Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) - Weasello Rating: {>>>-} (Better) {{ Prequel | Sequel }}
Please note that this review is laden with spoilers.
Jason Injury Count: Jason actually dies twice in this movie. Well, to be more precise, he begins dead as the last movie (sorta) ended. He comes alive in the morgue, however, and proceeds to: Get his hand sliced three times by a machette, get his hand cut nearly in half (between the fingers) by a machette, a machette slash/embedded into his chest under the left armpit, 16 hammer bashes to the head, 1 hammer claw embedded in the back of the neck, a computer monitor bashed onto head (and as a result, a few seconds of electrocution, even though the monitor wasn't plugged in), then... to trump all other injuries.. the trusty machette nearly cleaves Jason's head in twain, horizontally. It enters the left side of his head, stopping at about the nose, cutting right through the eyeball. Jason then collapses to the ground, and the knife gets pushed slowly through his head as it hits the floor. Jason then twitches a few times before being hacked at an additional 15 times with the machette. I fear he has finally "died."
Bodycount: 13 (6 Male, 7 Female)
Plot Outline: The fourth movie of the Friday the 13th series starts to depart from duplicate-and-replicate cookie-cuttedness of the first three movies... But it does still follow the classic horror story style.
A bunch of people rent a house on the lake, next door to a nice family. On young member of the family, Tommy, is particularly special as he is the first recurring character (other than Jason) in the series. He stars in at least the next two movies as well!
Jason goes on his regular murderous rampage, doing the old throwing-dead-people-through-the-window routine, and getting himself thoroughly beaten up. I was suprised at how much damage Jason took in this movie. I suppose it makes sense, considering it is supposed to be the last movie of the series. HAhahaha.
In any case, Jason's head gets royally screwed up (see above) and little Tommy goes crazy, screaming "DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!" as he whacks him up to 15 times before the scene fades out, as his sister screams in the background "Tommy! NO!"
Psycho kids really freak me out so this was one of the scariest scenes the movie series has shown me yet. The kid ends up going to the hospital and gets checked out by a psychologist, but everything seems fine - however, he gets an evil gleam in his eye and slathers a murderous smile across his lips before the screen fades out - paving the way to the next installment in the series.
Interesting Notes:
- This movie had a very large nude scene - about 10 men and women were skinny-dipping, full-frontal nudity on the women. From Friday the 13th parts one through six, this is the most nudity you'll get at any given time.
- This movie is the first of the series to use the typical "Shadow-death" shot, where a lightning flash casts the shadows of a person being stabbed, without the camera actually picking up the death.
- Jason had an odd habit of stabbing people through things in this movie. Through fabric, through beds, through boat bottoms, through movie screens - he's now a stylish killah!
- It is also interesting to note that the movie progresses 1 hour and 9 minutes before you ever see Jason's trademark hockey-mask.
- Jimmy does the funniest dancing moves I have ever seen in this movie. He spazmatically jerks his limbs around. If anyone knows what dance style this is, please let me know - I wanna learn it :)
Lead roles:
Directed by: Joseph Zito (I)
Writing credits: Barney Cohen, Frank Mancuso Jr.
Tagline: AThree Times Before You Have Felt The Terror, Known The Madness, Lived The Horror. But This Is The One You've Been Screaming For...
Sources: The oh-so-wonderful IMDB, my head, and the box.
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