I've had to find ways to keep busy while I've been out of work on disability and one of the more interesting projects has been writing critical reviews of the Friday the 13th film series. I wrote these and posted them to the Red River podcast group, which is a group of folks who basically talk about music and movies all day.
I didn't really start writing these longer critical reviews until the fifth film. This series easily could have, or perhaps should have, ended after Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. But....it didn't....and so these reviews cover the films starting with this one, right through the 2009 reboot, and one final wrap-up.
I'm in no way any sort of professional critic, just a guy who likes to write about things sometimes. In fact, this is my first attempt at writing critically about film, period. So, take it for what it's worth. Either way, I had fun doing it and hope you enjoy reading them. I'll try to post one review per day going forward.
Another day - another Friday the 13th movie. A New Beginning (Part V).
I saw this one over the summer, and watched again last night. I know it gets dumped on as being one of the worst in the franchise. And - it IS bad - but I need to look at the positive.
1. Another amazing dance scene.
2. The best pair of the entire franchise - and they belong to an actress whose last name is actually "Voorhees".
3. You have a love song between a couple where the guy is taking a huge shit in a metal outhouse. Winner winner!!!
4. Not a bad job coming up with a continuation after a film that everyone thought was the final one (or did they?...who knows...). The time jump definitely helped....and I think Part IV really could have benefited from a time jump too because when you watch it closely, a few things don't make sense (remember that Parts II-IV all take place on consecutive days....so Parts III & IV really could have been titled Saturday the 14th & Sunday the 15th).
5. Improves upon the most fatal flaw of the original film. The first film isn't just a horror film - it's also a murder mystery. No one knew about Jason going into the film and audiences watching it for the first time were trying to guess who the killer was. The flaw, though, is that you have to leave some breadcrumbs so the audience can theoretically figure it out - you can't just introduce some brand new character never referenced before at that Scooby Doo moment. In this film - at the very least - the clues for the killer pointed in a few different directions, including the revealed killer.
But - the movie still stinks and is definitely the worst one up until now (although - I don't know - maybe it's better than Part III).
Sure, the choice of the killer made some sense....wasn't the obvious choice....but was also a very uninteresting choice....no one cared about that guy and the reveal sort of sucks the wind out of everything that came before it.
If you're going to remove the most interesting thing about these movies (Jason) - you better replace it with something equally interesting....and they failed completely with this one.
I also know that these films always have the fake-out endings - maybe a couple of times....but I really hated the way this one ended (and if memory serves, is sort of erased completely come Part VI, but we'll get to that).
We don't watch these films for their consistency or continuity....but think about this. The first film takes place in 1979 (one of the films has Mrs. Voorhees' tombstone on it). The second, third & fourth films take place 5 years later (1984). We don't know exactly when Part V takes place - but Tommy has to be at least 10 years older now...so....Part V is in the....early '90s? NO ONE was listening to Pseudo Echo in the early '90s!!!
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