Mike_Bracken's Full Review: Friday the 13th - Part 4: The Final Chapter
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter: Paramount Pictures Rating: USA: R/ UK: 18/ Australia: R
Last time we checked in on slasher icon Jason Voorhees, he’d just finished hacking up some kids staying at an old farmhouse near the infamous ‘Camp Blood’ on the shores of Crystal Lake. Jason added twelve bodies to his tally sheet that day, but number 13 proved to be bit unlucky for the hockey masked madman—star Dana Kimmell planted an axe in his forehead, and that was that. Of course, you can’t really keep a good slasher down, and sure enough, Jason was soon resurrected for Joseph Zito’s (The Prowler, Missing in Action) Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (hereafter referred to as F13: 4).
Basically, if you’ve seen one of these films, you’ve seen them all—but, in order to be thorough, here’s the basic plot rundown.
The film opens with a roughly 10 minute montage that I like to call ‘Jason’s Greatest Hits’. In this segment, we see John Furey (who was in F13: 2) recounting the legend of Jason to a group of soon to be dead camp counselors. Interspersed with the story are cuts to Jason (or, to be fair, Mrs. Voorhees and Jason) dispatching various characters with gruesome abandon. All of these shots are pulled from the first 3 films in the series and serve to get you ‘caught up’—or, if you’re one of those people who would rent the fourth film in a series without seeing the first three parts, it shows you what you’re in for. Personally, I like the montage here. If you’re one of those gorehounds who just wants to see some good kills, you could watch this and save yourself 5 hours of movie viewing.
From there, we learn that Jason’s corpse has been taken to a local morgue. Before you can say ‘I can’t be killed because I’m the embodiment of absolute evil’, Jason’s already bagged his first two victims—a horny mortician (is there really any other kind?) and his nurse girlfriend.
Next, we meet the requisite horny teens (again, are there any other kind?) who will soon become Jason fodder and die in horribly painful ways. It’s your standard slasher film assortment of goofy guys and scantily clad women, and the only one worth noting is Jimmy—and he’s only worth noting because he was played by Crispin Glover (keep an eye out for Glover’s dance scene—it’s priceless).
Of course, every slasher film needs a virginal heroine, and this time out it’s Kimberley Beck’s Trish. In an interesting variation on the standard slasher themes, Trish isn’t part of the teens who are coming to the lake—she lives in the cabin next door with her mother, and little brother Tommy (a really young Corey Feldman).
Finally, the film throws one last character into the mix—Jason-hunter Paul. Paul’s a strapping young woodsman searching for the mass murder because Jason killed his sister. Expect some sort of climactic (or perhaps even anti-climactic) showdown between these two before the real climax starts.
After that, it plays out like every other slasher film from this era—Jason stalks teens who’ve been naughty (e.g. having sex, smoking weed, watching dirty movies, skinny dipping, etc.) then slaughters them with reckless abandon before engaging in the standard showdown with the virginal heroine (although, there’s a twist to the standard ending this time out).
All of which brings me to a point about slasher films in general. Loads of folks dislike slasher films because they lack a plot (or the plot is paper thin and generally secondary to the gore, death, and T&A). However, slasher films aren’t really about stories—they’re more like cautionary fables for young adults about the dangers in engaging in immoral (immoral at least to conservative mainstream society) activities. Like urban legends and folklore, these films are our new myths. Despite the abundant sex, gore, and nudity, these movies are largely moral tales designed to warn the young against the dangers or being promiscuous, taking drugs, or even being a single parent (it’s interesting to note that this film has a single mother who dies in it, part 6 features a single father who dies, and part 7 also has a single mother who dies—perhaps a commentary on the new nuclear family?).
However, those things aside, these films are also designed to be entertaining and scary thrill-rides—unfortunately, they don’t always succeed.
