Fowler's Frights 2015: Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood

Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)
Starring: Kane Hodder, Lar Park Lincoln, Kevin Spirtas
Directed by: John Carl Buechler


We're nearing the shark jumping territory for the Friday the 13th films. As if turning Jason Voorhees into a zombie wasn't bad enough, the next film had him going head to head with a girl with telepathic powers. WHAT?!?! How in the world can you make that work? Surprisingly, it works out well enough. Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood may not have had the best cast of characters or the most memorable death scenes, but it provided some of the best final confrontation scenes in horror history thanks to the debut of iconic horror stuntman Kane Hodder. Hodder played Jason in this film and for the next three films afterwards, making him the actor that has played Jason in the most films. He's like to Jason what Robert Englund is to Freddy Krueger, the man is a legend in the role. And his confrontation with our telepathic female lead is one of the biggest highlights in the entire series. So let's move forward to talking about the pros and cons of Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood.

This picture of Jason Voorhees is probably the best mental image the casual moviegoer has of the masked killer. It's in The New Blood that we are introduced to the amazing stuntwork performed by Kane Hodder, the only man to play Jason in 4 films. Unfortunately he plays Jason in the last 4 films of the original series, and those last 3 are usually considered the absolute worst, but at least Kane's work as Jason makes them watchable in a campy sort of way. In this film, he's clearly the person we are rooting for. You find yourself exhilarated when he shows up because you know he's gonna do something original. Killing people in sleeping bags, killing people with weed whackers, showing up uninvited to birthday parties. He's straight up hilarious at this point.

Jason isn't even the character we should worry about. It's Dr. Crews, played by Terry Kiser, that's the true evil mastermind of this film. I won't even tell you what he does, just see for yourself. The man is a bona fide, grade A, DOUCHEBAG!!!!

Anyways, the highlight is the final battle between Jason and Tina, played by Lar Park Lincoln. It's zombie killer vs. telepathic girl. With fabulous stunt work and practical effects, this is quite possibly the best finale in the entire series. It's like watching Ripley fight the Xenomorph Queen or Luke Skywalker fighting Darth Vader. It's THE defining final confrontation of the series and Jason gets the ever living snot beat out of him. Just look at him. Clearly, this man (zombie) had taken a beating before the film, but he was in for a much worse fight as the film progressed. Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood isn't without its faults, but I'll gladly sit through all of them to get to this fight scene. It's something that needs to be seen to be believed.


Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Not perfect, but a lot of fun in the most ridiculous of ways, Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood has a great finale and a memorable debut for the most legendary name attached to the character of Jason Voorhees. This is another solid entry in the series that can be looked at as a one-time viewing from most horror fans.

Comment below to share your thoughts on the movie or to discuss a topic that I left out of my review

Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood and movie images are copyrighted by Paramount Pictures