I tried to light it as glamorously as possible. Unlike some of the early Fridays, we wanted the audience to know what they are looking at and not have it be so dark that you couldn't see what was going on. And in a film like this, where the whole last third has to be in the dark and the rain, you have to backlight all that rain strongly or you won't see it. And you wanted the women to look good, too. Even when they're drenched, freezing, starving, muddy and being chased by a maniac, we wanted the audience to say, "Ooh, that's a good looking wet, scared, shivering woman!"
MELANIE KINNAMAN:
I first met Frank Mancuso, Jr., during my audition. He was nice, but very quiet, and that carried over on the set. Frank came up to me only once, after a very difficult scene. It was the first time he ever talked to me—and he was there every day I shot. And I'll never forget that scene, it was when I'm running from Jason to the barn and I'm crawling in the mud. Danny just said "Roll around, and do what you want to do." So I just did all that running and falling and screaming, and Tom Morga is standing over me with a machete. All that stuff was improvised. Plus the conditions were bad, and I was shooting with the flu—it was awful. And Frank just put his arm around me and said, "You're great. Thanks for the job you're doing." Then he said, "Get a blanket for her." It was the first time anyone got a blanket for me. Everyone else was in big parkas and I'm there half-naked. But Frank stood there in the rain and the cold with me. I had hoped it would be fun doing that scene, but there was no fun at all.
TIM SILVER:
When Melanie was running in a wet shirt in a storm and it was clear that more was going to be seen that expected—Melanie didn't have a lot of say in the matter. I don't think it sat well with her. The nudity always posed a problem, because the actors had to agree ahead of time to what the nudity would entail. And if that envelope gets pushed during shooting, it was difficult.
STEPHEN POSEY:
I felt sort of sorry for Melanie through the shoot because she, like any actress—and like all of us working on that film—it was a step up and yet, at the same time, what did she really have to do? She's become just a couple of wet, flopping breasts. I remember standing there and Danny saying, "Okay, hose her down again!" It was demeaning, but you know, as an actor, a lead in a movie—any movie—is an opportunity you can't pass up.
DANNY STEINMANN:
When Pam runs from the monster, her torment is elevated if there's thunder, lightning and rain. If Melanie happens to be bra-less and the rain helps accentuate her breasts? Ka-ching! It's a done deal. How many guys would object to these choices I made? I'm a big fan of tits. What can I say? Sex and violence—to me, that's what exploitation films are supposed to be about.
SHAVAR ROSS:
I always get a huge kick out of the running scene with Melanie, where she has no bra on. For one shot, they even had her purposely act scared and lean up against a wall, rain soaked—just to see her breasts. Then later, after I come out and stop Jason with the tractor, she gives me this big double-dose of a hug. And she was always telling me I was cute and all that. So I had a crush on her the whole shoot. Even my stepmom kept saying, "I think there was something hidden there." I had a great time doing those scenes.
Another casualty of the MPAA ratings board was the "moment of impact" in the murder of Jake, played by Jerry Pavlon. "After the film wrapped, the filmmakers called me and said there was a problem with my death scene," remembers Pavlon. "So they had gone back and forth about what to do—should they reshoot it? In the end, they just decided to be clever with the editing and take the literal moment when the cleaver smacks my face out of the picture."
MELANIE KINNAMAN:
Shavar was nice to work with and good, too, but he was a little kid. And his mother was directing him, and she hated me! To this day, I still don't know why. I have heard since that he had a boyhood crush on me, but at the time I didn't know any of that. He seemed afraid of me, so his mother just directed him to stay away from me.
JERRY PAVLON:
I remember watching the film after it had gone to video with a friend of mine who had never seen it, and who is not from this country. And when we came to the part when Melanie falls down in the mud, and she just keeps falling—it's hysterical how long she crawls. We could not find air to breathe in the room. We were screaming with laughter.
