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The Story
In a similar, but vastly better opening, we're reshown Paul's campfire tale about Jason from Friday the 13th as clips of the three films are shown at appropriate moments of the story. The story heads back to the camp/farm/whatever the place the dead group was staying at as Jason is loaded up in an ambulance with the thought that he's still dead. Night and rain adds to the mood. At the morgue, a creepy and horny the doctor tries to get a little action with a nurse with Jason in the room. The smell of attempted sex in the air brings Jason back to live. Two deaths later and Jason is a free man.
Once the question as to how Jason returns to life is answered, we're introduced to two new groups. The first is your typical Friday gang of horny friends who might as well wear shirts that say 'Kill me Jason!' No one is particularly interesting with the exception of Jimmy (Played by Crispin Glover of Back to the Future and Charlie Angel's). Jimmy is your perfect lovable loser who brings comedy without being annoying. The group ends up meeting a pair of brunette twins with one of them just screaming out 'Slut' if there ever was one. The six friends moves in to a house on Crystal Lake next to the Jarvis'. Trish Jarvis instantly has the feel of the heroine that the girls in the house next door lacks. Meanwhile, Tommy Jarvis (Corey Feldman) is the ten year old horror lover who makes his own masks.
As the killings continue, we're introduced to another outsider of a new category. Rob Dier is a mysterious backpacker who's supposedly hunting for bears. In reality, he's hunting the big bear of Crystal Lake - Jason. Rob turns out to be the brother of Sandra Dier, the incredibly hot counselor that was killed by Jason during sex in Part II. With Rob on their side, the Jarvis' realize that Jason is in town and their new friends aren't fairing too well. The battle ensues at both houses as young Tommy Jarvis learns the back story of Jason from the newspaper clippings that Rob has collected. With his sister in jeopardy, Tommy shaves his hair off to resemble young Jason. Coming after Jason, Jason is freaked out at the sight of his former self in front of him. This allows Tommy to pull out a machete and go to town on Jason. In one of the smartest scenes in the history of horror cinema, while embracing his sister after seemingly killing Jason, Tommy keeps his eye on Jason's body. At the first twitch of Jason's fingers, Tommy grabs the machete again and cuts Jason up several more times. 'DIE! DIE! DIE' Tommy screams as Jason is killed once and for all.
Cut to the hospital as Trish is being fixed up from some wounds. The doctors reassure Trish that Tommy's crazed state was a result of the need to protect her and that he will be alright. Tommy comes in and the siblings have one more embrace. The film ends with Tommy's eyes opening with that same crazed look in them. Uh-oh...
The Characters
Tommy Jarvis - A young boy who's obsessed with monsters and things of horror nature. With his parents divorced, he has stepped up to be the man of the house at such a young age. At the same time, he's still young enough in his mindset that he presents a new challenge to Jason.
Trish Jarvis - The older sister of Tommy, Trish is your "Good girl" heroine in slashers. She quickly takes a liken to Rob and is pushed to new extremes once Jason comes around. A huge step up from Chris in Part 3. She's more of an Annie (Part 1) than a Ginny (Part II) in terms of fierce independence.
Rob Dier - The first of his kind. Rob is the first non-cop who is actually coming after Jason. The older brother of Sandra from Part II, Rob wants to avenge the death of his sister. Rob becomes close with the Jarvis' upon meeting them.
Jimmy - Described as a 'Dead Fuck' when he questions why his ex dumped him, Jimmy plays the role of the hopeless loser who is just trying to get a break. A love/hate relationship with his best friend, Ted, the one who came up with the Dead Fuck nickname. Jimmy is desperate to find a girl to care about.
Ted - Nicknamed Teddy Bear, Ted is your classic horny asshole. Unlike other horror assholes, Ted has zero luck with the ladies. After failing with both twins, Ted spends most of the bloodshed night watching old pornos on film.
Sara - The would be heroine had the movie been without the Jarvis'. Sara is the virgin and modest girl of her group of friends, but over the course of the film becomes more outgoing. She's a lot like Chris from Part 3 where she's not interesting in the slightest. One of the wisest moves in Friday history by keeping her from becoming the heroine.
Tina and Terri - The twins of the movie. The one is supposed to be more beautiful (Uh...they're identical twins
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. ) and more slutty. None of this even becomes apparent until their deaths draws near.
