FRIDAY THE 13TH PART V: A NEW BEGINNING

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART V:
A NEW BEGINNING

(1985,US)

(aka FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 5)

“If Jason still haunts you … you’re not alone”

directed by: Danny Steinmann
starring: Anthony Barrile, Suzanne Bateman, Dominick Brascia, Todd Bryant,
Curtis Conaway, Juliette Cummins, Bob DeSimone, John Robert Dixon, Corey Feldman,
Jere Fields, Tiffany Helm, Melanie Kinnaman, Richard Lineback, Carol Locatell,
Ric Mancini, Miguel A. Núñez Jr., Corey Parker, Jerry Pavlon,
Shavar Ross, Rebecca Wood, John Shepherd, Sonny Shields, Eddie Matthews, Ron
Sloan, Marco St. John, Caskey Swaim, Mark Venturini, Debi Sue Voorhees, Vernon
Washington, Chuck Wells, Dick Wieand, Richard Young

(back of video blurb):

“Psychopath Jason Voorhees is dead.

He was killed by 12 year old Tommy Jarvis (Corey Feldman) in self defence.
But if Jason is dead, who is killing the inmates of the Unger Institute of Mental
Health? Now eighteen, Tommy (John Shepherd) is a resident of the Unger Institute
and is plagued by nightmares. Nightmares in which Jason rises from the grave
to take revenge. Nightmares which intrude into daytime reality. Who is that
stranger wearing a boiler suit and hockey mask whom only Tommy sees?

Now a new killer is on the loose. Not confining his activities to the Unger
Institute, he is also killing the local townspeople. The police are baffled.
As the bodies pile up, it looks increasingly like the work of Jason Voorhees.

But Jason is dead isn’t he?”

choice dialogue:

“As far as I’m concerned, all those loonies should be killed
off one by one!”

– a prophetic wish by a victim to be.

[review by Justin Kerswell]

As they say, it’s not over until the fat lady sings and by 1985 the fat
lady may have been garroted, decapitated or harpooned but she certainly hadn’t
sung. Back then, cinema goers were gullible enough to believe that a ‘final
chapter’ meant just that, but after the cash registers trilled to the
tune of a $32.8 million for Joe Zito’s (supposedly) slasher full stop
surely it surprised no-one that Crystal Lake would once again swoon to the swish
of a rusty machete.

It’s the slasher fan’s eternal dilemma. We mourn for the never-were
sequels for the likes of MY BLOODY VALENTINE (1981), but as
soon as we get what we half-hoped for we usually end up wishing that the desire
had remained unrequited. The cheekily monikered FRIDAY THE 13TH PART
V: A NEW BEGINNING is a case in point. Back in 1987 I greedily devoured
the sequels as they first appeared on video in the UK (Parts 1 & 2 had come
out before the whole nasties hysteria, but it had to wait until the, relatively
at least, more liberal late 80s before the others began to trickle out – albeit
in usually truncated forms). I delighted in the cheesy charms of Part III (Row,
Dana, row!), and the grubby gothic thrills of the ‘FINAL’
CHAPTER (1984), but I remember being mortified and monumentally disappointed
by PART V. Back then I thought Danny Steinmann’s effort
was a crude, charmless mess of a movie (and remember, I was a particularly easy
to please gorehound teenager). I’d seen it again over the years, and despite
a fairly rousing closing fifteen minutes it always seemed to be the weak chain
in the link. It was the film that could have effectively killed off the series,
and the one that certainly started the rot; seemingly mirroring the subgenre’s
descent into the mire. So, it was with some trepidation that I decided to watch
to watch the fifth FRIDAY again …

It all starts so well: with a deft touch missing from most of the rest of the
film, Tommy Jarvis (Corey Feldman making a welcome return) makes his way to
his arch nemesis’s grave during a tumultuous thunderstorm. Obviously with
some unfinished business, he spots the ramshackle grave of Jason Voorhees –
who he had given an impromptu machete lobotomy in the last film, seemingly condemning
Pammy’s boy to the afterlife. However, much to his horror, two teenage
numbskulls turn up to give Jason an airing, shouting out such witty remarks
as, “Let’s get a look at the main man!”. On the scale
of horror movie mistakes this ranks right up there. Once they open the coffin
lid they find Jason slumbering with hockey mask in place, and with worms feasting
in his eye sockets. Obviously bowing to his last wishes, someone had buried
Jason with his trusty machete – and to no one’s great surprise he
comes back to life, making short work of the two numpty grave robbers. Tommy,
however, is glued to the spot, when Jason disinters himself and lumbers menacingly
towards him. Even when Jason raises the blade high above his head he doesn’t
move. Down comes the machete, and … it was all a dream! Honestly.

Tommy (John Shepherd) is now a grown up, but seriously disturbed teenager.
Haunted by Jason (the film’s original tagline boasted “If you’re
still haunted by Jason, you’re not alone!”) he wakes up from
the graveyard nightmare to find himself in the back of an ambulance. Time hasn’t
been a great healer for Tommy, and he’s being transferred from a high
security institution to the decidedly leafier ‘Pinehurst Youth Development
Centre’. To Shepherd and the film’s credit, he gives a creditable
performance as the twitchy youngster, very much at odds with some of the, er,
more naturalistic acting on display in the rest of the picture.

