Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) is now thirty years old, and today is Friday the 13th, so here are some notes and thoughts on what is maybe my favorite film in the series.

Check out my previous Friday reviews:

OG Friday

Part 2

Part 3

This was designed and planned to be the last film in the Friday series, hence the title.  The producers and everybody thought the series had ran its course and it was time to end it.  Of course, this film's success at the box office led to another sequel. . which led to another. . .and another. . .and another. . .and. . .you know.  Still, their attempt at making a final Friday is admirable and successful on many fronts, particularly the ending, but let's instead start at the beginning.

After a brief opening flashback-recap-montage of everything from the first three films, all set around the campfire tale from Part 2 told by Paul (John Furey), the credits start with an EXPLOSION, as the subtitle (The Final Chapter) comes smashing through Jason's hockey mask and the Friday the 13th logo.  Exploding credits = always cool.

After the credits roll, the story begins during the clean-up after the events of Part 3.  There is a nice crane and steadicam shot that reveals Jason's body laying in the barn (where he must of been all day long, as Part 3 ends during the daytime and it is now nighttime) with policemen and medics scrambling all about.  He's declared dead.  They strap Jason to a gurney, load him up into an ambulance, and take him to the hospital morgue.

*Note: There is no mention of the survivor from Part 3, Chris, who was last seen being loaded into a police car and was obviously a little mad-crazy from her encounter with Jason.  In all likelihood she ended up in a mental institution, but I don't believe she's ever mentioned again in the series.

Jason's time in the morgue is brief, as he wakes up and kills the horny morgue attendant Axel (who likes weird aerobics videos) and his nurse companion before hightailing it out of there.  Axel gets his neck slashed with a surgical saw and then Jason twists his head around.  It's the first kill of the movie and it is pretty impressive.

Before they're killed, when they're just making out next to Jason laying on his gurney under a sheet, Axel and the nurse get scared when Jason's hand slips out from underneath his sheet (actually the second time in the movie he's pulled this trick) and Axel totally freaks out and screams, "Jesus Christmas!  Holy Jesus goddamn!  Holy Jesus jumping Christmas shit!"  It's really funny and completely over the top.  Who would ever use a series of exclamations like that?  It's very inapproriapte for the situation, but that pretty much explains Axel (did you watch the aerobics video link above?).

The (brief) hospital setting reminds me of Halloween II (1981) and Visiting Hours (1982) and makes me wish they would've done more with it, but with a quick jump cut, Jason is back in the woods stalking Trish Jarvis (Kimberly Beck) and her mom as they're out jogging.

How Jason gets from the hospital morgue to the woods is never addressed.  It is unlikely that he hitchhiked and he probably cannot drive, so I doubt he stole a car.  I guess he walked..?

Trish and her mom, along with young Tommy (an early role for Corey Feldman), live out in the woods somewhere along Crystal Lake.  Tommy has a room full of monster stuff and he makes his own masks and special effects.  He's a smart kid and, after the events of this movie, he would become one of Jason's greatest nemeses.

The body count in this picture comes courtesy of the young folks staying at a cabin that is located directly across the yard from the Jarvis residence.  They are your typical group of Friday victims, all just looking to have a good time (i.e.: drink and get laid), although they do lack the resident prankster/goofball character popularized by the original Friday.  The closest they come is the slightly dorky, very much horny, Jimmy, as played by the very weird Crispin Glover.

This is pre-Back to the Future Glover, and he gives a spirited performance, making a memorable character out of a role that was basically just "victim #8."

One of Jimmy's buddies, Teddy, is teasing him about being a "deadfuck," so it's cool when later Jimmy hooks up with one of the twins that they run into (it was the 80s, twins were popular) and is proven to, indeed, not be a deadfuck.  Jimmy is the only character to get a small victory like that before his death.  It's nice.

Also nice are Crispin Glover's dance moves.  This is, without a doubt, one of the best scenes in any Friday the 13th movie.  Behold!:

Jimmy's death scene is also pretty great, as he gets a corkscrew in the hand and a cleaver to the face.

Let's talk about the timeline of these movies real quick:

-The first Friday took place in 1979 (the movie was released in 1980).

-Part 2 (from 1981) took place 5 years later, which would be 1984.

-Part 3 (from 1982) picks up right after Part 2.

-And Part 4 (the Final Chapter here, from 1984) picks up right after Part 3.

