Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood

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Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood

Theatrical poster
Directed by John Carl Buechler
Produced by Frank Mancuso Jr.
Iain Paterson
Barbara Sachs
Written by Manuel Fidello
Daryl Haney
Starring Lar Park Lincoln
Kevin Blair
Susan Blu
Terry Kiser
Susan Jennifer Sullivan
Elizabeth Kaitan
Jon Renfield
Jeff Bennett
Heidi Kozak
Diane Barrows
Larry Cox
Craig Thomas
Diane Almeida
and Kane Hodder
Music by Harry Manfredini
Fred Mollin
Cinematography Paul Elliott
Editing by Maureen O'Connell
Martin Jay Sadoff
Barry Zetlin
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) May 13, 1988
Running time 90 min.
Country United States
Language English
Budget $2,800,000
Gross revenue $19,100,000 (domestically)
Preceded by Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives
Followed by Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan

Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood is the seventh installment in the original Friday the 13th series. It also marked the first appearance of Kane Hodder in the role of Jason Voorhees.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Seven year old Tina Shepard heard her alcoholic father physically abusing her mother. The emotional trauma unlocks Tina's previously latent telekinetic powers, which result in her father's death at the bottom of Crystal Lake.

About nine years later, Tina is still struggling with the guilt surrounding the death of her father. Tina's mother, Amanda Shepard (Susan Blu), takes her to the same lakeside residence so that her powers can be studied (and unknowingly exploited) by her psychiatrist, Dr. Crews (Terry Kiser). Dr. Crews begins a series of experiments (verbal assaults) designed to agitate Tina's mental state, forcing her powers to become more pronounced.

After a particularly upsetting session with Dr. Crews, Tina runs from the cabin and runs to the dock thinking about her father's death. While thinking about him, she accidentally breaks the chain around the neck of Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder), the undead Crystal Lake serial killer. Tina's torment from her powers is increased as Jason's reign of terror descends on the area once again. Mrs. Shepard, Dr. Crews, and a group of youths vacationing in a nearby cabin are all killed violently by Jason.

Tina is left with no choice but to utilize her telekinesis in an effort to stop him. She unleashes her powers in various ways such as forcing Jason's mask to tighten until it breaks in two, revealing his decaying and deformed face. As the battle rages on the Shepard lakeside cabin is destroyed by an explosive fire. Although she is unable to kill Jason, she unknowingly resurrects her father, who emerges from the lake and drags Jason back down into the depths with him, leaving his fate ambiguous.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Production

The film was originally hoped to be a clash between Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger. Plans fell apart when Paramount Pictures (who held the rights to the Friday the 13th series at the time) and New Line Cinema (who held the rights to the Nightmare on Elm Street films), failed to come to an agreement. The film was made possible when New Line bought the rights to the Friday the 13th series, but did not see release until 2003.

The entire production of this film was scheduled, completed and released within six months; shooting took place from October to November 1987 in rural southern Alabama near Bay Minette.

Several explicit scenes of gore were cut in order to gain an R rating, including: Maddy's death, who originally had a scythe jammed through her neck; Ben's death, which showed Jason mashing his head into a bloody pulp; we see Eddy's head hit the floor; a shot of Russell's face splitting open with a large blood spurt; Dan's original death had Jason ripping out his guts; Amanda Shepard's death originally showed Jason stabbing her from behind, with the resulting blade going through her chest and subsequent blood hitting Dr. Crews; Dr. Crews' death showed Jason's tree-trimming saw violently cutting into his stomach, sending a fountain of blood and guts in the air; Melissa's original death had Jason cleaving her head in half with an axe with a close-up of her eyes still wriggling in their sockets.

[edit] Release and reception

All existing home video versions of this film, including the box set released by Paramount Home Video have the infamous "sleeping bag death" cut to one hit, whereas the original theater-shown version had the uncut, six-hit sleeping bag death scene, with blood all over the sleeping bag, intact.

The film took in $19.1 million at the domestic box office, making it the fourth lowest grossing entry of the series.

The film is mentioned in the novels American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis and The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

[edit] Trivia

  • Kane Hodder did all his own Jason stunts in this film, including falling through the stairway, and having the porch roof fall on his head.
  • Kerry Noonan, who played Paula in Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986), read for the role of Tina, but when John Carl Buechler discovered she'd been in the previous film he decided not to cast her.
  • Walt Gorney, the veteran actor who played Crazy Ralph in the original Friday the 13th and in Part 2, returns as the voice of the narrator during the opening of this film.
  • Jason's mask in this film was cast from the same mold as the original mask from Friday the 13th Part III (1982), but was modified slightly; in addition to the damage seen in the mask (the axe cut and propeller damage), the edges of the mask have been trimmed to make it smaller, to allow more of actor Kane Hodder's head to be seen around the mask.
  • There were several different stuntwomen who played Sandra during her drowning scene; two for the underwater shots, and one for her corpse being pulled onto the shore by Jason.
  • There was an ending involving a fisherman just fishing till he hears something under the lake. Jason then appears dragging the fisherman underwater.

[edit] External links


Preceded by
Colors
Box office number-one films of 1988 (USA)
May 15, 1988
Succeeded by
Willow
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