This particular chapter didn't figure quite as strongly in my childhood as the two on either side of it. I'm not sure why that is. I know I saw it, or most of it, piecemeal on TV. But my memories of this were scattered.
Click here for a list of all other films reviewed and considered for this October 2012 series of horror reviews.
It becomes fairly obvious by the seventh film in the
series that the Friday the 13th
franchise was desperately seeking new ideas. So in Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, instead of
simply unleashing Jason onto an unwitting group of youths in the woods,
screenwriters Daryl Haney and Manuel Fidello decided to provide him with an
adversary he’d never seen before. That’s how we wind up with Tina Shepherd, a
teenager blessed (or cursed depending on your perspective) with the power of
telekinesis. Her abilities are introduced in a brief prologue in which she
accidentally kills her father by causing the collapse of a dock at Crystal
Lake.
Still coping with the guilt over her father’s death some
years earlier, Tina (Lar Park-Lincoln) returns to Crystal Lake with her mother,
Amanda (Susan Blu) and her psychiatrist, Dr. Crews (Terry Kiser). His methods
are more focused on harnessing her powers than helping her through her issues.
His character is so repugnant we just can’t wait for him to be killed off. The
fun in this story is revealed by having a character even more detestable.
Melissa calls Tina a freak and plays cruel tricks on her while attempting to
seduce the leading man, Nick (Kevin Spirtas) who is obviously destined to wind
up with Tina.
Director John Carl Buechler came out of a special effects
background and while that shows in some of the high production value set
pieces, I was rather surprised to find this film particularly tame on the gore
level. While he has Jason wielding all manner of bizarre weaponry sometimes to
great comic effect (there is almost nothing more hilarious in the entire series
than Jason suddenly coming up with an electric tree trimming buzz saw in the
middle of the woods. Think about it.) he cuts back on really showing things
like disemboweling and throat slashing. The masterstroke in the film is the
casting of Kane Hodder as Jason. For once the producers in this series put a
stunt man in that hockey mask who makes a real character and performance,
albeit minimalist, out it. Note the curious way he tilts his head when first he
encounters the power unleashed by Tina.
Fidello has no other writing credits to his name and
among Haney’s is a laundry list films less prestigious than this one. That
might tell you something about the quality on display, but it’s so clear that
this sequel is not exactly meant to be taken seriously. For one thing, they
can’t quite decide exactly what powers Tina has. She’s telekinetic, but she can
also raise the dead. She’s the cause of Jason’s return when she attempts to
raise her father from the lake. But then she’s also a seer – not only of future
events, but past events that no one near her has been privy to. I’m not looking
for too much logical consistency by this point in the series, so I’ll let it
all go as something like, “She’s got unlimited mind powers as befits the
convenience of the screenplay.”
I guess my expectations had just been lowered so
substantially that I was able to sit back and enjoy this installment for not
being as bad as most of the others. The acting is far better and it looks like
it was backed by some real money rather than the low-budget Monopoly money that
went into Friday the 13th PartIII, for example. Savor this seventh film, because it’s a steep downhill
thereafter.
Deaths (with my
rating out of 10)
Total deaths: 16 (all more or less on screen)
Average rating: 3.625/10
Highest rating: 8
Ratings are based on my personal reaction to the killing
taking into account factors such as shock, surprise, and fear, as well as the
creativity involved and how graphic it is.
1.
Tina’s father falls into the lake from a
collapsing dock (3).
2.
Jane gets a hand placed over her mouth from
behind, a knife to the back of the head and she is then pinned to a tree (4).
3.
Michael gets a spike thrown into his back, then
he’s picked up and thrown (4).
4.
Jason puts his hand through Dan’s back and then
breaks his neck (6).
5.
Judy gets closed up in her sleeping bag and
Jason slams her against a tree (8).
6.
Russell takes an axe to the face (4).
7.
Sandra is pulled underwater and drowned mostly
off screen (2).
8.
Maddy is grasped from behind a wall in the shed
and she’s killed by a sickle mostly off screen (3).
9.
Ben’s head is crushed vertically by Jason’s bare
hands (3).
10.
Kate gets a party horn jammed in her eye (4).
11.
David takes a kitchen knife to the stomach (2).
12.
Eddie’s neck is slashed with a machete (2).
13.
Robin is thrown from a 2nd floor
window and hits the ground (1).
14.
Amanda Shepherd takes a hockey stick shaped
spear to the back (4).
15.
Dr. Crews is gutted with a tree trimming buzz
saw (2).
16.
Melissa gets axed right in the forehead (6).
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