Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)

Directed by John Carl Buechler. Starring Lar Park Lincoln, Terry Kiser, Kevin Blair, Susan Jennifer Sullivan, Susan Blu, John Renfield, Elizabeth Kaitan, Jeff Bennett, Diana Barrows, Kane Hodder, Heidi Cox, Larry Kozak, Craig Thomas, Diane Almeida, William Butler. [R]

Initially intended to be a crossover event for Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger, the plan fell through and the script for this seventh film in the long-running slasher franchise was reworked to become a story where the “final girl” has psychokinetic powers—“Jason vs. Carrie,” essentially. A completely worthless exercise in gruesome tedium with two minor exceptions: the fan-favorite scene where Jason whacks a sleeping bag-cocooned camper against a tree, and the climactic throwdown where stuntman/actor Hodder earned his salary five times over (dude was even involved in a record-setting uninterrupted controlled burn sequence). The mild goodwill generated by the latter scene is immediately negated, however, by a truly pitiful conclusion where Jason goes out like a total chump in the lamest way imaginable. Thanks, dead abusive dad! Even the music stinks, with Harry Manfredini’s old themes mixed with new material from Fred Mollin. First of four appearances from Hodder as Jason, the most number of times anyone has played the role.

19/100