But, F13: 4 does succeed—for the most part. Yes, the storyline is hackneyed even by this the fourth installment in the series (and to be honest, this film should have really been titled either Friday the 13th: The Almost Halfway Point or Friday the 13th: Jason’s Last Outing as a Human) but there are a few new twists (particularly in the final scenes) to keep things interesting.
Director Zito gives the film a much more polished look than any of the previous installments (including Cunningham’s original). Shots here are crisp and nicely focused, there’s actually some color aside from the standard muted Earth tones, and there’s even a hint of style (which is particularly noticeable in the death set-pieces). Zito doesn’t reinvent the wheel here—there are still plenty of the staple shots (leering mid-shots of naked flesh, lingering shots on the gore FX work, and the standard killer’s POV shot are all present and accounted for)—but he does turn in a film that looks as though it were shot by a real filmmaker instead of just some guy they could get to sit behind the camera.
The performances from the cast are pretty bland and uninspired, but there are a few exceptions. Feldman steals the film easily, which really surprised me the first time I saw this movie. I’m no fan of kids in genre films primarily because they’re a really cheap way for a director to manipulate audience emotions. If you want the audience to feel uneasy, just trot in a kid and put him harm’s path (or, if you don’t have a kid, make it an animal—preferably a cute and cuddly animal…no one gets too upset when sharks or crocodiles are in danger)—guaranteed audience reaction. But, in this film, Feldman is actually a vital character—his love of horror films and mask making is important to the plot and not just some throwaway plot point. Plus, the kid holds his own in the calm scenes as well—he seems genuine and not like a kid trying to act.
The other decent performance comes from Ted White, who played Jason. White didn’t like these kinds of films, hence his performance is an uncredited one. However, he actually showed quite the aptitude for playing the madman here. Richard Brooker was great in the third film, and White simply builds on that performance here. White’s Jason isn’t quite as sneaky as Brooker’s, but he more than makes up for it in implied menace. Jason’s still pretty human here (although he looks even more deformed than his last time out, despite the fact that this film takes place approximately a day after the end of the last one)—he actually chases his victims instead of using that zombie walk which somehow manages to put him ahead of running humans in later installments and he actually bleeds when you cut him. As I pointed out in the review of part 3, this gives the audience hope—if he can still bleed, then someone could kill him. The later films (from part 6 onward) lost sight of this and that’s why they’re really not as effective.
The film boasts some fantastic gore work (which again appears to have been trimmed in order to avoid an X rating) courtesy of FX legend Tom Savini (Dawn of the Dead). Savini’s work here is excellent, with the maestro showing us gorehounds numerous forms of violent and brutal death. There’s another spear gun killing, a really gruesome hacksaw to the throat, Savini’s unofficial calling card—the machete to the head, an evisceration, death by garden trowl, and lots more. However, the piece de resistance is in the climax where Jason meets his grizzly fate—dealt out by one of his own favorite tools of mayhem.
Musically speaking, the film offers nothing new. Harry Manfredini collects a check for basically re-using the music he’d written for the earlier films here. The string music is still jangling and effective, as is the infamous chi-chi-chi-ha-ha-ha. However, a little variety would have been nice…although, after hearing the disco tune that opened and closed the last film, maybe innovation isn’t really such a good thing after all.
Needless to say, this really wasn’t the final chapter of this saga (which spans nine films already with part 10 looming on the horizon). This film made far too much money for Paramount to let the series (and it’s moneymaking slasher Jason) die here. This film is probably the turning point of the series—the installment where Jason went from fear-inspiring murderer to anti-hero icon—hockey masks would never be looked at in quite the same way again.
Basically, there’s nothing I can really say here that’s going to change anyone’s opinion—either you like slasher films or you don’t. If you do, then Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter is well worth checking out (for all 10 of you out there who haven’t already seen it). It ain’t Shakespeare, but it is pretty good mindless fun. And on top of that, it’s also one of the best entries in the series. Call over a few friends, grab some pizza and beer, sit back and enjoy.
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