If you take an intellectual view and say, "Why isn't she getting up?" it's ridiculous. But there was a sense of wit about that even on the set. I'm an appreciative audience for Danny Steinmann because his tongue was obviously in cheek. He was sending up the genre, but without having to do what Scream does, which is to tell everybody in the grossest of terms that they're making fun of it. That really is for 9-year-olds. I think, in terms of that blend of horror and absurd comedy, Part V is still not appreciated, nor understood.
DANNY STEINMANN:
I hope any humor in the film is intentional. If someone is living their worst nightmare, the body may not be able to perform and muscle control might break down. Plus, not being able to rise and run brings Jason closer. I didn't find anything funny about her predicament. And, by the way, Melanie really was terrific in those scenes. She refused to let a stuntwoman do anything.
SHAVAR ROSS:
We shot the chase near Mulholland Drive, up in the Hollywood Hills. It was a lot of night shooting and a lot of fake rain. And there is a shot in there where I was so shocked I actually fell. I was running, looking for Melanie, and then you can see me fall in this big old ditch. I was mad that I fell but I just got back up, and they kept it in. I also lost my voice from screaming out there—"Pam! Pam!" They even had to stop shooting for a little bit. Everybody joked around on the set, saying that I screamed like a girl. I was going through puberty. I screamed so high that they were going to have to put music over it! And everybody loves the part where I leave Pam and just start running away, and the scream right before that. Even my son laughs at that: "Daddy, you scream like a girl!"
MELANIE KINNAMAN:
The final fight scene with the chainsaw was fun, but I had a hard time getting through it. We were working overtime and I was overtired, and I became giddy. Then they hand me a chainsaw and it's a hundred pounds. They turn it on—it's a real chainsaw—and we had to practice so I didn't hurt myself or anyone else. Then I just started laughing, because it's so stupid, like, "I'm gonna defend myself with a chainsaw against a big guy in a hockey mask!?"
Adding to A New Beginning's third act excitement—or for some, the confusion—was that this time there was not just one "Jason," but two. While Dick Wieand assumed the role of Roy, the mild-mannered ambulance driver who is revealed in the film's bloody climax to be the face behind the alter ego of an "imposter Jason," actor-stuntman Tom Morga actually donned the familiar (yet semi-modified) hockey mask and also portrayed the "real Jason" as seen in Tommy Jarvis' horrific hallucinations, including a prologue added late in production that featured the return, in a nightmarish premonition, of Corey Feldman as the young Tommy. But these new plot contrivances—and an essentially Jason-less Friday—would please few in the audience or behind the camera.
DICK WIEAND:
I didn't know anything about the series at all when I got the film. And even throughout shooting the film, I never had a finished script. All I knew was that the scene early in the film, when I see my son dead, was key, because that was the trigger—this one moment was all I had to make it clear that the murder of Roy's son could change him into the Jason imposter. Although that is a stupid idea, and I was expecting that there was going to be some good wrap-up stuff at the end because Danny told me that we were going to do different things with this movie.
When it came time to shoot the scene, I just let that moment happen, let the emotions come up and the change take place. I was trying to go nuts a little bit, yet still have it make sense. They even changed the position of the camera after we did the first rehearsal, because they realized what I was doing and came in closer. Of course, it was only when I finally saw the film that
I realized that it didn't make any difference.
Robin's original uncut death.
TOM MORGA, "Roy Stunt Double":
Ever since I was a kid, I've always been into action-oriented things and athletics. And while I was going to school, I started working for the forest service as a smokejumper. I was fascinated by it, so I ended up doing it for about six seasons, out at a station in Missoula, Montana. Then one season a crew came up to shoot an episode of an old TV show called "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom," about saving a wild buffalo herd. So they filmed all of us, and I thought it was really fun. Eventually I came out to Los Angeles and got to know some of the stunt performers at Universal Studios, and learned about a school in Santa Monica, California, where they trained young stuntment. That's also where, interestingly, I met Kane Hodder, who went on to play Jason in some of the later Friday the 13ths.
