Review #5: Friday the 13th Part 4: The Final Chapter (1984)

Cast/Notable Credits:
Joseph Zito (Director): Invasion U.S.A. (1985), Missing in Action (1984), The Prowler (1981)

Kimberly Beck (Trish Jarvis): Independence Day (1996)

Erich Anderson (Rob) Missing in Action, Unfaithful (2002), Boomtown T.V. Series

Corey Feldman (Tommy Jarvis):Gremlins, Goonies (1985), Stand By Me (1986), Lost Boys (1987), Tales from the Crypt: Bordello of Blood (1996), Friday the 13th Part 5

Peter Barton (Doug): Hell Night (1981)

Crispin Glover (Jimmy): Back 2 the Future (1985), The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), Nurse Betty (2000), Charlie's Angels 1 & 2 (2000 & 2003), Willard (2003), Epic Movie (2007), Beowulf (2007)

Judie Aronson (Samantha): Weird Science (1985), American Ninja (1985), Hannibal (2001)

Camilla & Carey More (Tina & Terri): General Hospital & Days of Our Lives T.V. series (Tina)

Bruce Mahler (Axel): Police Academy 1(1984), 2 (1985), 3 (1986) & 6 (1989)

Lisa Freeman (Nurse Morgan): Back 2 the Future 1 & 2 (1989), Mr. Mom (1983)

Trailer:



Part 4: The Final Chapter... at least it was supposed to be. Thank God it wasn’t the last one. One of the best in the franchise. Jason returns to wreck havoc on a family and group of partying twenty-somethings. This is the movie where the producers/directors pretty much said “fuck it” and let loose on Jason killing people and hot chicks showing nudity. And I’m thankful for it.

This is the first movie in the Tommy Jarvis vs Jason story line. Because of the Tommy recasting in future movies...a great remake or re-imagining would be awesome if they went back and used Corey Feldman...hint, hint.

Forward...march! Onto the the movie...The Final Chapter picks up immediately after Part 3. The police are at the old farm house and barn collecting evidence and bagging up the bodies. Jason is hauled away to the morgue with the others. Once at the hospital, Jason comes back to life and takes out a nurse and doctor and heads back for home.

The film moves back to a set of nearby houses in Jason's old stomping grounds and meet our new members of the Soon to be Killed by Jason Club. The Jarvis family live in one of the houses. They're a broken family, parents got divorced and now the two kids, Trish and Tommy, live with the mother. Moving into the house next store is a bunch of horny twenty somethings. Looking good so far.

The new neighbors settle in and as Jason makes his way back to the homelands. The neighbors demonstrate that they are a bad influence on Tommy and Trish, with their hormones kicked into hyper drive and are constantly acting like sex hungry freaks. They drink, smoke pot, and go skinny dipping in front of Trish and Tommy.

As the movie moves along, we meet additional members like the twins and Rob. Rob is a suspicious backpacker, who we eventually learn is hunting down Jason because Jason killed his sister (a chick from Part 2).

Eventually Jason returns home and finds out that there's a new set of people to kill, and it doesn't take long for him to get going. In typical, Friday fashion, people get picked off one by one at the hands of Jason. In the end, Trish and Tommy are left to defend themselves against the madmen.

Villain:

Jason returns to his bad ass role. And this time he looks awesome. I mean, the best he's looked yet. The movie marks the standard of what Jason should look like. He's a mean, lean fighting machine. It's the last time we see a realistic Jason before he turns into a zombie, monster, Frankenstein looking thing.

Actor Ted White played Jason in this film. During filming he decided not to interact or talk to any of the other cast. He felt that isolation created an extra fear, so during filming, the actors would be frightened by him. Smart move!

Cast:

The creme of the crop. An All-Star cast. Let's talk about the cast of actors in the film. First of all, we had the up and coming famous kid actor, Corey Feldman at the beginning of his career. He played the character Tommy Jarvis. Tommy would become a fan favorite to the series. Tommy's character would go on the next two additional movies and be Jason's arch enemy.

Next we have Crespin Glover (pictured right). Better known as Marty McFly. Right on the dawn of the Back to the Future Trilogy. He plays a geeky kid looking to get break his virginity and get laid.

In addition to those two, the rest of the cast was pretty solid. Tommy's older and hotter sister Trish did an excellent job in the film. A great damsel in distress. The character of Rob was one of my favorites growing up. Rob was out "hunting" for Jason. His sister was one of Jason's victims in Part 2.

SFX/Gore:

There are one word that describes the body count in this movie: thirteen. Yep. That’s how it should be! One kill for each day of the film’s title. Way to go! That's a perfect amount to stop at. It's a nice round number. Or something like that.

I had trouble deciding what my favorite kill was, but I've settled on this one. The Door Axe. * Highlight to Read * Okay, it's a pretty simple death, but the timing of it was awesome. One of the last party goers was starting to stumble across some of Jason's handy work. The person was running frantically through the house. As they approached the front door...BAM! Jason wields an axe through the door and into the person's chest. * It was more of the timing of the kill and magnitude of it's greatness. Nothing fancy, but highly effective.

There was one kill that I was extremely disappointed in, and that was the second story window kill. That blew. How many people die from being tossed out of a second story window. They pulled the same sh*t off in Part 7. Boo!

TNA:

I thought that this would be the ultimate TNA flick in the series. There were six hot chicks (Shark Factor), including a set of real twins. Speaking of twins, there were two pairs shown off. Additionally, there was a shower scene, a skinny dippin' party, and a late night nude swim at the lake.

A couple did get it on in the movie. Personally, I would have liked to seen more from the film. Yeah, I'm spoiled, but I thought there was more potential in the film.

T.Gun's Take:

Okay, let's be frank here. It's the same storyline as the rest of them. Kids get slaughtered at the expense of Jason. So nothing special here. Except they decided to just let go with the film and let Jason go all out. No holding back. Go get 'em Jason!

The movie did deliver a great atmosphere, music, pace and look. It had a creepy, dark feel to the movie which worked well. The story also sets up next two movies to come with Tommy and provides some insight back into Part 2 with Rob's family history.

What a great, fun movie. Probably is the best Jason movie that's not named Part 1 or 2. From here on out it’s zombie, indestructible Jason. The touch of realism has gone out the window the second this one ends.

Once all the cannon fodder has been dispatched in the movie, and it's just Tommy, Trish and Jason left, the fun begins. Tommy and Trish barricade themselves in their house and Jason breaks in trapping them with nowhere to go. The movie is at it's best with Jason out in the open, stalking Tommy and Trish. It leads up to a great ending with Tommy and Jason in a final showdown where Tommy just goes Ape Sh*t on Jason.

Horror movie special effects king, Tom Savini contributes his greatness to the special effects and make up for the movie. Director Joseph Zito also directs personal favorites in Missing in Action (Chuck Norris!!) and the Prowler.

Misc. Movie Trivia:
-Film opened on April 13, 1984 and made $30.3 million at the Box Office ($11.1 million opening weekend)
-One of five Friday films to open on Friday the 13th
-Film's events take place on Sunday the 15th, Monday the 16th, and Tuesday the 17th