Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
Starring: Kimberly Beck, Corey Feldman, Crispin Glover
Directed by: Joseph Zito
Using the phrase "final" in a franchise is usually a broken promise the studios make to their audience. So, when we're only FOUR films into the Friday the 13th series and we've already arrived at the "final" chapter, you know they won't hold their end of the bargain. Even if you didn't know that we had another 6 sequels, 1 crossover, and a reboot left for Jason (along with whatever else they have planned for him in the future), you can assume the horror world can't just let a profitable series like this end early. And it didn't, but does that make Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter a bad film? Absolutely not. In fact, most fans call this the best film in the series, and I'd have to agree. It's got all you want in a Jason movie. Jason is killing everything in his path, we have memorable characters that actually feature one or two appearances from future megastars of the '80s, and the film would attempt to do the unthinkable and bring Jason's story to an end. So, let's see why horror fans are willing to forgive this film and not Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare for false advertisement.
Jason Voorhees is just being himself by the time we get to this film. Teenagers partying in the woods? Clearly he has to break that up with deadly force. By this film, his iconic status had kicked into high gear and fans realized it no longer mattered which teenagers he was stalking per film. People went to the theaters to see Jason be Jason. He had become a legend in the horror genre. So much so, that that's probably the reason this wasn't the "final" chapter after all. Also, keep in mind that around the time this film was released, we were months away from seeing the debut of Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers hadn't been resurrected in the Halloween franchise yet, so he had no major peers or competition in the genre. In many ways, this film proved why Jason was THE face of mainstream horror in the early '80s.
Speaking of the '80s, we have two great characters in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, brought to life by two icons of '80s pop culture. The first is the young Tommy Jarvis, played by Corey Feldman. Before being in The Goonies and The Lost Boys, Corey Feldman got his big break on camera by playing a kid interested in video games and making special effects in his bedroom. He's the kind of kid movie buffs in the '80s were most likely doing. Except they didn't have a psycho maniac with a machete chasing him. The other character is Jimmy, played by Crispin Glover, a socially awkward hopeless romantic looking for that special someone. Doesn't that sound familiar? As we know, Crispin Glover went on to play George McFly in my all-time favorite film Back to the Future, which was released one year later in 1985. It makes you wonder if Robert Zemeckis was watching this performance and said "that's the guy we're looking for." Plus, Jimmy has some AMAZING dance skills. Trust me, you can't un-see something like that.
As far as horror films go, let alone horror sequels, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter can stand proud as one of the best slasher movies around. Coming in with the idea that this was the final film, they knew they had to throw everything they had in this one and it shows splendidly. While there are a few too many edits with the blood and gore than I would like, the right point is put across. Jason gets to do his usual thing, his victims all feature some form of development, the death scenes are memorable, and the film goes balls to the wall with how they planned on finishing Jason off. Not much else to say except go and check it out.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.
Unless one of the sequels just blows any expectations out of the water, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter will be my choice for the best film in the franchise. Thanks to some great performances from Corey Feldman and Crispin Glover, the film gives what would have been a proper sendoff for Jason Voorhies and deserves to be watched by all horror fans.
Comment below to share your thoughts on the movie or to discuss a topic that I left out of my review
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter and movie images are copyrighted by Paramount Pictures
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