Friday the 13th 7

This time Jason meets his match again in the shape of a young female psychic named Tina. She goes to stay in a cabin on Crystal Lake with her mother. Her creepy psychiatrist Dr. Crews pretends to help her deal with childhood trauma issues over the death of her father. The usual group of horny, drunken, pot smoking teens are staying nearby and they provide plenty of fodder for Jason to slaughter. This is action packed and violent with a serious tone, some great make-up and death sequences and a few unintentionally comical moments.

The film opens with Tina as a young girl witnessing her alcoholic father hitting her mother. She uses her psychic powers to collapse the pier he is standing on and poor dad sinks to the bottom of Crystal Lake. Returning to the scene of her crime years later Tina remembers what happened and uses her powers to try and resurrect her poor departed father. Unfortunately for her the decayed killer, Jason Voorhees, was chained and sunk to the bottom of Crystal Lake by Tommy at the end of part VI. She accidentally resurrects the psycho killer and, despite looking seriously ripe, he goes right back to work thinning out the local population.

Tina begins to have visions about Jason and, while her useless mother writes her off as mad, the sinister Dr. Crews is actually trying to upset her to provoke her powers so he can make his fortune. This is one of the nastiest outings for Voorhees and it has a dark and gritty mood, unlike the irreverent part VI. Many of the explicit deaths were cut to get a rating for release but there is still plenty of violent action and some memorable kills including the old trapped in the sleeping bag and bashed off a tree manoeuvre. One of my favourites is the party hooter to the eye and it even makes the hooter noise as Jason rams it in.

The acting is pretty terrible as usual and the skinny dipping obnoxious teenagers break all the usual horror film rules to bring about their inevitable deaths. Lar Park-Lincoln plays main character Tina, Susan Blu plays her mother and she sports one of the worst eighties haircuts ever. Terry Kiser is quite good as the grasping psychiatrist Dr. Crews and Tina's love interest Nick is played by the incredibly wooden Kevin Spirtas. Kane Hodder plays Jason and his physique and general air of psycho work well.

The film goes for a surprisingly serious tone after the tongue in cheek antics of part VI but there are several moments which just don't work at all. First off the geek transformation where the ugly girl gets herself tarted up is positively cringe worthy. The showdown between Tina and Jason is also quite funny, in particular the moment where she levitates a decapitated head in a pot plant towards him.

This was originally intended to be the Freddy vs Jason film but arguments over the rights prevented it from happening until 2003. It is a decent entry in the series and marks Kane Hodder's debut as Jason, he went on to play the killer in the next three Friday the 13th films. There is loads of Jason action and we get an extended look at his now rotten, deformed features without the classic Jason Voorhees hockey mask, not a pretty sight.

It was a popular release at the cinema and raked in millions. It may not be original but it is a solid slasher flick and fans of Jason won't be disappointed.

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