Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)

"Jason's body has disappeared from the morgue.", 14 May 2006

I know there are fans out there that feel the fourth installment in the Friday the 13th series is the best. I don't happen to agree. While the first three movies weren't necessarily groundbreaking in their innovation, there were moments in each that we had not seen before – at least in a Friday the 13th movie. By the time Paramount rolled out Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter in 1984, the 80s slasher-boom was in full swing. It was all but impossible to do anything new. Chapter 4 is one big cliché of the slasher genre and a rehash of everything that came before. This one follows the standard formula to a T - A group of idiotic kids go to the woods and for the first 2/3 of the film, we watch them behave like complete morons. Suddenly, and with very little build-up or suspense, Jason shows up and kills everyone in sight. In the end, the one person who seems most incapable of doing so "kills" Jason. The End. I think I wrote something just like this for the other Friday the 13th movies I've written about.

So far, all I've done is blast Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. To be fair, it's actually not that bad as far as these films go. Most of the credit for this should go to Tom Savini. His special effects are top notch and worth the price of admission. One of my favorite kill scenes in the movie occurs early on with the hospital attendant in the morgue. That head snap is nicely done.

6/10