Director: John Carl Buechler
Year: 1988
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Arriving at Crystal Lake to study her powers, a teen with psychic abilities fears she has resurrected Jason Voorhees from his slumber in the lake and is out killing off a party next door, forcing her to race to stop him before he kills them all.
Plot:
This was easily one of the most underrated efforts of the series. Among the great qualities here is the fun this has in doling out the kills here, with an exceptionally large body count that offers up numerous exciting and creative kills here that still rank among the series' best. The slaughtered pair of hikers camping in the woods are quite nice, and the early attacks on the group offer some of the most bizarre and creative kills possible in the series, and that there's so many fun kills here requires the action to pull them off. Those action scenes are a lot of fun, with the initial resurrection from the lake, a fine series of kills against the hikers in the woods and the stalking down by the lake all bring up the action considerably, and once it moves to the massacre of the group in the house partying away this one really picks up as the one-by-one nature of the kills provides this with a great deal of action.
Even the woods chasing here is a great deal of fun, as the constant running around here and the stumbling around on the bodies at his secret hideout gives this quite a few rather exciting scenes, though the true fun of this here comes from the final encounter with Jason. The supernatural powers makes quite an impression here as this one finally puts Jason on the defensive and really unleashes some solid punishment against him, uprooting tree-vines to ensnare him, electrocuting him, dropping him down throughout several floors through to the basement, dumping part of the house onto him and finally setting him on fire all the while featuring all the usual stalking elements featured in such grand finale chases as the battle goes from the woods, throughout both houses, down to the basement and finishes at the docks and wraps up the earlier sequences rather nicely.
For the most part, the acting is more hit than miss. Lar Park-Lincoln is a little troubling as Tina, who seems like a wet blanket for much of the movie and seems to resort to just standing still weeping and crying out in anger so it makes the budding romance a little clumsy. Still, there's more than enough to like about her as Jason comes after her and manages to put up a decent fight with Jason truly getting his comeuppance in a grand manner. Kevin Spirtas is much more impressive as Nick, the love interest as she's quite naturally taken with his quiet, reserved manner when he gives off the impression of a jock. He becomes useless during the final fight which is a shame but since it's more about her fight against Jason it's quite appropriate he does it. The legendary Kane Hodder starts the role of Jason here with an impressive run in a truly worthwhile, standout performance where he puts far more physicality into the kills which adds even more to his imposing presence. That leads nicely into the supporting cast who are truly sympathetic or downright scummy which adds to the fun of this one. Again sporting an amazing Jason look of decomposition from the lake-bed, there here gives this a lot to like against the one really irritating plot here.
This one has a rather distracting quality here of having her run off into the woods after every situation here, regardless of who's responsible for the troubling matter against her so this wears thin very quickly with every encounter resulting in this action. It becomes incredibly distracting when her first reaction to anything, either through the bullying done by the group or just the peer pressure exhibited against her by the doctor, means she just starts running into the woods and is a bit odd. As well, a few minor issues here include the obvious lack of gore in the kills which is quite disappointing overall, and the ending is a bit of a cheat which makes no sense that offers no real resolution in the story. Otherwise, there's not much wrong here.
Overview: ****/5
A wholly underrated and enjoyable effort, once this one finds any kind of uncut version of this one should definitely dive into this one with extreme impunity. Until then, this one should really only be for the most complete and hardcore fans of the franchise of the genre as well, while those who haven't enjoyed this one should heed caution.
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