Clayton George Wickham - final thesis

92
form of development and progression, aside from the earlier ones are linked to
victimised characters, followed by characters that are observing and searching, and
ending with Jason’s eye/camera. Loosely, this could be interpreted as a victim to
aggressor progression, but there is no other evidence to support this.
By contrast to the minimal use of direct eye/camera shots in Jason Lives!,
The New Blood frequently uses clearly identified eye/camera shots, numerically
favouring the protagonist, Tina, and Jason, against the antagonist. The seer is almost
consistently a character in a position of power over the vulnerable object of his/her
sight. Describing all of the eye/camera shots is not necessary, so I will explain, with
a few examples, how the eye/camera shots are generally framed within the relevant
sequences, and note significant variants.
In the case of most of the eye/camera shots in The New Blood, the character
the eye/camera inhabits is clearly identified during the sequences in which they are
contained, through the use of shot/reverse shot. 8
The use of eye/camera within the
eye/camera shot from a policeman as he looks around the camp for Jason. The final eye/camera shot
is from Jason, as he walks through the lake toward Tommy in the boat in the climax.
8 After the opening flashback sequence where the film shows Tina as a young girl and the death of her
father, we see her wake up in the passenger’s seat of a car, riding down the road. This is followed by
an eye/camera shot from the passenger’s seat of a car riding down the road, clearly identifying this as
Tina’s positioning. During a few sequences where Jason is chasing victims, such as Michael, Maddy,
Dr. Crewes and Mrs. Shepard, the viewer is shown Jason’s eye/camera as he follows them, and a
reverse shot showing Jason following the victim, usually repeated two or three times. During Eddie’s
death, we see Jason’s eye/camera walking up on him, and within the shot, we see his shadow, firmly
identifying the shot as direct eye/camera positioning. Even eye/camera shots from the position of the
victim clearly identify the seer. Kate’s death, for instance, climaxes with an eye/camera shot as Jason
kills her by shoving a party horn into her left eye. We see in her eye/camera as Jason forces the horn
toward the camera, so not only can the viewer identify the character whose eye/camera is seen, but the
spectator can precisely locate the eye that is seen through: Kate’s left eye.