Director: James Isaac
Cast: Kane Hodder, Lexa Doig, Lisa Ryder, Chuck Campbell
Have I Seen it Before: I cite this movie whenever I feel the urge to bend over backwards to defend the Friday the 13th series. Many years ago, I spent a Tuesday at a second-run theater* seeing as many movies as linear time and a handful of quarters would allow me. I remember—just with that scene in the K-Mart holodeck—thinking that I got exactly 25 cents worth of entertainment out of the film.
Did I Like It: Well, flashforward 25 years, and I spent a few dollars for a Apple TV copy of the film—along with every other film in the series—and I’m prepared to say that I got taken.
Everything about this film is cheap, and never seems to want to be anything else. The sets are cheap, both of Jason’s (Hodder, contributing his swan song in the role) costumes are cheap, the acting is terrible**—even for a slasher film, and somebody somewhere decided that overlaying openign credits over bad CGI of the innards of an eye was the way to open a film. Some films immitate those that worked quite well in their genre. Unfortunately, a copy of copies is all we have here.
This isn’t reveltory. Anyone going into a film featuring Jason Voorhees ought to be expecting a cheap affair***. They’ve been doing cheap since the original, but even the things the series did well are offered with a healthy dollop of indifference. Harry Manfredini was often able to produce a reasonable facsimile of Bernard Hermann, but left here to try and create a xerox copy of a Jerry Goldsmith or James Horner score, he’s lost at sea.
*Kids, ask your parents.
**No, a cameo from David Cronenberg does not help matters.
***Anyone genuinely excited about the prospect might need a team of therapists to tag in full-time.