FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VII THE NEW BLOOD (1988)

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VII THE NEW BLOOD (1988)

Tagline: On Friday the 13th, Jason is back. But this time, someone's waiting

(Horror, Thriller, Tina) [R]

Rejection. Okay, fine. I can take it. I've been rejected by some of the finest science fiction magazines in the continental United States!

Okay, so Jason is dead at the bottom of Camp Crystal Lake, chained to a rock. Tommy took care of his mistake and now we’ve got a Jason-less horror world again right?

No..no… Years later idiotic people decide to move there and one of the little girls is a telekinetic who believes she killed her dad with her mind. As part of her therapy years later, her mom allows Dr. Crews to take her straight back to the place where her dad died. Stuff happens and she inadvertently brings Jason back to life. If you know much about this series it isn’t until part IX that we get the first non-accidental re-animation of Jason (after parts 6, 7, and 8 which all tried to avoid giving the series a spiritual element).

The singular focus on Tina’s (the main character) powers detracts from some of the creepiness of earlier installments but it works on a number of levels, finally giving us a more even playing field. Jason is virtually invincible when he's not at the bottom of a lake and Tina can control things with her mind.

The effects on Jason are actually pretty outstanding especially his back complete with exposed bones etc. It’s pretty nuts. Also made in 1988 A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4: THE DREAM MASTER also gives its main character powers which was probably just a coincidence, but did signal that both series at least for these installments were attempting to up their game. For the record, I do recall kind of hating this damn movie when it came out thinking that the series had gone off the rails. However, over the years I have settled into the idea that in order to ever level up the series at some point was going to have to give someone an equalizer to take on Jason now that it's clear he's pretty much unstoppable. They did that with this one.

An interesting little piece of information Lar Park-Lincoln who played Tina in this still isn’t done acting. She was involved in 13 FANBOY and ROSE BLOOD: A FRIDAY THE 13TH FAN FILM in 2021. Both movies are related to the FRIDAY THE 13TH series in one way or another. I give FRIDAY THE 13^TH PART VII THE NEW BLOOD a 6 out of 7. My appreciation for this movie has grown over the years.