Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood
Encyclopedia
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood is the seventh installment in the original Friday the 13th series, released in 1988
. It also marked the first appearance of Kane Hodder
in the role of Jason Voorhees
.
powers, which result in her father's death at the bottom of Crystal Lake.
Four years later, Tina (Lar Park Lincoln
) is still struggling with guilt over her father's death. Her mother, Amanda Shepard (Susan Blu
), and her doctor Dr. Crews (Terry Kiser
) take her from the mental institution that she has been in and out of in the hopes of treating Tina's overwhelming guilt. When in fact, Dr. Crews plans to study and to exploit Tina's abilities by keeping her stress levels high. To make sure they are at their peak, Dr. Crews has them convene at their house at Crystal Lake where her father was killed. Despite suspicions of his true intentions, Tina allows herself to be subjected to the tests.
Meanwhile several teenagers are vacationing in the house next door setting up a surprise birthday party for their friend Michael. Included are brainy Maddy, perky Robin, science fiction
writer
Eddie, socialite
snob Melissa, the stoner David, the preppy Russel and his girlfriend Sandra, and Ben and his girlfriend Kate. Nick (Kevin Blair
) is Michael's cousin and aside from that, hardly knows the others. He becomes attracted to Tina and tries to start a relationship with her, despite her initial resistance, she becomes friends with most of the kids and takes strides to return to being "normal." But her situation and initial spite of Melissa who is also eying Nick cause a great deal of tension.
After a particularly stressful session with Dr. Crews, Tina bursts out of the house and makes her way to the dock where her father died. Believing she senses him, she uses her telekinetic powers in an attempt to resurrect him, only to inadvertently free Jason (Kane Hodder
) from his imprisonment. She tells her mother and Dr. Crews, who believe she is being delusional and seeing things. However, Jason returns to his duties by dispatching Michael and his girlfriend Jane along with a nearby camping couple, Dan and Judy, who all happen to be in the area. Tina panics when she sees a vision of Michael being killed and begins to doubt her own sanity, especially after direct evidence is apparently a delusion when she sends Dr. Crews to investigate. Dr. Crews discovers the bodies of Michael and Jane and runs back to the cabin not telling anyone what he saw. Amanda soon discovers Crews' true motives, however and overhearing the argument, Tina runs away, taking the car, which she crashes shortly afterward after having a vision of Jason killing her mother.
Jason enters the grounds and kills Russel with an axe to the face and drowns Sandra in the lake while she is naked. Maddy, who is out to prove she can be attractive like Robin for David goes looking for him and discovers Russel's body before being killed with a sickle when she hides from Jason. Ben and Kate make up from an argument just in time for Jason to crush his skull and shove a party horn
into Kate's eye. He kills David with a knife and moves upstairs to throw Robin out a window.
Tina and Nick reunite in the woods and discover Michael's body. During this time Jason makes his way downstairs to kill Eddie. Nick leaves Tina at the house to warn the other teens and soon discovers Eddie's body. He returns to find Tina gone and Melissa sneaking around the house. He begs her to stay, which she agrees. Amanda and Dr. Crews discover Amanda's car, and during their investigation they discover Jason. After a short run, Dr. Crews holds Amanda as a human shield and she is killed. Crews tries to escape, but he is killed by a tree saw. Tina finds her mother's body, then follows Jason back to the camp, discovering bodies along the way before confronting him. Using her powers to keep Jason outside of arm's reach, she finally seems to kill him by dropping the roof of one of the house porches on him, but it only slows him down. Melissa, thinking this is a sick joke tries to return to bed, but when she opens the door to leave Jason appears and axes her in the head, throwing her over a TV. Tina continues to use her powers to keep Nick from being killed, eventually throwing Jason into the house basement. She douses him with gas and uses the furnace's fire to ignite it. She and Nick make their way to the docks just as the house goes up in an enormous explosion.
Jason comes back and knocks Nick unconscious and incapacitates Tina. Using her powers, she finally resurrects her father who wraps Jason's chains around him and pulls the killer back into the lake before Tina passes out.
The following morning, Nick and Tina are placed into an ambulance where she tells him that "they" took care of Jason, meaning her and her father. Someone discovers Jason's mask, torn in two as the ambulance pulls off into the morning light.