Anyway, when the audition for Part V came around, I knew about the Friday movies but I wasn't a fan. I went ahead and watched a few of them, but like a lot of the other guys who have played Jason, I didn't really know what to expect or even if the film would be any good. The audition was funny. They brought in a bunch of guys to do the scene at the beginning of the movie, the dream sequence where kids dig up Jason's and he stands up and goes after them. They had all of us do these mechanical Jason moves to see how well we could get up, stand up and walk like Jason. And Danny Steinmann liked what I did, and I got the job.
DANNY STEINMANN:
I've been taken to task by some fans over the way Jason looks; that he moves different or wears a different mask or whatever. But I wanted a bit of mystery in Part V—I wanted the audience to question the identity of Jason. Was it Tommy? Was Jason still alive, or had someone else taken his place? It's only in Tommy's visions that we see the "real" Jason.
TOM MORGA:
When people ask if I ever played Jason, I say, "Yes!" And when they want to know in which Friday the 13th specifically, I say, "It was Part V." Then, inevitably, they say, "Well, that Jason wasn't the real one." And I say, "Well, there are a couple of flashback scenes where I play the real Jason."
The very first scene I shot as Jason was the scene in the bedroom, where Tommy is looking down out the window at me, and I'm standing by an old oak tree. I'm supposed to stand there and do nothing, except be Jason as a statue. And below the window where Tommy's looking out at me, they had the camera, and next to it was a door off to the kitchen. And Dick Warlock, our stunt coordinator, he's been carrying around this stick with him all the time, like a little cane, and he's got a sense of humor. Sot here's Dick, in the doorway, hamming it up, making faces and doing a song and dance, trying to get me to laugh. And here I am, trying to do my first shot as Jason, and I'm ready to bust a gut. We did manage to get the shot, but just barely.
TIFFANY HELM:
Tom Morga was also a bit slimmer than the original Jason, so I believe they had to pad him up a bit. He was a hoot. We were shooting in these creepy orange groves at night and he used to hide and jump out at Juliette and me, to give us a scare. Or sometimes he would just follow me, at a distance, really quietly, to freak me out. It worked!
MELANIE KINNAMAN:
Tom Morga was very interesting—he didn't try to be friends with me. Even on the set, I wouldn't sit next to him. But he knew I was in character. So he kept his distance, and I kept my distance. And I was very afraid of him, even as a person, just as Tom Morga. Because when he had the mask off, he was scary looking! Which actually helped. Though he's gotten better looking. Only afterwards did we become friendly.
JERRY PAVLON:
I think to the extent that becoming a magician educates you, it also ruins a little bit of the illusion. Being on the set of Part V was an extremely different experience than I ever had before. There was one time when I saw Jason, with his mask in his hand, holding a cup of coffee. That's a very important image, actually, because that was more or less my experience on the set. And it allowed me to not be frightened of what would ultimately be frightening the audience.
TOM MORGA:
Playing Jason is a little stranger than your average day job. I remember when I had to put an ax in Bob DeSimone's head, I had to tell myself, "It's just a movie." Because even though it is fake, when you see a face and a head and you're going to put an ax into it…it's not the thrill of your day. I really did get a little sick doing that.
"I tried to keep the film moving, put as many scares and kills in as possible," says writer/director Danny Steinmann. "The mood is carnal. The faster, more intense, crazed and horrific, the better."
DICK WIEAND:
Why they made that decision to hire me and Tom as the same person speaks of the lack of thought and concern throughout the whole movie. Tom and I look nothing alike. There was no attempt to make us look the same. Why did they not integrate us more?
I take nothing away from Tom Morga—Tom did fine stunts on the film. But he never had a kind word for me. I even asked to meet him. Near the end of the film, there's a scene where I have to lay dead on a bed of spikes. And the day we shot that, I'm standing there with my green jumpsuit on, and I asked Dick Warlock, "Is the stunt guy here? I want to meet him." So Dick took me over to Tom's trailer. And I thought he'd be glad to meet me. But he didn't come out of the trailer, he didn't invite me in the trailer. He just sort of stood there and looked at me.
I tried to improve the situation. I called the stunt coordinator and I asked him, "Some of the stuff in here is really easy, and I want to become more involved in playing the character." And I got the door slammed in my face. So I called my agent and said, "I'm trying to get more involved with this because the stuntman they hired to play Jason doesn't even look like me." He said, "The stunt coordinator's job is to keep stuntmen working. He's not interested in you. Don't worry about it. There will be better things later." And I just let it go.
