TheLittleSongbird 'Friday the 13th' may have been panned by critics when first released but since then it is one of the most famous and influential horror films, the franchise containing one of horror's most iconic villains. The film is popular enough to become a franchise and spawn several sequels of varying quality and generally inferior to the one that started it all off. 'The New Blood', the seventh instalment, is not among the best films in the series from personal opinion, though far from awful. It does have good things and a couple of interest points, but there is the general sense that things and the concept were becoming half-hearted and stale. Not sure as to whether 'The New Blood' is the worst film in the series as some critics and fans have said it to be.As aforementioned, 'The New Blood' has strengths. The make-up effects are genuinely gruesome and frightening and the telekinetic effects are surprisingly good. The music score once again is hauntingly eerie and there are a couple of deaths that are well done, the sleeping bag one is the best one and not just one of the film's highlights but also one of the best death scenes to me of the whole series. Kane Hodder sends chills down the spine as Jason. The interest point of 'The New Blood' is the supernatural, telekinetic element, the one thing that stops the film from being severely fatigued and from it being a complete retread. It is a very strange idea and doesn't feel like it entirely belongs within the film, but it's pretty clever. However, Lar Park-Lincoln is fairly overwrought in places, though she does have good moments especially with Hodder, and the rest of the acting is nothing to write about. Their characters are hard to care for, due to them being so sketchy and in a couple of cases grating. The dialogue continues to be crude and simplistic. None of these were strengths anyway in the 'Friday the 13th' series ('Jason Lives' is an exception), but for all 'The New Blood' is one of the worse-faring cases.Pacing feels rushed in the telling of the story, which can feel jumpy, and dull because it's all so bloodless. The humour is more goofy and annoying than tongue-in-cheek and witty, there is a real shortage of suspense, far too tame scares (and it's not just because the film is very un-gory, the only one that shocks is the un-masking) and the deaths have been far more imaginative and creepy elsewhere in the series, with one exception. The ending is ridiculous and over-extended.On the whole, lacklustre but not a waste of time. 4/10 Bethany Cox

a_chinn Picking up from the last film where Tommy Jarvis left Jason chained to the bottom of Crystal Lake, Mr. Voorhees is awakened from his underwater hibernation when a teen with psychic powers inadvertently sets him free. Jason then proceeds to butcher yet another set of campers. The only elements of note for this entry are that the film features Kane Hodder's first appearance as Jason, who most fans believe is the definitive Jason (thought I'm not sure his performance is really all that different from others), but I would say this film seemed to solidify Jason's character, look, and status as a supernatural creature. The film also features Terry Kiser, Bernie the hilarious dead body from "Weekend at Bernie's." Meh.

TheMovieDoctorful When one thinks about it, given its place in the "Friday the 13th" saga, it makes sense that "The New Blood" gets so overlooked and underrated by fans of the franchise. The films that followed it; "Jason Takes Manhattan" (A personal guilty pleasure), "Jason Goes To Hell" and "Jason X" are often regarded as the 3 worst movies in the series. In contrast, the film that preceded it, "Jason Lives" is often regarded as the best film in the series. So, it's safe to assume that "The New Blood" was the turning point in which the "Friday the 13th" franchise, pun intended, went to Hell. Only, it wasn't. In fact, behind "Jason Lives", I'd say it's the second best "Friday" film to date.The tone of "New Blood" is an excellent mix of dark and light. The self satirical, comedic, light hearted nature of "Jason Lives" (Jeff Bennett as Eddie is particularly hilarious, taking already witty comedic dialogue and making it gold.) is most certainly here, but the film is not without is certainly not without its darker and more serious moments. Tina herself is a character going through some very real, very tragic personal problems regarding her self loathing over her father's death, and the kills are more painful and visceral (Creative too and memorable too. The "sleeping bag" kill might be my all-time favorite kill in ANY "Jason" film. Just so blunt and shocking.) On top of that, this is one of the few installments in the series where I never got the feeling that the main characters were safe just because they were the main characters; this is a film that has no problems torturing its protagonist and it wasn't too much of a stretch to think that would extend to actually killing her. This makes the final 1/3 of the movie much more suspenseful than any of the other "Friday the 13th" films.Lar Park Lincoln is fantastic as Tina Shepard, easily one of the best characters in the "Friday the 13th" saga. With her friendly yet haunted delivery and adorable shyness, Lincoln grabs both my sympathy and my attention from beginning to end. Tina is a character who is wracked by loneliness and guilt throughout "The New Blood", horrified at the prospect of being responsible for her father's death and with nobody to trust or open up to emotionally. To see such a shy and passive character develop and grow to the point where she can go toe to toe with Jason himself makes for a very satisfying and investing final showdown. Terry Kiser is clearly having a ton of fun as the secondary villain Dr. Crews, and it really shows. He brings an unexpected subtlety to his performance, never going over the top or venturing into the realm of camp. Instead, Kiser focuses on the character's manipulative and sinister charm. Dr. Crews offers an excellent contrast to Jason; with Jason being a very blatant, aggressive "in your face" kind of evil whereas Dr. Crews is a much more subtle, charismatic villain. Of course, the most iconic and legendary performance in the movie has to be Kane Hodder as the terror of Crystal Lake himself, Jason Voorhees. Hodder brings a real violent edge to his performance. His movements, his walk, his facial expressions when his face is revealed all have a very primal, animalistic nature to them. Make no mistake, Hodder is the scariest and most brutal Jason to date by far.All of the effects for this movie are just perfect. Director John Carl Buechler's monster makeup for Jason Voorhees is some of my favorite practical effects works of the 80s and his gore effects are equally impressive and realistic (Though sadly largely cut by the MPAA, many of it now only available through deleted scenes on the DVD), but underrated are the sets and cinematography in the film. Camp Crystal Lake has a much grimer, nastier look to it than in the other "Friday the 13th" films. The fog, the forests, the general lack of light; it just FEELS like this evil, unnatural and scary place.It will always confuse me as to how this film doesn't get more credit among the "Friday the 13th" fandom as one of the best the franchise had to offer. It had a great protagonist, great villains, great effects, a great tone, great cinematography...Truly an underrated gem of the genre.

Sean Lamberger Jason rises again to stab, slice and sever the partygoing youths of Crystal Lake. This time, he stares down with a fellow supernatural: Tina, a troubled young woman with telekinetic abilities and an equally tragic history with the location. Points for shaking up the formula a tad, but this gimmick is just as ham-fisted and overplayed as everything else the series has tried to freshen itself up. Along with Tina's bad floating-toaster act, we still get the requisite amount of shallow teenage stereotypes - boring characters who don't really deserve their fate but certainly won't be mourned - and magical Jason hide-and-seek performances. Once again crippled by the censors, the kills are all cut short, and without those frequent, bloody, money shots to rely on, there's really no reason to bother tuning in. This entry's final surprise - a callback to the first film that's already been aped once or twice before - is so snort-inducingly bad I can't believe it actually got the green light. Stupid, toothless, time-wasting schlock.