Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)

Director: Danny Steinmann
Starring: Melanie Kinnaman, John Shepherd, Shavar Ross

Synopsis:
A grown-up Tommy Jarvis, still struggling to cope with the aftermath of his encounter with Jason Voorhees, is sent to a halfway house for young people with mental illness with soon descends into a spiral of blood and violence.

Impressions:
At least this one doesn't start with a recap. It's either a flashback or a dream sequence that gets Corey Feldman a little paycheck, so that's nice, and it bridges his portrayal of Tommy to the new actor. 80s film fans will appreciate seeing Richard Young (Garth from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) and Vernon Washington (Otis from The Last Starfighter) in the cast. This movie is bizarre. I feel like I used too many clown jokes in my review of Freddy's Dead, so I won't do that again, but this movie is quite the three-ring circus. We get some wild caricatures in lieu of actual characters, which is funny in its own way, but there's no real inventiveness to the kills, which makes the supposed main event pretty boring. By this point, I've come to the conclusion that I don't like this franchise much at all, but this is just bonkers enough that I don't feel it's a total waste. Take it or leave it.

Rating:
50/50