16
Metascore
8 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 40TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineTo make up for the lack of blood, the film provided more gratuitous nudity than had been seen in the previous installments of the series.
- 38Slant MagazineJeremiah KippSlant MagazineJeremiah KippThe tone is crude, raunchy, and leering, with kill scenes combined with more nudity than usual; we’re even invited to check out a hot chick’s body after her face has been sliced in half by garden shears.
- 30IGNIGNIf you're in the right mood and watching with others who can appreciate the art of a bad movie, A New Beginning is somewhat of a laugh riot.
- 25Chicago TribuneGene SiskelChicago TribuneGene SiskelThere is little suspense in the film; the identity of the killer is heavily foreshadowed early on with a baroque music cue and a couple of menacing glances. And the false endings, which have become standard in this genre ever since "Carrie," reach laughable proportions here, because, yes, there will be a sixth film in the series next year. Have a nice day. [25 March 1985, p.C5]
- 25Miami HeraldBill CosfordMiami HeraldBill CosfordThe setting is no longer a summer camp, but a woodsy "confinement center" for the young and deranged; it's the kind of place in which, when a slow-witted inmate begins to taunt the guy chopping wood, one is impelled, with justification, to cover one's eyes. [3 Apr 1985, p.D7]
- 20The New York TimesVincent CanbyThe New York TimesVincent CanbyThis one, set in a bucolic halfway house for disturbed children, is not entirely without Grand Guignol humor, but almost. It appears to have been paced by a metronome - a joke followed by a murder followed by a joke followed by a murder, until all but one of the featured played have been exterminated...It's worth recognizing only as an artifact of our culture.
- 20Los Angeles TimesKevin ThomasLos Angeles TimesKevin ThomasEven as you feel grateful to be able to laugh off this film, you realize that its humor is really only inuring you to a nonstop series of stabbings, slashings, impalings, stranglings and yet other means of killing. Be warned: For all its laughs, Friday the 13th -- A New Beginning (rightly rated R) is just one more nauseating sick joke. [25 March 1985, p.C6]
- 0Austin ChronicleSteve DavisAustin ChronicleSteve DavisAnd the rest of the movie? Same screaming, same endless chases, same breasts, same blood, same axe, same lack of explanation, same ending primed for another sequel. Is there a pattern emerging here? In short: same as it ever was, same as it ever was.