# Friday the 13th: A New Beginning
**Friday the 13th: A New Beginning** (also released as *Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning*) is a 1985 American slasher film directed by Danny Steinmann, the fifth installment of the [Friday the 13th](https://www.edgepedia.org/friday-the-13th) series. It follows [Tommy Jarvis](https://www.edgepedia.org/tommy-jarvis) (John Shepherd), the young man who killed the serial killer [Jason Voorhees](https://www.edgepedia.org/jason-voorhees), as he lives in a halfway house for troubled teens while murders that appear to be Jason's work begin around him. The film is distinctive in the series because its killer is not Jason Voorhees.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/friday_the_13th_part_v_a_new_beginning) • [2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57690-FRIDAY-THE13THANEWBEGINNING?cp=1&cxt=Filmography1&pos=2&sid=caca2f8e-80ab-4db0-903c-26280b5ced25&sr=7.265183)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | 22 March 1985, United States; R rating; 92 minutes[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57690-FRIDAY-THE13THANEWBEGINNING?cp=1&cxt=Filmography1&pos=2&sid=caca2f8e-80ab-4db0-903c-26280b5ced25&sr=7.265183) |
| Director and writers | Danny Steinmann; screenplay by Martin Kitrosser, David Cohen, and Steinmann[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57690-FRIDAY-THE13THANEWBEGINNING?cp=1&cxt=Filmography1&pos=2&sid=caca2f8e-80ab-4db0-903c-26280b5ced25&sr=7.265183) |
| Lead cast | Melanie Kinnaman (Pam), John Shepherd (Tommy Jarvis), Shavar Ross (Reggie); Corey Feldman appears as Tommy at age 12[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57690-FRIDAY-THE13THANEWBEGINNING?cp=1&cxt=Filmography1&pos=2&sid=caca2f8e-80ab-4db0-903c-26280b5ced25&sr=7.265183) |
| Box office | $8 million from the opening weekend in 1,759 theaters; $21.9 million total domestic[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57690-FRIDAY-THE13THANEWBEGINNING?cp=1&cxt=Filmography1&pos=2&sid=caca2f8e-80ab-4db0-903c-26280b5ced25&sr=7.265183) |
| Critical scores | 11% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (84 reviews); Metascore 16 from 8 reviews; IMDb user rating 4.8/10[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/friday_the_13th_part_v_a_new_beginning) • [3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089173/criticreviews/) • [4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089173/) |
| Franchise position | Fifth film; Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan was the last installment distributed by Paramount Pictures before the franchise moved to New Line Cinema[5](https://guides.justwatch.com/uk/complete-friday-the-13th-timeline) • [14](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/franchise/fr2152173317/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and premise
The story is set years after Tommy Jarvis killed the hockey-masked serial killer Jason Voorhees. Tommy resides in a mental hospital and struggles with the trauma of that experience, then moves to an isolated halfway house where he has nightmares about Jason's return. After a patient named Joey (Dominick Brascia) is killed, the body count grows, and Tommy begins to question his sanity and wonder whether Jason has risen from the dead.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/friday_the_13th_part_v_a_new_beginning) Paramount's own synopsis frames the same ambiguity from the studio's side: as murders occur at the secluded halfway house where Tommy now lives, it seems Jason is back, and Tommy begins to wonder if he has become the killer he fears most.[6](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/friday-the-13th-part-v-a-new-beginning)
The killer is ultimately not Jason Voorhees. The character Roy, played by Dick Wieand, is the film's murderer, a departure that lets the entry work as a murder mystery in the manner of the 1980 original rather than a straightforward Jason slasher.[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/friday_the_13th_part_v_a_new_beginning/cast-and-crew) • [8](https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3622325/fridays-without-jason-comparing-contrasting-friday-13ths-beginning-new-beginning/) • [9](https://guides.justwatch.com/us/friday-the-13th-part-v-killer-explained)
### Place in the franchise
The film followed *[Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter](https://www.edgepedia.org/friday-the-13th-the-final-chapter)* (1984), which had been intended to end the series; producer Frank Mancuso Jr. wanted to move on, but a fifth film was greenlit after the fourth's box-office success.[8](https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3622325/fridays-without-jason-comparing-contrasting-friday-13ths-beginning-new-beginning/) Its attempt to pass the killer's mantle to someone new was controversial, and the next installment, *Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives* (1986), returned Jason to the series, set one year after *A New Beginning*.[5](https://guides.justwatch.com/uk/complete-friday-the-13th-timeline) • [12](https://sequelorder.com/friday-the-13th/) *Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan* (1989) was the last Friday the 13th installment distributed by [Paramount Pictures](https://www.edgepedia.org/paramount-pictures) before the franchise rights passed to [New Line Cinema](https://www.edgepedia.org/new-line-cinema).[5](https://guides.justwatch.com/uk/complete-friday-the-13th-timeline) • [14](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/franchise/fr2152173317/)
