Friday the 13th: Part VII - The New Blood Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.0

Friday the 13th: Part VII - The New Blood Blu-ray Movie Review

Jason Vs.The Fury

Reviewed by Michael Reuben September 12, 2013

Friday the 13th VII: The New Blood is being released as part of Friday the 13th: The Complete Collection.

Show business legend has it that Daryl Haney, the principal screenwriter of the seventh entry in the Friday the 13th series, pitched the idea from a phone booth without ever having seen any of the previous movies. It would be easy to blame the film's thematic holes on an uninformed writer struggling to get his career off the ground—The New Blood was Haney's second script to be filmed—but by all accounts the notion of creating a Carrie-like adversary for Jason had been floating about for some time. Perhaps Haney was responsible for expanding the notion to give Jason's new opponent visions of the future, like the telekinetic beings in Brian De Palma's The Fury, or the blame may lie with the unknown writer who completed Haney's script under the pseudonym "Manuel Fidello", after Haney's agent made the mistake of asking for more money. Either way, there are plenty of people to take the credit or share the blame, depending on one's view of the results.

John Carl Buechler took the director's chair, and while Buechler was no novice, having directed the cult classic Troll (1986), among others, his decision to do double duty as the film's chief of effects may have been ill-considered. Directing is a matter of details, but it's about all the details in every department. To this day, Buechler still fumes about the cuts mandated by the MPAA to trim his gore effects, whereas a less narrow focus might have enabled him to see that The New Blood had much bigger problems. Within the space of a 90-minute movie, Buechler was attempting to tell the entire origin story of a reluctant superheroine, a clairvoyant with telekinetic abilities, and at the same time deliver a satisfying tale of Jason's latest resurrection, killing spree and seventh (!) destruction. That would be a tall order for any director, and maybe it wasn't doable at all. When a franchise has reached the point where it has to steal entire plots from other movies—including The Fury's treacherous doctor who is deliberately trying to drive a patient crazy to enhance their psychokinetic abilities—the rot of creative exhaustion has set in.

Having spent three films with Tommy Jarvis, we bid him adieu for the "new blood" of the title. To raise Jason Voorhees from the depths of Crystal Lake where Tommy left him chained to a rock, Buechler needs a power equal to the supernatural lighting bolts that reanimated him in Jason Lives. That power arrives in the form of Carrie White, er, sorry, Tina Shepard, who is played as a child by Jennifer Banko (who, perhaps by coincidence, looks a lot like the little girl who warned "They're here!" in Poltergeist), and as an adult by Lar Park- Lincoln. The daughter of a troubled marriage, Tina has telekinetic powers, which she discovers one night when, upset over her parents' arguing, she inadvertently causes her father's death on a dock at Crystal Lake, where the family is vacationing. (Apparently no one has told them that vacations at Crystal Lake never end well.)

Years later, Tina's mother (Susan Blu) brings her back to Crystal Lake to revisit the scene of her trauma, on the advice of a psychiatrist, Dr. Crews (Terry Kiser), who might as well have "evil scientist" tattooed on his forehead. On an impulse, Tina tries to focus her powers to raise her father from the lake into which she once sank him. Instead, she raises Jason, who ignores Tina as she faints dead away at the sight of his rotted corpse rising from the water, because if he killed her, there'd be no epic battle to finish the movie.

Dr. Crews dismisses Tina's experience at the lake as a hallucination and continues tormenting her in every way possible. He believes this will ultimately unleash her full power, though how he expects to manage a deranged telekinetic remains as much a quandary as it was in The Fury. (I guess this falls under the heading of "scientific hubris".) Meanwhile, Jason cuts his usual swath through the rest of The New Blood's new blood. Next door to Tina and her mother and doctor, assorted young attendees have been gathered by Our Hero, Nick (Kevin Blair), to throw a surprise birthday party for his cousin Michael (William Butler). Michael's girlfriend, Jane (Staci Greason), is supposed to get him to the cabin on a pretext, but their car breaks down. When they set out to walk the rest of the way, guess who they encounter?

