Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985) Review

After Tommy Jarvis absolutely destroyed Jason Voorhees at the end of The Final Chapter, we didn’t really expect to see him return.
Friday the 13th: A New Beginning has a bit of fun with that premise.

It’s actually one of my favourite openings in the series with Feldman returning as the young Tommy Jarvis, who witnesses Jason’s grave being dug up in a nightmare. Jason climbs out of the grave as menacing as ever and prepares to kill Tommy before he wakes up.

Except Tommy isn’t a kid anymore, John Shepherd steps in as an older Tommy, who has understandably been left severely traumatised by Jason’s actions. He’s sent to the Pinehurst Halfway House, but Jason hasn’t gone anywhere. Tommy sees him in mirrors, outside and around the grounds – creepy stuff.
It also adds some mystery.

Is Jason really alive? Is Tommy going insane? Or, after the events of The Final Chapter, has Tommy gone full Jason Voorhees?
People start dying.

The deaths are once again inventive, but the film has a more comedic tone than The Final Chapter. Ethel and Junior Hubbard are utterly unhinged, with the latter yelling around on his motorbike before losing his head. Then we have Demon, Reggie’s brother, he doesn’t fare much better, meeting an appropriate death on the shitter.

But forget Tommy. Forget Pam. Forget Jason.

We need to talk about Reggie the Reckless.
Shavar Ross steals the show as Friday the 13th’s most unhinged character, Reggie. He is sporting his red jumpsuit and delivers one of the best screams in the series’ history. I remember hearing that scream for the first time and knowing I was going to enjoy this movie. It’s ridiculous, memorable and adds to the film’s rewatch value.

Tommy gets a moment too as Junior Hubbard pushes him too far. Junior picks the wrong guy to annoy as Tommy vents all of his anger and frustration, battering him with surprising skill. He has some decent martial arts ability, but the scene also highlights Tommy’s trauma. Something that’ll be important later.
When Tommy confronts “Jason”, he isn’t suddenly an action hero, throwing punches and kicks. He freezes.

After everything Jason did to him as a child, seeing that hockey mask again is enough to send all of that trauma rushing back and “Jason” takes advantage, stabbing him. I like this as Tommy may be strong enough to defend himself, but he’s still the wide-eyed, traumatised boy from The Final Chapter.

Thankfully, Reggie the Reckless has other ideas.
Reggie swoops in on a tractor during the finale, while Pam Roberts proves herself a likeable heroine as the three of them take on the latest incarnation of the hockey-masked killer.
Except there’s a problem.
Jason isn’t Jason.

The killer is ambulance driver Roy Burns, whose son Joey was murdered at Pinehurst. Roy decided the best way to deal with that grief was to dress up as Jason Voorhees and murder practically everyone connected to the place, As you do in the good old slasher-verse

The mystery is enjoyable while you’re watching, but when the mask comes off, it’s hard not to feel just a tiny bit cheated. We’re left wondering if Jason survived or Tommy has become the new killer and it turns out to be some random guy called Roy?

That’s probably why A New Beginning has always been such an odd entry in the series. There’s a lot to enjoy. The kills are fun, Tommy’s trauma adds an interesting angle to the story, Reggie the Reckless is outstanding and the film zips by in its roughly 90-minute runtime.
But you miss Jason

.
After seeing him grow and develop across Parts 2, III and The Final Chapter, replacing him with a copycat was always going to be a struggle.
Still, the title did warn us. This was supposed to be A New Beginning after all.