**Reassessment** has been mixed. In an editorial that compared this entry with the 1980 original, the horror site [Bloody Disgusting](https://www.edgepedia.org/bloody-disgusting) observed that both movies work as classic whodunits with comparable motives for their killers and that neither features the series' icon as the murderer; the site also praised the film for inventive, unforgettable deaths, among them a leather strap dragged across the face, eyes pierced by a branch trimmer, and the killer's end on a bed of spikes.[8](https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3622325/fridays-without-jason-comparing-contrasting-friday-13ths-beginning-new-beginning/) The film scholar George Wickham Clayton, whose doctoral thesis at the University of Roehampton studies the aesthetics of the Friday the 13th films, argues that despite a profitable but disappointing box-office performance and negative fan reviews, *A New Beginning* is a bold piece of subversive filmmaking based on its generic and narrative development, characterization, and aesthetics.[13](https://research.uca.ac.uk/5026/1/Wickham%20Clayton%20Introduction.pdf) Among general audiences, Rotten Tomatoes user reviews single out the film's Jason-not-Jason mystery element and its story of Tommy dealing with trauma alongside other troubled teens as strengths, even while rating the film poorly overall.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/friday_the_13th_part_v_a_new_beginning)
## Production
[The Hollywood Reporter](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-hollywood-reporter) announced on 27 June 1984 that the fifth film in the series was being written. Filming was completed in January 1985, and the release was scheduled for 22 March 1985.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57690-FRIDAY-THE13THANEWBEGINNING?cp=1&cxt=Filmography1&pos=2&sid=caca2f8e-80ab-4db0-903c-26280b5ced25&sr=7.265183) The production company was Terror, Inc., with Paramount Pictures distributing; Timothy Silver produced and Frank Mancuso Jr. was executive producer. Stephen L. Posey was the cinematographer, Bruce Green the editor, and Harry Manfredini, the series' longtime composer, wrote the music.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57690-FRIDAY-THE13THANEWBEGINNING?cp=1&cxt=Filmography1&pos=2&sid=caca2f8e-80ab-4db0-903c-26280b5ced25&sr=7.265183) • [6](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/friday-the-13th-part-v-a-new-beginning)
Director Danny Steinmann was not happy with the process of making the film and subsequently quit filmmaking, leaving *A New Beginning* as his last film.[10](https://moriareviews.com/horror/friday-the-13th-part-v-a-new-beginning-1985.htm)
## Reception
**Contemporary critics** were largely negative. The film holds an 11% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes from 84 reviews, with a critics consensus calling it a failure even as mindless splatter entertainment, hacking through a repetitive parade of uninspired kills with little style or tension; the audience Popcornmeter stands at 26% from more than 50,000 ratings.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/friday_the_13th_part_v_a_new_beginning) On Metacritic it scores 16 from 8 reviews. [Gene Siskel](https://www.edgepedia.org/gene-siskel) of the [Chicago Tribune](https://www.edgepedia.org/chicago-tribune) wrote that there is little suspense and that the killer's identity is heavily foreshadowed early on with a baroque music cue and a couple of menacing glances; TV Guide Magazine noted that to make up for a lack of blood the film provided more gratuitous nudity than previous installments.[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089173/criticreviews/) The Kansas City Star's Robert C. Trussell called the installment extraordinarily cheap even by Friday the 13th standards.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/friday_the_13th_part_v_a_new_beginning)
**Box office** was solid for the series. The June 1985 issue of Box reported $8 million from the first weekend of release in 1,759 theaters, an additional $4 million from the second weekend, and $2.5 million from the third; the Hollywood Reporter later reported a domestic total of $21.9 million.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57690-FRIDAY-THE13THANEWBEGINNING?cp=1&cxt=Filmography1&pos=2&sid=caca2f8e-80ab-4db0-903c-26280b5ced25&sr=7.265183) On IMDb the film carries a 4.8/10 user rating from about 50,000 voters, with an unweighted mean of 5.1.[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089173/) • [11](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089173/ratings/)
## References
1. [Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/friday_the_13th_part_v_a_new_beginning)
2. [Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/57690-FRIDAY-THE13THANEWBEGINNING?cp=1&cxt=Filmography1&pos=2&sid=caca2f8e-80ab-4db0-903c-26280b5ced25&sr=7.265183)
3. [Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985) – Metacritic reviews, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089173/criticreviews/)
4. [Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089173/)
5. [Friday the 13th Timeline Explained, From Crystal Lake to Jason X, JustWatch](https://guides.justwatch.com/uk/complete-friday-the-13th-timeline)
6. [Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning, Paramount Pictures](https://www.paramountpictures.com/movies/friday-the-13th-part-v-a-new-beginning)
7. [Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning – Cast and Crew, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/friday_the_13th_part_v_a_new_beginning/cast-and-crew)
8. [Fridays Without Jason: The Beginning and the 'New Beginning' of 'Friday the 13th', Bloody Disgusting (Brian Keiper, 2020)](https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3622325/fridays-without-jason-comparing-contrasting-friday-13ths-beginning-new-beginning/)
9. [Friday The 13th Part V's Real Killer, Explained, JustWatch](https://guides.justwatch.com/us/friday-the-13th-part-v-killer-explained)
10. [Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning (1985), Moria review](https://moriareviews.com/horror/friday-the-13th-part-v-a-new-beginning-1985.htm)
11. [Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985) – Ratings, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089173/ratings/)
12. [Friday the 13th Movies in Order, SequelOrder](https://sequelorder.com/friday-the-13th/)
13. [Wickham Clayton, The Collection Awakes (introduction), University for the Creative Arts research repository](https://research.uca.ac.uk/5026/1/Wickham%20Clayton%20Introduction.pdf)
14. [Franchise: Friday the 13th - Box Office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/franchise/fr2152173317/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Franchise and series entries as standalone works › Horror and slasher series film entries › 1970s and 1980s releases*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license