Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) October 13th, 2023

After detesting A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master and thoroughly enjoying Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Meyers our hopes of having a net positive experience with three horror franchise quarquels (that’s the fourth movie in a franchise… I think I just made it up?) rests on Jason Voorhees’ unkillable shoulders. Lucky for us Jason isn’t carrying Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter alone. He gets help from famous friends like Corey Feldman, Crispin Glover, and the several topless actresses starring in this picture.

Equal parts sophomoric scenarios, weird moments, and brutal kills; Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter is proof positive you can make a great sequel by sticking to the basics. Introduce a new batch of lascivious campers, resurrect Jason somehow, and allow the latter to massacre the former with style and grace. Anything more complicated will just gum up the works and degrade the product’s meager value.

Much like Halloween II, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter takes place immediately after the events of its preceding film where Jason murders another group of young lovers and in this case a motorcycle gang. And like his idol Michael Meyers, Jason defies death and escapes long enough to torture more bystanders. As luck would have it he stumbles upon a small patch of houses in the New Jersey woods where he’s free to restart his murders spree. The occupants of the two houses we follow are firstly a group of kids who’re renting a house for the weekend where they can get high and freely fornicate… just like the camp counselors who let Jason die… and the other is home to a single mother and her two children. It’s all a party until Jason starts picking off the cast like Ten Little Indians. And as per usual, a couple of them survive and defeat Jason… for now.

Aside from following the recipe so well people might ask, “Is this store-bought Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter?”, the movie is helped significantly by Corey Feldman’s perfect post-The Fox and the Hound-pre-The Goonies performance and Crispin Glover’s insane dancing. Between his Letterman segments and his performance choices, everyone should know by now that Crispin Glover is an odd duck. But if you want more evidence just head on over to your favorite local search engine and type in something like ‘Crispin Glover Friday the 13th dancing’ and enjoy the jerky movements of Pinocchio in a paint mixer.

Aside from Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter‘s memorable novelties it is, at its core, a solid slasher film and probably the best in its franchise. Jason finally looks the part (he isn’t in Friday the 13th much and he’s wearing a burlap sack in Friday the 13th part 2, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter is the first good movie where he’s wearing his iconic hockey mask) and the movie hits all the notes you’d want from the series without becoming convoluted or boring. If slashers are your thing, you probably already know Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter is great and if not it’s a wonder you stuck around this long in the review.

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