On Friday the 13th, Jason is back. But this time, someone's waiting.
— Tagline
The seventh Friday the 13th film, released in 1988.
As a young girl, Tina Shepard accidentally killed her father by using psychic abilities she didn't know she had. The guilt over his death has haunted her for a decade. In the present day, Tina, her mother, and her latest doctor head back to Crystal Lake — where her father drowned — to work out her issues for good. Not too far away, a group of teens plan a surprise birthday party for one of their friends; one of these teens even meets and becomes smitten with Tina, which gives her a chance to experience some sense of normalcy.
But things turn sour when her doctor tries to incite Tina's telekinesis under the guise of psychiatric care. When Tina has an emotional outburst after one such session, her latent abilities resurrect Jason Voorhees, who had sunken to the bottom of Crystal Lake not long before Tina's father drowned. As the Crystal Lake Killer returns to doing what he does best, everyone around Tina calls her delusional when she says she saw him...but sooner or later, everyone finds out that her "delusions" are anything but.
This film marks the debut of Kane Hodder as Jason, who would play the role for the next three sequels and a video game (and become a fan favorite in the process).
The New Blood contains examples of the following tropes:
- Actor Allusion: Walt Gorney (Crazy Ralph himself) does the opening narration, so they work in a nod to his famous "death curse" line from the first movie.
- Alpha Bitch: The Rich Bitch Melissa.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Tina's doctor encourages her to explore her psychic powers... but visions of the future? Ridiculous! She's just delusional! Tina outright calls him on it at one point.
- Asshole Victim: Dr. Crews and Melissa, who are also ironically the last two characters to die in this film.
- Auto Erotica: Due to the number of guests in his uncle's cabin, Russell has to "sleep" in his van with his girlfriend Sandra.
- Ben and Kate borrow the van later on to have some fun of their own.
- Back from the Dead: The obligatory Twist Ending is that Jason is the one getting dragged into Crystal Lake by a zombie: Tina's father.
- Barrier-Busting Blow: Provided the page picture.
- Beautiful All Along: Maddy removes her glasses to try and get a man, and it turns out she's beautiful without them (and with some makeup).
- Behind the Black: One girl is killed by Jason while sticking her head out the window of a van. There is literally no angle of approach from which she would not have seen Jason coming.
- Big "NO!": Russell lets out one, and dies before he gets to finish it.
- Black Dude Dies First: Played with. Jason gets a handful of random kills beforehand, but when he starts working his way through the house, the black couple are the first people to go.
- Bloodless Carnage: Oddly enough for this franchise, the theatrical cut is almost completely bloodless, with most of the violence occurring offscreen. The uncut version, on the other hand...
- Brief Accent Imitation: When Dan goes to chop some wood for his and Judy's campfire, he says "I'll be back" in his best Arnold Schwarzenegger accent.
- Cassandra Truth: Tina tries to tell about Jason's presence, but Dr. Crews chalks it up to hallucinations.
- Cat Scare: Some random cat hiding in a closet gives a scare to Robin..
- Chainsaw Good: Jason kills Dr. Crews with a tree trimmer. This is the only time he uses a power tool as a killing implement, by the way. While it technically lacks the chain, it retains the sawblade and intimidating "VRRRRRUM! VRRRRRRUM!"
- Continuity Snarl:
- Jason Lives established that the town renamed itself from Crystal Lake to Forest Green as the townsfolk wanted to forget about what Jason did. In this film it’s back to being called Crystal Lake.
- When Megan rammed the propeller into Jason’s face the right side of the mask broke off and cut his right cheek open. In this film, it’s the left side that’s exposed.
- Country Matters: Eddie refers to Melissa with this.
- Covered with Scars: Buechler arranged for all of the damage and wounds that Jason had suffered from the previous films to show on Jason in this installment. In addition to the motorboat damage from the previous film, Jason also retains the machete and axe cuts from parts two and three (respectively) as well as the missing left eye from the wound that killed him in part four.
