Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (also known as Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning) is a 1985 American psychological slasher film directed by Danny Steinmann and starring Melanie Kinnaman, John Shepherd, and Shavar Ross. It is the fifth installment in the Friday the 13th franchise. Set years after the events of Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, the story follows a teenage Tommy Jarvis (Shepherd), who is institutionalized at a halfway house near Crystal Lake because of nightmares of mass murderer Jason Voorhees, whom he killed as a child. Tommy must face his fears when a new hockey mask wearing murderer initiates another violent killing spree in the area.
A New Beginning features a high number of on-screen murders. Aside from its gore and violence, the film has also become known for its explicit nudity, sex scenes, and numerous depictions of illicit drug use. Peter Bracke's book Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th details that behind the scenes, the production was plagued with hardcore drug use. The film also features a cameo appearance from Corey Feldman, who portrayed Tommy Jarvis in the previous film.
Shot in California in 1984 on a budget of $2.2 million, A New Beginning was released theatrically on March 22, 1985, and grossed $22 million at the U.S. box office. The film was initially going to set up a new trilogy of films with a different villain for the series but, after a disappointing reception from fans and a steep decline in box-office receipts from Part III and The Final Chapter, Jason Voorhees was brought back for the next installment Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986) and has been the main antagonist in the series since. In addition to weak box office returns, the film received mostly negative reviews from critics.
Plot[]
Several years after the death of Jason Voorhees, a teenage Tommy Jarvis is tormented by nightmares of the mass murderer, resulting in his internment in numerous psychiatric hospitals. He is eventually transferred to the Pinehurst Youth Development Center, managed by Dr. Matthew Letter and his assistant Pam Roberts. There, Tommy meets a circle of other teens, including lovers Eddie Kelso and Tina McCarthy, the stutterer Jake Patterson, the Goth, Violet Moraine, the serious Robin Brown, the compulsive eater Joey Burns, and the young Reggie Winter, whose grandfather George Winter works as the facility's cook. The group is disliked by their neighbor Ethel Hubbard as Eddie and Tina have made a habit of engaging in sexual intercourse on her property. For this reason, Matt forbids the group from venturing outside the facility's premises.
Vic Faden, another patient in the institute, is gripped by a fit of madness caused by Joey's impertinence and brutally kills him with an axe, leading to his arrest. That evening, two greasers Vinnie and Pete are murdered by an unseen assailant after their car breaks down, and a diner waitress and her boyfriend are killed the following night. The sheriff hypothesizes that Jason Voorhees has come back to life and is the perpetrator of these murders, while Tommy himself is rendered a suspicious party.
The next morning, Eddie and Tina disobediently go into the forest and have sex. They are spotted by Ethel's farmhand Raymond Joffroy who is killed soon after. After returning from washing off in the creek, Eddie finds that Tina has been murdered, and he soon meets the same fate. Meanwhile, Reggie begs his grandfather for a visit to his brother Demon, who has just returned to town, and Pam offers to accompany him while bringing Tommy along. As Pam and Reggie enjoy some enchiladas with Demon and his girlfriend, Tommy meets Ethel's son Junior Hubbard and gets into a fight with him, but then runs away into the forest after realizing his actions. After Pam and Reggie leave to find Tommy, Demon has a severe case of diarrhea from the enchiladas and runs to the outhouse. While using the outhouse, he and his girlfriend are slaughtered. Upon Pam and Reggie's return to the institute, they are warned of the disappearance of Matt and Reggie's grandfather. Pam goes to search for them, entrusting Reggie to Violet, Jake and Robin. At this time, Ethel and Junior are killed, as are Jake, Robin and Violet after Reggie falls asleep. Reggie awakens just as Pam returns, and they discover the trio's corpses in Tommy's room. Moments later, the killer, seemingly a resurrected Jason Voorhees, bursts into the house.
After a long chase in which Pam and Reggie find the corpses of Matt and Reggie's grandfather, "Jason" is lured into a barn where he is struck by a tractor. Tommy returns and is attacked by "Jason", but defends himself, and eventually throws "Jason" from the loft window onto a tractor Harrow tool, killing him instantly. In the process the killer's hockey mask comes off, revealing that he is in fact Roy Burns, one of the paramedics who arrived at the scene of Joey's murder. The police later identify Roy as Joey's loner father, and determine that he went insane after his son's death and sought revenge, inspired by the stories of Jason's killing sprees. While recovering in the hospital, Tommy has another hallucination of Jason, but he faces his fears and makes him disappear. He then hears Pam approaching and smashes the window to appear as though he has escaped. When Pam rushes in, Tommy appears from behind the door wearing Roy's hockey mask and wielding a kitchen knife.