Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) Review

If Friday the 13th Part 2, Part III and The Final Chapter are all one long, extended nightmare, then this is the one where Jason Voorhees wakes up really angry and ready to destroy anyone!

The Final Chapter picks up directly after the events of Part III. While Chris is taken away from Higgins Haven, Jason’s body is loaded into an ambulance and slowly the police begin to clear out. So too do the helicopters and flashing lights, leaving Higgins Haven dark, silent and almost eerily peaceful after all that has transpired.

Naturally, Jason is far from dead.

His body is taken to the morgue, where it does not take long for the murders to resume. After a very brutal parting murder at the morgue, we are introduced to the Jarvis family; Trish, her mother and her younger brother Tommy, played by the excellent Corey Feldman. Tommy is fascinated by horror effects, masks and makeup, making him something of a miniature Tom Savini – and what better man, after his return, to provide the makeup effects for the film?

Joseph Zito also makes his return as director, and after The Prowler was certainly no stranger to creating a nasty slasher movie. The combination of Zito and Savini means The Final Chapter is arguably nastier than what came before.

This is especially true of Jason.

While Ted White’s Jason could be my favourite of the early crop of Jasons, he looks simply terrifying. He does not simply lurch from place to place waiting for people to run into him. Instead, he moves with a real sense of purpose, attacking with a kind of feriousity of a wild animal. Once he charges for you, he doesn’t stop.

Crispin Glover gets one of the film’s nastiest death scenes as Jimmy, whose hand is driven through with a corkscrew, straight through into the work top counter before Jason drives a meat cleaver into his face.

Rob, meanwhile, has travelled to Crystal Lake hoping to find answers regarding his sister Sandra, one of Jason’s victims in Part 2. Robs death is haunting, I assumed he would get a scuffle with Jason, kind of like Paul or Ali, but, he didn’t. In a dimly lit basement he is blindsided by Jason who hacks away at him repeatedly while Rob frantically screams for Trish to run. There is a certain nastiness to the very simplicity of it all, and it is a death that has always stuck with me. The echoes of Rob shouting, Run, He’s killing me.

The rest of the supporting cast are all likable, with the exception perhaps of Ted – or ‘Teddy Bear’. He is quite the ‘funny character’, but there are times he is so cringeworthy that you want Jason to hurry up and kill him. Jason delivers on that one.

Where The Final Chapter truly earns its place amongst the best of the series is in its finale. Trish desperately tries to escape Jason, even throwing herself out a window in an effort to get away from him. Of course this doesn’t work and moments late outside, it’s dark, wet and muddy and Jason makes his way into the Jarvis house.

He is arguably the most imposing he has ever looked. He bursts through the window and then explodes through the door. He is not fucking around.

Tommy decides to Jedi mind-fuck him.
Realising the connection between Jason and his past, Tommy shaves his head and alters his appearance to resemble the young Jason. It is a terrifying piece of business, especially as Jason pauses to look at him, thinking, am I being Obi Wanda here!?

It is a pause that proves his undoing.
Jason eventually goes face-first onto the machete, the blade sliding cleanly through his skull, a piece of fantastic work created by Savini, that will become an iconic momemt in the franchise. Maybe as iconic as the mask? Well, this should be enough to kill off old Ki Ki Ki Ma Ma Ma, but, nope!

His fingers twitch.

Tommy loses it entirely and begins to hack at Jason, screaming for him to die. It is a horrific moment, but there is an unnerving quality to watching such an innocent lose so much control. The final hospital scene leaves you questioning whether killing Jason has affected Tommy in some way, had there been a curse that has potentially been passed onto Tommy?

For me, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter is one of the best movies in the entire franchise and without question the darkest of the first four films. Zito and Savini deliver one of the nastiest slashers of the series.

Ted White provides one of the most brutal interpretations of Jason while Corey Feldman provides a character that would become huge in the series.

Had this been the true final chapter, the first four films would make for a truly incredible horror story.

Pamela started it. Jason continued it.
Tommy Jarvis finished it. At least for now.