Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)

Friday the 13th Part 5: A New Beginning (credited in the opening credits as Friday the 13th: A New Beginning) is a 1985 American slasher film (combining elements of the psychological thriller genre) and is the fifth installment in the Friday the 13th franchise. It is the last film to be directed by Danny Steinmann.

The film stars John Shepherd as Tommy Jarvis, the heroic boy from Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) who killed Jason Voorhees, and a series of similar murders surrounding the halfway house he currently resides at. Shepherd replaces Corey Feldman, who played Tommy in The Final Chapter, although Feldman makes a cameo appearance in the film's prologue.

Plot
Twelve year-old Tommy Jarvis stands in the woods in the driving rain, watching two young punks dig up Jason Voorhees' grave. They open it, and Jason springs to life, ending the lives of the punks. Then Jason's gaze turns to Tommy, and he raises the machete high over Tommy's head, swinging down at Tommy as he screams "Noooo!". Most likely being struck in the head by the undead Camp Slayer.

Tommy, now a teenager, wakes up drenched with sweat in a van from the Unger Institute of Mental Health. Tommy soon arrives at his destination, a halfway home for troubled teens. Tommy is brought into Matt Peters' office, where the doctor explains that the clinic is run on an honor system, with the intention of preparing the patients to re-enter society. Tommy then meets young Reggie, whose grandfather George works at the house.

Sheriff Tucker and his deputy return patients Tina and Eddie to the institute. Following close on their heels are Ethel and "Junior" Hubbard, whose property adjoins the halfway house. The foul-mouthed Ethel raises Hell about the kids again having sex on her property. Ethel's fears about the "loonies" are justified in short order when the anti-social Vic hacks up Joey with an axe. Vic is arrested by the police and ambulance attendants Duke Johnson and Roy Burns come to take away the corpse.

Night comes and the murders begin. Greaser Vinnie and Pete are viciously dispatched with a road flare and a machete. The next morning Tommy hallucinates Jason standing behind him. At breakfast, Tommy beats Eddie senseless when Eddie wears a mask Tommy made. Has Tommy become the killer he fears? Or is it the drifter that shows up at Ethel's house looking for work? That night the murders continue when waitress Lana and her boyfriend Billy are viciously murdered and slaughtered with an axe.

The next day, patients Tina and Eddie sneak off into the woods to have sex. The drifter watches them intently, but he is soon struck down by the killer, as are Eddie and Tina. That night Pam drives Reggie to see his brother Demon, with along Tommy along for the ride. As Reggie and Demon catch up on old times Tommy is accosted by Junior. Tommy again loses control and pummels Junior, running off when interrupted by Pam. When Pam and Reggie return to the house, Demon and his girlfriend Anita are killed. Soon after, Junior and Ethel Hubbard are killed as well.

Pam goes to look for Tommy but the killer is at the house, killing patients Jake, Robin and Violet. Reggie discovers the bodies in Tommy's room just before Pam's return, and they both run into a hockey mask-wearing figure. They flee into the woods and come across the body of ambulance driver Duke Johnson as well as that of Dr. Peters. Separated from Reggie and back at the institute, Pam flees from Jason toward the barn, but she slips in the mud. Just before the killer can reach her, Reggie drives a tractor into him. Reggie and Pam flee into the barn.

Soon, Tommy enters the barn and faces the killer, but delays from attacking due to actually seeing Jason alive, and the killer injures Tommy. Eventually, Pam and Reggie knock the killer out the window, at the bottom of which is a tractor harrow. However, he holds onto the edge and tries to pull Reggie down with him. Tommy slices his hand with his own machete, causing him to fall and get impaled on the spikes. His mask falls off and his identity is revealed as Roy Burns.

Sheriff Tucker informs Pam that Roy was Joey's father, and deduces that the murders he committed were revenge for his son's death. Tommy has a dream where he kills Pam, and then wakes up, puts on Roy's hockey mask and attempts to kill Pam.

Production
According to the Friday the 13th: Return to Crystal Lake DVD Box set, Feldman was only able to make a cameo in this film as a result of him filming The Goonies. Feldman filmed his Friday the 13th Part V cameo on a Sunday as that was his off day of shooting his other film.

Reception
Friday the 13th: A New Beginning opened on March 22, 1985 on 1,759 screens. Like its predecessors, the film received mostly negative reviews, earning a "rotten" 17% rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Nonetheless, the film was financially successful, debuting at number 1 on its opening weekend with a gross of $8,032,883, beating the teen sex comedy sequel Porky's Revenge, the critically acclaimed biopic Mask (starring Cher), Berry Gordy's martial-arts action musical The Last Dragon and the Disney dinosaur fantasy Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend. By the end of its run, the film would earn $21,930,418 at the domestic box office, placing it at number 41 on the list of 1985's top box office earners. The film squared off against strong genre competition throughout the first half of the year from such high-profile horror releases as Cat's Eye and Lifeforce.

Trivia

 * This is the second film to feature a killer besides Jason Voorhees, and the first to have one that is not a Voorhees.
 * Roy's hockey mask is different from Jason's. It has blue marks on it, as opposed to red.
 * This is the second film out of three to feature Tommy Jarvis as the protagonist, and the second and last to falsely imply that he might appear as the killer in the next film.
 * Jason's only role in this film is in Tommy's dreams and hallucinations.
 * Though it is implied that Tommy kills Pam at the end, the novelization for the next film reveals that she was able to return him to his senses.
 * Though the mayor says Jason was cremated, he was actually buried in the cemetery.