. 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. That film
was eventually made possible when New Line bought the rights to the Friday the 13th series, but did not see release until 2003.
The entire production of this film was scheduled, completed, and released within six months; shooting took place from October to November 1987 in rural southern Alabama near Bay Minette
. This film marks the first of four appearances by Kane Hodder as Jason, the only actor to ever reprise the role. Although C. J. Graham, who had portrayed Jason in Part VI, was initially considered, Hodder was ultimately chosen based on his work in the film Prison, directed by The New Bloods director, Carl Buechler. 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 Graham. Graham expressed disappointment, as he had hoped to reprise the role of Jason and make himself synonymous with the character, as Boris Karloff
had with Frankenstein's monster
, but ultimately expressed satisfaction with Hodder's portrayal and said that he bore no ill will about not being asked to return. Hodder would go on to make cinematic history for the longest uninterrupted on-screen 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 photogrpahy). Hodder was on fire for a full forty seconds, a record at the time.
Several explicit scenes of gore were cut in order to avoid an X rating, including: Maddy's death, who originally had a sickle
jammed through her neck; Ben's death, which showed Jason mashing his head into a bloody pulp; Kate's demise, which showed Jason ramming her in the eye with a party horn, the box set (DVD) release only shows Jason ramming her in the eye 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; 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. The boxed set DVD release of all of the films and the single deluxe edition have all these scenes available as deleted scenes in rough workprint footage, however the deluxe edition features more additional footage than the boxed set.
At the budget of $2.8 million, the film took in $19.1 million at the domestic box office upon its initial release.
John Carl Buechler, the director, who also created the special make-up effects for the film, is credited with creating "the definitive Jason".
The film is mentioned in the novels American Psycho
by Bret Easton Ellis
and The Time Traveler's Wife
by Audrey Niffenegger
.
1988 in film
-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:* Act of Piracy* Action Jackson, starring Carl Weathers, Craig T. Nelson, Vanity, Sharon Stone* The Adventures of Baron Munchausen* Akira* Alice...
. It also marked the first appearance of Kane Hodder
Kane Hodder
Kane Warren Hodder is an American actor and stuntman. Standing , he is best known for his portrayal of Jason Voorhees in four films from the Friday the 13th film series . He is also known for his role as Victor Crowley in Hatchet. -Career:Hodder is the only actor to portray Jason Voorhees more...
in the role of Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees is a fictional character from the Friday the 13th series of slasher films. He first appeared in Friday the 13th , as the son of camp cook-turned-murderer, Mrs. Voorhees, in which he was portrayed by Ari Lehman. Created by Victor Miller, with contributions by Ron Kurz, Sean S...
.
Plot
In 1989 months after the conclusion of the previous film, 10-year old Tina Shepard (Jennifer Banko) hears her alcoholic father physically abusing her mother. The emotional trauma unlocks Tina's previously latent telekineticPsychokinesis
The term psychokinesis , also referred to as telekinesis with respect to strictly describing movement of matter, sometimes abbreviated PK and TK respectively, is a term...
powers, which result in her father's death at the bottom of Crystal Lake.
Four years later, Tina (Lar Park Lincoln
Lar Park Lincoln
Lar Park Lincoln is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles in the 1987 film House II: The Second Story as Kate, and in the 1988 horror film Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood as Tina Shepard.-Biography:...
) is still struggling with guilt over her father's death. Her mother, Amanda Shepard (Susan Blu
Susan Blu
Susan Maria Blu , sometimes credited as Sue Blu, is an American voice actress, voice director, and casting director in American and Canadian cinema and television...
), and her doctor Dr. Crews (Terry Kiser
Terry Kiser
Terry Kiser is an American actor, best known for his portrayal of the dead title-character in the comedy Weekend at Bernie's, and its sequel, Weekend at Bernie's II....
) take her from the mental institution that she has been in and out of in the hopes of treating Tina's overwhelming guilt. When in fact, Dr. Crews plans to study and to exploit Tina's abilities by keeping her stress levels high. To make sure they are at their peak, Dr. Crews has them convene at their house at Crystal Lake where her father was killed. Despite suspicions of his true intentions, Tina allows herself to be subjected to the tests.
