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

I'll tell you why so serious

Best movie ever!

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

New Blood is a GREAT friday sequel & a great supernatural Thriller in it's own right.This 1988 film has possibly the best looking Jason of the franchise!!! Jason looks like a half decomposed zombie with his spine showing & wet slimey ripped up clothes,looks Scary. Also a good performance by Lar parc Lincoln as Tina Shepard the troubled main character who has some kinda psychic powers & a great Hero to go up against Jason.All the other characters are just ok & are only there to be killed by Jason lol. NEW BLOOD is an exciting & supernatural Mystery with a dark gloomy Atmosphere & a good musical score,this is one of the best sequels it's great fun,exciting & really well directed.

Jason is accidently revived from his watery grave by a girl with psychokinetic abilities to go on another rampage, killing horny teens. As many reviews have pointed out this is a kind of Jason vs Carrie affair and while it's an interesting idea I just wasn't convinced by it, it didn't quite work for me. There is a high body count but sadly very little gore, probably down to censorship. On the plus side there's a fair amount of female nudity and part 7 is when Kane Hodder made his debut playing Jason, a role that he made his own. It's a pity that from this point the series went down hill but I'm a fan and if they'd made a hundred Friday's I'd watch them all!

Picking up from the last film where Tommy Jarvis left Jason chained to the bottom of Crystal Lake, Mr. Voorhees is awakened from his underwater hibernation when a teen with psychic powers inadvertently sets him free. Jason then proceeds to butcher yet another set of campers. The only elements of note for this entry are that the film features Kane Hodder's first appearance as Jason, who most fans believe is the definitive Jason (thought I'm not sure his performance is really all that different from others), but I would say this film seemed to solidify Jason's character, look, and status as a supernatural creature. The film also features Terry Kiser, Bernie the hilarious dead body from "Weekend at Bernie's." Meh.

"Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood" is the moment. That singular moment that many media franchises reach where there is a bit of a rift. A fundamental change. Something that will forever alter the way the subsequent remaining entries are perceived.Yes. This is the infamous moment in any series that can only be referred to as "jumping the shark." This is where the franchise wholly committed to the concept of each movie injecting a quirky "gimmick" in order to drum up audience interest. Sure, I'd argue that the previous film (the excellent "Jason Lives") probably started the whole notion of the "gimmick entry" with its focus on self-aware, postmodern meta-humor... but this is the film that really solidified the fact that the remaining films would all have that silly, somewhat kitschy quality of relying on a singular contrivance to set it apart.In this case of course, it's focus on the supernatural storyline of Jason fighting a psychic/telekinetic.When psychic Tina Shepard returns to Crystal Lake years after accidentally causing the death of her father with her latent abilities, the opportunity to learn and perhaps heal is interrupted when she accidentally releases Jason from his watery grave. Now, she and a group of teen-aged party-goers next door must struggle to survive against the newly revived (and quite angry) hulking killer... leading to an insane and actually quite entertaining final showdown.The most notable aspect of this entry is probably the introduction of fan-favorite Kane Hodder as Jason- a role he would continue to play for the next few entries in the series. Hodder arguably defined the role, and actually finally gave him a consistent sense of "character" through both physical presence and movement, and through his own behind-the-scenes exploration of what makes Jason tick. Interesting tidbit: Hodder actually refused to film a scene where Jason kicks a dog away from him, because he feels Jason would never actually hurt animals or young children due to his childhood trauma. Granted, this doesn't quite fit in with Part IV, but I like the idea- it shows that Hodder actually tried to build a sense of character and "rules" for Jason to follow.The film is also quite a bit of fun at times. The whole psychic angle is stupid beyond belief, there's no doubt about it. But it allows for all sorts of cinematic mayhem to ensue, with explosions, nails flying through the air, furniture being flung around... it's great fun to see Jason finally face an adversary in Lar Park Lincoln's Tina that can truly stand up to him and perhaps give him more than he can handle.But the strong entertainment factor aside, this is a pretty bland entry on the whole to me. It lacks the pure sense of "fun" that the previous film literally oozed alongside the blood and trades it in for what actually becomes a somewhat depressive feel for much of the screen time. Not only in terms of basic tone, but also in the writing and even in the music. It's just kind of... mournful. Many of the characters (especially Tina) seem to have a deep-seeded chip on their shoulder and it's not as compelling as it could be. And the others are all just... ho-hum and often grating, with characters like the generic nasty vain girl getting on your nerves very quickly. You just kinda feel bad for everyone even before they start getting axed off.That being said, despite being a middling entry in the overall franchise, the good characterization in Jason and the wickedly wild and entertaining battles between Tina and Jason do make it worth a watch for slasher fans. Just don't expect the best entry in the franchise.I give it a middle-of-the-road 5 out of 10.