While it suffers from the usual warts and boils of its predecessors, it brings a lot to the table in terms of originality, making Friday The 13^th Part VII: The New Blood a noteworthy instalment.

Despite having telekinetic powers, Tina is a sick and guilt-ridden teenager. She and her mother return to her childhood home on Crystal Lake; Tina’s psychiatrist thinking this will help her with her treatment even though it’s where she accidently murdered her father. One night, while thinking of her father, Tina inadvertently resurrects the sunken corpse of Jason Voorhees. Emerging from the lake, Jason does what he does best; butcher people. With her friends and family failing to avoid the killer’s deadly path, only Tina and the powers she’s tried so hard to supress can save the day.

What I Was Expecting

I knew that there was a Friday The 13^th where Jason goes up against a psychic and after a little research I discovered that Part VII was that film. I was expecting some fun sequences of Jason getting hurt as I recalled clips from Monster Madness that showed him falling down stairs and a whole porch collapsing on top of him. I was excited for those bits.

As for the rest of the film I wasn’t sure. Since this was the follow-up to the amazing Part VI, I could only hope that it at least tried to be as funny and clever.

What I Got

The New Blood is like a better version of The Final Chapter in that it plays out the same dull premise but with a few new twists, in the case of The New Blood a lot of new twists. Tina is unlike any character in the previous films, possibly in most slashers even. She has a history that is fleshed out and problems that she confronts, specifically the guilt she carries for her father’s death. She’s quite engaging and maybe the closest thing that the Friday The 13^th franchise has to a three-dimensional character.

Her psychiatrist, Doctor Crews, is interesting too, he turns out to be a lot more than he appears. Excepting him and Tina, the rest of the cast are pretty standard lambs to the slaughter. Some of the teens have their own distinct characteristics, one’s a science fiction writer, another’s a stoner. One that really caught me off guard is a girl called Melissa who’s basically your stereotypical high-school slut but amped up to a whole new level. She’s a sociopath! She’s one of those characters that’re so over-the-top you can’t help but laugh at how impossible they are.

The talky bits with these characters along with the goreless kills can make The New Blood a dull watch at times but I’d stick to it because the last twenty minutes are pretty incredible. It’s basically a showdown between Tina and Jason; one uses their weapons and brute strength, the other the objects around them with telekinesis. It’s an amazing scene with some great stunt work from Kane Hodder. It almost makes up for the ‘meh’ film you’ve been watching up to that point.

It’s not Jason Lives but it’s not just another Friday The 13^th either. It’s another Friday The 13^th with a lot of original spices with its unique and well written protagonist and action-packed climax.

I give Friday The 13^th Part VII: The New Blood a solid 6 out of 10.