Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood

Although their duel offers original effects-laden thrills and stunts, it’s too little and too late.

The series went from self-parody back to normal with this dull entry.

The result is a weak "Carrie" versus Jason finale after Jason has impaled about eight young people, mostly women. The filmmakers have mastered the blood but not the tedium of all of the predictable killings. Nor have they eliminated the "hate-women" subtext to the entire series of films. [20 May 1988, p.A]

This would all be a lot more fun if Jason were ever in jeopardy, but since we know he can't be killed -- the best one can hope to do is bottle him up and store him, like toxic waste -- the charm of the film depends on action in the margins. Part VI, for instance, had a sense of humor; II and III had a splendid variety of weaponry. No jokes this time, however, and Jason contents himself for the most part with the ax blow, the tent-pole stab and the simple head-twist. He's old, and he has lost a step. [17 May 1988, p.B4]

It relies heavily upon the cliches of the genre: sorties into garishly lit woods, crackling twigs, indiscriminate lightning bolts, sudden power outages and flickering flashlights. Only a mote of humor graces the film, and that is Jason's cunning ability to come up with ever more dreadful weapons for each successive crime, graduating from stake to machete to circular saw. Dare we hope, in Part VIII, for a neutron bomb to obliterate the series altogether? [16 May 1988, p.C7]

What we have here is basically "Jason vs. Carrie" with neither the visceral shock of the first "Friday the 13th" nor the subtleties of the Stephen King tale. In fact, "VII" is a catalogue of cheap self-imitation, from director John Carl Buechler's constant pulling of visual punches to the script's regurgitated cliche's from earlier "Fridays." The ending is the stupidest one ever and that's saying something.

It's the same old story, seven times around, you just can't keep a good corpse down. ’Spite a massacre the film before, To Crystal Lake, they keep coming more. And one by one, they end up dead – a sliitted throat; an axe in the head.

2020 MOVIE #128: FRIDAY THE 13TH- THE BEW BLOOD This is by far my favorite Friday flick. Maybe because it was the first I demanded to see in theaters at 9 y/o. Or maybe because it was secretly nicknamed "Frigay the 13th" because of the boys hooking up behind the scenes as well as 4 out gay actors which include Nick, the main hottie played by Kevin Spirtas ( After Forever) and the adorable William Butler (Leatherface texas chainsaw massacre 3). Or maybe I was just a **** for the campy, superfun concept which finally gave Mr. Hockey mask some real competition in the form of Tina Shepeard played by Lar Par Lincoln (House 2) a fierce final girl with the powers of telekinesis. That's mostly it but I also feel like this is the one where I started to fall in love with Jason because the makeup is awe inspiring and is performed brilliantly by the wonderful Kane Hodder. No matter what it is, I absolutely love this slasher flick it's near perfect in my eyes and just so damn entertaining. Plus it has the best poster of the series and pretty much ever in my opinion. 4.75/5

This has a really cool opening scene but no-one other than Jason had special powers before in this franchise, maybe they took inspiration from A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). Having thought about it I suppose Jason only got his special powers in the previous film so it's not too far detracted from the lore. Also, is this another 20 years into the future from the last film? She grew up there whilst Jason was in the water so that makes this over thirty years after the original film. Ignoring these conceptual distractions I can happily say that Jason looks so gnarly and that is awesome. Violence levels are back on track but still wish they'd released an uncut version. He certainly managed to find a lot of different household items that can be used as weapons. Pacing is good. There are some funny moments and it is generally entertaining. But why does the camera have to shake so much when they're running, even when they're walking sometimes and the torches they use don't seem to make it much brighter. The final act is very fun but the conclusion is a bit silly. Worth watching.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

I did not like the cast, and the sudden use of telekinetic powers pretty much threw me off. The kills were boring, and there were some of the worse kills in the franchise. One thing I did like about the movie is how Jason looked.