Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (USA, 1988) - Color, Director(s): John Carl Buechler
MPAA Rating: R
[UK: 18]
Approx. 88 min.
Z-rating: 4 stars out of 5
Cheese Factor: 3 stars out of 5
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| I guess they're not "Forest Green" anymore? |
They totally should've called this Friday the 13th: Jason vs. Carrie. From what I understand, it was originally planned to be a Freddy vs. Jason film but talks between Paramount Pictures and New Line Cinemas fell through. Still, this is one of my favorite F13 movies. John Carl Buechler, special effects artist turned director, also did special make-up effects for this film and created what people consider "the definitive Jason". The stuntman behind the mask is none other than the legendary Kane Hodder, who would be the only actor to reprise his role as Jason in the three sequels that follow. (he also plays Victor Crowley in the Hatchet series, among many others)
In a flashback, we see Tommy Jarvis using a chain wrapped around a large stone to sink Jason to the bottom of Crystal Lake. Returning Jason to the lake where he drowned as a child put Jason to rest. Some time passes and we see a little girl running out to the lake, upset over the fact her father is smacking her mother around. Little Tina uses her telekinesis to collapse the dock her father was standing on and accidentally drowns him in Crystal Lake. Fast forward to the present and we see that Tina is still distraught by the accident. At the recommendation of her therapist, Dr. Crews, she returns to Crystal Lake to face the guilt over killing her father. One night Tina walks out to the lake and uses her powers to revive what she believes to be her father, but in fact turns out to be Jason. Dr. Crews keeps her in a state of constant emotional imbalance and tries to convince her that she's hallucinating.
A group of teenagers are at the house next door preparing a surprise birthday party for one of their friends and Tina is invited to join them. The guest of honor never makes it to his own party because Jason gets to him first and then starts going after the party guests. Jason has been decaying all these years under the lake, his spine is starting to show and the flesh is rotting off his bones around his fingers and face. Jason gets electrocuted, lit on fire, and part of a house collapses on top of him but he keeps on coming. Tina doesn't fuck around either, she gets a hang of her powers before the end of the movie and uses them to fight Jason. She throws furniture at him, stabs him with a bunch nails, and uses his own mask to squeeze his head so hard that it breaks in half.
Nudity: There's the usual teens fornicating and a girl skinny dipping in the lake before she's killed. We get a brief shot from underneath as the girl tries to swim away from Jason.
Gore: They didn't really skimp on the gore in this movie, a lot of it was supposedly cut to avoid an X rating. There's a decent amount of gore left behind but the movie cuts away when it starts getting good. The deleted scenes are included in the DVD releases. The deluxe editions supposedly have additional footage.
Awesome: Very. Jason is a disgusting, rotting corpse and the stunts look awesome thanks to Kane Hodder. That one self-centered bitch gets an axe to her face and then Jason just tosses her across the room. Absolutely HILARIOUS! Dr. Crews is one of the most despicable cowards you've ever seen. You just can't wait to see these characters get what's coming to them. Unlike the annoying mamas boy from Part V, who was so completely obnoxious that you just wanted to turn off the movie. Some people may find the idea of Tina and her psychokinesis ridiculous but it really works for me. That's one of the reason I like the Friday the 13th series so much, Jason actually encounters characters that are out of the ordinary. I think it keeps the franchise interesting. If the violence wasn't edited out, this would probably be the best.