- Creator Cameo: Director John Carl Buechler appears at the film's end as the fireman who picks up the halves of Jason's burned mask.
- Destination Defenestration: Jason kills Robin by throwing her through a window.
- Dirty Coward: Dr. Crews pushes Mrs. Shepard in Jason's way to save himself. This still doesn't help him very much.
- Double-Meaning Title: The title refers both to a new main character (Tina) being introduced, and the fact there is a lot of "new blood" shed by Jason as he kills people.
- Dramatic Thunder: Done when Tina and Nick find Michael's corpse.
- Also used in a brilliant Freeze-Frame Bonus gag. As David walks through the dark kitchen with the flashlight and the thunder flashes briefly, look in the top left corner of the room. Jason's standing behind him the whole time.
- Dramatic Unmask: When Jason attempts to break Nick's spine, Tina uses her powers to apply pressure on his head, which in turn destroys his mask.
- Electrified Bathtub: Tina uses her powers to force Jason into a puddle and then breaks one of the power cables to fry him.
- Exact Eavesdropping: Melissa eavesdrops on the conversation between Nick and Tina by the lake.
- Eye Awaken: After Tina drops Jason in the basement, the camera closes on his face and he opens his eye.
- Eye Scream: Jason kills Kate by stabbing her in the eye with a party horn.
- Fainting: Tina faints when she sees the resurrected Jason.
- Final Girl: Tina.
- Finger Wag: Dr. Crews does this to Tina when he tries to convince her that he cares about her well-being.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Jason can be seen lurking in the background of the kitchen during a flash of lightning.
- The Glasses Come Off: Maddy takes off her glasses when she prepares to make an impression on David.
- Gold Digger: Russell's girlfriend Sandra, who admits that she loves his "big, beautiful... wallet".
- Head Crushing: While Ben is outside looking for his friend Michael, Jason catches him and crushes his skull with his bare hands. This scene was heavily censored in the theatrical version, cutting away as soon as he starts to bleed. The uncut scene shows the entire head crushing complete with blood pouring from his eye sockets.
- Horrifying the Horror: It is quite obvious that Jason is confused and even scared when Tina starts to use her powers against him. However, at the end of the confrontation, he is furious.
- Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: It's Michael's birthday during the first night. Presumably, it's also (yet another) Friday the 13th during a summer month.
- I Wished You Were Dead: Tina screamed at her father that she wished he was dead in the past. Unfortunately, this is exactly what caused her psychic powers to kill him.
- Impromptu Tracheotomy: Jason kills Jane by pinning her to a tree with a tent spike through her throat.
- Instant Thunder: Appears when Dr. Crews finds Michael's body.
- It Was Here, I Swear!: Tina about the tent spike that Jason stuck on the porch.
- Kill It with Fire: When Tina confronts Jason in the cabin basement, she uses her powers to douse him with gasoline and set him on fire. This somehow causes the whole house blow up too. Tina ripping open the house's gas main probably had something to do with that.
- Large Ham: Lar Park Lincoln's performance, especially in the scenes where Tina uses her powers.
- Leitmotif: Tina has one for when she uses her powers.
- Lightning Reveal: Done when Jason is stalking David.
- Neck Snap: Jason punches through Dan's torso, and then snaps his neck.
- Nice Guy: Nick.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Tina's first attempt to revive her father is what instead frees Jason from the rock to which Tommy Jarvis had chained him.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Tina barely has any control over her powers and they always react horribly whenever she becomes stressed. When Jason kills Tina's mother, she gets so pissed that she instead gets near-perfect mastery over them.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: While stoned, aspiring sci-fi writer Eddie comes up with a brilliant idea:Eddie: I know; Star Mummy!
- Not Too Dead to Save the Day: Tina manages to temporarily revive her father, who drags Jason back down to the lake's bottom.
