ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - May 13th
"FRIDAY THE 13TH, PART VII: THE NEW BLOOD" released today in 1988
Years after Tommy Jarvis chained him underwater at Camp Crystal Lake, the dormant Jason Voorhees returns to the camp grounds when he is accidentally released from his prison by a telekinetic teenager, in John Carl Buechler's Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood!
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The undead and decomposing Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder) remains chained to the bottom of Crystal Lake. While he remains chained, a young child named Tina Shepard (Jennifer Banko), who witnesses her alcoholic father physically abusing her mother, unlocks previously latent telekinetic powers in which result in her father's death at the bottom of Crystal Lake. Ten years later, a now teenager Tina (Lar Park Lincoln) is still struggling with the guilt surrounding the death of her father. Tina's mother, Amanda (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). There, Crews begins a series of experiments (verbal assaults) designed to agitate Tina's mental state, forcing her powers to become more pronounced. Next door to the Shepard residence is a group of teens who are throwing a birthday party for their friend Michael; preppy Russell (Larry Cox) and his girlfriend Sandra (Heidi Kozak), Ben (Craig Thomas) and his girlfriend Kate (Diane Almeida), science fiction writer Eddie (eff Bennett), stoner David (Jon Renfield), perky Robin (Elizabeth Kaitan), shy Maddy (Diana Barrows), and snobby socialite Melissa (Susan Jennifer Sullivan). Michael's cousin Nick (Kevin Spirtas), who has arrived just for the party takes a liking to Tina, much to the jealousy of Melissa, who bullies Tina. Later, after a particularly upsetting session with Dr. Crews, Tina runs from the cabin and to the dock thinking about her father's death. While thinking about him, she wishes he would come back. Instead, Tina's psychic powers breaks the chain around the neck of Jason Voorhees. Tina's torment from her powers is increased as Jason emerges from the lake and his reign of terror descends on the area once again!
[opening lines]
Narrator: There's a legend around here. A killer buried, but not dead. A curse on Crystal Lake, a death curse: Jason Voorhees' curse. They say he died as a boy, but he keeps coming back. Few have seen him and lived. Some have even tried to stop him. No one can.
Top and Above: The unstoppable Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder) is released from the bottom of Crystal Lake by troubled telekinetic teen, Tina Shephard (Lar Park Lincoln).
After the previous installment, Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (which reintroduced Jason Voorhees as the unstoppable undead creature), Part VII was originally hoped to be Freddy vs. Jason, a clash crossover 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. After Freddy Vs. Jason failed to materialize, Paramount was still so high on the "Jason Vs. Blank" marketing angle, screenwriter Daryl Haney pitched a last-second idea to pitch Jason against a Carrie-esque, troubled telekinetic teen. Haney was then hired to write the story treatment, first draft, revision, and polish - but that evolved into writing 15 different drafts. However, Haney was later fired by executive producer Frank Mancuso Jr., after Haney's agent that the writer would not do any more work on the project unless he received a large pay increase (even though Haney had never told his agent to do any such thing). The subsequent rewrites were done by an unknown screenwriter, credited by the pseudonym Manuel Fidello (although it has been argued this "Manuel Fidello" was actually somebody with legitimate writing credits who wanted the quick cash as long as the film wouldn't end up on his resume!).
Interestingly, two actresses who had previously appeared in Friday the 13th movies auditioned for the lead role of Tina Shephard; Marta Kober (who played Sandra in Friday the 13th Part 2) and Kerry Noonan (who played Paula in Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI). Both read for the role of Tina, when they thought the title was "Birthday Bash", but when they realized it was for a role in the next Friday the 13th film, the producers and director John Carl Buechler decided against casting them. After turning down Kober and Noonan, Buechler originally wanted Paula Irvine to play the role of Tina Shepherd, because she was 19 years old at the time and had the perfect teenage look and the personality he was looking for. Unfortunately, Paula already made commitments to star as Liz in Phantasm II (1988) so John was unable to cast her for the role. John was running out of time and was not able to find a real teenager between 18-19 years old to play the role of Tina Shepherd, he had no choice to cast Lar Park-Lincoln who was 26-years-old at the time. Lar Park Lincoln had to wear a lot of makeup to look approximately eight years younger than she looks, so the audience will think she's a teenager. The New Blood marks the first of four appearances by Kane Hodder as Jason. Hodder was ultimately chosen based on his work in the film Prison, for which Buechler had worked on as the special effects make-up artist. In that movie, Hodder filmed a scene in which his character, a prisoner executed in the electric chair, rises from the grave; Hodder himself had suggested to Buechler that he have maggots coming out of his mouth during the scene to heighten the effect of decomposition, and went on to film the sequence with live maggots spilling out of his mouth. Buechler remembered Hodder's commitment to the part when casting The New Blood, and chose Hodder over C. J. Graham, who had portrayed Jason in Part VI.
Interestingly, two actresses who had previously appeared in Friday the 13th movies auditioned for the lead role of Tina Shephard; Marta Kober (who played Sandra in Friday the 13th Part 2) and Kerry Noonan (who played Paula in Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI). Both read for the role of Tina, when they thought the title was "Birthday Bash", but when they realized it was for a role in the next Friday the 13th film, the producers and director John Carl Buechler decided against casting them. After turning down Kober and Noonan, Buechler originally wanted Paula Irvine to play the role of Tina Shepherd, because she was 19 years old at the time and had the perfect teenage look and the personality he was looking for. Unfortunately, Paula already made commitments to star as Liz in Phantasm II (1988) so John was unable to cast her for the role. John was running out of time and was not able to find a real teenager between 18-19 years old to play the role of Tina Shepherd, he had no choice to cast Lar Park-Lincoln who was 26-years-old at the time. Lar Park Lincoln had to wear a lot of makeup to look approximately eight years younger than she looks, so the audience will think she's a teenager. The New Blood marks the first of four appearances by Kane Hodder as Jason. Hodder was ultimately chosen based on his work in the film Prison, for which Buechler had worked on as the special effects make-up artist. In that movie, Hodder filmed a scene in which his character, a prisoner executed in the electric chair, rises from the grave; Hodder himself had suggested to Buechler that he have maggots coming out of his mouth during the scene to heighten the effect of decomposition, and went on to film the sequence with live maggots spilling out of his mouth. Buechler remembered Hodder's commitment to the part when casting The New Blood, and chose Hodder over C. J. Graham, who had portrayed Jason in Part VI.
