Perhaps we should take a cue by Gordon, a dog who–midway through the fourth entry in the Friday the 13th series–voluntarily jumps out of a window while he still has a chance. Animals are said to possess a sixth sense about things. Apparently this includes an aesthetic sensibility as well because Joseph Zito, director of the subsidiary slasher, The Prowler, helms the self-proclaimed final chapter in the saga of Jason Voorhees. Each previous installment in the Friday the 13th series can be argued to be a successively poorer remake of Sean Cunningham’s original, and Zito’s effort is no different as it mimics Friday the 13th Part 2 while adding nothing of value to the franchise in lieu of housing special effects by Tom Savini and the first supporting role of Corey Feldman.
After being presumed dead, Jason Voorhees (Ted White) is taken to Wessex County morgue. It is later discovered that his corpse is missing, along with two hospital attendants. Meanwhile, a group of partiers retreat to Crystal Lake and stay in a cabin located next to the Jarvis family. Will Jason return to his old hunting grounds and an innocent family be implicated in the vacationing partygoers’ excesses?
From the offset, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter languidly admits that it will offer nothing before it subsequently falls into the rut bore by its predecessors. As Jason tosses the requisite corpse through a window before entering by the same avenue once more (while still allotting himself time to remain true to his character by instantaneously making toothpicks out of a door), a plus-one body count presents itself by the end of the day (as did Part III, as it trumped Part II’s homicide tally). As lethargy gives way to unoriginality, we find our antagonist defeated using the same ruse which we witnessed in Part II (as did Part III by shadowing the original . . . thereby spoiling the finale raffle for the next film). Yet Zito does offer variety in the form of, not underacting–which seemed to be par for the first three Friday the 13th installments, but instead directs his performers so as to issue a solid hour-and-a-half of overacting. Neither is there deviation in respect the feature’s precursors for the production is fraught with continuity errors.
However, Zito’s film must be credited for it is better photographed than Cunningham or Steve Minor’s entries. And that’s about all that can be said of the feature. Unlike its forerunners, Zito’s picture adds nothing to the legacy or mythos of Jason, yet the film does sustain what came before as we, again, find Jason continuing his murder spree the day after the close of Part III. Furthermore, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter does its audience the service of observing and following the plot of its predecessor as belief need not be suspended for, uncharacteristically of the horror sequel genre, a rational, plausible explanation is given for the killer’s reemergence.
Yet Zito’s supposedly concluding chapter is surprisingly sedate considering that Paramount obviously intended the work to serve as the finale to the blockbuster series. Given that the work houses another up-and-comer (after Kevin Bacon in Part I)–a very young Corey Feldman, in only his second feature-length film and his first supporting role, who does an admirable job, especially in contrast to his adult counterparts (including Crispin Glover)–and that the production company hired Tom Savini once more to guarantee a special effects extravaganza, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter does nothing of noteworthy interest outside of being the feature which harbors the greatest amount of nudity within the serial killer cycle. The only relevance to be had is, aside from the irony of the title, Feldman plays a 12 year-old character named Tommy, who is–like Savini–a special effects wizard. As legend has it, Savini agreed to do the film in order to be the responsible party for having taken to the grave the monster he helped create. As such, both Savini and his cinematic doppelganger attempt to do just that–and we can’t blame either for trying. Of course, it seems as if little Tommy is having a bit too much fun by the end of the day and, as the audience can well assume, for a reason. What can you say? You can’t keep a cash cow . . .errr . . . great killer down, especially an omnipotent, omnipresent one.
As the audience is forced to overlook the incongruity of a personage who is supposedly hydrophobic after either nearly drowning voluntarily entering a lake, Joseph Zito asks little else of his viewers with Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. Though the interrelationships between the killer’s cinematic bait are pitted in petty rivalries by way of jealousy, the film eschews–as par for the series–any insight into the human condition in lieu of bringing a familial structure into the fray as nudity and gore supersede all else. Though a self-described finale, Jason goes out with a whimper courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
-Egregious Gurnow
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- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
