Things have been rough for Tommy over the years after encountering Jason Voorhees as a child and killing him. He is released from a mental facility and transferred to a secluded residential treatment facility. Jason haunts Tommy and he hasn’t been able to let him go. Shortly after his arrival, brutal murders go on around the area.
Blaine: Jason couldn’t stay dead for good because the fans wanted to see more. So the studio had to find a way to continue the “Friday the 13th” franchise after killing off Jason. When Jason was rising up from his grave the audience would stand up from their seats cheering for the return of Jason Voorhees. They were planning to bring back young Tommy Jarvis and Corey Feldman wanted to play him again. Problem was Corey got cast in “The Goonies” and he didn’t have time for “Friday the 13th”. It disappointed him because he really wanted to return. I wish Corey did return because I loved him as young Tommy in “The Final Chapter” and it would have been interesting to see young Tommy go up against Jason again. Corey did make a small cameo appearance at the beginning of “A New Beginning” as young Tommy Jarvis in a bad dream. John Shepherd was hired to portray Tommy Jarvis as a young adult and all his role required was for him to not say much and just stare off at nothing with the look of fear on his face.
Like the first “Friday the 13th” they had decided that the identity of the killer of “A New Beginning” would not be revealed until the end, but a lot of people assumed it was Jason. At the time “A New Beginning” had more death scenes than the first four “Friday the 13th” movies and around the mid 80s, fans were starting to route for the killer in the slasher films because characters like Michael Myers, Leatherface, Freddy Kruger and Jason Voorhees were becoming very popular after showing up more than once in these movies. I thought it was Jason committing those murders at first and when I saw “A New Beginning” for the first time I thought it was exciting for Jason to come back because then the people who live at the secluded residential treatment facility were in for a real surprise.
In the previous “Friday the 13th” movies the final girl was always a blonde…..except for Chris in “Friday the 13th Part III”. For “A New Beginning” the final girl was a character called Pam Roberts, Melanie Kinnaman, the director of the treatment facility. Melanie felt like she was the lead actress of the movie when it came to the scene where Pam sees three of the teenagers slashed and bloody in one of the rooms and so on. Pam and a little boy named Reggie go running out into the woods while it’s raining outside and try to out run Jason. The thing she hated the most was having that pink sweater around her while running in the rain. She didn’t mind running in the rain as long as she looked good.
None of the actors knew what they were auditioning for at the time because just like “Friday the 13th Part III” the producers used a fake title. Most of them were very excited to be in a “Friday the 13th” movie when principal photography began. The casting directors were very interested in interviewing a former Playboy bunny named Debisue after learning her last name was Voorhees. They looked at her figure and wanted a woman with her looks to be in the movie. John Robert Dixon, who played Debisue’s lover, felt uncomfortable doing a sex scene with her while 50 people were staring around them shooting the scene. Debisue’s death involves a hedge trimmer going down her eyes and then snaps. They put this rubbery thing over Debisue’s eyes and then added fake blood to it. She didn’t like having that fake blood in her eyes because it hurt. John Robert Dixon’s character returns to Debisue and is in complete shock to see her eyes have been sliced. He backs up to a tree and then the killer quickly throws a horse strap across his face and the killer crushes his head against the tree. Those are the two deaths I like the most out of “A New Beginning”.
Towards the end, Tommy cuts off Jason’ arm and he falls onto a harrow bellow the farm house. But then it is revealed that it really wasn’t Jason. It was an imposter posing as Jason all along. The real killer of “A New Beginning” is Roy Burns, an ambulance driver. I was disappointed to find out that it wasn’t Jason who was doing all those killings in “A New Beginning” and everyone who saw the movie in the theater were just as disappointed as I was. One of the teens, Joey, at the facility was chopped to death by another teen with a lot of anger issues. Roy shows up to take the body away, finds out it is his own son and that causes him to go insane and murder people. He uses Jason as a coverup. Joey was an orphan and Roy never told anyone that he was his father...not even Joey. I couldn’t understand why Roy killed all those people when really it was the guy with the anger issues who killed his son. I asked myself “why not go after him? why kill everyone else?” I think the reason why he killed everyone else was because he feels the people who were supposed to take care of Joey didn’t do a good enough job and he blames them just like Mrs. Voorhees blamed the camp counselors for fooling around instead of looking after Jason. The producers of “A New Beginning” originally wanted Tommy to be the killer believing he was Jason. That would have been more acceptable for me after how “The Final Chapter” ended with Tommy killing Jason and showing that creepy look on his face. John Shepherd had an idea of how the movie should end with Tommy. He’s on the hospital bed, Pam comes in the room to see if he is ok and then Tommy stabs her with a knife and laughs, but it turns out to be a nightmare. Tommy then opens the drawer next to the bed and inside is the hockey mask Roy was using to impersonate Jason. Pam rushes into Tommy’s room after hearing glass break. She sees Tommy is gone and believes he has jumped out the window. Tommy closes the door behind her wearing Roy’s hockey mask while holding a knife. John had written dialog in that scene, but director Danny Steinmann had crossed it out because Tommy hardly talks in “A New Beginning”. But other than the dialog, Danny liked the ending that John had written and it was used in the film.
“A New Beginning” didn’t get great reviews and fans would complain that Jason wasn’t really in it. They would say it was the worst “Friday the 13th” of the franchise, but I don’t think it’s the worst. “Jason Takes Manhattan” and “Jason Goes to Hell” are the worst. Other people liked the deaths in “A New Beginning” and loved the mystery of who the killer was. It also became a box office hit because even though it had a false Jason, still it was “Friday the 13th”.
My rating on “Friday the 13th A New Beginning” is four out of five stars.
