Friday the 13th Part V is the Halloween Part III of This Series

I hope everyone is staying safe out there. I know a lot of us are trying to keep ourselves entertained. In my little dungeon of films I have been going through the Friday the 13th series and I just watched the fifth one. This was actually the first one I remember watching as a kid and so far out of the series this one to me, is the worst of them. I will go into why I don’t like it but I want to give a warning for spoilers at the top here. I am going to spoil a huge, major, revelation in this review so if you have not seen this and want to, don’t read the whole post. Watch it first and then come back because I am going to spoil it. I will warn you one more time before I give the big spoiler away but just trust me, it’s a big one.

To understand this film you have to know a few things from Part IV. Jason Voorhees, a pretty much unstoppable killing machine went on a spree a few years ago killing tons of people up near Camp Crystal Lake. One of the few people to escape was Tommy Jarvis, played by Corey Feldman in the last one. Tommy actually killed Jason and when he did it, he did it with more enthusiasm than you might find natural in a kid. Although, considering what he had seen that night, it probably wasn’t that much of an overreaction.

We see Tommy, watching a couple people dig up Jason from his grave. That’s not such a smart idea since those two people are dead seconds later. But then Tommy wakes up and it’s years later and he was either having a dream or a flashback memory and it’s not clear if what Tommy saw was real or not. From here on out in the movie Tommy is much older and is played by John Shepherd.

Also, I should note that if you are going to dig up a grave, bring these guys with you, every single time. Every. Single. Time.

Tommy, who is understandably suffering from a pretty heavy case of PTSD, is taken to a halfway house for people with mental illness. For some reason it’s up in a remote area that must be somewhat near Camp Crystal Lake. I assume that’s because Tommy would have been put into the system there and is in the same county from the last movie and that just happens to be where the halfway house is located. At any rate, the locals are aware of Jason and that whole history.

We soon get our first real death right after Tommy gets there and settles in. Is it Jason back for some killing? Nope. And for my money, in the whole series, this is the most messed up kill of all of the series. Not that anyone in these movies deserved to get killed, but in this one, a kid with mental issues that is not very popular is chopped to death with an ax by another resident of the halfway house. This dude is killed for no reason and for nothing that had to do with anything in the first four movies. It is a sudden and surprising death and just sucks for everyone there.

Most of the rest of the film goes how you would expect. A killer is hunting down and killing off people from this halfway house and others in the area one by one. Tommy keeps seeing visions of Jason but he never seems entirely sure if it is Jason or some kind of hallucination. They go throughout the night and most of them die. Finally there is a final confrontation and the killer is stopped. But then…

HUGE SPOILER AHEAD

SERIOUSLY I MEAN IT

IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW WATCH FIRST

The killer turns out not to be Jason at all. Let me say that again. The killer isn’t even Jason! It’s not even his mother back from the dead. Nope. The killer is just some guy who happened to be the father of the kid who got killed in the beginning. Completely random. See this guy never told anyone this kid was his. But he worked as an ambulance worker and when he came to do his job, found out his kid was the one who got killed. He decided to go on a killing spree to get revenge on everyone at the halfway house.

What?! That’s how I felt when I saw this as a kid and how I feel now. This is like the Halloween III of the series. What do I mean by that? Well, for those who do not know, Halloween III has nothing to do with Michael Myers or the rest of the films. Now, you could argue that Tommy has a connection to it, but let me just restate this. Jason is not the killer in this at all. It feels almost completely pointless.

The only thing that may make this worth it is the fact that at the end, Tommy picks up the hockey mask and grabs a knife, so there’s a good chance we have Tommy the killer now instead of Jason. But that remains to be seen.

While the other films may not have been super creative and they kind of repeat themselves, this one does that, while also not being true to the original at all.

I have thirteen things to point out about this movie.

1. The plot of this doesn’t work at all. If the guy wants to get revenge on the camp, why not just kill the guy who killed his kid in the first place? I get that he is using Jason’s m/o to cover up his crimes. But if you know anything about Jason you would know that there are instances where he kills a couple people and just leaves. He doesn’t have to go killing everyone. This guy is some kind of idiot to keep going.
2. Alright, five out of five movies have now had car trouble. As far as I am concerned a Friday the 13th film cannot happen without car trouble. Anyone want to invest in an auto repair shop with me near Camp Crystal Lake?!
3. Since the killer wasn’t actually Jason we didn’t even get an old guy warns kids away from that place scene. More like a mayor talking about it like it was a legend scene. Come on man, give me the old man warns everyone away scene. I need that scene in order to find this scary at all.
4. Shouldn’t Tommy have realized it wasn’t Jason when he noticed there wasn’t a huge dent in the hockey mask where an ax had gone through before?
5. Motorcycle decapitation but we don’t even see it on screen? Just the head rolling? Can I get my VHS rental fee back?
6. At least Tommy seems like a good fighter and could be prepared for Jason but then when he shoes up (even though it isn’t Jason) why does he stand and stare for so long? I mean go into action man. Or at least run and tell other people to run.
7. This new guy who isn’t Jason is able to survive some pretty heavy hits. When it’s revealed that it isn’t Jason I find it even less believable that this dude survives getting hit in the stomach with a moving forklift and then gets up and walks around as if he is fine.
8. I know he died in the last movie but could we get more Crispin Glover dancing in this? That’s all I want in these movies now.
9. Tommy really doesn’t talk much but I wish he would have given some kind of recap of what happened to him and how he felt about it. That would have improved this film a lot.
10. Does this even count as a Friday the 13th movie if Jason is not the killer? I mean really? I feel like it shouldn’t.
11. Oh man there goes Tommy holding a knife. He’s gonna be the killer in the next one isn’t he? Also, if you are trying to help someone get over PTSD maybe it’s not a great idea to have that person get treated right in the area where the traumatic event happened? I mean that’s just my take but I am no mental health professional so who knows.
12. Can we get Jason back please? For all his faults he is a much better villain than Tommy.
13. Even if we don’t get Jason back in the next one, can we please get that scene where we warn people away from Camp Crystal Lake? Also, if anyone needs someone to be in a movie and warn people away from a place, I am doing nothing else right now, I volunteer.

Just like Jason will never quite remain dead, I will be back with another review but I feel like we are getting into the dregs of this series. Still, I kind of feel like the other ones won’t annoy me quite as badly as this one does.

Spoilingly yours,

Slick Dungeon

PS: Want to see not Jason do some murdering? Click below.

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