Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter: Review By Vamp

Well here we are at "Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter," which was supposed to be the last in the series of "Friday the 13th" movies. The series ender, of sorts, that would bring everything about Jason Voorhees' twisted legacy to fruition and give us some closure. While we all know that this movie did not end the series... Not by a long shot... It's still fun to think of it as "The final encounter." Which is pretty much exactly what people thought back in 1984, when this movie came out. What I liked most about this movie, was the fact that it had even more inventive kills than the kills of it's three predecessors combined. Also, this one seemed to be a lot more... suspenseful than "Friday the 13th Part 2" and "Friday the 13th Part III" were... It still doesn't come close to the original "Friday the 13th," and it also doesn't quite beat "Friday the 13th Part 2," but "Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter" was a slight step up from "Friday the 13th Part III." I don't know what initial intent was for the series, but I do know that after some point in time, they decided and try and get 13 sequels for the "Friday the 13th" series, but that definitely fell through, after they started to recede in quality. This movie in and of itself didn't offer anything more for Jason Voorhees in the looks department, since he came into his fulfillment in "Friday the 13th Part III," after gaining his hockey mask and machete. However, what it gave Jason was his full potential in the killing department. He stalked, and he slashed, and he scared the living hell out of everyone that was in this movie, and it was really fun to watch. While some of the movie has it's downsides, for the most part "Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter" is pretty much just as good as "Friday the 13th Part 2," which is definitely a great thing. While the movie still isn't the best in the series, it definitely kicks the ass of some of the other movies that came out later in the series. Also, in this movie, you'll get to meet a very, VERY young Corey Feldman. While it's not his introductory role, it is a very young Corey Feldman, and it'll make you chuckle to see him so young. That is, if you haven't seen the movie. So overall, this movie is definitely a winner among the series, though it still doesn't come up to par with the first two in the series.

The director of this installment of the "Friday the 13th" series, is a new director after Steve Miner left his poster. His name is Joseph Zito, who has done other movies such as "Bloodrage" and "The Prowler," which are 70's flicks that I've never seen, but if they're half as good as this movie was, then I'm pretty sure everything's alright. Since I haven't seen anything else that Zito has done directorial wise, my judgement of his directorial skills is based solely on this movie alone. Zito masters the camera very well. Sean S. Cunningham, who directed the original "Friday the 13th" would definitely be proud. Zito comes up with some very interesting angles for Jason's kills. He also comes up with interesting filters. Since the end of the movie takes place during a stormy night, it's cool to see all of the different ways they showed the kills with lightning strikes. Look for the projector scene, too because there are some interesting filters that make it a pretty intense one. We have a couple of new writers to our vast army of writers that has alreay begun to build. Basing their movie off of the characters created by Victor Miller, Ron Kurz, Martin Kitrosser, and Carol Watson; Barney Cohen and Bruce Hidemi Sakow give us a new story with some very interesting characters, while at the same time, adding more of an edge and grit to Jason's kills. While the kills of the past two films from Jason were definitely gruesome, they've definitely kicked it up a notch with "Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter." The story that they give this one, is pretty simple, as all of the others seem to be, and it really works out nicely. It brings together a whole bunch of characters for a good-old-fashioned slaughterfest. The writers definitely make Victor Miller and Ron Kurz, the original writers for the original "Friday the 13th" movie, would definitely be proud of this one, I'm sure.

The visuals of this movie are as good as they ever were from the last three movies. What I've always loved about any slasher movies, are the intense visuals that they seem to come up with for any of them, whether it be "Halloween," "Friday the 13th," or "A Nightmare On Elm Street," you can pretty much always count on some pretty fun visuals to accompany the slaughterfest to come. This movie is no exception to that. First off, we have our point of view for the killer. In the original "Friday the 13th" and it's sequel, "Friday the 13th Part 2," we didn't see the killer, we saw from the point of view of the killer as he killed, so that you didn't really know who it was, or what they looked like. That added a nice air of suspense and eeriness that really made the movies fun to watch. With the second sequel, "Friday the 13th Part III," we saw Jason Voorhees straight-up as he started to kill. Granted his face was not revelaed to us until it was safely behind his newly found hockey mask. This didn't take away the spookiness that the unknown killer effect had. Rather, it added a new kind of eeriness to it. When you see him coming, you get that suspenseful feeling that makes you think, "Oh my God, what is he going to do next?!" "Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter," has this exact feeling to it. It shows Jason as he does his kills, though some of the time, it doesn't show the kills. It was a nice mix of both. You knew who it was, but it still added an air of mystery. They definitely did good with that bit in this movie. Next up we have Jason. Of course he looks pretty much the same as always, with his trade mark hockey mask. However, his face in this one was... f*cked up... in two different ways. One is the same way it always is. He's got one really ugly ass face. The other is that it looks too fakish... I know the others did, but this one seemed to be a little more than the past two were. Look for when he's got the machete in his face. Next up of course is the blood and kills. The blood in this one is definitely looking very realistic, which is still surprising for a movie from 1984. The most interesting kill for me in this movie, would be the death of the Character Jimmy, which involves a corkscrew. I won't go into detail, but you'll definitely know it when you see it. As I said, the visuals of this movie are as fun as they usually are, and so you don't have to worry about that with this movie.

