Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Friday The 13th Part V - A New Beginning

Collapse
X
Collapse
  •  
    Ian Jane
    Administrator

  • Friday The 13th Part V - A New Beginning

    Click image for larger version

Name:	friday13thfinalchapr1art2.jpg
Views:	1
Size:	49.3 KB
ID:	385341

    Released by: Paramount Studios
    Released on: June 16, 2009.

    Director: Danny Steinman
    Cast: John Shepherd, Anthony Barrile, Todd Bryant
    Year: 1985
    Purchase From Amazon

    The Movie:

    Tommy Jarvis returns (though this time played by John Shepherd, not Corey Feldman) when someone is using Jason's motives to kill off a group of horny teens holed up at a halfway house. This just so happens to be where Tommy, haunted in his nightmares by Vorhees' sinister visage, is also living. Will Tommy be able to able to stop the killer before it's too late? Or is he somehow involved even more than we first thought?

    The blood and nudity quotient rises once again in the fifth film, which is almost over the top in its excess. While the script tries to add in a mystery element (though isn't all that successful at it) what we're really hear to see we do get in spades in what is definitely the goriest, at least in terms of quantity, of the first eight films by a fairly noticeable margin. The kills are at their most creative and Jason becomes less a stalker/killer and more an unstoppable force from here on out.

    Unfortunately, the film is mired down in spots but some awkward comic relief which feels out of place against the stalk and slash kill scenes. The plot takes the series in a slightly different direction, playing more seriously with continuity and building on the fourth film in an interesting way, but for as much as it gets right, it slips every time it tries to be funny.

    The performances are pretty average for the most part, and no one really stands out. Shephard is fine as the protagonist and Tiffany Helm is fun as Violet but these aren't performances you're going to walk away from thinking about. They serve their purpose and that's about it, but in the context of this film, they work fine.

    Steinmann keeps the action moving at a brisk pace, though the film never reaches the heights of his trash masterpiece, Savage Streets, where he was really able to pour on the sleaze and deliver some quality trash. Here he feels reined in, likely a product of working within the more rigid confines of a studio system. Regardless, as flawed as the film is, and it is flawed, it delivers some decent kills, a few fun twists, a couple of good jump scares, an overused if memorable and fun score, and some nice camera work. It won't likely scare your pants off but it'll make you jump if you watch it with the volume up high and the lights down low. It won't, however, likely make you laugh much - but it's a horror movie, and that's ok.

    Video/Audio/Extras:

    Paramount's new 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer is pretty sharp stuff. The film still looks a bit grainy, as it should be, and some of the darker scenes are still a bit murky but this is a noticeable improvement over the previous release in terms of detail and color. Skin tones look nice and lifelike, black levels are pretty strong, and there aren't any compression issues to complain about.
    The Audio:

    Audio options are supplied in a newly created Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound track in English with Dolby Digital Mono options available in English, French, and Spanish. Subtitles are also supplied in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish. While purists will be thankful for the Mono track, the 5.1 mix does a nice job of spreading things out when it counts. The score in particular has more resonance to it than the last release afforded it while dialogue and sound effects are all nice and crisp and levels remain properly balanced throughout.

    The best of the extras is the commentary track where director Danny Steinmann is joined by Shepherd and Ross with some input from Michael Felsher who serves as moderator. It's good track that lets you in one what it was like making this movie from positions both in front of and behind the camera. It moves along at a solid pace and packs in a lot of information in a very listenable and fun manner. Steinnman's got a pretty nutty personality and is obviously not in the least bit concerned about what people think and so he shoots straight from the hip as he goes over the good, the bad, and the rest.

    Up next is Lost Tales From Camp Blood Part V, the latest in the ongoing fan film series of shorts that are done in the style of the original films… sort of. Again, this entry isn't particularly exciting as a killer without a hockey masks knocks off an unwitting victim. Equally unimpressive is the Crystal Lake Massacres Revisited Part II featurette that is a fake newscast that purports to report on the killings that take place in the film. It's done with tongue firmly in cheek and feels very out of place.

    New Beginnings: The Making Of Friday The 13th Part V is, after the commentary, the best extra on the disc. It's a bit too short at under eleven minutes in length but it rounds up Steinnman, most of his cast and crew members and a stuntman to talk about working on the picture. Felsher pops in here too to offer some critical input.

    Rounding out the extras are the film's original theatrical trailer, animated menus and chapter stops. Like the four deluxe edition re-releases that have come before it, this one also features a neat lenticular slipcase cover.

    The Final Word:

    The improved transfer and whack of extra features make this one worth the double dip. It's not the best film in the series, not even close really, but it's a fun one none the less and Paramount does right with this deluxe edition reissue.
      Posting comments is disabled.

    Latest Articles

    Collapse

    • Hot Spur (Severin Films) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Severin Films
      Released on: April 30th, 2024.
      Director: Lee Frost
      Cast: Joseph Mascolo, Virginia Goodman, John Alderman
      Year: 1969
      Purchase From Amazon

      Hot Spur – Movie Review:

      Director Lee Frost and Producer Bob Cresse's film, Hot Spur, opens in Texas in 1869 with a scene where a pair of cowboys wanders into a bar where they call over a pretty Mexican waitress and coerce her into dancing for them. She obliges, but
      ...
      03-22-2024, 11:53 AM
    • Death Squad (Mondo Macabro) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Mondo Macabro
      Released on: April 9th, 2024.
      Director: Max Pecas
      Cast: Thierry de Carbonnières, Jean-Marc Maurel, Denis Karvil, Lillemour Jonsson
      Year: 1985
      Purchase From Amazon

      Death Squad – Movie Review:

      Also known as Brigade Of Death, French sleaze auteur Max Pecas’ 1985 film, Death Squad, opens with a night time scene outside of Paris in the Bois de Boulogne Forest where cars pass by a small gang of transsexual
      ...
      03-22-2024, 11:46 AM
    • Roommates (Quality X) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Quality X
      Released on: February 28th, 2024.
      Director: Chuck Vincent
      Cast: Samantha Fox, Vernoica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Jerry Butler, Jamie Gillis
      Year: 1982
      Purchase From Amazon

      Roommates – Movie Review:

      Directed by Chuck Vincent and released in 1982, Roommates opens with a scene where a young woman named Joan Harmon (Veronica Hart) gets a hotel room with an older man named Ken (Don Peterson, credited as Phil Smith),
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:10 PM
    • Night Of The Blood Monster (Blue Underground) UHD/Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Blue Underground
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Jess Franco
      Cast: Christopher Lee, Maria Rohm, Dennis Price
      Year: 1970
      Purchase From Amazon

      Night Of The Blood Monster – Movie Review:

      Directed by Jess Franco, The Bloody Judge (or, Night Of The Blood Monster, as it is going by on this new release from Blue Underground) isn't quite the salacious exercise in Eurotrash you might expect it to be, and while it
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:07 PM
    • Phase IV (Vinegar Syndrome) UHD/Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Saul Bass
      Cast: Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford, Robert Henderson, Helen Horton
      Year: 1974
      Purchase From Amazon

      Phase IV – Movie Review:

      Saul Bass’ 1974 sci-fi/thriller Phase IV is an interesting blend of nature run amuck stereotypes and Natural Geographic style nature footage mixed into one delicious cocktail of suspense and
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:02 PM
    • The Bounty Hunter Trilogy (Radiance Films) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Radiance Films
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
      Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
      Year: 1969-1972
      Purchase From Amazon

      The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:

      Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this
      ...
      03-13-2024, 11:30 AM
    Working...
    X