Friday the 13th, Part V: A New Beginning: Deluxe Edition

The infamous "Fake Jason" entry in the series, "Friday the 13th, Part V: A New Beginning" is, in a sense, unfairly reviled among slasher fans.

Yes, the kills are relatively weak, and Tommy Jarvis' character arc takes an oddball turn, but provides some of the best intentionally unintentional comedy in the series.

The film's main action picks up several years after the events of "The Final Chapter." Tommy (played now by John Shepard, though Corey Feldman makes a brief appearance in a dream sequence at the start of the film) is several years older, still scarred by his encounter with Jason. He's at a rural halfway house sort of location for troubled teens, and soon one of the "guests" murders another.

Soon, the bodies start piling up, and Tommy, as well as the local sheriff, suspects Jason.

An interesting bit of (lack of) continuity exists in dialog form, as a character claims that Jason was cremated and is "a handful of ash" (In Part VI, however, we discover that he is indeed more or less in tact in body). That, however, does not stop someone from killing local teens.

Among the film's memorable characters are white trash landowners Ethel and her son Junior, who give the film's two most inspired performances. They are, simply put, incredible in their roles, arguably the two funniest characters in the series.

Ethel and Junior own the land that neighbors the "looney bin," (as Ethel puts it), and are none too happy to find out that some of the teens are using her woods as a place for romantic interludes.

Also there's Demon (Miguel A. Nunez Jr.), brother of "Reggie the Reckless" (Shavar Ross), who is a walking, talking parody of the 80s smack in the middle of it. He wears a leather jumpsuit, and in his lone scene has to gingerly run to his trailer park's tin outhouse, where he soon finds love with his girlfriend singing a strange duet before falling victim to Jason.

The horror aspects, yes, are rather dull, with a couple of memorable kills, but nothing the other films haven't replicated or improved on. The Jason character, and the final reveal that answers whether it's Jason or an impostor, is an admittedly lame twist in the story that is explained in dialog and by a wallet (that bears a photo of the killer himself--why would someone keep a photo of themself in their wallet?--as well as his motivation).

There's also a strange cliffhanger ending that both makes sense and is nonsensical at the same time, but is ignored completely in Part VI.

DVD extras include a commentary featuring the director and cast, but there's little of substance discussed. It's mostly a fond remember when conversation, followed by jokes setting up the kills.

This disc also follows the extras pattern of the previous entries in the series, with a making-of documentary, another in the "Lost Tales From Camp Blood" series of shorts, another Crystal Lake mockumentary, and an original trailer.

Overall, this is one of the weaker entries in the series, but still watchable on several levels, and the extras are solid if unspectacular. Completists especially will want this one, but it's a worthwhile purchase.

Film and extras: 3 Yaps out of 5