An extremely tedious retread of the tired formula which proved to be the last gasp for "teenagers in the woods" stalk-and-slashery. From then on the series was forced to move in different directions to retain interest but it wasn't long before the audience died away altogether. For the first hour this is lamentable, with boring teenagers, moronic humour, and a sappy romantic sub-plot between two central characters. It's only when a couple of the teenagers are remaining that you can put names to the faces; otherwise they're completely interchangeable and cardboard cut-outs as usual.

There's a black couple with a predictably short life-span; an ugly duckling who becomes beautiful and bites it; a flirt who cruelly plays with the men; a sci-fi geek who lives in a fantasy world; a bland guy who turns out to be unexpectedly resourceful and all manner of other boring people. Hell, they even re-use the old "car breaks down" routine from one of the previous unmemorable instalments. The only actor of interest in this film is Terry Kiser, and judging by his credentials he was particularly strapped for cash the year this was made. Kiser puts in a good performance as a corrupt doctor using the heroine's telekinetic abilities for his own benefit, and his acting sticks out a mile from all the other efforts here. I especially liked the bit where, attacked by Jason, he throws a female victim at his opponent instead in order to escape! Hey, it's only human nature...

The death scenes here manage to be quite creative in places, with Jason picking up all manner of garden tools to do his business - I especially liked the hedge-trimmer scene, which was definitely one of the film's highlights. In other moments he bashes a sleeping-bag clad victim into a tree, crushing her, and pokes out other people's eyes. Heads are decapitated, faces slashed off and there are more impalings than you can shake a stick at. Sadly the BBFC butchers have been at this film again, so all of the gore is kept offscreen, resulting in a very pointless and hollow movie.

Directed by John Carl Buechler, better known for his special effects work, this has a lethargic pace up until the final twenty minutes where it actually becomes quite good. The final battle is between the heroine, a CARRIE-esque girl with telekinetic skills which she uses to fend Jason off time and time again. In fact it's quite comical. Jason gets electrocuted, impaled with a dozen nails, and burnt alive before he is finally dragged back into the icy waters of the lake for (hopefully) eternity. The special effects are quite impressive here, especially in Jason's "rotted" makeup which has bits of spine and bone protruding from his severely battered body. The unmasking scene also manages to be fairly frightening for a brief instant. All over, the last twenty minutes of this film are worthwhile, but fast-forward over the build-up - or you'll be severely bored.

Tina Shepard has telekinetic powers. When she was a child, she accidentally kills her father with her powers. As an adult, she's still haunted by the incident and her doctor returns her back to the cabin where it happened. She tries her powers to bring back her father. Instead she brings back Jason. He's soon killing again especially with another new set of college kids next door.

It is very weird to add other supernatural beings into this world. Tina is a compelling character but I wonder if this is truly where they wanted the franchise to go. As a story, it works better than the previous installment. Although I can understand why people have problems with adding another supernatural being.

"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.