While Director Joseph Zito’s “Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter” was not ‘the final chapter’ (a total of 10 films and a reboot would continue Jason’s legacy), it is one of the franchise’s best. Released in 1984, the film blends elements of ‘80s horror with a more violent footprint. Jason is here menacing, vicious, and the film comes off scarier than some of its predecessors.
Was it due to Zito at the helm, who directed 1975s “Abduction” and the Chuck Norris actioner “Invasion U.S.A.?” Or was it because it was written by Victor Miller and several other “Friday the 13th” character creators? Answers aren’t forthcoming. The standard horror tropes are all here, but here we are confronted by a Jason that suddenly means business.
One of the reason the film works is due to the attention to the legend of Jason – and the timeline – that is presented here. The massacres of the 2nd and 3rd movies not far behind, we see Jason’s rampage as something tangible and something that has taken place in a short span of time. His spree has even attracted the attention of one man, Rob (Erich Anderson), who means to avenge his sister who died in “Friday the 13th Part 2.”
There’s not much plot here, but basically the film picks up where “Part 3” left off. Jason is brought to a morgue, where he is seen to be very much not dead, dispatching a mortician and a nurse in violent fashion. He returns to Camp Crystal Lake, where he stumbles upon a group of vacationers and the Javis family (played by Joan Freeman, Kimberly Beck, and a young Corey Feldman as Tommy Jarvis).
Some coupling and in-fighting between the vacationers (including a young Crispin Glover), pass some scenes by uneventfully. Unlike “Part 3,” the camaraderie between the party goers is absent. This film is more about the Jarvis family, and Tommy’s ultimate test of survival, so it’s of no consequence.
Cinematically, the film has creepier air than its predecessors. The now infamous “chh chh chh haa haa haa” is present, yet has more presence due to events at the film’s beginning. The film’s opening is rather gruesome, featuring one murder with a surgical axe that is the franchise’s most graphic death so far. Jason also dispatches a hitchhiker in a rather nasty fashion. He grunts while doing so. One thing can be certain this go around: Jason is mean.
Jason is played by different actors here, coming off the heels of Richard Brooker who played him in “Part 3.” Monster-maker Tom Savini plays him in one scene, but for most of the film he is played by Ted White, a stuntman known for television programs such as “Knots Landing” and “Kung Fu.” He brings a creepy air to Jason, not going for much of the stalking that has historically been Jason’s M.O., but for his ability to appear suddenly, without warning, and strike menacingly.
Certainly, two of the film’s creepies sequences are when two party-goers meet an unfortunate end on a desolate lake at night, or as a passerby is killed. In this later kill, Jason is not on-screen, but cast in a shadow captured by a lightning strike, his deed silenced by a piercing thunderclap.
Vito and Cinematographer João Fernandes do an efficient job using elements of the surroundings to paint horror and suspense. Forests in the rain, broken down cars, and ominous foreshadowing are all present here. One of my favorite scenes has to be when Jason doesn’t attack Rob, but breaks his hunting rifle, alerting him to his presence.
We are also treated to an interesting sequence where Rob details Jason’s previous carnage to Trish Jarvis, adding both fright and desperation to the film.
As the film builds, we see Jason as a true menace, with a lot of bloody kills, especially poor Crispen Glover’s and Rob’s, as the film builds to a confrontation between him and young Tommy Jarvis. It closes well, in a way fitting for its title, but not before doing possibly irreparable damage to young Tommy Jarvis (who would be featured in the next two films, portrayed by different actors).
As “Friday the13th” films go, this is a good one, making Jason formidable, vicious, and brings viewers back to the sylvan camps of Camp Crystal Lake, though this time with more sense of danger and solitude than previous films. If you like “Friday the 13th” films, you’ll enjoy this one – but anyone looking for a creepy movie to watch this Halloween will find nothing disappointing about this one.
– by Mark Ziobro