As often happens in vintage slasher flicks, this forest-marooned dwelling is
run by the beautiful people: Pinehurst’s directors Matthew (Richard Young)
and Pam (Melanie Kinnaman). They don’t look much like mental health professionals,
and just seem to coo approvingly like Mr and Mrs Brady as Tommy give them monosyllabic
answers to their questions, whilst he plays with the zip on his bag in a nutty
way. Rather hilariously, Tommy has smuggled in a flick-knife from the supposedly
high security unit. Also showing an even more alarming lack of foresight, Matthew
and Pam have allowed one of their evidently nutty charges, Vic (Mark Venturini),
to chop up wood in the garden with a whopping great axe. Vic goes boss-eyed
and gnashes his teeth as this FRIDAY’s butterball character,
Joey (Dominick Brascia – who went on to direct the cheesy delight EVIL
LAUGH (1988)), whines on in an ickle boy voice about chocolate bars
before turning his attention from the woodpile, planting the axe in Joey’s
back. Once Vic is whisked off in the squad car, glowering evilly in the back,
the paramedics turn up to shovel Joey’s dismembered remains into a body
bag. One of them sympathetically spits “Bunch of pussies!”
at the sobbing teens, whilst the other, Roy (Dick Wieand), looks shocked to
discover the identity of the murder victim – in-fact, he looks so bug-eyed
and shifty you half expect to hear a gong sound and see a neon hockey mask flash
thirteen times above his head!

Perhaps surprisingly, Pinehurst isn’t shut down by social services. After
a few mawkish words about the dear departed its back to things as normal: and
that means new wave robotic dancing (courtesy of the gothy Violet (Tiffany Helm)),
and the ubiquitous horny teen couple keep making eyes at each other, Eddie (John
Robert Dixon) and Tina (the appropriately named Debisue Voorhees) who keep sneaking
into their neighbour’s cabbage patch to make whoopee. Meanwhile, the fact that
Tommy keeps seeing glimpses of Jason Voorhees skulking around in the rhododendrons
is doing nothing for his mental health. Obviously, it comes as no big surprise
that body parts start to fly as a mystery assailant who may or may not be Mr
Voorhees taking a holiday from the grave starts carving up bad bit players for
crimes against hair …

To be honest, there’s no real point detailing the rest of the plot as
the last half of the movie (bar a vaguely rip-roaring finalé) is an almost
random selection of clips of the masked marauder stalking a seemingly random
selection of waitresses and trailer park clientele. Of course, this isn’t
necessarily a bad thing, especially when it gives us the joys of seeing the
likes of two leather boys (seemingly taking a break from recreating Kenneth
Anger’s SCORPIO RISING) being slice ‘n’ diced
– especially after the monumentally dumb bit where one of them gets spooked
by a tiny bunny whilst going for a shit (eliciting a “You little fuck!”
outburst). PART V is probably the most scatological film in
a series almost obsessed with people going to the toilet – and the, ahem,
‘piss’-de-resistance must be the scene where the Michael
Jackson clone serenades his girlfriend (“Ooh baby … Ooooh, baby!”)
whilst squeezing one out on the crapper. Oooooooh classy! … And, of course,
it comes as a blessed relief when the two country bumpkins neighbours to Pinehurst
are satisfyingly bumped off (decapitation and meat cleaver to the face respectively)
– they are either comedy gold or the equivalent to scraping a machete
down a blackboard (I’m plumping for the latter).

Admittedly, PART V has a monster body count, but after the
relative leniency from MPAA on THE FINAL CHAPTER (who must
have been royally pissed to find there was going to be another chapter after
all) the scissors were out for this installment. What gore there is is almost
lost during the quick cuts forced upon the film. The kills may be up, but quantity
doesn’t necessarily mean quality.

PART V has its fans, and I can see why: it’s perhaps
the trashiest of all the FRIDAY films, and there is certainly
a cheesy, bad movie charm to it. Paradoxically, although it seemingly ticks
all of boxes it’s not a very good horror movie: the previous films managed
to at least a few chills (even the ultra cheesy PART 3 (1982)
had a few spooky moments) but Steinmann’s film fails to generate many
frissons. It’s too broad in its comedy, dramatically unfocussed, and lazily
episodic. And, let’s face it, it’s the pits compared to the rip-roaring
FINAL CHAPTER. Even the chainsaw-wielding finalé, whilst
briefly rousing, is a case of too little too late.

SPOILERS: again, FRIDAY V is a film of paradoxes.
After the foghorn LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! finger-pointing at the boss-eyed
paramedic, Roy, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that he has, somehow,
been imbued with the spirit of Jason – after seeing his long, lost son,
Joey, chopped to pieces on the lawn. Sick of a career in saving lives he’s
now taking them by decimating the local populace: seemingly randomly killing
everyone bar the person who actually killed his son! So, some kudos for making
this installment a whodunit, but unfortunately the whydunit makes little to
no sense at all. Plus, let’s face it, a flabby health worker was never
going was never going replace the ultimate bad boy of slasherdom.

Ultimately, if you’re looking for an unbridled cheesefest then PART
V may be your cup of brie, but there are many more effective FRIDAY
movies. A case in point is the far more successful FRIDAY THE 13TH PART
VI: JASON LIVES (1986) that actually resurrected the real McCoy and
did something far wittier with the formula.

BODYCOUNT 22    
female:7 / male:15

       1)
Male killed with a machete
       2) Male gets ice pick to the neck
       3) Male hacked to pieces with an axe
       4) Male has a flare shoved down his
throat
       5) Male has throat slit with machete
       6) Male gets an axe in his head
       7) Female axed in the chest
       8) Male knifed
       9) Female stabbed in the eyes with
garden shears
     10) Male has face crushed with strap
     11) Female has throat slit
     12) Male speared
     13) Male decapitated
     14) Female gets cleaver to the face
     15) Male gets cleaver to the face
     16) Female killed with machete
     17) Female gets a machete to her stomach
     18) Male hacked to death
     19) Male found with spike in his head
     20) Male blinded and thrown to his death
     21) Male impaled on spikes
     22) Female stabbed