- Oddball in the Series:
- It is one of the few films in the franchise that has the presence of supernatural elements other than Jason's immortality (the others being Jason Goes to Hell and Freddy vs. Jason).
- Music wise it’s the only film to feature two composers on the soundtrack (albeit half of it is original cues composed by Fred Mollin, while the other half is recycled cues from the first 6 movies by Harry Manfredini).
- Off with His Head!: Jason decapitates David offscreen.
- Jason also attempts to do so with Eddie, but only gets halfway.
- Oh, Crap!: Jason for once is on the receiving end when Tina starts using her powers against him. Given how few characters have ever actually been able to overpower him, this is understandable. It serves to drive him into the largest bout of visible rage in the entire series.
- Outside-Context Problem: Tina is this to Jason. In the context of the series, Tina is the first supernatural opponent Jason has been directly faced with. His reactions to her powers show just how completely shocked, confused, and caught off guard he is by this development.
- Peek-a-Boo Corpse: Russell's corpse gives Maddy a scare.
- Previously on…: The film starts off with a brief narration from Walt Gorny (who played "Crazy Ralph" in the first two movies), followed by a quick recap of Jason Lives, as Tina's father's death takes place shortly after Jason is drowned by Tommy Jarvis.
- Psychoactive Powers: Tina's powers depend on her emotions. Knowing this, Dr. Crews tries to inflict emotional stress on her to study her, instead of helping her to get over her mental trauma.
- Raised Hand of Survival: Tina drops a roof on Jason, then proclaims that, while Jason got her mom, she killed him. The scene immediately cuts to Jason thrusting his hand through the wreckage of the roof.
- Rasputinian Death: Where to begin? Jason gets electrocuted, hanged, has a roof fall on him, is hit by nails, doused in gasoline and set on fire, and finally drowned.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Carrying over from the last film, Jason is trapped at the bottom of Crystal Lake. Tina accidentally releases him from his prison. Tina raises her father to put him back in the end.
- Sexual Karma: The nice couples have a good time with each other, while Melissa has to resort to an unfulfilling tryst with Eddie, hoping to make Nick jealous.
- Sinister Scythe: Jason kills Maddy with a sickle.
- Skinny Dipping: Sandra goes skinny dipping, and invites Russell to come along. He dies before he gets his clothes off, and Sandra soon follows.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Nick's cousin barely lasts five minutes into the movie before dying, but he's the reason why Nick, Melissa, and all the other teens were at the cabin since they were planning his surprise party.
- Staggered Zoom: Used when Tina finally comes face to face with Jason.
- Strictly Formula: This film was the last entry in the original continuity to largely follow the standard Friday the 13th formula. Each entry afterwards either changed the setting and/or Jason's nature. In fact, the storyline for this film is lifted from The Final Chapter, only with Jason as a zombie and Tina replacing Tommy Jarvis and his family.
- The Stoner: Eddie and David.
- Super Window Jump: Jason performs one when he is going after Tina.
- Token Minority Couple: Ben and Kate.
- Trash the Set: The house explodes during the climax, with the actual set getting blown up during the filming.
- Unstoppable Rage: The beatings Tina continually delivers seemingly drive Jason into this. Everything from his body language to his eventual facial expression shows that he starts off confused, then annoyed, growing frustrated until the very end of the film where Jason is utterly PISSED. Word of God
Praised Kane Hodder's performance on this - Visual Pun: Jason leaves David's severed head on a potted plant, making a head plant.
- Then when Tina uses her telekinesis to throw the potted plant at Jason, David's head comes along for the ride, headbutting Jason. Also qualifies as a Brick Joke
- With Friends Like These...: Commented on concerning the number of assholes in the group. Nick says they're not his friends, he's just at the cabin for his cousin's birthday.
- You Killed My Father: Jason kills Tina's mother late in the film, which is what prompts her to unleash everything she can on him.
- Your Head A-Splode: More crushed, but Ben's death. Much worse in the workprint version
, crushed to the size of a walnut.