-So, by the time Part 4 comes out they've caught up with their own future jump from Part 2 and movie-time and real-time match up.  If I didn't know better, I'd say they planned that.

Also, note that everything from Parts 2-4 takes place over the course of about 5 days.  That means Jason killed 36 people during the equivalent of a typical American work week.  Along with his work-shirt/pants look and penchant for using simple tools or his hands to do his job, Jason is the working class, blue collar slasher, through and through.

  

More notes on The Final Chapter:

Trish and Tommy run into a random hiker named Rob who says he's out hunting for bears, which Tommy immediately calls bullshit on.  Turns out Rob is actually the brother of Sandra (girl killed in the spear-bed double murder from Part 2) and he's out hunting for Jason.  . . . . but. . .according to the timeline, Sandra would've only been killed about 4 days prior to this. . . so how and why is Rob out in the woods so quick and soon after his sister's death? 

Turns out it doesn't really matter.  Jason destroys all of Rob's weapons and maps at his campsite and later he kills him in the basement of the Jarvis house.  Rob is only briefly our secondary protagonist and his chief purpose in the movie really seems to be a bit of the "doomsayer" character and fill in the backstory of Jason to Trish, and by extension Tommy (the real secondary protagonist), who uses Rob's newspaper clippings to replicate his Jason-look in the finale of the movie.

Yeah, the finale.

After killing Rob, Jason really gets his shit rocked by Trish.  He gets the sharp part of a hammer to the neck, a television smashed on his head, and a machete to the hand.  While most of this is going on, Tommy gives himself a quick haircut and makeup job to look like young Jason, which confuses Jason long enough for Trish to get a swipe in with a machete.  Ultimately, Tommy is the one who takes Jason down with that machete (all done in that glorious slo-mo that the Friday movies love so much).

SPOILER:  the best kill in the movie is Jason's.  It's a great effect, especially with his head sliding down the blade like that.  Awesome stuff, just great.

Special effects master Tom Savini, who did the original Friday, returned to do the special effects for this movie.  Overall, they are, of course, fantastic.  I love the way Jason looks unmasked.  That, to me, is how Jason should look.

It is interesting to note that it is almost an hour into the movie before we see Jason's hockey masked face.  Before that it's all POV stalking and his arms, hands, and feet is all you see.  He makes his first full body appearance pretty late in the movie, when he busts into the Jarvis home.  It's not like it was a mystery that Jason was the killer, but it seem like they were building anticipation to the climax of the film when Jason would be seen full on.

Also, for a big guy, Jason sure can get around speedily and stealthily.  It's like he can be in multiple places at once.  He's like the Santa Claus of slashers.

One of my favorite things is, when Trish is being chased by Jason, she opens the door and Jimmy has been nailed to the door frame, in a sort of X-fashion, and she freaks and smashes a window and goes out that way.  Later, when Jason comes stomping through, he just rips Jimmy's body down, tearing his hands.  It's a cool, brutal and wince-inducing moment, but I got to wonder if, while ripping down Jimmy's body, if Jason is thinking to himself, "why the fuck did I put this here?"

Also from the "what the hell?" department, at one point the kids see a gravestone for Mrs. Voorhees.  Huh?  Who paid for her burial?  Is her head buried in there, or is it just her body?  Just a strange little detail that doesn't really make any sense.

Speaking of moms, Mrs. Jarvis is killed offscreen, which is something the Friday movies like to do, but what is kinda weird is that after she screams at something offscreen, she is never seen again in the movie.

I guess there were rewrites and disagreements on what to do with the character, and there was even a dream sequence that was shot with her body in a bathtub, but it was ultimately scratched.  As it is, mom just sort of vanishes and you don't really know what happened.

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter was directed by Joseph Zito, who also directed The Prowler (1981, on which he worked with Tom Savini) and would go on to do the Chuck Norris films Missing in Action (1984) and Invasion, USA (1985).  Weird fact:  all three of Zito's films from 84 and 85 would debut at #1 at the box office.  Man, the 80s were awesome.

As for the cast,

Kimberly Beck was also in Massacre at Central High (1976) and Roller Boogie (1979).

Peter Barton (who played Doug, aka: the guy who gets face smashed in the shower) was also in Hell Night (1981).

Bruce Mahler (horny Axel) was in Police Academy 1-3 and 6 as "Fackler" and was also Rabbi Glickman from Seinfeld.

