Jason took a machete through the head at the end of The Final Chapter, an indicator the series should indeed be coming to a close. On the flip side, the introduction of Tommy Jarvis offered the opportunity to develop a whole new character, not to mention one who's childhood traits mirrored Jason's. The opening of Friday the 13th: A New Beginning is the first since the original not to be comprised completely of flashbacks. It's the studio's way of letting the audience know they are trying to make a fresh start, and what better way to do that than with a dream sequence? The pre-teen Tommy watches a couple of idiots dig up Jason's grave, which in turn brings the finally put down monster back to life and after Tommy. Of course, he wakes in a cold sweat, only for us to discover that quite a few years have passed.This is the first jump in time the series has taken so far and by the looks of it, the years have not been good to Tommy (John Shepherd). After killing Jason, he got shipped to a mental institution but apparently made enough progress that now he's eligible to go to a "youth development center." The bulk of the picture takes place there, with Tommy being surrounded by an assortment of nutty residents. A New Beginning somehow manages to have sillier characters than Part 3 and believe it or not, they're not limited to Tommy's house mates. The gold medal goes to a backwoods bumpkin and her grown son, who still acts like he's eight. Like the bikers in Part 3, they exist to provide some easy laughs.
The changes in Tommy are brought front and center early on. The nightmares lead us to wonder if his violent tendencies are still intact (a dream he has late in the movie more or less says yes). Once he moves into the house, we see that, even after all those years, he's held onto all his homemade masks, a sign that he's still keeping his true self hidden. Most surprising are Tommy's fighting skills. There's an early scene where one of the house mates messes with him and Tommy proceeds to beat the tar out of him. It's an interesting character trait because it makes us wonder if he learned self defense in case Jason ever did come back to find him.
Aside from the youth center owners, no one else there is likable or sympathetic at all. Most of them act as if they have mental defects, so their behavior is annoying and often cruel. The movie's first kill isn't even committed by Jason. An overweight slob named Joey (Dominick Brascia), who apparently just wants to help around the house but makes a mess, pisses off one of his house mates and gets chopped up. At first, the scene doesn't make much sense. Once the big twist is revealed (I'll get to that shortly) and you think back over the events of the movie, it fits it in as it should. True, it's a gimmick, albeit a worthy one of this series.
Jason's first victims are a couple of greasers whose car won't start. They're the atypical Friday the 13th characters in that they talk horribly about women and the size of their dick is measured by how loud their engine revs. Appropriate then that victim number three also has a sports car and only cares about getting laid. In his case, we meet the girl he's hoping to get it on with, and even watch her get ready, a strange ritual that includes flashing her boobs. If this feels unnecessary, it's not; the needless exposure of flesh is an invitation for the flesh to later be penetrated (it's brought up again later at the youth center when a girl inexplicably goes to bed topless, only to be stabbed a moment later from under her bed).
Jason penetrates quite a bit of flesh in the movie, bringing back in Alex Jackson's idea of "rape by steel." There are quite a few in the movie, the most severe ones happening to female characters. Despite the familiarity of these murders, there's plenty of evidence to prove the real Jason is not at work here. First off, we never actually see him resurrected. Secondly, the style of the killings does not fit the pattern shown in The Final Chapter. Yes, some of them are quite brutal (a road flare to the mouth takes the cake), but others feel more in tune with the earlier entries in that the killer wants the victims to die quickly. Strangely, this Jason has a brief obsession with eyes and mainly reserves it for the two characters in the movie who have sex. The girl loses her sight to hedge trimmers while the guy is strapped to a tree with his eyes covered. Punishment for sex is not uncommon, especially after the last movie, but for the first time, the killer is showing his disapproval of the couple's visual lust for one another.
Most of the graphic violence happens off screen. We see the weapon rise into the air and often see the aftermath, but there are only several instances where we see contact made. I would think this was a decision made by the MPAA, who was notorious for picking on all the movies in the series. And yet, the lack of actual onscreen carnage doesn't hurt the picture in the long run. It almost feels more appropriate since we're not really witnessing Jason doing his worst; you could say the movie is mocking the fact that someone dared to act as a copycat. One tidbit I noticed is that this is the first entry in the series where Jason does not run. I'm not sure if that was the filmmaker's way of letting the audience know this is not the real Jason, but I'd buy that theory.
As noted, there are elements worth mentioning here, but in all honesty, the picture's most appealing aspect is brought in at the very end when Jason is killed and the mask comes off. When you scroll back through what's happened, the signs of who the knock off was were right in front of you the whole time. One of the paramedics who came to take Joey's body away was his father, and I guess the sight of seeing him in pieces drove the guy nuts. It may not sound like much of a concept, but when you compare Joey's father to Mrs. Voorhees, it takes on a whole new level of discussion. Unfortunately, we don't get the psychoanalysis that we did for Jason's mother; in this movie, it functions as more of a plot twist.
Danny Steinmann took the director's chair for A New Beginning, but sometimes it's hard to tell if he's making a horror movie or a comedy. There's a lot of violence all right, although it looks like there are twice as many attempts to earn a cheap laugh. I mentioned the bumpkins earlier, but in addition to them there is a machete/chainsaw duel, a goofy dance routine (it doesn't even come close to reaching the heights of Crispin Glover's from the last entry), a rabbit used as a false sense of security (echoes of Part 3), and a pre-teen character, this one named Reggie (Shavar Ross). The difference between he and Tommy is that Reggie is black and does not seem intimidated when Jason is in action. It's a thankless and stereotypical role, and frankly I'm not surprised Shavar Ross declined the chance to reprise it.
So, even though Friday the 13th: A New Beginning looks and feels like it belongs in the series, it doesn't contribute much without Jason. My opinion would differ if the picture had made real progress with Tommy's growing madness, which is there, but is kept off screen until the last five minutes. The decision to do so announces the fifth chapter as a companion piece with the first one, since it is basically all set up with no real payoff. Knowing already that Tommy is in Part 6 has me holding my breath in hopes that his character will not be left in vain. His introduction in the last movie was too crucial for it to be left in the dust.
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