Meanwhile several teenagers are vacationing in the house next door setting up a surprise birthday party for their friend Michael. Included are brainy Maddy, perky Robin, science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
Eddie, socialite
Socialite
A socialite is a person who participates in social activities and spends a significant amount of time entertaining and being entertained at fashionable upper-class events....
snob Melissa, the stoner David, the preppy Russel and his girlfriend Sandra, and Ben and his girlfriend Kate. Nick (Kevin Blair
Kevin Spirtas
Kevin Blair Spirtas is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as Dr. Craig Wesley on the soap opera Days of our Lives. Spirtas starred in the slasher film Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood , started his career on Broadway with roles including Hugh Jackman's understudy in...
) is Michael's cousin and aside from that, hardly knows the others. He becomes attracted to Tina and tries to start a relationship with her, despite her initial resistance, she becomes friends with most of the kids and takes strides to return to being "normal." But her situation and initial spite of Melissa who is also eying Nick cause a great deal of tension.
After a particularly stressful session with Dr. Crews, Tina bursts out of the house and makes her way to the dock where her father died. Believing she senses him, she uses her telekinetic powers in an attempt to resurrect him, only to inadvertently free Jason (Kane Hodder
Kane Hodder
Kane Warren Hodder is an American actor and stuntman. Standing , he is best known for his portrayal of Jason Voorhees in four films from the Friday the 13th film series . He is also known for his role as Victor Crowley in Hatchet. -Career:Hodder is the only actor to portray Jason Voorhees more...
) from his imprisonment. She tells her mother and Dr. Crews, who believe she is being delusional and seeing things. However, Jason returns to his duties by dispatching Michael and his girlfriend Jane along with a nearby camping couple, Dan and Judy, who all happen to be in the area. Tina panics when she sees a vision of Michael being killed and begins to doubt her own sanity, especially after direct evidence is apparently a delusion when she sends Dr. Crews to investigate. Dr. Crews discovers the bodies of Michael and Jane and runs back to the cabin not telling anyone what he saw. Amanda soon discovers Crews' true motives, however and overhearing the argument, Tina runs away, taking the car, which she crashes shortly afterward after having a vision of Jason killing her mother.
Jason enters the grounds and kills Russel with an axe to the face and drowns Sandra in the lake while she is naked. Maddy, who is out to prove she can be attractive like Robin for David goes looking for him and discovers Russel's body before being killed with a sickle when she hides from Jason. Ben and Kate make up from an argument just in time for Jason to crush his skull and shove a party horn
Party horn
A party horn, also known as a blow-out, blower, noisemaker or a squeaker, is a horn formed from a paper tube, often one that is flattened and rolled into a coil, and which unrolls when blown into, producing a horn-like noise. Modern variations have a plastic mouthpiece, which prevents the swift...
into Kate's eye. He kills David with a knife and moves upstairs to throw Robin out a window.
Tina and Nick reunite in the woods and discover Michael's body. During this time Jason makes his way downstairs to kill Eddie. Nick leaves Tina at the house to warn the other teens and soon discovers Eddie's body. He returns to find Tina gone and Melissa sneaking around the house. He begs her to stay, which she agrees. Amanda and Dr. Crews discover Amanda's car, and during their investigation they discover Jason. After a short run, Dr. Crews holds Amanda as a human shield and she is killed. Crews tries to escape, but he is killed by a tree saw. Tina finds her mother's body, then follows Jason back to the camp, discovering bodies along the way before confronting him. Using her powers to keep Jason outside of arm's reach, she finally seems to kill him by dropping the roof of one of the house porches on him, but it only slows him down. Melissa, thinking this is a sick joke tries to return to bed, but when she opens the door to leave Jason appears and axes her in the head, throwing her over a TV. Tina continues to use her powers to keep Nick from being killed, eventually throwing Jason into the house basement. She douses him with gas and uses the furnace's fire to ignite it. She and Nick make their way to the docks just as the house goes up in an enormous explosion.
Jason comes back and knocks Nick unconscious and incapacitates Tina. Using her powers, she finally resurrects her father who wraps Jason's chains around him and pulls the killer back into the lake before Tina passes out.
