Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985) - Epilogue

There are times when the film reveled in its desire to polarize. Unnecessary nudity—Juliette Cummins, of “Psycho III” (1986), is a sexy redhead who removes her top, in nothing but teeny striped panties, seemingly just because nudity was part of the slasher formula desired—and kills upon kills, so many racked up by Roy, Jason was given a run for his money, at least three of them were off screen, along with drug use—pervert male nurse, Billy (Bob DeSimone), wagging his tongue at Pam when overtly letting her know his dirty thoughts, snorts some coke while waiting for date, Lana, who unzips her waitress dress to pop out her breasts with the excited utterance, “It’s Showtime!”—give reasons why A New Beginning has remained so notorious, alienating many fans, while others love it for all the gratuitous content. A hand sticks a lot of long blades into torsos in this film…it is an easy death to film, with extra use of “zoom into the startled and jolted expressive faces” camera shots set to Manfredini’s “surprise, surprise!” familiar music cues. A lot of fluffy planks behind clothes being jabbed, I imagined, followed by “ruh roh” shock and awe victims makes for less horror and more giggles.

NUDE images included...

What I don’t like.

• The cuts to the film just seem quite vast. The sheers of the MPAA were sharp and put to good use. It is clear that so much footage seemed left on the cutting room floor, there is probably a 110 minute movie the coked up, misbehaving, undisciplined Steinmann  probably never was allowed to present to the intended audience.

• The tasteless screenplay can be a bit much sometimes. I always find myself wondering how this film ever passed the initial phase of production from script to screen. I will say, no other Friday film goes for the jugular and aims to test viewers. This does seem perfectly suitable viewing for Rob Zombie fans. Ethel and Junior could have been neighbors to the Firefly family. It seemed Steinmann wanted to introduce a whole host of polarizing characters for kicks.

• Why would Victor (Mark Venturini) or Tommy ever be allowed to participate in the rehab program when it was obvious and clear that both were on the edge, unstable, and a lit fuse stick of dynamite just ready to go off? And Victor with an ax chopping wood with such ferocity and rage, how could this not be noticeable? It was evident Victor could snap at any given time. Joey (Dominick Brascia) was the match, his simple, child-like behavior and personality, not meaning any harm, a recipe for disaster when crossing the volcanic Victor. And Tommy was a pressure cooker the entire film. Even when barely off the van, on the grounds, at the beginning, anyone could tell he was holding on by a thread.

• Although a novel attempt at a twist, with fans of the film now defending the option to go a different route with Roy as the killer, not Jason, I think even after all this time, the revelation of a paramedic being responsible for all the murders still is a bit of a meh. But Steinmann and the script constantly tell you Roy is the killer. It is so blatantly telegraphed, but Friday fans just wanted Jason to continue sticking his knives and machetes and hatchets and axes into people.

• I think the absence of Matt and Reggie’s grandfather, George (Vernon Washington), in the middle of the film, only later both found dead has always bothered me. The film underwhelmingly discards them, and I always felt that maybe their murders were meant to be seen onscreen, but their deaths were excised with a lot of the other footage shot. Like other characters, these two get some decent scenes, set up as important adult characters, and vanish, later revealed dead to Kinnaman. True to Friday the 13^th, yet another corpse (Vernon’s) was tossed through a window into a cabin, to the floor.

• The hockey mask and knife in Tommy’s room…why would the hospital allow this? Is this actually just another nightmare of Tommy’s?

• Why would the screenplay bother to include Jake’s (Jerry Pavlon) unrequited love, shot down with a laugh by Cummins’ Robin when he made an effort to tell her he desired her romantically/sexually, tears down his face, left to hurt while she continued watching her film, hoping Violet would talk to him (she wanted to robot dance and listen to her music), only to get the hatchet to his face immediately after? And why include two bickering buddies seemingly influenced in wardrobe to dress like Brando from “The Wild One”? Populating the film full of useless, disposable characters just to kill off and set a Friday record for most in one film probably brings good cheer for some of the slasher audience, but I enjoy when the victims are developed just even a little bit before stuck in the gut or jabbed in the head with a sharp object. Definitely the MPAA’s interference robbed the more bloodthirsty of us of what was never to be seen at any serious length. Robin’s death isn’t even shown.