Movie Info
Movie Name: Friday the 13th Part 4: The Final Chapter
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Genre(s): Horror
Release Date(s): April 13, 1984
MPAA Rating: R
Next time you are wonder where the corkscrew is, be more concerned about where the meat cleaver is…
Jason Voorhees (Ted White) appears to be dead, but he proves himself to be harder to kill when he revives at the morgue and sets out to kill. A group of teens having a house party at Crystal Lake are about to encounter terror while their neighbors Mrs. Jarvis (Joan Freeman) and her children Trish (Kimberly Beck) and Tommy (Corey Feldman) learn that a man named Rob Dier (E. Erich Anderson) might have his own score to settle with Jason…Jason is coming and blood will flow!
Directed by Joseph Zito, Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter (often just known as Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter) is a horror slasher film. Following Friday the 13th Part 3 in 1982, the film was marketed as the final entry into the Friday the 13th series, but a strong box office return (despite negative reviews) led to the series continuation.
Come here and give me a hug!
Friday the 13th Part IV has a special place for me. It was the first real, unedited slasher I can remember seeing and my friend and I saw it shortly after its release. That night I had to walk home with the woods on one side and a lake on the other…it added to horror. I still consider Friday the 13th Part IV one of my favorite entries in the series.
The movie has everything you’d expect from an ’80s slasher. It had nudity, blood, guts, and creative kills. The movie has somewhat of a plot, though it is just the standard plot (aka Jason kills horny teens), but the addition of a family and someone actively trying to kill Jason is a bit different than some of the other stories (it doesn’t go to great in either case).
The cast is pretty basic for a horror movie from the ’80s. There are lots of shiny young kids, but there are some fun surprises. Kimberly Beck is likeable as the older sister Trish Jarvis and Crispin Glover (like always) manages to even stand out among the other generic teens…and he does the great and unforgettable dance. The movie goes totally ’80s with Corey Feldman as Tommy Jarvis who actually gets the best of Jason.
It isn’t my fault…I have low self-esteem issues
The movie enjoys its deaths. There are lots of chops and slices in the movie, and the movie is pretty relentless. A lot of attention was to the last act of the film which had Jason unmasked for an extended period of time. Though he was unmasked in every movie, it gave you a real look at his face…before his insane death at the hands of Tommy.
I will not argue that Friday the 13th Part IV is art or argue that it is any different or better than the other films, but it personally is a fun entry into the series. Realistically, it is rehash, plodding, and almost a bore with death after death…but that is why I love it. Jason isn’t creative like Freddy, but he is an icon of the ’80s and this might be the most “Friday the 13th” of the Friday the 13th series. Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter was followed by (in my opinion) one of the worst entries with Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning in 1985.
Related Links:
Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning (1985)
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
