Directed by Danny Steinmann
I watched Friday the 13th: A New Beginning this past Friday the 13th because that’s what one is supposed to do, right? This was the only one in the series I had not yet seen. I think. But if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all, really.
A New Beginning finds an older Tommy Jarvis being released from a lengthy stay at a mental hospital and moving into a halfway house for emotionally disturbed teens…located in the woods. This halfway house is not very responsible because it allows a disturbed young man to chop wood with an axe, which he uses to murder a fellow patient who annoys him. As if these fragile people’s nerves weren’t already bad enough, a random redneck who lives in the woods keeps harassing them too.
Am I Debbie Harry, Siouxsie Sioux or Madonna?
Even though the violent patient with the axe has been arrested and carted off, the teens start disappearing from the halfway house (we see that someone is murdering them in the woods.) Tommy starts having hallucinations of Jason, whom he killed many years before. He’s on edge, and karate kicks anyone who makes him nervous. Turns out he was right to be paranoid because the hockey-masked killer finally reveals himself for the climactic showdown.
In my opinion, this installment begins the downward trajectory of the series (with Jason Takes Manhattan being the exception). Crispin Glover’s dancing in Part IV is a hard act to follow, and this offering does not cut the mustard. They tried to add more blood and gore to this one, I think to give it an edge, but to no avail. Even the ridiculous outhouse scene can’t save it. 
I have to be honest, though. Out of the three major slasher series (Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Street), Friday the 13th is my least favorite. I’m not really sure why, but it’s probably because I lived in a suburban neighborhood as a kid and never went camping, so I was firmly in Michael Myers’ territory.
Let’s take a stroll down memory lane to the best this series has to offer:
Gravyhead Watches Movies 