Did Paramount Reveal Too Early That Jason Wasn't The Killer In 'Friday The 13th: A New Beginning'?
The premise of A New Beginning wants to take us to a whodunit story-line where the killer could be Tommy Jarvis, a resurrected Jason Voorhees, or perhaps an unknown assailant. The film does a good job of concealing the look of the killer for the majority of the film, and even plants seeds that Jason is the killer by having Tommy Jarvis experience hallucinations of Voorhees still decked out in his now traditional garb of green shirt, grey pants and hockey mask with red chevron. If only that wardrobe consistency of the killer was carried forward to the final 10 minutes or so of the film, the whodunit angle could have held almost until the very end.
Once the killer is fully revealed onscreen, he is shown to be wearing a mechanics suit and a hockey mask, but the mask has chevrons that are placed on different areas of the mask and colored blue. Upon close examination, producer Tim Silver and the filmmakers clearly decided to tell the audience at this point that the killer in the film was not Jason Voorhees. This calculated revelation was probably meant to redirect the audience's thought that Tommy Jarvis was the killer, but that idea really throws off the whodunit angle in the last 10 minutes of the film. Carrying the idea that Jason may still be the killer until the very end could have kept fans engaged even more in the finale of the film.
Of course is it assumed that a good number of people figured out it was Roy by the time he came busting through that balsa wood entrance door, but it would have been nice to still see Paramount try and keep that trifecta of who it could have been for as long as possible. What are your thoughts on the killer's reveal and keeping his look consistent with Jason Voorhees from the previous films?
