Every Friday The 13th Film Ranked From Worst To Best
8. Friday The 13th Part V: A New Beginning
One of the great mysteries of the Friday the 13th series is why they insisted on declaring 1984's fourth instalment to be the last. Considering that a further eight films have followed (one of which, Jason Goes To Hell, also declared itself the last), that declaration looks patently absurd now - particularly given that the fifth film arrived the very next year, and was in most respects business as usual.
That said, A New Beginning is a fitting subtitle for director Danny Steinmann's movie, in that - for the first time since the original Friday the 13th - it turns out the killer is not Jason Voorhees, but a copycat whose motivation is rooted in first act subplots that everyone has forgotten by the finale. Fans weren't pleased, hence Jason was quickly brought back, bringing that new beginning to a very sudden end.
However, beyond the absence of Jason, there's plenty to recommend A New Beginning for fans of the series. It's the midway point of a self-contained Friday trilogy centred on Tommy Jarvis, one of the series' few recurring characters, played here by John Shepherd.
It's also one of the most full-on entries when it comes to those key selling points of sex and violence, with a number of the nastiest murders, and - how to put this politely - one of the most eye-opening moments of fan-pleasing nudity in the franchise, courtesy of the aptly-named DebiSue Voorhees.