Ted White, a veteran stuntman who had doubled for John Wayne, Clark Gable, and Lee Marvin, would play Jason.  According to IMDb, he wanted his name removed from the film, as he was uneasy with the role.  He brings a nice physicality to the role and, in my opinion, he makes one of the best Jasons.
Crispin Glover would continue to follow the beat of his own drummer, who is a very strange drummer, but a pretty good one, too.
Corey Feldman would go on to be one of the two Coreys, who were very popular throughout the rest of 80s.

Oh yeah, there's also "banana girl."  She's a hitchhiker that the kids pass on the road ("Hey honey, ya got a sister?") and she flips her "Canada and Love" sign around and also flips the kids one of these:

She's known as "banana girl" because she is stabbed through the throat by Jason while eating a banana.

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter is fairly well shot, with some good camera movements and set-ups.  The movie is a lot of fun, with plenty of 80s goodness (little shorts!  skinny dipping!  twins!  polo shirts!) and some memorable characters.  Also, the kills are good n' gory and there are plenty of them (14 total).

The Final Chapter is one of the best installments in the series.  If they would've truly ended it here, it would've been solid.  But Jason would return. . . eventually.









Until the next Friday the 13th,
stay safe out there, deadfucks.

TOP 15 SLASHER MOVIES (non-Halloween, Elm Street, or Friday the 13th class)

Still have a Thanksgiving hangover?  Here's a possible cure: a movie list.  Everybody likes a good list, right?  Well here you go, here's my holiday appropriate TOP 15 SLASHER MOVIES list (I should mention I have holiday-dyslexia):

First though, there are some rules, as there often are with internet lists.  These are the rules of exclusion:

*As you can read in the title, the big boys aren't in play here, so this list does not include any Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, or Friday the 13th films.  This is simply to give some lesser known slashers some air time, as films from those franchises would take up five or six spots on this list, including the top two.

*The slasher film era really existed from 1978 to about 1988 (and that's being generous) and films from that decade are what I'm focusing on, so also not included are any proto-slashers (Psycho, Peeping Tom, Black Christmas, Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Alice Sweet Alice) or neo-slashers (Scream, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil).   Italian giallo films (A Bay of Blood, Deep Red, etc.) are their own subgenre, so while related and similar to the slasher, they too are not included.

*And finally, I have to exclude films like Maniac, Don't Go in the House, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, and others of that ilk because they don't really fit the definition of what a slasher film is.  These are serial killer films (or if you like, "stalker films)"and they focus more on the killers themselves, drawing your sympathies towards them in some cases, while barely focusing on the victims.  Slasher films follow victims terrorized by a killer, while these films follow a serial killer terrorizing his victims.  It's a small distinction but an important one (to me, at least) and it led to one surprise omission on the list....

So that's the ground rules.  Enough with the set-up.  Without further hesitation, here it is:

THE TOP 15 BEST AND GREATEST SLASHER MOVIES!

      *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *         *         *         *         *         *         *         *

15.  Slumber Party Massacre (1982)

This is one of those goofy/fun slasher movies, which also happens to be noteworthy for being written and directed by a pair of women, which is a rariety for the subgenre (when mentioning this film you are obliged to bring up this fact).  Their feminst leanings are definitely present (the killer's HUGE drill is his source of power), but the producer-mandated nude scenes are cheesy and gratuitous.  Speaking of cheese, anybody else want pizza?

14.  The Prowler (1981)

In a way, this is a run-of-the-mill slasher, but it does boast a great looking villain as well as some amazing special effects work from Tom Savini.  The finale is explosive.

13.  Sleepaway Camp (1983)

If this was a list of the greatest endings in cinema history, this film would be top-tier material.  Otherwise, it's kind of a shitty movie. . .in a fun kind of way.  That ending though, whoa, what a doozy.

12.  Hell Night (1981)

Recently watched this for the first time; Linda Blair is a lot of fun in this, but I love the guy Seth (Vincent Van Patton), who's dressed like Robin Hood.  His reactions to everything, especially when he tries to get help, are priceless.  Plus, the chick he's with keeps forgetting his name!  Classic.

11.  The Funhouse (1981)

From director Tobe Hooper;  can you believe this is the movie he made right before Poltergeist (1982)?  Come for the creepy and weird amusement park setting, stay for the creepy and weird mutant killer.

