Review of Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) by Steve S — 22 Oct 2008

The Final Chapter is not the final chapter. There are eleven films in the series as if that wasn't a long winded franchise. Well I'll tell you what, there are a couple ways to look at this movie. The first being acknowledging it as the bottom feeding junk it is and the other being a total waste of time.

There was atleast the twist ending at the end of part I. Part II and III, granted being very similar to this film, were still in the learning phases of how to make a movie like part IV and here we are with the Final Chapter. A blatant marketing ploy that was one of the highest grossing pictures of 1984.

The plot is non-existant (again) and here we have a group of college students moving into a house next to the Jarvis family. Corey Feldman plays Tommy Jarvis, mask making wiz kid who ends up "saving the day" at the end.

The message of this film is completely cynical and depressing. Nevermind any plans you have in your young adult life because you're just going to end up dead which they do. In 90 minutes we see defenseless teens stabbed, twisted, mutilated and mauled by Jason. The killings are mindless with no apparent reason. Much like any of the other films as an audience we are not rewarded for liking any of the characters because even the good hearted characters end up impaled by a machete. You might as well watch footage of car crashes edited together. There is no horror and by this point in the series we get a taste of the amount of carnage this lifeless horror film "hero" will deal out.