The following morning, Nick and Tina are placed into an ambulance where she tells him that "they" took care of Jason, meaning her and her father. Someone discovers Jason's mask, torn in two as the ambulance pulls off into the morning light.
Cast
- Lar Park LincolnLar Park LincolnLar Park Lincoln is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles in the 1987 film House II: The Second Story as Kate, and in the 1988 horror film Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood as Tina Shepard.-Biography:...
as Tina Shepard - Kevin SpirtasKevin SpirtasKevin Blair Spirtas is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as Dr. Craig Wesley on the soap opera Days of our Lives. Spirtas starred in the slasher film Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood , started his career on Broadway with roles including Hugh Jackman's understudy in...
as Nick - Susan BluSusan BluSusan Maria Blu , sometimes credited as Sue Blu, is an American voice actress, voice director, and casting director in American and Canadian cinema and television...
as Mrs. Amanda Shepard - Terry KiserTerry KiserTerry Kiser is an American actor, best known for his portrayal of the dead title-character in the comedy Weekend at Bernie's, and its sequel, Weekend at Bernie's II....
as Dr. Crews - Jennifer Banko as Young Tina
- Susan Jennifer Sullivan as Melissa
- Elizabeth KaitanElizabeth Kaitan-Career:Elizabeth Kaitan was a model for the Bonnie Kay Agency in New York City in the early 1980s. Kaitan is perhaps best known for her roles in movies such as Savage Dawn , Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 as Jennifer, Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood as Robin, and in Vice Academy Parts...
as Robin - Jon Renfield as David
- Jeff BennettJeff BennettJeffrey Glenn "Jeff" Bennett is an American voice actor and musician, listed "among the top names in the voice-over field", best known as the voice of Johnny Bravo in the series of the same name...
as Eddie - Heidi KozakHeidi KozakHeidi Kozak is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for her act as Sally Burns in Slumber Party Massacre 2 and Sandra in Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood...
as Sandra - Diana BarrowsDiana BarrowsDiana Barrows is an American film and television actress, singer and a dancer.-Filmography:*Naked Killer - Charlotte*Does God Exist? - Burton's wife*Un homme - Margaret...
as Maddy - Kerry Noonan as Paula (Archive Footage)
- Thom Matthews as adult Tommy Jarvis (archive footage)
- Corey FeldmanCorey FeldmanCorey Scott Feldman is an American film and television actor. He became known during the 1980s, with roles in the Hollywood films Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, The Goonies, Stand by Me, The Lost Boys, License to Drive, Dream a Little Dream, Gremlins and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...
as young Tommy Jarvis (archive footage) - Jennifer CookeJennifer CookeJennifer Cooke is an American actress.She is perhaps best known for her role as the "Star Child", Elizabeth, who is half Human/half Visitor in the 1984 television series V. She also starred in the soap opera Guiding Light as Morgan Richards Nelson from 1981-1983. Cooke played "Debbie" on the...
as Megan Garris (archive footage) - Ted WhiteTed White (stuntman)Ted White is an American stunt man/actor who doubled for John Wayne, Fess Parker, Clark Gable, Lee Marvin and Richard Boone, among others.-Sports career:The hulking White also played football for the University of Oklahoma....
as Jason Voorhees (archive footage) - Larry Cox as Russell
- Craig Thomas as Ben
- Diane Almeida as Kate
- Kane HodderKane HodderKane Warren Hodder is an American actor and stuntman. Standing , he is best known for his portrayal of Jason Voorhees in four films from the Friday the 13th film series . He is also known for his role as Victor Crowley in Hatchet. -Career:Hodder is the only actor to portray Jason Voorhees more...
as Jason VoorheesJason VoorheesJason Voorhees is a fictional character from the Friday the 13th series of slasher films. He first appeared in Friday the 13th , as the son of camp cook-turned-murderer, Mrs. Voorhees, in which he was portrayed by Ari Lehman. Created by Victor Miller, with contributions by Ron Kurz, Sean S...
Production
The film was originally hoped to be a clash between Jason Voorhees and Freddy KruegerFreddy Krueger
Frederick Charles "Freddy" Krueger is a fictional, horrifying character from the Nightmare on Elm Street series of horror films. He first appears in Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street as a disfigured dream stalker who uses a glove armed with razors to kill his victims in their dreams,...
