Friday the 13th Part 9: The New Life

Director - Todd Jason Cook (Evil Night, Night of the Clown)

Release Date - 1989

Genre - Horror

Format - DVD (Personal Collection)

Rating (out of 5):

     Most of the horror community was buzzing last month when Scream Factory released the Friday the 13th box set.   There was some hiccups with the release but it is an overall amazing release.  I decided not to dig into my copy of the set until after my October horror binge was over.  However, before I do that I wanted to check out a few fan films I've accumulated this year.  Back over the summer I bought a bunch of movies from S.O.V. director Todd Jason Cook.  I reached out to him about some fan films that I had heard he made at the beginning of his career and he was kind enough to send them over as a bonus for buying his other films.  The first one I popped in was his 1989 Friday the 13th Part 9: The New Life or as the title card has it Friday the 13th Part 9: The Final Destruction.

      The film follows a teenager who has a knack for making horror masks who rents a house with a few friends at Crystal Lake when he meets another local teen.  What they don't know is that their night is not going to be anything but relaxing and uneventful when Jason returns to his home.

     I wasn't expecting anything amazing when I tossed this one in.  I was more curious than anything to see what a fan film from a very young Cook would look like.  It was bad but at the same time you can see how he was learning his craft before he went on to make the films that he is now known for. The acting in this one is nothing we haven't seen before but it definitely shows the cast's age.  Extremely awkward dialogue but I will give them credit.  Everyone follows through with their performances.  The story for this one would maybe run about 30 minutes if it was just the scenes centered around the plot.  However, the highlight reel at the beginning of the film mixed with the b-roll cut over random metal songs makes this one a very long and dull watch.  It is a fan film and I had to keep reminding myself this.  On top of that, it's a fan film made by kids essentially so it is flawed.  Finally, the film has some blood but the kills are what you would expect to see in a movie made by some teenagers in their backyard with their mom's camera.  Overall, Friday the 13th Part 9: The New Life is legendary director Todd Jason Cook cutting his teeth while paying homage to slashers.  It's not for everyone but as a collector I'm sure as shit proud to have this one for my collect.  I will, however, never watch this one again.