Friday the 13th Part VII - The New Blood (1988)

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VII - THE NEW BLOOD

WRITERS: Daryl Haney and Manuel Fidello

DIRECTOR: John Carl Buechler

STARRING: Lar Park Lincoln as Tina
Kevin Blair as Nick
Susan Blu as Mrs. Shepard
Terry Kiser as Dr. Crews
Susan Jennifer Sullivan as Melissa
Elizabeth Kaitan as Robin
Jon Renfield as David
Jeff Bennett as Eddie
Heidi Kozak as Sandra
Diana Barrows as Maddy
Larry Cox as Russell
Kane Hodder as Jason Voorhees

QUICK CUT: After the loss of her father, a young woman returns to her lakeshore home to reconnect with the past, try and get past her grief, make new friends, and try and survive the night.

THE MORGUE

Tina - Our heroine, a girl who accidentally killed her father as a child, thanks to uncontrollable brain powers. Yeah, we now have telekinetics in the franchise, but whatevs. Tina is a shy, quiet young woman, frightened to hurt anyone, but she is unable to stop her growing abilities.

Dr. Crews - The man trying to help Tina, partly for his own reasons. He’s hard on her, but it’s all because he’s pushing her to be better, and he knows she won’t do that with kid gloves.

Nick - The love interest of the movie. He believes Tina when no one else will.

Oooh THIS is what all that blood harvesting was for!

TRISK ANALYSIS: Happy New Year, Triskelions! We made it through the 2010s, and now we get to craft our 2020 vision. And it all begins here, as every year does, at Crystal Lake, and Jason Voorhees. And we have made it all the way to #7, The New Blood. So let's get into this.

It opens up with a huge recap of Jason's history, and oh good, reusable footage. A LOT of reusable footage. I don't mind recaps, but this one feels excessive. BUT on the plus side, there are some solid highlights in there.

The movie properly gets started on the shores of Crystal Lake, and we meet young Tina, as she listens in on yet another fight between her parents. She runs off and gets in a boat to row away, and her dad chases her.

Underwater breath holding champion 1967 - 1992

Suddenly, the water starts burbling and the dock Tina's dad is standing on begins swaying and oh, oh no. Did I pop in Firestarter by mistake??

Anyways, the dock collapses, taking dad with it, and he dies there in the lake. Is there really room for psychic powers in the Friday franchise? Eh, probably as much room for yet another corpse in that lake.

Tina suddenly wakes up from the nightmare flashback, and we learn she has been getting help for her episodes. Dr. Crews has decided it best if she leaves the hospital environment and heads home to better recover.

As they get unpacked, we briefly see a group of kids also coming in to the neighbouring house, because we need more than three people to murder.

We get to watch Crews try and get Tina to use her powers, but she has no control over them, only exhibiting them when her emotions are high.

After being pushed, Tina rushes outside to get some air, and she finds herself back down by the lake, and eyeballing the boats once more.

Damnit Tina, you can't solve all your problems by sailing off across the lake.

Tina wishes she could bring her father back, reaches out with her mind, and connects with very much not her father. Instead, she awakens the sunken corpse of Jason Voorhees. Oops.

Meanwhile, random people Jane and Michael are trying to get to the other cabin, but their car has broken down. They set up camp in the woods, and are promptly slaughtered to keep things interesting.

Oh, and Tina meets the boy from that cabin, Nick, so she can hang out with normal kids for a bit. And introduce our canon fodder.

Mom! Mom! Mom mom mom! Mom look! Look mom! Look what I can do! Mom you’re not looking! Mom! Mom!

As Tina gets to meet the new kids on the lake, she begins seeing flashes of what Jason is getting up to. It's a great way to tie the plots together and keep them connected, but I also really love seeing moments of Jason's slaughter amidst normal teenager shenanigans.

The visions spook Tina and she rushes home, seeing a tent spike embedded in the porch. She rushes inside to try and convince Crews and her mom, but he won't believe her, even though there's the spike outside. However, when he goes to look for it, the spike is gone.

But wait, don't get too comfy, because there's more random campers Jason can murderize to fill the movie!

I WANT to breeze past this, but I can't just let one of the most memorable kills in the franchise go unremarked, as Jason drags the girlfriend out of the tent, wrapped up in her sleeping bag, and wails on a nearby tree with her body.

The next day, Michael is still missing, and Tina gets teased some more, so she flexes her mental might. She's coming unhinged and wants to leave, but Doc keeps pushing her.

I kinda love that there is ZERO question that she's a telekinetic. Everyone 100% believes her. She clearly flings a television with her mind, and does other stuff that can't be explained.

Nick shows up to check on her, and he shows her a pic of his cousin. She recognises the man from her vision, and continues to freak out.

Meanwhile, another couple wanders off to the lake to do some skinny dipping, and wouldn't you know it? Jason shows up for some murdering.

Tina's mom looks for Crews, and discovers the metal spike from earlier, and videotaped evidence showing he has more than Tina's best interests at heart. He's clearly manipulating her for his own research and...since it's a plot that goes nowhere, it doesn't really add much to the film.

Jason knows the important of not leaving his trash in the lake.

Speaking of Crews, he's gone for walkies, and comes across Michael's body, realising there is more going on here than delusions.

Tina overhears Crews and her mom fighting, and how he plans to have her committed, believing her the cause of the murders. At least, that was the way I read the situation. Tina grabs the keys and drives off randomly, seeing more murders along the way...until she crashes the car.