As The New Blood see-saws between between Tina's battle with her evil shrink and Jason's gradual elimination of the surprise party guests (damn, what's keeping that Michael?), one can feel the two different halves of the film struggling for control, and the traditional Friday the 13th story keeps getting short shrift, because Tina's story requires so much additional exposition. It's almost as if Jason's murders are now filler while Buechler sets up the main event, which is the showdown between Jason and a telekinetic opponent unlike any he's faced before. But is that really a battle anyone wants to see?

In both Carrie and The Fury, the film climaxed with the full force of the heroine's telekinetic rage being directed against the people who had tormented her (high school students in Carrie; an evil government agent in The Fury). In The New Blood, the person we'd really like to see Tina destroy is the duplicitous Dr. Crews, but that pleasure falls to Jason, who is then himself destroyed by Tina (with a little help). Tina doesn't end up facing down her true enemy, and Jason isn't confronted by someone whose nightmares he's haunted. Neither of the film's two stories has a satisfactory ending. "We took care of him", says Tina at the film's end, but a more accurate statement would be: "I tried to raise my dad from the lake, but instead I raised a hockey-masked killer I didn't know about, which makes me responsible for all the people he killed before I could sink him back under the water, including my mom. My bad. Now, back to the asylum."

Friday the 13th: Part VII - The New Blood Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The cinematographer for The New Blood, Paul Elliott, was just getting started, having served as a camera assistant on such independent productions as Dreamscape. He has become a frequent DP for HBO films, as well as successful small dramas such as My Girl and Soul Food. While The New Blood did not have a bigger budget than previous Friday the 13th films, its lighting and palette continue the movement away from the exploitation style that was already evident in A New Beginning. Pastels and lighter shades are more common; surfaces are less harshly lit; and the image gains a greater sense of texture and depth.

The image on Warner/Paramount's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray for The New Blood is surprisingly good. (Why "surprisingly"? I'll get to that in a minute.) The detail is excellent, especially when Buechler's makeup for Jason's rotting carcass comes fully into the light, or in scenes in the surrounding woods, or even in something as ordinary as a group of people talking in a kitchen littered with party preparations. The blacks are solid, the contrast is never overstated, and the colors are appropriately saturated, with the red of blood and the orange of fire being the strongest.

Why is this a surprise? The New Blood is on another of The Complete Collection's double features discs, sharing a BD-50 with Jason Takes Manhattan, which is one of the longest films in the series at 100 minutes. The combined running time of the two films is three hours, eight minutes, and both have significant extras. When I ran the average bitrate for both films, I was shocked at how low it came out—18.45 Mbps in the case of The New Blood. I was amazed that compression artifacts had not been obvious during viewing.

One possible explanation is that significant portions of The New Blood occur at night, with much of the frame in darkness. With little or no change in those areas, the compressionist may have achieved substantial savings. It also no doubt helped that the grain pattern on The New Blood is fine and barely visible, although there is nothing to indicate that this was achieved by digital manipulation. In any case, the eye is a more meaningful judge than the statistics, and The New Blood looks just fine.

Friday the 13th: Part VII - The New Blood Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

From the opening bars of Harry Manfredini's music, selected, edited and, at a few points, filled in by Fred Mollin, the Blu-ray's lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 track provides punch and an enveloping surround presence. The New Blood was originally released in Ultra Stereo, and the remix has made good use of the discrete multi-channel format to open out the two-track matrixed version. As with Jason Lives , the sound editing was overseen by future Oscar winner Dane Davis, who used all his talents to bring the big telekinetic events to life. The pier that collapses into the water at the beginning does so with a cracking, sickening thud. The various crashes, collapses, live wires and flying objects involved in the final showdown between Jason and Tina have equally distinctive sonic signatures. A vehicle crash midway through the film is a symphony of screeching tires, jarring impact and grinding metal. Jason's various murders, a number of which are performed by sheer physical force instead of with cutting tools, are accompanied by a cacophony of sickening blows and crunches. And there's a hedge trimmer with a distinctive high-pitched roar.

