Stevieboy666 Jason is accidently revived from his watery grave by a girl with psychokinetic abilities to go on another rampage, killing horny teens. As many reviews have pointed out this is a kind of Jason vs Carrie affair and while it's an interesting idea I just wasn't convinced by it, it didn't quite work for me. There is a high body count but sadly very little gore, probably down to censorship. On the plus side there's a fair amount of female nudity and part 7 is when Kane Hodder made his debut playing Jason, a role that he made his own. It's a pity that from this point the series went down hill but I'm a fan and if they'd made a hundred Friday's I'd watch them all!

TheMovieDoctorful When one thinks about it, given its place in the "Friday the 13th" saga, it makes sense that "The New Blood" gets so overlooked and underrated by fans of the franchise. The films that followed it; "Jason Takes Manhattan" (A personal guilty pleasure), "Jason Goes To Hell" and "Jason X" are often regarded as the 3 worst movies in the series. In contrast, the film that preceded it, "Jason Lives" is often regarded as the best film in the series. So, it's safe to assume that "The New Blood" was the turning point in which the "Friday the 13th" franchise, pun intended, went to Hell. Only, it wasn't. In fact, behind "Jason Lives", I'd say it's the second best "Friday" film to date.The tone of "New Blood" is an excellent mix of dark and light. The self satirical, comedic, light hearted nature of "Jason Lives" (Jeff Bennett as Eddie is particularly hilarious, taking already witty comedic dialogue and making it gold.) is most certainly here, but the film is not without is certainly not without its darker and more serious moments. Tina herself is a character going through some very real, very tragic personal problems regarding her self loathing over her father's death, and the kills are more painful and visceral (Creative too and memorable too. The "sleeping bag" kill might be my all-time favorite kill in ANY "Jason" film. Just so blunt and shocking.) On top of that, this is one of the few installments in the series where I never got the feeling that the main characters were safe just because they were the main characters; this is a film that has no problems torturing its protagonist and it wasn't too much of a stretch to think that would extend to actually killing her. This makes the final 1/3 of the movie much more suspenseful than any of the other "Friday the 13th" films.Lar Park Lincoln is fantastic as Tina Shepard, easily one of the best characters in the "Friday the 13th" saga. With her friendly yet haunted delivery and adorable shyness, Lincoln grabs both my sympathy and my attention from beginning to end. Tina is a character who is wracked by loneliness and guilt throughout "The New Blood", horrified at the prospect of being responsible for her father's death and with nobody to trust or open up to emotionally. To see such a shy and passive character develop and grow to the point where she can go toe to toe with Jason himself makes for a very satisfying and investing final showdown. Terry Kiser is clearly having a ton of fun as the secondary villain Dr. Crews, and it really shows. He brings an unexpected subtlety to his performance, never going over the top or venturing into the realm of camp. Instead, Kiser focuses on the character's manipulative and sinister charm. Dr. Crews offers an excellent contrast to Jason; with Jason being a very blatant, aggressive "in your face" kind of evil whereas Dr. Crews is a much more subtle, charismatic villain. Of course, the most iconic and legendary performance in the movie has to be Kane Hodder as the terror of Crystal Lake himself, Jason Voorhees. Hodder brings a real violent edge to his performance. His movements, his walk, his facial expressions when his face is revealed all have a very primal, animalistic nature to them. Make no mistake, Hodder is the scariest and most brutal Jason to date by far.All of the effects for this movie are just perfect. Director John Carl Buechler's monster makeup for Jason Voorhees is some of my favorite practical effects works of the 80s and his gore effects are equally impressive and realistic (Though sadly largely cut by the MPAA, many of it now only available through deleted scenes on the DVD), but underrated are the sets and cinematography in the film. Camp Crystal Lake has a much grimer, nastier look to it than in the other "Friday the 13th" films. The fog, the forests, the general lack of light; it just FEELS like this evil, unnatural and scary place.It will always confuse me as to how this film doesn't get more credit among the "Friday the 13th" fandom as one of the best the franchise had to offer. It had a great protagonist, great villains, great effects, a great tone, great cinematography...Truly an underrated gem of the genre.

