Friday the 13th - The Final Chapter
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Features
• Anamorphic
• Closed-captioned
• Color
• DVD-Video
• Full Screen
• Widescreen
• NTSC
In Theaters : 13 April, 1984
DVD Release : 17 October, 2000 |
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Friday the 13th - The Final Chapter Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥ |
Mostly solid entry in the franchise
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Billed as The Final Chapter, but that ended up hardly being the case, but in some ways this was the last. The Final Chapter was the last of the more human Jason. Though I wouldn't say he was human since the damage he took in the previous part would have killed him if he were. But this was the last of the old school Jason. The Final Chapter also sort of marked the end of the Friday the 13th movies in a sense. What I mean by that is the first 4 while they were built around the Jason character even if he isn't the killer in the first and his name isn't even stated in the 3rd, but the movies do revolve around him, but it's not all about Jason.
The Final Chapter is seen by many as the best sequel of the series and even seen by some as best installment of the series. I did enjoy The Final Chapter, but I have to disagree. The first 20-minutes are quite excellent, but after that things begin to slow down and the longer the stretch without a kill scene it can drag since the characters outside of the Jarvis family I found quite annoying at times.
Writer Barney Cohen does a fairly decent job; he commented on part 3 saying the characters in that were better off dead and his goal was to create real characters. To be honest Part III is my favorite and I really liked the characters. I found the characters mostly quite obnoxious and annoying in The Final Chapter. Let's face it the Friday the 13th movies aren't known for their plots. The first one is really the only one with a plot; the 2nd part is simply a rehash only with Jason. The 3rd had the least amount of plot, but had some decent ideas.
But even with that I found the previous 3 better written character wise. They in my opinion were able to keep things going in-between the death scenes and the 3rd part actually had some good ideas even if not used to its full potential. The characters in The Final Chapter aren't exactly unlikable, but in general it really didn't matter to me who died in general. Though the character development wasn't bad actually. As far as slasher movies goes this is probably one of the better ones that attempts to create more depth and it sort of works in some areas, but also makes the movie a little slow at times.
I did like the Jarvis family, I thought the writing was solid on that and attempted to create more than the standard slasher movie characters, which was a nice touch. The rest of the characters weren't bad or anything, but slightly annoying at times. I also liked the concept of the Rob character played by Erich Anderson hunting down Jason for the revenge of the murder of his sister, which all signs point to being Sandra of Friday the 13th Part II.
Joseph Zito made a name for himself with slasher fans on the cult classic The Prowler was a great choice for this movie. Zito isn't a great filmmaker in the traditional sense, but he knows how to craft an enjoyable movie. And when it comes to the slasher film he knows what the audience wants. The one thing I have to say though about Joseph Zito is he really knows how to create a really bleak tone. The Prowler and The Final Chapter both have this great sense of dread. By 1984 the slasher film really was just about dead. 1980 and 1981 were the golden years of the slasher film, and while there were still some good ones the slasher genre took a hit.
So by this time there really wasn't anything left to explore; most slasher flicks were a total rehash of past ones and by now they were barley able to add anything new. Joseph Zito though is able to deliver a fun and enjoyable movie even if nothing new is added. By this point you just have to try and make the best film you can. Zito knows what the audience wants. Nudity and violence and he very much delivers. It's too bad after this Zito wouldn't do another installment or another slasher movie for that matter. Like I said Joseph Zito is a filmmaker that knows what the audience wants in these movies and he delivers.
The pacing can lag at times as we spend time with the characters like I said they are sort of annoying, but fairly decent developed, but they aren't strong enough to carry the movie. So due to that the pacing can lag, but Zito always does manage to mostly keep the bleak tone. The final act though delivers with some great suspense and tension. I remember as a kid a lot of moments in the final act scared the hell outta me. Even to this day I think the final act is excellent; seeing Jason played by an un-credited Ted White chasing around Trish played by Kimberly Beck makes for some chilling moments than add Tommy played by Corey Feldman to the mix really helps elevate this movie a lot. What might lack at times is more than made up for with an excellent and creepy finale.
The Final Chapter runs at 91-minutes, but actually it's more like around 82-85-minutes. The first few minutes are clips of the previous 3 along with the opening credits and than the closing credits. But it does seem like a few scenes were just tacked on to make the movie a certain length. There was a good 20-min or so stretch where nothing really happens and some of those scenes really could have been trimmed down to help the pacing.
Tom Savini makes his big return to the series after passing on the 2nd part and I don't know if he was offered part 3, but regardless he didn't do it. Savini is re-teamed with Zito; the two previously made The Prowler together. Savini is spot on with the gore F/X. It's quite tough to pick his best work, several of his movies you can make a case for. I don't think The Final Chapter was his best work, but it's still pretty damn good. This was back in the good old days of guys like Savini and no CGI. And honestly, this looks better than any gore you'll find in a CGI horror flick.
The cast is pretty good; all the main actors are fairly decent with some faces the audience should recognize. Peter Barton, Erich Anderson, Julie Aronson, Bruce Mahler and Lawrence Monoson have all done a few other things and the most notable cast members are Crispin Glover and Corey Feldman as Tommy Jarvis.
Kimberly Beck as Trish Jarvis makes for one of the best heroines of the series. Beck, gives a mostly solid performance and I thought the chase scenes with her and Jason were some of the most solid moments of the franchise. Feldman also is excellent and the next two installments would see his character return played by different actors, with the exception of Feldman's cameo in the 5th part.
Overall The Final Chapter was a solid slasher flick, while there are times the pacing lags in some spots it overall gets the job done with a dark tone and some excellent kill scenes. While not my favorite of the series I understand why so many fans think it is. |
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Friday the 13th - The Final Chapter dvd movie.