Paul and Samantha - The would be sex couple. Neither is memorable and the only thing interesting is the fact that they don't have sex. Paul is torn between caring about Samantha and the slutty twin putting herself out for him to take.
Jason Voorhees - Back from the dead for the first time, Jason is angrier than ever. No longer does he wait in the shadows of the trees, but rather goes straight after anyone he can find.
The Verdict
After a disappointing Part 3, The Final Chapter was touted as just that, the final episode in the Jason Voorhees saga. For this final movie, they went all out giving us exactly what Friday films are supposed to be about
: fun kills, nudity and tons of blood. The last thing is one of the better aspects of this movie. With Tom Savini back for the first time since the original, the gore and fx was so much better than the other movies. The deaths were gruesomely fun just as they should be.
The best part of the film was just how creative it was compared to the other sequels. For the first time in the series, the writers didn't follow the exact outline of the first film. Had they, Tommy and Rob wouldn't have been in the movie and Sara would of been the one to kill Jason at the end. This goes back to my previous thoughts where it's so important not to be stuck doing the same thing over and over again. Yet, simple changes can do wonders for a film. Tommy Jarvis is an especially well written character. Children in horror movies can be difficult. They can generally be annoying and with them being unable to kill, they lack anything interesting. Yet Tommy realistically acts as Jason's biggest threat in the entire series. He's mature enough not to be calm, however; he's young enough to not be caught up in sex and other things that blinds you from realizing trouble is coming. Tommy is basically a young male version of Ginny.
While I did like the idea of a character avenging a previous death, the way they went about Rob wasn't great. For one, they built him up to have a big time showdown with Jason. What we got was Rob quickly dying once the fight began. While it was a surprise from what would have been expected, it's not what I wanted to see. Going deeper into the character's back story, it doesn't make much sense. With this film starting the day after Part 3 ended and Part 3 started the day after Part II ended, that would of given Rob just a few days to find out this his sister died, to find out who did it, research Jason and to come to Crystal Lake. Up until Part II, Jason had remained in hiding with no one even knowing he existed. So with the exception of any newspaper clippings of his drowning and the eventual news coverage of his mother's killings, there wasn't anything to report on Jason. Even if Rob did live near by, I think it's doubtful he could of talked to Ginny already. Chris is out of the question since he's in the woods looking for Jason the day of the cops finding her. Finally, add in the fact that his family just got the news of Sandra's death. Are you really going to leave your family to hunt for the man who killed her when they're in such an early stage of grieve? It's a great idea for a character, but I'm very surprised no one from production picked up on this mistake.
Speaking of mistakes, the end of Part 3 was the cops showing up at day break. Yet, in this, the ambulance to take the dead bodies and Jason away comes at night. Granted I don't have any knowledge about these kinds of things, but would you really leave bodies around a crime scene for a full day? That's roughly eighteen hours that Jason had been laying on the floor of the barn. This is why you have script supervisors. I can understand that night scenes are better for atmosphere, but it's these kinds of mistakes that leads people to look down on horror films.
As far as character go, Jimmy has to be one of my favorite in the entire series. Crispin Glover shows exactly why he went on to have a successful career while everyone else (Sorry Feldman) didn't. His final few minutes are just the icing on the cake of a life of a loser. For the rest of his friends, no one was interesting at all. It has to be the weakest group of teens in the series thus far. Which is why Trish and Tommy are such a crucial part of the film's success.
I'll touch on this more on the next movie, but this was intended to be Jason's final movie. The ending implied that Tommy was now blood crazed and would become the killer. I'm not sure how the series would of differed with Tommy as the killer instead. I assume logic would of been the main reason with the idea of one man being unable to continue to kill people time after time without being killed himself. However, you could of killed off the one killer and bring on another one to do the same exact thing. As I said though, there will be more time to talk about this later.
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter is regarded by fans as one of the better Friday's. To this point, it's easily the best film with only Part 2 rivaling it. Even with all the issues I talked about above, it's a fun ride and one that pretty much set the standard for what a slasher sequel should be.
The Extras Death Count: 14
(Including Jason, this is the highest death count to date.)
Boob Count: 5
(This doesn't include a few more from the old porno that Ted was watching.)
Best Death: Jason Voorhees
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