MaximumMadness "Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood" is the moment. That singular moment that many media franchises reach where there is a bit of a rift. A fundamental change. Something that will forever alter the way the subsequent remaining entries are perceived.Yes. This is the infamous moment in any series that can only be referred to as "jumping the shark." This is where the franchise wholly committed to the concept of each movie injecting a quirky "gimmick" in order to drum up audience interest. Sure, I'd argue that the previous film (the excellent "Jason Lives") probably started the whole notion of the "gimmick entry" with its focus on self-aware, postmodern meta-humor... but this is the film that really solidified the fact that the remaining films would all have that silly, somewhat kitschy quality of relying on a singular contrivance to set it apart.In this case of course, it's focus on the supernatural storyline of Jason fighting a psychic/telekinetic.When psychic Tina Shepard returns to Crystal Lake years after accidentally causing the death of her father with her latent abilities, the opportunity to learn and perhaps heal is interrupted when she accidentally releases Jason from his watery grave. Now, she and a group of teen-aged party-goers next door must struggle to survive against the newly revived (and quite angry) hulking killer... leading to an insane and actually quite entertaining final showdown.The most notable aspect of this entry is probably the introduction of fan-favorite Kane Hodder as Jason- a role he would continue to play for the next few entries in the series. Hodder arguably defined the role, and actually finally gave him a consistent sense of "character" through both physical presence and movement, and through his own behind-the-scenes exploration of what makes Jason tick. Interesting tidbit: Hodder actually refused to film a scene where Jason kicks a dog away from him, because he feels Jason would never actually hurt animals or young children due to his childhood trauma. Granted, this doesn't quite fit in with Part IV, but I like the idea- it shows that Hodder actually tried to build a sense of character and "rules" for Jason to follow.The film is also quite a bit of fun at times. The whole psychic angle is stupid beyond belief, there's no doubt about it. But it allows for all sorts of cinematic mayhem to ensue, with explosions, nails flying through the air, furniture being flung around... it's great fun to see Jason finally face an adversary in Lar Park Lincoln's Tina that can truly stand up to him and perhaps give him more than he can handle.But the strong entertainment factor aside, this is a pretty bland entry on the whole to me. It lacks the pure sense of "fun" that the previous film literally oozed alongside the blood and trades it in for what actually becomes a somewhat depressive feel for much of the screen time. Not only in terms of basic tone, but also in the writing and even in the music. It's just kind of... mournful. Many of the characters (especially Tina) seem to have a deep-seeded chip on their shoulder and it's not as compelling as it could be. And the others are all just... ho-hum and often grating, with characters like the generic nasty vain girl getting on your nerves very quickly. You just kinda feel bad for everyone even before they start getting axed off.That being said, despite being a middling entry in the overall franchise, the good characterization in Jason and the wickedly wild and entertaining battles between Tina and Jason do make it worth a watch for slasher fans. Just don't expect the best entry in the franchise.I give it a middle-of-the-road 5 out of 10.

Mark Habeeb I watched this movie for the first time in a really long time, and I found myself really enjoying it. Which was something I wasn't expecting for the 7th installment of Friday the 13th. The reason why I liked this movie was that it added a new element to the series. In this movie the main character is Tina, a girl with physic powers that enables her to physically move things with her mind and has the ability to see the future. Tina is with her mom and her doctor at her old house where she accidentally killed her father as a child with her supernatural abilities. She's there to recover from the trauma, and has a bunch of teens next door who are staying at a house for a surprise birthday. This is a very cool element that makes the film exciting as you watch Tina try to warn people of Jason. Some fans didn't like the supernatural element but come on, how long can Jason just mindlessly stalk and slash teenagers? I thought this was a very refreshing idea to add to the series. If they tried to develop the story a bit more I think it would of been more popular, but it wasn't underdeveloped at all either. Overall, super fun and entertaining movie that any Friday fan or horror fan will enjoy!