Retrospective Film Review

Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988) • 35 Years Later —respectable sequel of crazy fun

Jason Voorhees is accidentally freed from his watery prison by a telekinetic teenager.

‘Jason vs Carrie’. That’s the movie in a nutshell. But like the telekinetic teen herself, there’s a whole lotta crazy behind the scenes of this unassuming slasher sequel. Jason Voorhees was already unstoppable due to his box-office success, and that was before they made him immortal. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986) perfected the franchise’s formula, but can film sagas only go downhill once reaching their peak? The further adventures of Jason take us to New York, Hell, Elm Street, and Outer Space. Before all that, an odd little outcast tested what a Friday the 13th could be. It’s a film pelted with emblematic tampons by fans and critics alike but has some merits worth defending.

This longstanding criticism is ironic when this was the Friday the 13th intended to win an Academy Award. Jason going to space is more believable than that. This optimism was entirely true…