FRIDAY THE 13TH THE FINAL CHAPTER

Directed by Joseph Zito
Written by Barney Cohen & Bruce Hidemi Sakow
Music by Harry Manfredini
Special FX by Tom Savini & Steven Kirshoff
Cast: Corey Feldman, Kimberly Beck, Peter Barton, Crispin Glover, Judie Aronson & Ted White

1984/91 mins/Color/Dolby Digital 5.1
1.85:1 anamorphic/English/US/NTSC Region 1

Review from the Paramount DVD

Immediately following the brutal events of the film, the presumably dead mass murderer Jason Voorhees is taken to the local hospital. Unfortunately for the soon to be victims, Jason awakes and magically makes his way back to Crystal Lake Camp and eliminate all who trespasses his way. But Jason might have just met his match in Tommy Jarvis, next-door kid with a passion for the macabre.

As we all know this fourth chapter in the FRIDAY THE 13TH series was far from being the last one. One of the highlight of the film is the ending where Tommy picks up the machete and swings it at Jason's head, causing the machete to dig further into his head is probably one of the coolest of the entire franchise.

It was at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival that Zito was trying to raise money for a feature film that he met the people who would produce THE PROWLER and Stephen Minasian who happens to own part of the FRIDAY THE 13TH franchise. Minasian later saw THE PROWLER and told Zito that it would have been a good FRIDAY THE 13TH film. After the successful box office results of FRIDAY THE 13TH 3D, Minasian immediately contacted Zito for the job.

Tom Savini returned to the series creating the special FX and it reunited him with director Joseph Zito from which three years earlier they had worked on another phenomenal slasher, THE PROWLER. It was Zito who brought in Barney Cohen to help with the script. The two had met years before working on television and would work again in 1989 for the Dolph Lundren action flick RED SCORPION. It was Cohen that came up with THE FINAL CHAPTER as the title.

As an homage to Tom Savini, Corey Feldman's character was named Tommy Jarvis. Unknown to everyone at the time, Tommy would become a regular character to the series. This time the final girl was played by Kimberly Beck who had been in MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH and in one of my favorite film as a kid, ROLLER BOOGIE with THE EXORCIST star Linda Blair. Judie Aronson, who played Samantha and gets brutally knifed from beneath the water, was one of my first crushes, as a teen would star the next year in John Hughes comedy WEIRD SCIENCE. Of course, of all the teens getting butchered in the film Crispin Glover would become the most well know due for his terrible dance number and his roles in BACK TO THE FUTURE and the WILLARD remake.

Even though Paramount supposedly really wanted to end the series with this fourth chapter, the film, which made its theatrical debut on Friday April 13, 1984, became the biggest box office opening in Paramount's history for that time of the year. It made a whopping $11.1 million in its first three days for a total of $32.8 million during its total run. A sequel was inevitable.

The film is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio and it is anamorphic. The image looks surprisingly good with rich colors saturation. A newly remastered English Dolby Digital 5.1 sounds very good. Purists fear not as the original English mono stereo sound is also included, as are French and Spanish mono stereo soundtracks. Subtitles are available in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

Paramount have finally listened to fans and released FRIDAY THE 13TH THE FINAL CHAPTER as a worthy Deluxe Edition. The disc contains lots of extras including a commentary track with director Joseph Zito, screenwriter Barney Cohen and editor Joel Goodman that is very interesting as Zito goes into all the details behind the making-of the film. There is also a fan commentary with Adam Green and Joe Lynch who has directed their own horror films in part "thanks" to the FRIDAY THE 13TH series. 'Lost Tales from Camp Blood - Part 4' is yet another chapter at that useless fan made film. Presented by director Joseph Zito, 'Slashed Scenes' is 16 minutes of awesome outtakes from the film where we can now see and enjoy more gore and nasty killing. This is stuff us fans have been dying to see for 25 years now. 'Jason's Unlucky Day: 25 Years After Friday The 13th The Final Chapter' is an interesting 12 minutes featurette looking back 25 years later on the making-of the film which most of the key members of the cast and crew. 'Lost Ending' is a first time looks at the alternate ending for the film that was thankfully never used. 'The Crystal Lake Massacres Revisited Part 1' is useless mockumentary on the events that supposedly happened at Crystal Lake. 'Jimmy's Dead Fuck Dance Moves' is outtakes of Crispin crazy dance number. We also get the original theatrical trailer and a trailer for THE UNINVITED. The film is separated in 14 chapters, features static menus with music, comes in a keep case which itself comes in a neat holographic cover and without a booklet or inlay card.

"Three Times Before You Have Felt The Terror, Known The Madness, Lived The Horror. But This Is The One You've Been Screaming For."

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Review by Kim Dubuisson. All Right Reserved. 2009. ©

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