. Plans fell apart when Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
(who held the rights to the Friday the 13th series at the time) and New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema, often simply referred to as New Line, is an American film studio. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne as a film distributor, later becoming an independent film studio. It became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996 and was merged with larger sister studio Warner...
(who held the rights to the Nightmare on Elm Street films), failed to come to an agreement. That film
Freddy vs. Jason
Freddy vs. Jason is a 2003 American slasher film directed by Ronny Yu. The film is a crossover between the A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th franchises...
was eventually made possible when New Line bought the rights to the Friday the 13th series, but did not see release until 2003.
The entire production of this film was scheduled, completed, and released within six months; shooting took place from October to November 1987 in rural southern Alabama near Bay Minette
Bay Minette, Alabama
Bay Minette is a city in Baldwin County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population of the city was 7,820. According to the 2007 U.S. Census estimates, the city had an population of about 7,726 people. The city is the county seat of Baldwin County...
. This film marks the first of four appearances by Kane Hodder as Jason, the only actor to ever reprise the role. Although C. J. Graham, who had portrayed Jason in Part VI, was initially considered, Hodder was ultimately chosen based on his work in the film Prison, directed by The New Bloods director, Carl Buechler. 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 Graham. Graham expressed disappointment, as he had hoped to reprise the role of Jason and make himself synonymous with the character, as Boris Karloff
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...
had with Frankenstein's monster
Frankenstein's monster
Frankenstein's monster is a fictional character that first appeared in Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. The creature is often erroneously referred to as "Frankenstein", but in the novel the creature has no name...
, but ultimately expressed satisfaction with Hodder's portrayal and said that he bore no ill will about not being asked to return. Hodder would go on to make cinematic history for the longest uninterrupted on-screen 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 photogrpahy). Hodder was on fire for a full forty seconds, a record at the time.
Several explicit scenes of gore were cut in order to avoid an X rating, including: Maddy's death, who originally had a sickle
Sickle
A sickle is a hand-held agricultural tool with a variously curved blade typically used for harvesting grain crops or cutting succulent forage chiefly for feeding livestock . Sickles have also been used as weapons, either in their original form or in various derivations.The diversity of sickles that...
jammed through her neck; Ben's death, which showed Jason mashing his head into a bloody pulp; Kate's demise, which showed Jason ramming her in the eye with a party horn, the box set (DVD) release only shows Jason ramming her in the eye 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
Blood squirt
Blood squirt is the effect when an artery, a blood vessel in the human body , is cut...
; 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; 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. The boxed set DVD release of all of the films and the single deluxe edition have all these scenes available as deleted scenes in rough workprint footage, however the deluxe edition features more additional footage than the boxed set.
Release and reception
All existing home video versions of this film, including the box set released by Paramount Home Video have the infamous "sleeping bag death" cut to one hit, whereas the original theater-shown version had the uncut, six-hit sleeping bag death scene, with blood all over the sleeping bag, intact.At the budget of $2.8 million, the film took in $19.1 million at the domestic box office upon its initial release.
John Carl Buechler, the director, who also created the special make-up effects for the film, is credited with creating "the definitive Jason".
The film is mentioned in the novels American Psycho
American Psycho
American Psycho is a psychological thriller and satirical novel by Bret Easton Ellis, published in 1991. The story is told in the first person by the protagonist, serial killer and Manhattan businessman Patrick Bateman. The book's graphic violence and sexual content generated a great deal of...
by Bret Easton Ellis
Bret Easton Ellis
Bret Easton Ellis is an American novelist and short story writer. His works have been translated into 27 different languages. He was regarded as one of the so-called literary Brat Pack, which also included Tama Janowitz and Jay McInerney...
and The Time Traveler's Wife
The Time Traveler's Wife
Once their timelines converge "naturally" at the library—their first meeting in his chronology—Henry starts to travel to Clare's childhood and adolescence in South Haven, Michigan, beginning in 1977 when she is six years old...
by Audrey Niffenegger
Audrey Niffenegger
Audrey Niffenegger is an American writer, artist and academic.-Writing:A film version of Niffenegger's debut novel, The Time Traveler's Wife , starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams, was released in August 2009.She has also written a graphic novel, or "novel in pictures" as Niffenegger calls it,...
.