Tina Shepherd has telekinetic powers. As a child she witnesses her alcoholic father attacking her mother and goes onto Crystal Lake in a boat to escape. She uses her powers to destroy the jetty her father is on and he drowns but his body is never found. Years later, Tina returns to the lake to try and exorcise old memories. She inadvertently resurrects Jason who is chained at the bottom of the lake (spoiler alert- see the end of Part 6) whilst she’s thinking of her dad. Jason is back to kill more teens. There’s plenty of scope too as there’s a house next to where Tina is staying where teens are celebrating a birthday.

I love the franchise sequels which can just be outlined in a few words. The New Blood is basically Jason vs Carrie.

This is also Kane Hodder’s first film as Jason and it’s easy to see why he’s a fan favourite. His take on Jason is brutal, more nuanced (as nuanced as you can be) and extremely confident from the get go. He really was born to play this character.

There are some great kills too. Jason seemed to have been going through a gardening appliance period at this point. I’ll never look at a strimmer in the same way again.

There’s also some great horror/action moments with the budget not being skimped on and so we get flying TVs, a whole porch falling down and staircases crumbling under Jason’s feet. He really goes through the mill in this one. All of this is done brilliantly rather than looking like an especially shit computer game.

There’s also some great character archetypes at play whether it’s the ugly ducking who turns into a swan (ahem) or the bitchy socialite mean girl. They may not be as well fleshed out as to feature in some kind of character-led arthouse film but they’re great for a Friday the 13th movie.

Which leads us to an interesting production fact. Some of the studio bigwigs wanted The New Blood to be more ‘respectable’ than previous entries with lauded directors named to hopefully direct. Fellini and Bertolucci were cited (I’m honestly not making this up!) As a change in proceedings, Universal executives thought it would be interesting to make a Friday entry that would make critics gush and film festival attendees throw roses at the screen. Thankfully, this didn’t happen but it’s an interesting idea. Quentin Tarantino, are you reading this?

The New Blood is a very good entry in a franchise that should have run out of steam several films before. But with a quirky angle, a great actor slipping on the hockey mask and a decent budget, they scored another hit at the box office and with fans. No, it’s still not as good as the excellent first four films, but it’s far from mediocre or embarrassing. That would come later.

3.5 out of 5 stars