40. "Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988, Beucher)
By Eivind Langdal
21st January 2010

Only one actor ever played Jason Voorhees more than one time: stuntman Kane Hodder, a man best described as a ”human tank”. Another description is one made by his many fans, which find him to be the best guy to don the hockey mask. You know what? I agree. In this film, which is the first of four of which Hodder appeared in, Jason isn’t particularly different than he is in the other installments, but he still seems stronger and more ominous somewhat. Now, isn’t that an accomplishment – making a guy who has been killed and then lived to see another day seem stronger? I think that, if we were going to thank anyone for that, the dear Mr. Hodder would be a good place to start.

I think this might be the best film in the series I have seen so far. That might not be saying much, especially when taking into account that I hate the series with a strong passion, but I actually didn’t find the film to be half bad. There are some attempts to develop real characters here. Sure, there are plenty of those that have no purpose but to have sex and find their bodies to end up as forensic evidence too, but I guess that’s a given considering what kind of film this is. Perhaps some of you will say I am expecting too much of the films in the series, which I guess is true, but it’s not like I have never watched a horror film. I know how good they can be, and, unfortunately, after having so many films in the Friday the 13th saga, I also know how bad they can be.

The film starts with a prologue where the story of Jason so far is detailed in voice-over by an unidentified man. Clips from the other movies are included, and they play like highlights for the gore-hungry crowd, as they are essentially made up of Jason doing the only thing he is really good at: disposing of people with various sharp tools (strangely enough, the scene where he kills a man by squeezing his head so hard his eyeballs fall out is not included). We then eventually arrive back at Camp Crystal Lake, and get to see the final scene from the previous film again, which saw poor ol’ Jason getting chained to a rock and returned to the place that started all this shebang to begin with.

The seventh installment in the series reveals that another tragedy happened in the lake a long time ago involving a young girl named Tina, who has telekinetic powers. After having seen her father hit her mother one time too many, Tina rows out in the lake, and when the father runs out to the pier in an attempt to bring her back, she reacts with rage, which triggers a massive current in the water that destroys the pier and drowns the dad. The movie then fast-forwards quite a few years, and Tina as has grown to be a young woman. Unfortunately, the death of her father has left her traumatized, which her mother desperately tries to fix. That she does by inviting Tina’s doctor up to the lake so the three of them can confront the heart of the problem head on.

As it turns out, Camp Crystal Lake is actually not that ideal a spot for the removal of traumas. It’s really good at causing them, though, which becomes very true when Tina accidentally resurrects Jason. Before you know it, he has begun his killing again, and if you bet that the group of young adults that have gathered for a birthday party are likely suspects, you will win money. It won’t be a lot, though. Most characters in the films in the series have the odds against them as far as survival goes. In fact, if you are one of said characters and is not taking center spot or at least being the romantic partner of whoever that is, you’d be better off to just get the hell home as soon as possible.

The plot cross cuts between two kind of scenes: the usual kind, which sees Jason kill campers, and some dedicated to showing the how dysfunctional Tina’s family is. The former scenes are as by-the-numbers as they have ever been, but the ones with Tina and her family were actually almost interesting. By introducing a kind of emotional conflict in the film, director John Carl Buechler gives us characters that we actually care about, which in turn means that some of the scenes involving Jason almost becomes scary, as it means he might kill off people we like.

Ultimately, though, the seventh installment in the series is only mildly better than its predecessors. There is almost nothing here we haven’t seen before a million times. The characters have sex, venture out alone, and then they get killed. This process is repeated until only a few remain to challenge Jason, which is so difficult they might have an easier job trying to open a bottle of wine with the actual wine inside the bottle. Only once does the movie provide something of interest: the demasking of Jason, which, in just one second, makes it very clear why the hell this guy does what he does. For you see, no man with a face like that could ever be anything than a ruthless killer in a bad horror franchise. I think that is some sort of compliment, but I can’t really be sure.