by Brett Hardel

Created on: March 05, 2009

If Jason still haunts you, you're not alone!

Although Paramount Pictures intended to put their red-haired stepchild Jason Voorhees down for good with " Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter", his box office performance ensured he wouldn't stay dead and buried for long. Eleven months later saw the release of "Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning", hastily delivered to a legion of disappointed fans.

After a prologue nightmare sequence featuring the return of Corey Feldman as Tommy Jarvis, the story picks up several years later as Tommy (now played by John Shepherd) is being transfered to Pinehurst, a halfway house following years of intense therapy and hospitalization. Tommy has recovered somewhat after the events of "The Final Chapter" although he still hallucinates realistic visions of Jason. As Tommy settles in one patient suddenly kills another with an axe in a fit of rage. Although the culprit Victor Faden (Mark Venturini) is taken into custody, the locals soon start falling victim to an unknown killer. After Tommy disappears after a brawl with an obnoxious local (Ron Sloan), the killer moves in on Pinehurst and starts dispatching the patients one by one. Has Tommy finally snapped, or is Jason not really dead, or has someone else stepped in to continue to dwindle the Crystal Lake population?

Shot in Camarillo, California, and released on March 22, 1985, the film took in $21,900,000 on a budget of $2,200,000, and naturally received negative reviews from the mainstream critics. Fans were disappointed as the film was routine and unimaginative, and even failed as a whodunit as director Danny Steinmann gives away his secret way too early in the film. Originally intended as a starring vehicle for Corey Feldman to return as Tommy Jarvis, his participation was reduced to a cameo (shot over the course of a day) as he was currently filming "The Goonies." Several of the deaths had to be trimmed or re-shot to receive an "R" rating. This entry in the series is notable as currently having the most deceased cast members. Responding to pressure from fans displeased with the storyline in this movie, Paramount "officially" resurrected Jason Voorhees in August 1986 with "Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives" which pretty much discounts the events of this film. Surviving cast members declined to return for Part VI and Tommy Jarvis was now played by Thom Mathews.

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