10.  Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)

           Don't Open 'Till Christmas (1984)

So Silent Night, Deadly Night is on everybody's slasher list.  It's the quintessential Christmas slasher film, but the more I thought about it the more I realized how it is Billy's story and doesn't really follow any of the victims.  So, in sticking to my rules, I struck it from the list.  Luckily, I really like one of the other Christmas slashers, Don't Open 'Till Christmas, which is a sleazy British slasher in which a psycho is killing guys who are dressed up as Santa.  From the people who produced Pieces (and directed by that film's star, Edmund Purdom), so you know there might be some penis-trauma in this holiday terror treat (spoiler: there is).

9.  The House on Sorority Row (1983)

Another one I just recently watched.  It has a really good set-up, a decent set of characters, cool and gory kills, and some unexpected turns.  What more do you want from a slasher?

8.  Terror Train (1980)

Slasher classic with Jamie Lee Curtis, Ben Johnson, and David Copperfield, all taking place on a train!  Also, it's great that the killer keeps changing costumes.  This is a fun one.

7.  The Burning (1981)

Summercamp slasher with the supremely ugly Cropsey.  His garden shears are an iconic weapon amongst slashers.  Features great effects by Tom Savini and early performances by Jason Alexander, Fisher Stevens, and a blink-and-you'll-miss-her Holly Hunter.  Also, this is one of the rare slashers that has a Final Boy instead of a Final Girl, a break with convention that maybe doesn't work quite as well as the convention itself, but is still appreciable.

6.  Just Before Dawn (1981)

Filmed in Silver Falls State Park in Oregon, which makes for a great setting, this is from director Jeff Lieberman and features Chris Lemmon (son of Jack) in a pair of the whitest, tightest slacks ever seen in a movie.  Also features an early role for Gregg Henry and a pop-in appearance by George Kennedy.  The ending of this one has what has got to be the supreme denouement in slasher film history.

5.  Don't Go in the Woods (1981)

Another wooded slasher film, this one filmed in Utah, and this one decidely loopy, weird, and completely wackadoo.  The killer in this is a gross mountain man who doesn't like trespassers up on his mountain (or whatever) and he racks up quite the body count as victims stumble into the movie only to fall dead at a very rapid pace.   The synth score sounds like a keyboard dying.  I love it.

4.  Pieces (1982)

I wrote extensively about Pieces HERE, and while it straddles the line of slasher and giallo film, I think it's heart (and liver, and intestines...) resides much more in the slasher side of the family.  Plus, it gives me an excuse to post the "YOU BASTARD!" video:

3.  Visiting Hours (1982)

Ooooooohhh, a hospital set slasher starring a wicked insane Michael Ironside and a mostly adult cast?!?!?  Stylish and terrifying??!??!  William Shatner?!  Sign me up!  Seriously though, this one caught me by surprise by how good it is.  Solid and uncelebrated slasher.

2.  My Bloody Valentine (1981)

This movie also features an adult cast, as all the potential victims work at this old mine.  The miner killer is one of the most iconic killers in all of slasher films.  The all black suit, the lamp-helmet, the pick-axe, it's great and terrifying, and it keeps with the mystery until the very end.  This is a great one, works the slasher formula to near perfection.

1.  Happy Birthday to Me (1981)

Oh, man.  How I love this movie.  First off, it's really well made for a slasher film.  Great direction and photography, good characters, Melissa Sue Anderson from Little House, a mystery that keeps you involved, its got "six of the most bizarre murders you will ever see" (maybe they're not that bizarre, but they are pretty cool), but what sells me on this one is the same thing that turns a lot of people off:  the batshit insane ending.  I love it.  It's what puts this one over the top for me, landing it in the top spot.  Happy Birthday, Ginny.

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Almost made the list:
Intruder (1989), Tourist Trap (1979),  Blood Rage (1987),
April Fools Day (1986), Stage Fright (1987), The Boogeyman (1980)

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So there you have it folks.  What do you think of these turkeys?
What did I miss?  What are some of your favorites?

Friday the 13th

Today is Friday the 13th.  So naturally I watched a couple of the Friday the 13th movies.

Here are some notes on the first one.

First things first:  what a GREAT poster!

While watching this movie for this first time in almost 5 years, two things struck me:

1)  There are better slasher movies than Friday the 13th.

2)  There are better Friday the 13th-movies than Friday the 13th.


I guess when I say "better" what I mean is "better, or more preferable, to me personally."

I could probably name 10 slasher films that I personally like better than the original Friday, and at least one of them would be a Friday sequel.  If I'm being totally honest, the OG Friday might only be my third favorite film of the series.