The storyline of this movie, as I've said, is pretty simple, but they all really are to be honest. This one was a step up from "Friday the 13th Part III," however, which wasn't hard to do. The thing that helped it was more interesting and likeable characters. This one's characters were fun, and sometimes funny. Seeing Crispin Glover's character was a definite plus. Creepy guy, but he definitely has some skills in the acting department. The one character that stood out, though, for me at least, was Corey Feldman's character, Tommy Jarvis. He was a fun character. A little strange, and overly smart for a little twelve year-old, but he definitely made an impression on me, and many other audiences, as the kid that got the best of Jason. One thing that I really like about the "Friday the 13th" movies so far in this series, is that they only used Camp Crystal Lake in the beginning, and changed the scenery by going to different sections of Crystal Lake. Many people know the movies for the camp, and if I'm correct, the camp reopens again later on in the series, but it's nice to see that they can go to new places and keep Jason on the move. Granted that wasn't the hardest thing to think up, but it's nice to see anyway. The storyline for this one, also introduces a character in relation to one of Jason's past victims. Recall, if you will, the death of Sandra and Jeff in "Friday the 13th Part 2." The two were making love with each other, when Jason Voorhees comes up behind them, and shoves a spear straight through the both of them, and into the floor beneath. Sandra, the woman, was the sister of a character who is introduced into the series, who is in search of Jason for his revenge. I always like when they reference older, and smaller, characters from previous films in movies like this. You've got to be paying attention to all of them to really notice it, but it's always very fun to see something like this happen. The Storyline of this movie, as I've said many times already, was simple, but it was definitely done very well.

