Review of Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) by Justin O — 26 Oct 2012

Despite the fact that Part 3 was originally meant to be the last film, the producers went ahead with Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. This time around we're treated to another group of teenagers that we actually like, including a young Crispin Glover (who went on to film Back to the Future a year later).

Although the difference this time is that the teenagers are simply out to party and get laid, even the young virgin. We're also introduced to a young Corey Feldman, whose character would be Jason's ultimate foil.

Having a kid be under threat from Jason was something new too, and raised the stakes a bit in storytelling terms. An interesting aspect to overall story up to this point is that if you break down the timeline of films 2 through 4, you realize that they take place over the course of a week in different locations in and around Camp Crystal Lake.

I find that absolutely insane. If something like that happened in the real world, there might have been a constant dragnet of police checking over the area, especially since Jason is still alive. They might be looking for him, after all.

Instead, he just goes unnoticed and murders everybody he crosses paths with. The people he kills aren't even aware of the murders happening around them (except the general store couple at the beginning of Part 3, but they barely count as characters anyway).

Overall, this is a solid entry in the series, but for me, it's missing something that made Part 2 work so well, mainly the solid character development and suspense factor. Not that The Final Chapter isn't good, but Tom Savini's effects are the real star in this one and not necessarily the story.