“A New Beginning” by Wolfie’s Just Fine
I love FRIDAY THE 13TH movie series. It is a fascinating melding of iconography, zeitgeist, ramshackle film production, formulaic storytelling, and batshittery. I find the overall quality of the slasher franchise faded the further it got from the ‘80s, suggesting that there was a weird tie between that decade and this ramshackle beast of a saga that equally celebrated and punished excess. It had the most empowered women, surrounded by scenes of women as victims or simply sexual objects. It would show people ignoring the past, but also doomed by their futures. FRIDAY THE 13TH is far more complicated a series than anyone will ever give it credit for being.
And a large part of that is tied up in the ‘80s. Because, y’see, sometimes there's a man... I won't say a hero, 'cause, what's a hero? But sometimes, there's a man. And I'm talkin' about Jason here. Sometimes, there's a man, well, he's the man for his time and place. He fits right in there. And that was Jason Voorhees and that was the ‘80s.
Why is why killing him off not even halfway through the decade, in 1984’s FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER (my favorite of the series BTW), came so close to perilously undercutting this cracked mirror reflection 1980s America. Luckily, in the most 1980s American tradition possible, producers said “fuck that” and brought him back (kiiiinda) in 1985’s FRIDAY THE 13TH: A NEW BEGINNING. I’ve written about that movie before for Daily Grindhouse (and even included this music video as part of it), but it is a bizarre mishmash of innovation and idiocy with a delicious dollop of what the fuckery thrown in to boot. And for musician/actor/writer/comedian/director/raconteur Jon Lajoie, it appears the sequel left an indelible mark on him as well.
“A New Beginning” is a great coming of age song tied specifically to the primal scene experience of watching FRIDAY THE 13TH: A NEW BEGINNING. A Freudian mixture of sex and death exposed to a young child that leaves him with many questions and concerns that will probably guide him through his psychosexual development (along with morality questions and tastes in primo ‘80s slasher fare). Under the Wolfie’s Just Fine label (yes, a TERMINATOR 2 reference), Lajoie wrote and performed all of “A New Beginning” as well as directed its stellar sequel. Starring Gabriel Bateman (who would go on to star in UNHINGED, the CHILD’S PLAY remake, Outcast TV show, and more), it does a great job of providing specificity of the events (the VCR, the wardrobe, the immaculate recreation of the scenes from A NEW BEGINNING) while underscoring the universality moment where sex and death become linked in a primal moment of our youths.
It’s impressive—including perfectly casting Leah Kilpatrick and David Rispoli as actors Deborah Voorhees and John Robert Dixon (respectively), who played the ill-fated couple…whose ill fates are also spectacularly replicated.
And beyond the nerdy winks and relatable coming-of-age subject matter, Wolfie’s Just Fine has turned in a really good song here. You can find it on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, and all other places you get your music these days. Happy Friday the 13th! Enjoy flashing back to your own primal scenes where you accidentally entwined sexual awakenings with graphic violence and needless death!