In making preparations for my annual August foray into schlock cinema,aka Bad Movie Month,this weekend I came across a fun series called Good Bad Flicks,which does rundowns on some of the best of the worst genres from the past and present.
Narrated and edited by a fella named Cecil,GBF offers up not only a breakdown of the important plot points for such films as Night of the Creeps and The Wicker Man(Nic Cage version),he also gives the viewer some behind the scenes bonus information.
While flipping through the video listings for GBF,I found a few old school films that I haven't thought about in some time and believed to be long lost,like the bizarre thriller The Kiss from the late eighties. However,what got me to write this post was the tribute to Friday the 13th Part Seven:The New Blood,which hold the distinction of being the only movie in that series(other than Freddy Vs. Jason,of course)that I actually went to a theater to see:
Now,I was and still am more of a Nightmare on Elm Street fan girl than a Friday the 13th gal,which even though there was a movie house in walking distance of my home that showed plenty of horror films back in the day,I let the Jason movies pass me right on by.
What got me into this installment was the twist of the film's heroine having psychic powers,turning the story into an unofficial "Jason Vs. Carrie" story. I went on opening night and the one thing that I recall first and foremost was the noise of the audience.
The theater that I attended(which is sadly no more)was the kind of place that you either had to sit up front or pay to see the movie again in order to hear all of the dialogue usually,but the sound level in the crowd for this movie was high enough to pierce dimensional walls,in my opinion. Not that it was a deterrent here,in fact that roar of the crowd was it's own special effect that enhanced the movie better than any 3-D or IMAX add-on could.
Before the film even started,my fellow movie goers that night were charged up by one of the preview trailers,Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3. The brief little vignette that had a witty gruesome nod to the Lady of the Lake really got the party started that night:
Another major thing that resonates with me from that show was that I seemed to be the only one in the audience who rooted for any of the characters to live. Just about everyone else was rallying for Jason,as he made his slaughter happy way though the cast.
Granted,most of them were pretty much stick figures for our masked marauder to chop down but I did at least want leading lady Tina(played by Lar Park Lincoln)to survive the night.The only characters that did give me delight in seeing their demise was the bitchy blonde Melissa and the manipulative Dr. Crews,who was supposed to be helping Tina cope with the guilt of using her powers accidentally as a child and inadvertently causing the death of her father(conveniently occurring near Crystal Lake,naturally!).
A lot of fans of this movie focus on the sleeping bag murder scene,which was rather inventive,but what stands out for me is the part of the film where Tina's mother and Dr. Crews are in the woods arguing about his true motives for Tina when Jason shows up with a tree trimmer.
The not so good doctor practices his own brand of chivalry by putting Tina's mom in between him and Jason,allowing her to take one right in the chest. As Tina feels the psychic vibes that tell her of her mother's demise,I was in my seat cursing up a blue streak and demanding that doctor's head on a stick.
While Dr. Crews wasn't decapitated,I and the rest of the crowd were gleeful to see him get what was coming to him when Jason did catch up to him at last. Too bad that scene was one of the ones that the MPAA insisted upon being tweaked in order for the movie to have an R rating,although I'm sure the original cut is available on DVD.
Not a lovely emotion to admit to there,but hey,movies like this are meant to be somewhat of a cathartic release for such feelings and it was pretty cool to boot:
GBF's Cecil also appears to hold a special place in his heart for this seventh sequel along with me and his take on the film shouldn't ruin your enjoyment of seeing it for the first time,if that is the case with you. With this week ending on a Friday the 13th,chances are that P7:The New Blood might show up on a cable channel near you,so definitely tune in if you're lucky enough to come across it.
As for me,I intend to keep up with Good Bad Flicks and look forward to many more
romps in the bad movie sections here(wonder if GBF has ever covered a Freddy flick?)and I highly recommend that anyone with a love for genre fare does the same:
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