FRIDAY THE 13TH: PART VII - THE NEW BLOOD (1988)

Cast: Lar Park-lincoln, Kane Hodder, Terry Kisey, Susan Jennifer Sullivan, Heidi Kozak

Directed By: John Carl Buechler
Written By: Manuel Fidello & Daryl Haney
Cinematography By: Paul Elloit
Editor: Barry Zetin & Mary O’Connell & Martin Jay Sadoff




The premise of this movie is that we all know Jason is practically a non-stop killing machine but this time he may have meet his match in a girl who has telekinesis. She having been brought there by her therapist who seems intent on exploiting her powers for his own gain.

It seems years ago she got mad at her dad after arguing with her father and toppling his boat and causing him to drown. So she was so angry she caused the accident she has been afraid of using her powers but then she gets angry again after her psychiatrist argues with her and her mother she accidentally resurrects Jason again by electrocution. Then pretty soon Jason is doing his usual by now I have to consider Jason Voorhies a zombie who is never hungry.

It seems like with each new film the directors have set the bar and thrown down a challenge to each other to top each other as far as effects and kills go. Here director is luckily he has a premise that allows him to go a little over the top then a regular horror film sequel.

While this is not the best film or my favorite I remember being jazzed to go see it. Now having said that I have never seen any of these movies in the theater I’m sure it enhances the experience. Half the fun of watching these films is seeing the bad 80’s fashions and the same clichés played out over and over almost like in a bond film where you already know what’s going to happen you just go to see how they are going to dress it up and try and make it look different. You still have the teenagers doing drugs having unprotected pre-marital sex. Which instantly stamps there death certificates this one surprisingly has a lot less nudity then usual but at this point maybe the filmmakers realized it was redundant. But they forget that there main audience for these films are teenagers even though they shouldn’t be allowed to see it since it is rated R but by this point Jason voorhies is an icon so if they want to see it just like porn they will find a way. It doesn’t help that at the time most television networks show the Friday the 13th films on a regular basis edited but still anyone watching it would get the point of the films.

I think parents actually like the films they are sort of like a worst case scenario version of rules. You se what happens when you mess with drugs and have pre marital sex and leave your parents to hand out with those bad apples. More meant to scare kids then actual teenagers who watch these films and are amazed by its violence but laugh at the stupidness of the characters.

This film was supposed to be the original Freddy Vs. Jason but when the two studios couldn’t agree behind the scenes the decision was made for Jason to meet his match by going up against a psychic. One of the things cut was a alternate ending with Jason rising from the water at the end to kill a fisherman that had just caught and killed a bass. I guess a kind of PETA ad waiting to happen. It as deemed to similar to the endings of Friday the 13th part 1 and 3. as usual the MPAA made them cut a particularly graphic scene that was near the end and involved a woman getting a axe to the face we see the carnage of her split face and her eyes still moving and wiggling then throwing her to the side. It also let’s us see jason’s face for the first few times in the recent films. He is in full zombie mode here.

This is worth a rental if you are into the series but not the best one to start with.

GRADE: C+