One of the disposable crew goes looking for the guy she's sweet on - and you can guess what happens to anyone who goes out wandering alone in the middle of the night when Jason's around.

We spend the usual time with couples hooking up, having sex, and being picked off. You know the drill.

The way to a man’s heart IS through his stomach!

It does keep the tension really tight though, as Jason stalks through the cabin picking everyone off, and the kills are generally pretty great. Even if we have entered the 'calling out names ' portion of the plot, it's still pretty solid, as Tina tries to find her mom, and Nick tries to get everyone to leave.

Well, he's a bit late on that front, but his intentions are good.

Tina finds Crews wandering the woods after her mom was murdered, knows she's done for, and runs off to find anyone useful. Meanwhile, Jason finds Doctor Crews, and slices him up with a weed whacker, trimmer, something. It's easily a highlight.

I love when a movie spends a long time with a character, and then takes a nice long time finishing them off, especially when its deserved.

And if you're keeping track, we reach the point in the plot where Tina wanders around and has all the bodies come collapsing out to frighten her at various moments. Anyone got Bingo yet?

She sees Jason, commands a tree to attack him, and when he's down in a puddle, snaps a nearby powerline. Surely plunging an entire side of the lake into a blackout, she electrocutes him. I am sure he is dead!

....Ahahaha, no, we all know that drill by now, too. Jason is way too stubborn to die from that. Heck, electricity brought him BACK at LEAST once, right?

Tina runs off to the house, and in a great refenestration, Jason jumps through the nearest giant window to come get her, because who needs doors??

Jason stomps around angrily, and the girl goes all Carrie and flings things as best she can at the beast, but again, you know how this goes.

He chases her outside, and she literally brings the house down on him. But if electrocution ain't gonna do it, a few planks of wood is only gonna piss Jason off.

Tina runs home, finds Nick and Melissa sitting around, and Melissa doesn't believe a word of it. She storms off, and only makes it as far as the door before getting an axe in the face. I bet she's a believer now.

We get more stalking around the house, which comes off rather well. Jason is Jason, and having someone who can hold her own works great. You can feel him getting angrier, more frustrated, which just makes him more of a threat. So often everyone just runs until they luck into stopping him.

Eventually, she tosses Jason down into the basement, they stand off some more, and it all builds to her going even MORE Carrie by throwing some gasoline around and setting things on fire as she gets herself and Nick outta there.

CAP: Hello boils and ghouls, heeeehehehehe!

The house goes boom, but not even fire can stop a Jason. He just comes back from the ashes, a little crispy. He stalks the two survivors down to the docks, and bookending the movie nicely, she dredges up her dad's corpse from the lake to leap out and drag Jason back into his watery grave.

Granted, we've seen Jason walk around the bottom of the lake, he doesn't need to breathe, and I doubt daddy's strength is a match for Jason's, but I can appreciate it as a rather poetic ending that mirrors the rest of the movie.

And we wrap things up with police, fire department, and medics astounded at the sheer level of carnage caused by the lakeshore tonight, and Tina and Nick ride off to the hospital.

TRISK ASSESSMENT

Video: Pretty rock solid, and I’d expect no less from one of the kings of the franchise at this point.

Audio: Same, a good mix, with some solid effects in the surrounds.

Sound Bite: “He left a large delusion stuck in my back porch!”

Body Count: Leave it to Jason to give me a nice hefty pile of bodies to deal with.

1 - Six and a half minutes, and Tina mind murders her dad.
2 - Jason knifes Jane in the back.
3 - Then he stabbies Michael.
4 - Dan gets his back ripped open.
5 - Then Jason drags the girlfriend off and beats her sleeping bag against a tree
6 - Russel gets golf swinged away
7 - His girlfriend gets drowned
8 - Jason calls it Curtains for Maddy
9 - Black guy gets his head crushed
10 - Black girl gets a horn down her throat.
11 - Guy gets gutted by the fridge
12 - Eddie gets knifed
13 - Jason defenestrates Robin
14 - Tina's mom gets gutted
15 - Dr. Crews gets weed whacked.
16 - Melissa gets axed in the face
17 - Jason gets sucked back underwater and was never heard from agaaaahahahahaha.

Best Corpse: There is a LOT of good ones to pick from, and I know the sleeping bag kill is a fave, but for me, I have to go with Crews’ death. It landed the most, and was well deserved.

Blood Type - C+: Oh that’s gonna be controversial. I was shocked at how little blood there was in this movie. It was worrisome levels of bloodless at times. It felt VERY edited to appease censors, and cut away whenever anything was going to be shown. Most blood we see is after the fact. Still, there’s some good blood, some good effects, and the rotting form of Jason is a highlight.

Sex Appeal: Lotsa sex, lotsa appeal, it IS a Friday movie, after all.

Drink Up! Every time Tina flings something with her mind.

Movie Review: I’m not sure where this one lands for fans overall, but I really enjoyed it. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, and as I pointed out, there’s a lot of familiar ground covered here. However, it does it very well, and having Jason pitted against someone who can hold her own, is a great setup, and handled well. The kills are almost all great and stand out, and the story was solid enough. There’s better in the franchise, but I’ve seen worse. A VERY solid three out of five birthday horns.

Entertainment Value: Those kills man, some good stuff there. Otherwise there’s nothing in the so bad it’s good category, the movie does what it does very well, and is entertaining enough on that level. Another three out of five tent spikes.

And if I had to give it an overall score, since those are both very very solid threes, I’d bump it up overall to a 3.5 or even a light 4 on a good day.