Every Friday The 13th Film Ranked From Worst To Best

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.