Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood is a movie that I have real mixed feelings about. It had a lot to live up to as Part VI was awesome and brought the Tommy Jarvis story to an end perfectly. With this one, I do feel like they tried really hard for it to be something special, but it never quite hits the mark.
How to Download Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood was released on May 13, 1988. You can download or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice.
The Movie Review: New Elements in the Franchise
I will start with the positives. This is the first time Kane Hodder would play Jason and I feel Jason has a much more physical presence as a result. I love the look of Jason in this movie, and the final scene where he gets his mask damaged and we see his face underneath is awesome stuff.
Jason going head to head with not just a final girl with a real fighting spirit, but a final girl who has some supernatural abilities of her own on paper is a great idea. Our main character (apart from Jason) is a young woman called Tina who has telekinetic abilities that first manifested when she was just a young child.
Tina’s Struggle and Jason’s Return
Tina is an interesting protagonist. Tina is dealing with real trauma as her abilities were responsible for her father’s death. This leads to Tina going to Camp Crystal Lake with her mother to try and get a handle on her abilities. Only for a jerk doctor to just be super mean and try to get her abilities to manifest no matter what he has to say and do.
In trying to get a handle on her abilities, she accidentally brings back Jason from the bottom of Camp Crystal Lake! Look, as a way to get Jason back, I am more than ok with this and think it was quite clever actually. Especially as you really do feel for Tina and all she wanted was to see her dad!
Traditional Slasher Elements with a Supernatural Twist
Right next to Camp Crystal Lake, a group of youngsters are having a wild party. Pretty much every slasher movie cliché you could imagine is here! The hottie, the nerd, the nice guy, the jock, and so on. Hey, that is what you expect from a Friday the 13th movie so we cannot complain about that. This series has done the same thing for most of its entries so it is not fair to start complaining now!
As you would expect, Jason goes on a rampage, but Tina with her telekinetic abilities if she can harness them, could be more than a match for him! The kills and gore in Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood feel like they have been toned down considerably over the other movies and that does hurt the fun if I am being honest. Tina trying to stop Jason is awesome and the way that she does is fun and quite uplifting actually.
Final Thoughts on Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood
I know that a lot of people hate this movie, but I do not. Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood has more things in it that I like than I dislike. Honestly, if they kicked up the gore and kills a few notches, I probably would have scored this a whole point higher. They had some good ideas here, but their wanting to make sure as many people could see it in the theatre as possible really hurt it.
