Friday the 13th: The Series Ep. 53 and 54 The Prophecies Review

The Prophecies, the third and final season premiere, originally aired on September 25, 1989. This was a 2 hour season premiere, hence why it counts as two episodes. This is the only two hour episode of the entire series. This was both a tremendous and crap episode. Tom McLoughlin returns for the last time as writer and director for this franchise. As usual his offering is a mixed bag. Creating a two hour episode for this series is hard and for the most part he did it with class. As I thought, Micki's looking at the book is not mentioned in the season premiere and is rendered useless and idiotic. The sign of the store Curious Goods also got a facelift. It looks completely different. It's a different color and in a different font and I'm not a really big fan of the change to be quite honest. The cursed object in this episode is a book of Satan that makes prophecies come true. It's not technically one of the cursed antiques. Ryan gets possessed by the devil in this episode. This is very scary and comes across as truly horrifying. John D. Lemay gives his best acting in this episode. He shows the most range. I LOVE the scene where he's crying asking an unconscious Jack what's happening. There's a little girl who's going to be possessed and going to be Satan's way into the world to rule it. I know, it is terrible theology. She's a cripple. The villain heals her and gives her back the use of her legs. He then tells her to praise Satan and let him enter her body. She screams out NEVER! This instantly takes away the ability to walk. Again, I LOVE that moment. How incredibly daring of a TV show to do, especially a horror TV show. It's so bold and gets a standing ovation by me. What went wrong with this episode? It's a little too Catholic for me. Mary is praised more than God, but even more upsetting Ryan is praised more than Mary. Ryan is looked at as the savior of the little girl. Ryan dies, but doesn't. Ryan in adult form dies to save the little girl. Ryan then resorts back to the bodily form he was when he was 12. His mother had been introduced in this episode. She had run out when Jimmy, his little brother, had died. Now she gets her happy ending and gets to catch up on all the lost years she missed out on. Ryan doesn't recognize Micki, Jack, or Johnny. This is a major problem for this episode. The way Ryan is written out of the show is incredibly idiotic. John D. Lemay doesn't even get a goodbye scene with the original trio. The way Ryan is written out it's impossible for John D. Lemay to come back...Ryan is flippin 12!!!! There's also a shot to show how much people have lost faith of a hotel manager burning a cross. I thought that was really inappropriate. Satan has way too much power for too long of a time in this episode. Overall, though, this is a staggering season premiere. I don't know if the show will ever top it.