The movie starts out with a montage, involving the past three movies. What you see is Paul, from "Friday the 13th Part 2" around the campfire, telling the story of Jason Voorhees. As the story unfolds, you see clips and flashes of the terror that both Pamela Voorhees, and her dear and beloved son Jason Voorhees, inflicted on the campers that place themselves on Crystal Lake. It's a fun scene, and we end with Jason lying dead in the barn with the axe in his head, which was the ending of "Friday the 13th Part III." We see some paramedics remove the axe from his forehead, and bag it. They then take his body, and transport it to a hospital. Jason is placed in the freezer room, where he is laid out on a tray and left there. Soon, a doctor and nurse come in there to make love, and Jason's hand slides off the tray, and scares them both out of it. The doctor puts Jason's body into the cooler cabinet, and sits down to watch some TV. As he sits there watching, Jason wakes up, and cuts open the doctor's throat. He then tracks down the nurse who saw him, and kills her as well. After this, we cut to two women, Trisha "Trish" Jarvis (Played by Kimberly Beck of "Roller Boogie") and her mother, Mrs. Jarvis (Played by Joan Freeman of "The Fastest Guitar Alive"), as they are enjoying a run through the country. They then turn up a drive and enter into there home, where a young boy, Tommy Jarvis (Played by Corey Feldman of "The Lost Boys") is playing some computers. His Mother tells him to take it upstairs, and that he needs a haircut. Next up we find ourselves with a group of teenagers, obviously headed to a campground, as they are in the car heading through the woods. Among the group are Sara (Played by Barbara Howard of "Running Mates") and her boyfriend Doug (Played by Peter Barton of "Hell Night"), Ted (Played by Lawrence Monoson of "The Last American Virgin") and his pal Jimmy (Played by Crispin Glover of "Twister"), and Samantha (Played by Judie Aronson of "Weird Science") and her boyfriend Paul (Played by Alan Hayes of "Sam's Son"). They are all having various conversations, but most notable among them is Jimmy and Ted as they talk with each other about Jimmy's failed love life. They joke around, and Ted tells Jimmy that he's a dead f*ck. Jimmy protests as they all continue on down the road and get closer to their destination. It goes back to Mrs. Jarvis, Trish, and Tommy as they are preparing supper. They are messing around when they hear the sounds of people coming in next door. It's the group of kids. Trish and Tommy go out and meet all of them and chat for a while. The kids all go inside, and we see a conversation between Sara and Samantha. We find that Samantha is known for her relationships, while Sara is more conservative, and doesn't really have a "reputation" like Samantha does. They joke around about it a little more as it cuts to Trish and Mrs. Jarvis sitting around and reading. Trish gets up and says she's going to bed, and we go to Tommy who is laying in bed and watching out the window very "sneakily" as Samantha gets undressed, and is joined soon by her boyfriend Paul, while they begin to make out. His Mom comes in at this time, though, and he pretends to be asleep. She tucks him in, and notices the couple making out and closes the blinds, too. She kisses him goodnight and exits. In the morning the group of kids head out on a trail to the lake where they meet two twins, Tina (Played by Camilla More of "The Serpent of Death") and Terri (Played by Carey More of "Once Bitten"), who join them and proceed to skinny dip with the rest of them. At this time we see Trish and Tommy pulling up in the parking lot to the lake, clearly there to have some fun. Tommy runs after their dog, who runs towards the sound of the partying kids, and he sees all of the naked kids having fun and messing around. Trish gets invited in, but she declines, saying she's a little overdressed for it, and leaves with Tommy and the dog. They are heading down the road, when their car breaks down. Tommy is trying to fix it, when a man named Rob Dier (Played by E. Erich Anderson of "The Final Cut") shows up and saves the day. He's got a camper's pack on his back, clearly exploring the wilderness. They get to talking when they're giving him a ride up to the woods, and he tells them that he's out bear hunting. Tommy tells him that that's impossible, but they ignore it, and continue on. Tommy takes him inside, and shows him all of the masks and the things that he made all by himself, and pretty much obsesses over his work like any twelve year-old would. We go back to the kids and it's night now. They're all lounging around and listening to music, dancing with each other. Ted is trying to score with one of the twins, as well is Jimmy, and everyone seems to be having a good time. Now we go back to Rob as he is leaving the Jarvis residence, and saying good bye to Trish, they seem to have something going on between them, but his strange ways cause him to just leave. When we see the kids again, we see that one of the twins has a crush on Paul, and is trying to get into his pants. They go off and dance alone, and Samantha storms out, and heads down to the lake to swim. She gets naked and jumps in. As she is swimming out, she finds a big raft, and gets into it and lounges. She starts to hear noises, and she thinks that it's Paul, so she calls his name. However, Jason (Played by an uncredited Ted White of "Romancing the Stone") soon jumps out of the water, and stabs her up through the bottom of the raft, and into her abdomen. Thus begins Jason's reign of terror upon these unsuspecting teenagers. They've got no idea what's coming, and even less of an idea of how to stop it. We soon find that Rob is the brother of a girl who was killed by Jason, and he is now hunting him, since he disappeared from the morgue. Rob, Trish, and Tommy must now face an unspeakable horror that doesn't seem to be able to die. The acting in this movie, I'll admit, is sketchy in some parts, but for the most part, it's pretty good. All of the Actors and Actresses get their parts down nicely, managing to show each character's respective feelings, emotions, worries, and other such characteristics nicely, and that really adds to the movie nicely. DEFINITELY a GREAT JOB with the casting of this movie.

All in all, this was another good "Friday the 13th" movie. It's still not as awesome as the original "Friday the 13th" and it's sequel, "Friday the 13th Part 2," but it does come very close. It surpasses it's predecessor, "Friday the 13th Part III," by introducing some more likeable characters, though. The Director of this movie really knew what he was doing when it came to creating interesting angles and filters to go with the different kills, and really bring an eeriness to this film that is not unlike the eeriness that the original "Friday the 13th" had. DEFINITELY a great job on the Directing of this movie. The Writers of this movie does a great job at creating a new and simple story that brings together a whole lot of kids for a good-old-fashioned slaughterfest. DEFINITELY a great job on the Writing of this movie. The Visuals of this movie are as awesome as they ever are. They get the point of view of the killer down nicely, blending shots of Jason, with the "From-the-eyes-of-the-killer" angle, and it really makes for some interesting kills. DEFINITELY a great job on the Visuals of this movie. The Storyline of this movie is simple, yes, but it works nicely for the "Friday the 13th" series, and it introduces to us some more likeable characters than it's predecessor gave us. DEFINITELY a great job on the Storyline of this movie. The Acting ties everything together for this movie. All of the Actors and Actresses deliver performances that are VERY Convincing, VERY Believable, and VERY Realistic, and they also deliver performances as characters that you can really FEEL FOR, though I'm not really sure how well you could RELATE TO them, on VARIOUSLY different levels. DEFINITELY a great job on the Casting of this movie. So if you enjoyed the original "Friday the 13th," "Friday the 13th Part 2," and "Friday the 13th Part III," then DEFINITELY give this one a watch. I am almost POSITIVE that you will NOT get disappointed with it at all. I know I didn't!!!!!

THIS CONCLUDES PART 4 IN MY REVIEW SERIES FOR THE "FRIDAY THE 13TH" SERIES!!!!! STAY TUNED FOR PART 5, "FRIDAY THE 13TH: A NEW BEGINNING!!!!!"