Melissa: You are nuts!
Nick: Shut up, Melissa.
Melissa: I don't believe you. You people give me the creeps.
[walks away]
Nick: Hey, where do you think you're going?
Melissa: I'm going back to bed. You wanna come?
Nick: Look, Melissa, just stay here with us.
Melissa: It's not my style.
Nick: Don't go out there!
Melissa: Fuck you. And fuck you both!
[opens the door to see Jason standing there; he bludgeons her head with an axe]
Top and Above: Jason "crashes the party" for a final showdown with Tina!
In addition to portraying the undead Jason, Hodder also performed all his own stunts in The New Blood, including falling through the stairway, and having the porch roof fall on his head. Hodder would even go on to make cinematic history for the longest uninterrupted onscreen controlled burn in Hollywood history. For the scene in which Tina causes the furnace to shoot flames at Jason, Hodder was actually set on fire by an apparatus rigged so that the ignition could be captured on film (as opposed to being edited in later with trick photography). Hodder was on fire for a full forty seconds, a record at the time.
The hardest scene Kane Hodder found to film was where he kills the camper in the sleeping bag by bashing her into the tree. The scene required a number of retakes because he kept swinging as hard as he could but no matter how hard he swung the sleeping bag he couldn't get it to look right, as the dummy inside was heavier than he thought it would be. By the final take, he was so fed up with the situation that after he dropped the bag he kicked it angrily, and this is the shot that appears in the final film (in retrospect, Hodder said that was one of his favorite "kills" and he later recreates it in Jason X (2001).
During filming on location near Bay Minette in Alabama, the dressing room for Kane Hodder was a quarter of a mile down a dirt road. One night filming ended at at 2 a.m. and he was still in the Jason costume, and he decided to walk through the woods on a path to his dressing room. As he was walking someone approached him and asked if he was with the movie. He didn't reply, because he thought it was a pretty stupid question to ask, as he was standing there in full Jason costume. The man asked again, Kane took a little lunge for the guy and grunted. The guy took off, tripping and running. The next day director John Carl Buechler told Kane that the local sheriff was supposed to stop by, but he never showed.
TRIVIA: During filming producers hired Leslie Buzbee, the local 'gator man'. They paid him to be the alligator wrangler so he was supposed to keep gators away from the actors. But alligators are not active in the winter when they were filming (October and November, 1987). So basically they paid him to do nothing but watch the lake.
Top: Director John Carl Buechler on set with actress Lar Park Lincoln;
Above: Kane Hodder (sans make-up) on set in Alabama.
Buechler stated that he clashed with associate producer Barbara Sachs (making her producing debut with New Blood, and would return to produce Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan) continuously over many ideas that he had for the film. This included showing Jason unmasked for quite a bit of the movie. She vetoed the idea, but Buechler ended up going behind her back and filming it anyway. Buechler also stated that the final sequence of Tina's father coming out of the water was to be more elaborate and feature full prosthetics and a life size dummy. However, that sequence was completely over ruled by Sachs as being "silly and disgusting", and Buechler ended up filming what he considers an inferior version of the sequence. Buechler also famously clashed with the MPAA over the edits required for The New Blood to avoid an X-rating. Several explicit scenes of gore were cut, including; Maddy's death, who originally had a sickle jammed through her neck; Ben's death, which showed Jason crushing his head into a bloody pulp; Kate's death, which showed Jason ramming her in the eye with a party horn (the VHS and DVD versions only show a full view of Jason as he aims towards her face, but quickly cuts to another scene before revealing the blood and gore gushing from her eye); we see Eddie'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's death showed Jason's tree-trimming saw violently cutting into his stomach, sending a fountain of blood and guts in the air; and 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. In all, The New Blood had to be submitted nine times to the Motion Picture Association of America before being granted an R-rating, and it stands as arguably the most heavily censored entry in the Friday the 13th series. During an interview for the 2009 documentary film, His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th, Buechler was quoted as saying the MPAA, "raped my movie!".
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood debuted at number #1 at the US box office, grossing an impressive $8.2 million its opening weekend in 1,796 theaters. Ultimately, the film would go on to gross a total of $19.2 million at the U.S. box office, placing it at number 53 on the list of the year's top earners, and the 8th highest grossing film in the Friday the 13th series. However, The New Blood, like many of movies in the franchise, received mostly negative reviews from critics on it's initial release - but gained a cult following for fans, who deeply praised Hodder's performance as Jason, with Buechler, who also created the special make-up effects for the film, is credited with creating "the definitive Jason".
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood debuted at number #1 at the US box office, grossing an impressive $8.2 million its opening weekend in 1,796 theaters. Ultimately, the film would go on to gross a total of $19.2 million at the U.S. box office, placing it at number 53 on the list of the year's top earners, and the 8th highest grossing film in the Friday the 13th series. However, The New Blood, like many of movies in the franchise, received mostly negative reviews from critics on it's initial release - but gained a cult following for fans, who deeply praised Hodder's performance as Jason, with Buechler, who also created the special make-up effects for the film, is credited with creating "the definitive Jason".
ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE: 30%
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