Despite being panned as the worst in the series, I found Friday The 13^th: A New Beginning to be the most fun and entertaining instalment so far with its relatively engaging protagonist and abundance of bizarre supporting characters.

Years following the death of Jason Voorhees, Tommy Jarvis is transferred to a communal halfway home, hoping to recover from his adolescent trauma. That becomes impossible however as not only does he experience strange visions of Jason Voorhees but each of his fellow patients, as well as nearby locals, are mysteriously murdered. Has Jason returned?

What I Was Expecting

This was another case where my knowledge of the film was very limited. Its infamy was all I knew for sure going into it. I just hoped that it wasn’t about another group of high schoolers getting slaughtered.

What I Got

Just like with The Final Chapter, memories of Monster Madness (the Halloween film review show by James Rolfe of Angry Video Game Nerd fame) came back as the film played out. This is the one where the fat guy with the chocolate bar is axed by a fidgety buff guy. This is the one where all the characters are crazy and over-the-top. This is the one where there’s an actual main character that we’re supposed to relate to.

This is the one where all the gore is cut out.

Then and there I realised exactly how A New Beginning had earned its awful reputation.

But I didn’t care because frankly where it fails in gore, it makes up in comedy.

Set in a half-way house, most of the characters are mentally ill patients, written by somebody who clearly knows nothing about mental illness. There are no socially competent teenagers, everyone’s an outcast in some way with their own bizarre quirks and characteristics. I’ve already mentioned Joey, the overweight manbaby who gets murdered at the beginning, but then there’s Jake, a young socially awkward patient who just can’t talk to girls, Reggie, a confident little boy who’s far too young to be interacting with psychiatric patients, and finally Ethel and her son Junior, a couple of deranged locals. Simply put, they’re all fantastic.

A New Beginning has a little more to offer than just cheap laughs however, as despite the script’s distain for the subject of mental illness, it clearly makes an effort in developing its protagonist.

Tommy is the most disturbed of the group, he wants to socialise and live a normal life but the trauma he’s endured has built an almost impenetrable barrier. He’s the first character in the series so far that I was actually interested in.

Unfortunately, Tommy becomes less of a priority as the plot progresses. This isn’t bad at first as we’re treated to more wacky characters and mischief, however their comedic effect lessens over time. With our only protagonist out of the spotlight, the same humour on repeat and no gore, the climax of A New Beginning is a chore to reach. When you get there it’s kind of worth it, Tommy takes centre stage in a big confrontation with Jason leading to a strange and ominous ending.

Is Part 5 the worst in the series? Well that depends on what you mean by worst because so far it’s become pretty apparent to me that the Friday The 13^th films do not aspire to be high art (hence my low but complimentary ratings). If people watch these films for the gore then I can totally see why A New Beginning is so universally despised.

For someone like me however, who’s grown tired of the formula used by the first four, Part 5 is a flawed but amazing rollercoaster of funny characters, relatable characters, dead end subplots and just bad creative decisions. It’s a glorious trainwreck.

I give Friday The 13^th: A New Beginning a wild 4 out of 10.