It sounds like I'm starting to diss Friday the 13th.  Well, let me reverse that.  I like the movie.  It's fun, it's got some good scares, great gags, and some goofy bits I like.  The movie is very economical in the way it was made, very straightforward, non-fancy.

This is the only Friday the 13th movie that has any sort of mystery element, and I appreciate that.  In the subsequent movies (except for the weird 5th entry), you always know who the killer is (SPOILER: It's Jason).  Also, you cannot disavow OG Friday's importance to the slasher genre (and modern horror films in general) or its iconicism and influence.  Props got to be gived.

The filmmakers behind Friday the 13th (director Sean S. Cunningham and screenwriter Victor Miller, with an uncredited assist from Ron Kurz) took the formula established by Halloween (1978) and Black Christmas (1974), filtered it for simplicity, and finished the recipe by adding some of its own ingredients, most of which would become staples of slasher films to come, such as:

The isolated setting that would become more common than not in most slasher films, with a few even directly cribbing the summercamp locale (Sleepaway Camp, Madman, The Burning, etc).  Cunningham admits to being inspired by Mario Bava, and the influence of A Bay of Blood (1971) can be seen on the setting in this picture (as well as in some of the kills in Part 2, but we'll get to that..).

There's the doomsayer character, in this case Crazy Ralph (Walt Gorney), who warns the kids about the "death curse" that haunts Camp Crystal Lake.  Doomsayers would pop up occasionally in other slasher films.  In addition to being creepy, they usually also provide a red herring for the movie.

Crazy Ralph doing his crazy thing. . .

There's also the 2nd protagonist, the person (usually a guy) who almost makes it to the end, but dies suddenly or shockingly.  In this case, that would be poor Bill (Harry Crosby; and yes, he's Bing Crosby's son).  The 2nd protagonist doesn't always have to die, but if they don't they're proven ineffectual when compared to the Final Girl.

And of course, there is the practical joker character (goofball Ned, played by Mark Nelson), a character-type who seemed to show up in almost every single slasher movie post-Friday, and to take it another step, practical jokes would become important plot devises in some slasher movies and the source of a few killer's origins, like in The Burning (1981) and Slaughter High (1986).

Speaking of Ned, I feel sorry for the guy.  He seems to be forgotten about by his friends after he disappears around the middle of the movie.  Later, when Alice and Bill are looking for everybody, they're all "Where's Jack?  Where's Brenda?  When is Steve coming back?"  They never once say anything about or go looking for Ned.  Poor doofus. . .

For a movie that was censored by the MPAA and considered to be a wild blood-fest when it was released, there are a surprising amount of offscreen kills in Friday the 13th.  Like I said, Ned just disappears, but the reveal of his throat slashed body ties into the best kill in the movie, the arrow scene with Jack (Kevin Bacon), so I'll allow it.  Also, Bill dies offscreen, but when his body is found it is an awful bloody mess (still not sure how he's stuck to that door, though), so it's also allowable.

The one I have the biggest problem with is Brenda.  She is perfectly set up for an onscreen kill down at the rainy archery range all lit up with floodlights, but all you get is an offscreen scream, and since you know she's dead it is not as big a surprise as it should be when her body comes crashing through the window later, freaking Annie out.  The other offscreen kills make sense to me, Brenda's does not.

As for the kills that DO happen onscreen (provided by legend-in-the-making Tom Savini), well like I said, the arrow scene with Kevin Bacon is the standout, but you also got to give it up for the decapitation scene at the end.  Good job there, guys.

And of course, there's the shock ending with Jason popping up. . . massively effective and a perfect way to end the movie.  It totally works.  Friday the 13th didn't introduce the shock ending to the horror film (that would be Carrie in 1976), but it definitely popularized it.  The most important thing this ending did though, was open the door for sequels. . .




Check out the original theatrical trailer.
It's number counting fun!


Gotta mention the score by Harry Manfredini, with its iconic "ki-ki-ki, ma-ma-ma" sounds, as another in a long line of horror scores that are indebted to Bernard Herrmann's classic work on Psycho (1960).

Other things:

Give it up for Steve Christy and his yellow raincoat!  I also love his no shirt/jean shorts/red neckerchief outfit he has earlier in the movie.  Steve Christy!

As you've heard, Kevin Bacon is in this movie.  Here's a shot of Kevin's bacon.

Whoa jeez!

Officer Dorf!

And finally, you got to give it up for the original Friday Final Girl, Annie, played by Adrienne King.  GO ANNIE!