez, Jr.
Friday the 13th: A New Beginning has an interesting plot, characters, and setting, and the film's prologue or opening scene is surprisingly eerie and weird. This film in not really suspenseful, and it wants to be vulgar and raunchy as much as it is brutal and crude. Of course, it certainly is brutal and crude. Friday the 13th: A New Beginning is a beginning that deserved to end after one film... but it could have been something better.
4 of 10
C
★★ out of 4 stars
Wednesday, June 11, 2025
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