November 11, 2015

Sometimes, there are characters in genre pictures that are so darned bad-ass, you can’t stop thinking about them or their amazing feats long after the movie is over. This column is dedicated to those cinematic heroes that keep us coming back for more. And since its Friday The 13th week, let’s dedicate this entry to one of the very small select few that not only survived an attack against Jason Voorhees, but kicked his ass!

That’s right. I’m talking about that telekinetic vixen Tina from FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VII: THE NEW BLOOD.

This particular sequel holds a lot of significance both for the franchise, but also for die-hard FRIDAY THE 13TH fans. It’s the first time that fan favorite actor Kane Hodder got behind the hockey mask and gave what would later go on to be considered the quintessential Jason performance. From this movie on, Kane owned the role for a decade and through 3 more sequels, hence playing Jason more than any other actor before or since. Also, behind the scenes, while it didn’t get far, this was legitimately the first attempt to pit Jason against his on-screen horror rival Freddy Krueger. When the rights issued got complicated and Paramount didn’t want to play ball with New Line Cinema, they decided “well, let’s have him fight someone else. Why not Carrie?” (Or more accurately a Carrie-esque telekinetic character.) Enter Tina as played by Lar Park Lincoln.

The personal significance FRIDAY VII holds for me is that it was my first FRIDAY THE 13TH experience on the big screen. Being underage, I somehow managed to convince my guidance counselor to accompany myself and about 10 other classmates and she got us into this R rated movie on opening night. (Bless her!) At the time, I was unaware of what a difficult time FX artist John Carl Buechler had on this, his directorial debut. Sure, a lot was cut out of it by the ruthless MPAA who were pretty brutal towards horror films of this era, but we didn’t care. We had a blast! From the first moment that Tina stands face to face against Jason Voorhees and starts attacking him with her psychic abilities, we were cheering up a storm.

Seriously, she’s staring down a crazy looking hockey masked killer with his damn rib cage and bones sticking out! And yet she flings branches at him, electrocutes him in water, smashes his face with a light, head butts him with a severed head & plant combo, squeezes his mask so tight that it breaks in half (!) and drops a goddamned cabin on him. Just listing all of the above makes me want to go back and watch the last 15 minutes of the movie again. Actually, ya know what? That’s exactly what I’m going to do. Hold on.

…

OK, back. Yeah. That was bad-ass.

Tina Shepard faced Jason Voorhees and gave him the fight of his un-dead life. And for that, she has earned this hashtag!

#RESPECT