The dialogue is very clear, particularly that of Dr. Crews, who seems to yell everything at full volume.

Friday the 13th: Part VII - The New Blood Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Killer Commentary with Director John Carl Buechler and Actors Lar Park-Lincoln and Kane Hodder: Buechler and Hodder were recorded together, although Hodder was on the phone, because he was in Utah shooting a film with Adam Green (probably Frozen). Park-Lincoln was recorded separately, and the two commentaries were intercut. Buechler is laid back, chatty and not very informative; Hodder supplies much more detail about shooting the scenes in which he appeared. Park-Lincoln gushes about the film, which was obviously a boon to her career. Perhaps the most interesting revelation is that she was asked back for Part VIII, but declined because there wasn't yet a script. She did not want to take the job, only to be killed off in the first scene. When she did see Jason Takes Manhattan, she was glad she had declined.



• The Friday the 13th Chronicles, Part VII (480i; 1.78:1; 11:39): Hodder, Buechler and Park-Lincoln recall the technical challenges of making The New Blood.



• Secrets Galore Behind the Gore—John Carl Buechler on Part VII (480i; 1.78:1; 11:11): Buechler and Hodder take viewers on a tour of Buechler's workshop and show various elements of the Jason makeup.



• Jason's Destroyer: The Making of Friday the 13th, Part VII (1080p; 1.78:1; 15:07): This retrospective documentary includes interviews with director Buechler (who actually refers to the Tina character as a "clone" of Carrie), actors Park-Lincoln, Hodder, Kevin Blair, Diana Barrows, Elizabeth Kaitan and John Otrin ("Mr. Shepard"), editor Barry Zetlin and composer Fred Mollin. In a surprising moment, Buechler say he wants to do a "Part 2" to The New Blood, which would follow Tina back to the asylum, while Jason rises from the lake and keeps trying to kill her.



• Mind Over Matter: The Truth About Telekinesis (1080p; 1.78:1; 7:25): A parapsychologist and a psychic discuss telekinesis. Whether there's any "truth" involved, I leave to the individual viewer.



• Makeover by Maddy: Needs a Little Touch-Up Work, My Ass (1080p; 1.78:1; 2:43): Elizabeth Kaitan and Diana Barrows reunite years after Kaitan's character told Barrows' that she needs "a little touch-up work" (and both got killed).



• Slashed Scenes (1080p; 1.78:1 & 1.33:1; 17:01): Though mastered at 1080p, these scenes are from poor quality sources. Note that several of these scenes are also included on the "Killer Extras" DVD, but with commentary by Buechler and Hodder.
• Slashed Scenes Intro
• Such a Bitch
• Car Trouble
• Knife Kill
• Rejected
• Firewood Kill
• Sleeping Bag Kill
• Nick the Stalker
• Nick the Stalker—Part 2
• Axe Kill
• If Anything Happens . . .
• Maddy's First Toke
• Robin's Fling
• Robin's Death
• Head Crush
• Eddie's Death
• Mrs. Shepard's Death
• Dr. Crews' Death
• Melissa's Death
• Zombie Dad
• Alternate Ending



• Original Theatrical Trailer (480i; 1.78:1, enhanced; 1:39).

Friday the 13th: Part VII - The New Blood Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Although I don't think much of The New Blood, it has one notable feature, which is the first of four appearances by horror legend Kane Hodder as Jason Voorhees. Hodder's dedication and prowess as a stuntman and physical performer have won him legions of fans, and those who have worked with him say that he is a genial colleague, despite his intimidating appearance. His skills would prove crucial to the Friday the 13th franchise, as it shifted the character of Jason further and further from its origins in an increasingly strained effort to reinvigorate the series. Hodder has said that The New Blood is his favorite among the four films that he did as Jason, and his elaborate stunt work (including being on fire for what was then a recording-setting forty seconds) is certainly the film's best element. Recommended for completists.