TOM MORGA:
During the making of Part V, I talked to Dick Wieand about it. He was there, of course, for the first scene. I just met him once or something—the scene at the end, I wasn't even on set that day. It wasn't a situation where, as in most movies, you work with your actor. He had his scene and then he's gone, and then I did the movie and then came back and I was gone. In most movies you get to meet the actor you're doubling with because you work together with him. This was one of those situations where I did one whole thing and he did one whole other thing.
DANNY STEINMANN:
Dick Wieand. What a complete fucking asshole this guy was. He was hired to play Roy, the fake Jason, and in his mind he became the star of the movie. He had nothing nice to say about anything: the script was a piece of shit, everyone was out to get him, the Jason mask was crap, transportation horrible, food tasteless and he was embarrassed to be in the film.
Funny thing was, I met him again in 2009 in Dallas. All smiles, so complimentary. Get this—he told me he's been going to these Friday conventions since they began and has made quite a bit of money. He claims it has given his life purpose. This idiot had no lines and only two medium close-ups in the film. People, do not give this low-life piece of shit a dime for an autograph.
TIM SILVER:
Friday the 13th is an inexpensive film to produce. The hero is not a star, it's just a stuntman. He can be a scale player. He could be somebody different for each one. And the actor is not a star, either. Jason as a persona—you're not going to be looking for Humphrey Bogart or Tom Cruise in that role. And he's wearing a mask. So who cares who it is?
DICK WIEAND:
Even by the time we shot my death scene, they still weren't sure how they were going explain the revelation of my identity. In the original ending, my head was supposed to go careening down some walkway or something. They even made a plaster cast of my head. But then they changed the script, and I die falling out of the barn onto a bed of spikes. And I wanted to make it an even more horrible death—I wanted to have my eyes open. But they didn't want to hear it. All they did was glue these fake spikes to my chest—wh
ich were hell getting off, by the way—and you can even see in the picture that the damned spikes are bent. It was pretty ridiculous.
SHAVAR ROSS:
I remember seeing the ending of the movie and thinking it was the corniest thing. When he falls on the spikes—you can see it is a dummy! I told the production people and they were just like, "Don't worry about it. It's all in good fun." But it looks so fake.
STEPHEN POSEY:
The whole ending of the movie, the surprise, is weak. I remember when it came time to shoot Roy's death, we had to do it twice because no one was happy with the final image. And I remember sitting there going, "Well, who is that!?" Even the crew were laughing, like, "Who's going to get this? What ambulance driver? No one is going to understand what is going on!" It just came out of nowhere—all of a sudden, at the very end, you had this weird connection.
MELANIE KINNAMAN:
Among the cast, it was really only John Shepherd, Dick Wieand and Tom Morga and I that knew the whole plot of the movie. We knew who the killer was from the beginning. But I didn't realize it was a big deal. I just didn't know anything about Friday the 13th. At the time, I don't think any of us had any idea it was going to be so hated. None of us knew the gravity of the situation. We didn't understand the diehard fans and their rabid feelings about Jason. And it is still a shock to me that it is such a big deal.
"I found the whole thing very scary because of my situation and the conditions," remembers actress Melanie Kinnaman. "I was alone in the woods, in the dark and in the rain, and it was 30 degrees. So it became very real to me."
FRANK MANCUSO, JR.:
Some movies, they just seem to be predetermined to go in a certain direction, and when you're achieving that, you can feel it on the set and you know it. Other movies exist in a much grayer area, and you can't really tell how the movie's going to play. Was I in love with the imposter Jason? No. But did I think it was a reasonable attempt at a different version of a movie we were calling A New Beginning? It was a response to the concern we all had for the movies being too similar. In retrospect, that is one of the mistakes you make when you're trying to do something different, just so somebody doesn't come to you and say, "You've made the same movie five times in a row!"
Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th (Enhanced Edition) Page 41
