FRIDAY THE 13th: THE FINAL CHAPTER

FRIDAY THE 13th:THE FINAL CHAPTER-United States-1984

Kimberly Beck as Trish Jarvis

Corey Feldman as Tommy Jarvis

E. Erich Anderson as Rob Dyer

Crispin Glover as Jimmy Mortimer

Peter Barton as Doug

Directed by Joseph Zito

Story by Bruce Hidemi Sakow

Screenplay by Barney Cohen

Characters by Martin Kitrosser, Ron Kurz and Victor Miller

Looking back it seems kind of strange that this particular installment in the series would be subtitled the ‘Final Chapter’. Did the studio really think they were going to kill off Jason Voorhees and the Friday the 13th franchise once and for all? What were they smoking in 1984? It’s alright, though, because all the hardcore Jason fans knew better. One thing I can say is that since they intended this one to be the ‘final’ chapter they went all out with it. The story is decent, the acting is improved over the previous films, and the kills in this installment will surely please the most hardened gore-hounds. Plus, as an added bonus we get none other than Marty McFly‘s dad himself, Crispin Glover, in an early role in his career.

Now, of course there are some parts of the plot that are the same as the plots of the previous three films. It basically goes something like this:

“Hi, I’m a horny male teenager. You wanna have sex?”

“Sure, I’m a horny female teenager. Let’s do it.”

“Oh”

“Yeah”

“Oh”

“Yeah”

(Jason enters the room)

“No, please, don’t, no-HACK, SLASH, CHOP-we now have two dead horny teenagers.

Yeah, that parts pretty much the same in all of them. What’s different is that Jason has two adversaries in the form of Rob Dyer and Tommy Jarvis. Rob is after Jason for the death of his sister, Sandra. Tommy is the precocious younger brother of Trish Jarvis, the final girl of the film. His love for horror films and make-up effects will play a major role in the final battle  with Jason.

This is the best film in the series. I don’t know if it’s because it was supposed to be the final film; or if the film makers were just following on all cylinders. If the series had ended here, it would have gone out a winner. However, after six more sequels, Freddy vs Jason and the remake, that’s just not how it happened.

Trivia

It has been said that the only reason Tom Savini worked as makeup artist on this film was so he could kill the character he created (Jason Voorhees).

According to Corey Feldman, the screams he made when Jason (Ted White) grabbed him through the window were genuine; he was truly terrified.