It took two years between entries, but the producers finally decided to lay Jason Voorhees to rest. The Friday the 13th series had been incredibly lucrative to Paramount pictures and they were happy with how profitable the films were, but ultimately they were embarrassed by the overtly negative critical response to them. Jason Voorhees was going to die NO MATTER WHAT!
As always we begin with the trailer. While better than Part III's trailer it is no where near as good as the trailer's for the first two films. It just kinda is a bland trailer, not bad, but definitely not good, just bland. The two taglines leave something to be desired as well: 1. Three times before you have felt the terror, known the madness, lived the horror, but this is the one you've been screaming for and 2. Friday April 13th is Jason's unlucky day. They sell the film enough, but long gone is the circus feel of the first two.
As far as the film itself, this is the best film since the original. Oh no, it's nowhere near as good as the original, but it's miles ahead of the second and third films. You can tell the producers were serious about this being the final entry because of the way the film opens. The film opens with a giant clip show recapping the first three movies. It's fantastic and definitely feels like the beginning of the end. This film reminds you in the first two minutes about everything you've loved about Friday the 13th. It's just extremely clever filmmaking.
One of the best things this film has that no other sequel had up to or since the that point is Tom Savini returning for the gore effects. The effects in this film blow the previous three films effects sky high. Savini did some fantastic work on this film. It's sad that it's nowhere near as engaging as the first film. A lot of the deaths are lackluster as well. There's more notable exceptions than the previous two sequels, however, that's not saying much. Jimmy's death (Crispin Glover) in particular is great. He gets hit twice, not usually something you see in these films. Also, Doug (the pretty boy's) death is again very clever. Jason DESTROYS his face with only using his hands. Jason's death himself is the most spectacular death in the movie as it should be. Jason gets killed with his own machete and it's over the top gory, by far the goriest death in the series up till this point. The suspense and surprise however is gone once again and almost seems like it'll never return to the series.
I have to discuss two surviving characters this time. I will always give special attention to each and every final girl, however, attention must also be given to Tommy Jarvis. Tommy's the only character to survive through multiple films. He's young and naive in this film. He's also unbelievably talented with mask making, a skill he uses to outsmart Jason in the end. He turns his head into a mask looking like Jason as a little boy. This undoubtedly confuses Jason. As far as that though, there's not much else to discuss about him in the first appearance. Trish, on the other hand, has the least amount of character to her of any final girl yet. I really liked the actress though. She, aside from Alice, suffers the most. She's protective, succumbs to peer pressure, but ultimately is self-sacrificial when fighting Jason to try to create a chance for Tommy to live. She falls out of a second story window and still has to get up and fight Jason. It's really quite impressive.
In order to end the franchise, the producers decided to begin the day after the events of Part III and then the final murder spree occurs the following day. Having Jason go on such a huge rampage in such a short amount of time is both smart and horrifying to think about. The final shot of the movie Tommy stares intensely into the camera and we are led to believe that Tommy could become the next Jason. Halloween stole these elements in later sequels in that series. Overall, this is a great sequel, but has no shock value like the first two.
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter was released on April Friday the 13th, 1984. It was number 1 at the box office on it's opening weekend. On a budget of $2.6 million, the film made $32,980,000. A profit margin that large does not get easily overlooked by the studios and within a year a fifth film was in the works, but with Jason dead, how were the producers going to reinvent the franchise? Well...we'll discuss that next time.
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