THOSE DAMN ENCHILADAS: FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 5

THOSE DAMN ENCHILADAS

FRIDAY THE 13th PART 5 

WHAT WENT WRONG? 

Friday the 13th Part 5: A new Beginning.  What the hell happened?  

It was like this sequel took a massive u-turn and like Halloween 3, essentially cheated the audience with smoke and mirrors by denying us the promise of the premise. 

Back in the days of VHS, my introduction to the Friday universe, was  Part 6: Jason Lives which really blew me away. Excited by the realisation that there were FIVE  previous Friday the 13th movies out there, I got a watchin, culminating with Part 5.  But it became a strange journey of evolution, as the film producers struggled to keep up with the ever changing cinematic landscape.  

PRE-ZOMBIE JASON 

After seeing part six, I was hungry for more zombie Jason. But this was still early days, part 7 The new Blood was still in production. Meanwhile, I began ploughing thru the previous five Friday the 13th sequels waiting for Jason to turn full zombie. It was a bit of chore I must admit.  

I guess it was because these sequels seemed so different to Jason Lives in terms of style and pacing and the humour was pretty scarce. That and the fact Jason was still essentially human. 

He was like some mongoloid kid who lost the plot. It felt pretty weird. Meanwhile Jasons not getting any more zombie like and if anything sequels 2, 3 and 4 are like  Sloth  from The Goonies had gone on a killer rampage. 

So it took me a while to get into them. 

However,  part four featured a young Tommy Jarvis (played by Corey Feldman) and this movie in particular, gave me hope, that events would finally lead to part six and thus got me hot for more Friday the 13th, under the vague promise of seeing some pre Jason Lives killer zombie action. 

IT WAS ONLY A DREAM

So I was rather looking forward to seeing Part 5: A New Beginning and seeing Jason finally in killer zombie mode.  And for the first few opening minutes I wasn't disappointed. Corey Feldman was back blundering around in the woods, witnessing a couple of country yokel hicks dig up Jasons grave. I'm like wow this is awsum. Sheeting rain, thunder and Corey. Its great.  

Jason comes to life and he looks suitably gross. He kills the yokels and climbs out of his grave, looming over the young terrified boy, brandishing his trademark machete. Its all fantastic stuff. Then pffffff.

It was just a stupid dream folks. Cut to several years later and Coreys out the picture entirely along with Zombie Jason. Then it just sorta meandered around that clinic with fake jason hiding in the shadows, picking kids off one by one. Sorry? What? Is that it?   

I then had to sit thru lots of stupid recycled creepy POV's of couples canoodling to sinister music, shots of fake Jasons feet / hands and  Its like jesus, come on! We've had like three sequels of this already, we know what the guy looks like ok?   

Ironically, those dream bits (with real Jason) were the best bits of this entire movie. And maybe that should have been the film? After all, thats what the public really wanted. 

DAM ENCHILADAS

Thats right, its them damn enchiladas from here on in. 

In fact, I kinda liked the enchiladas scene, its upbeat and the actors did a great job. Besides the dream sequence, its really the only other memorable scene. So much so, that they even sold those dam enchiladas as Friday The 13th merchandise. Apparently. 

TOO MUCH LIKE A PORNO 

Warning this movie contains tits. LOTS.  I've never seen so many. Is this a horror film or a porno? The lines really got blurred.  It was like watching Porky's. Not that I'm averse to that. But if I wanted to watch a porno, I would have hired out Debbie Does Dallas. 

If memory serves, the films director specialised in porn, so no surprise there.  Bring it on baby. 

SCOOBY DOO ENDING 

Worst still, Part 5 runs pretty much like a Scooby doo caper. And we all know that none of the supernatural monsters in Scooby were ever real. They were just unscrupulous penny-pinching con-artists wearing monster masks. The Scooby gang always got the bad guys arrested, and they invariably always removed a mask to reveal the skulking criminal beneath. So the end of part 5 kinda sucked for this reason.  

The paramedic was Jason all along kids!  In a way, I was kinda relieved. Because it meant that the real Jason was still rotting in a grave since Part four and would finally come back in part six.  Which meant that A New Beginning was a waste of my time basically. I kinda felt cheated.  

DEVOLUTION 

Yep this film is a little undercooked.  It hadn't evolved, in the way its predecessors had. 

It just repeated movies 1-4, added some porn shots, enchiladas and went off the rails.  In fact, if anything, it had devolved.  

At least in parts 1-4 we see a clear line of evolution with the character. Its not Shakespeare or anything, but as the viewer we get a sense of his roots, starting with his drowning in Chrystal Lake, his vengeful mother and culminating in Jason picking up the family heirloom machete so to speak. 

SUPERNATURAL MONSTERS 

But by the mid-80's, fickle tastes quickly got bored of slasher content, audiences wanted more. The whole crazy guy in a mask theme, was getting old. In the wake of "A nightmare on Elm St", audiences now lent more towards the supernatural. They wanted something along the lines of the old universal horror movies but without the cheese. 

They wanted Leather-Face and Freddy, Chucky and Candy Man. So Jason had to tow the line. 

If the Friday the 13th franchise had any future, it would inevitably have to adapt with the times. Its main star, Jason had to go full zombie, sooner or later. So imagine my frustration when I had to sit thru five sequels waiting for this to magically happen. 

Part one didn't even have Jason, his mother did all the killing. Part two he ran around with a sack cloth on his head. Part three, we start to see the iconic hockey Mask introduced and by part four (the supposed final chapter) I was finally starting to see a pattern. Jason was evolving. 

MONSTER PROGENITOR 

And what kick-started this slasher trend? Why Halloween of course. But the genius of that film is that the killer (Michael Myers) wasn’t just some hack in a mask.

He was compelled by evil forces, making him invincible. Which is why that character was so intriguing.

Friday the 13th Part 5 however, didn't say anything new. But its dream sequences are what its best remembered for (that and them damn enchiladas). And that’s what the film should have been (no not them damn enchiladas) but Zombie Jason rising from the grave and creating merry hell. 

Hence, I think this is the reason "Part 6: Jason Lives" became so popular because Jason had finally evolved into a unstoppable zombie, joining that unholy congregation of progenitors featuring Freddy Kruger and Michael Myers.

 As for part five, you can keep them damn enchiladas.