Friday the 13th: A New Beginning

Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (also known as Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning or Friday the 13th Part V) is a 1985 American slasher horror film directed by Danny Steinmann (The Unseen; Savage Streets) from a screenplay by he co-wrote with David Cohen and Martin Kitrosser. The film includes 20 deaths (22 if you include the opening nightmare sequence). This Paramount release took $21,930,418 at the U.S. box office.

Plot teaser:

A young Tommy Jarvis stumbles upon a graveyard while walking through the woods on a rainy night, where he witnesses two grave robbers digging up the corpse of Jason Voorhees. Jason rises from the grave and murders the two grave robbers before advancing towards Tommy.

The graveyard sequence turns out to be just a nightmare, and Tommy, now a teenager, awakens from the dream in the back of a van. Tommy has been shifted between various mental institutions after killing the mass murderer Jason Voorhees six years earlier, who attacked him and his sister and murdered their mother. He arrives at the Pinehurst Halfway House, a medical center for troubled teens secluded in the woods. The body count continues…

Reviews (spoilers):

“By the fifth film, fans weren’t looking for anything terribly original. Rather, they were looking for sex, violence and creative kills. This was delivered, including a pretty risqué and quite awesome sex-in-the-woods sequence, which was actually trimmed by the censors of the day. However, even with some plot twists, this movie really was one of the least of the bunch.” Kevin Carr, 7(M) Pictures

“The spiciest entry in the series, it boasts the most T&A, an incredible double homicide, a witty reference to A Place in the Sun, and yokels chopping chickens.” Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine

“Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning doesn’t deserve its bad rap. I’d rather watch it than half the entries in the series, and genuinely respect the producers for trying to find an organic way to continue the series without ‘cheating’” Gabriel Powers, DVD Active

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“The end is a serious letdown, either because you hadn’t figured out who the killer was and were disappointed when you found out, or because you HAD figured it out and were disappointed to learn you were right. You should know that in the end, the killer’s Jason-like hockey mask is placed in someone’s hospital room, apparently as a souvenir, which is questionable enough already, but really just as an excuse for setting up the “creepy” final shot, which is even more askew. We really should permit only grown-ups to make movies.” Eric D. Snider

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Choice dialogue:

“You big dildo! Eat your fuck’n slop!”

“And our forecast is sunny in the valleys and snow flurries up your nose.”

Censorship:

There were numerous graphic scenes, all of which were either cut or trimmed for appearing to be “X” by the MPAA, such as:

Joey’s death, which showed an inserted frame of blood splashing seconds after getting hacked with an axe to his back; there was a wide frame shot of Vinnie getting the road flare shoved into his mouth, but the entire scene was ultimately reduced to a brief close-up shot instead;

Pete’s death originally showed the machete slicing across his throat; however, this single frame was excised from the final cut, resulting in a close-up shot of his reaction and the aftermath of his death;

Billy’s death was cut of excessive blood flow from an axe to his skull;

Lana’s entire death scene was cut and recreated; the original scene showed an axe to her chest, followed by her subsequent reaction of horror (which was omitted for appearing as “too real”), ending with a view of her body twitching on the ground;

Farmhand Raymond’s death showed an inserted frame of the knife twisting in his stomach;

Eddie and Tina had extended scenes of sex, all of which were cut, followed by Tina’s death from a pair of hedge shears to her eyes and a gory view of her remains;

Eddie’s head crushed against the tree was deemed “too strong,” resulting in a less intense, trimmed version;

Anita’s death was slightly altered with “version 1″ and “version 2″ in existence; the first version shows a close-up shot of her face and slit throat; version 2 has an additional wide POV shot of her body from inside the outhouse;

Demon’s torturous demise was also deemed as “too strong” and originally showed his subsequent reaction of vomiting blood after being impaled with a tent spike through his stomach;

Ethel’s death scene showed a single frame of the cleaver lodged in her forehead;

Junior’s decapitation originally showed his head bounce and roll along the ground;

This shot includes blood on victim’s face but shot above doesn’t

Jake suffered a violent attack from a meat cleaver to the face; there were additional frames omitted from the original death scene itself, resulting in a brief close-up shot of his initial reaction from the effect.

Robin was impaled with a machete, which entered through her back and emerged from between her bare chest; this single shot was excised entirely.