By Geno McGahee
Who doesn’t like Jason Voorhees? Sure, there are some movies in the Friday the 13th series that aren’t all that great, but this isn’t one of them. This movie surrounds Tina Shepard (Lar Par-Lincoln), a young girl released from a mental home, in an attempt to be placed back into normal society. She is placed under the care of her mother Amanda Shepard (Susan Blu), and her doctor, Dr. Crews (Terry Kiser). Now, Dr. Crews steals the show here. What a wonderful actor, and I am surprised to see that he hasn’t done more to capitalize on this performance.
The story is that Tina accidentally caused the death of her father while the family was either living, vacationing, or just visiting the dreaded “Camp Crystal Lake.” Her dickhead of a father was beating his wife, forcing a very young Tina to run out of the house and into a boat, drifting aimlessly on Crystal Lake. Her dad runs out and stands on the dock, pleading with his daughter, basically saying that: “I’m sorry, but mom looks like a dude,” which is my contention to why he beat her. The mom looked like a dude. I’m sorry, but I can’t pull any punches here people.
Now, the kicker in this film is the psychic powers that Tina possesses. She used it as a child to collapse the dock and kill her father, and now Dr. Crews is trying to get rich by exploiting it. In these sort of movies, you need villains and Dr. Crew is certainly a good one.
Tina, now a teenager is back at Crystal Lake and plans to blend in with the other teens, but first things first. She’s going to get her father out of that lake, because apparently, they never removed his body after he drowned. Unfortunately, Jason (Kane Hodder) was also in that lake courtesy of Tommy Jarvis from the previous movie. Long story, but he is there with a chain around his neck, attached to an enormous rock. He is shit out of luck, unless a girl with psychic powers can come along and get him the hell out of there. Thank God for Tina. She tries to get her father back and gets Jason and the fun begins.
Now, the murder scenes aren’t great, especially when you consider the strange fact that Jason is using power tools now. Why the fuck didn’t they lock up the tool shed? What’s great about this movie though, is the look of Jason. The make up artist does wonders with Jason Voorhees, and when you add in a formidable opponent in this flick…not just a bunch of teens running for their lives, you have a winner.
Tina and Jason go head to head and it is a lot of fun to watch somebody finally getting the better of the zombie/redneck/demon with a hockey mask. Unfortunately, right when you think that Jason is dead, he comes right back. The end of this movie is one of the best that I have ever seen. Jason has Tina and her boyfriend on the dock of Crystal Lake and is ready to finally kill these thorns in his side, but he didn’t count on one thing; Tina’s father jumping out of the lake and bringing him back into the lake. It is hilarious to watch the dad break through the dock and wrap a chain around Jason’s neck and drag him back into the lake. I guess they didn’t recover the body after all.
Now, Friday the 13th, Part VII: The New Blood is one of the more enjoyable in the series. I certainly recommend it.
Scared Stiff Rating: 6/10.
