Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter - This is It.

I think it was fitting to watch “Halloween IV: The Return of Michael Myers” (1988) right before “Friday the 13^th Part IV: The Final Chapter” (1984) as both feature the killer’s hand falling out from behind a sheet off to the side, freaking out the person nearby (paramedic/body handlers).

I remember someone long ago commenting on the opening of The Final Chapter, the helicopter overhead, the ambulances, and accompanying police/law enforcement tending to the ten bodies left in the wake of the carnage left by Jason Voorhees. The corpses under wrapped on gurneys carted off, the police discussing the murder spree and body count, and it is often mentioned how Jason is dead…he might have racked up an impressive death toll but eventually he was supposedly vanquished. I mean with an ax stuck to the skull (and many other wounds to various parts of the body, such as machete to the shoulder and knife stabs, not to mention, he was hung by a rope), it was almost obvious he should have died. But he was merely “resting”. In Joseph Zito’s own Friday the 13^th film, basically winning the gig after his impressive body count slasher, The Prowler (1981), looked and felt very much like it, fans of the franchise sort of had to forgo or abandon (giving over to “artistic license”) logic as clearly Jason should have bled out or internally by this point. Even the police and medical personnel considered Jason fodder for the maggots. Yet, somehow, Jason had one more sequel in him. But back to the previous film’s location for just a minute. Zito opens with a reminder of the previous films, returning to Paul’s fireside boogeyman story about Jason, some clips of what he and mother were up to, and then follows right after the third film, as all the personnel leave, there is silence. Another place near Crystal Lake once featuring the youth of America hoping to have a nice summer and Jason spoiling the fun…as he will with the next cabins in the woods once he breaks from the morgue, a fresh trail of victims. Kudos to Zito for the camera passing by a room with grieving family members, letting us realize that there are other victims besides the butchered members of Jason’s own personal Crystal Lake crusade.

“Axel, you are the Super Bowl of Self Abuse.”

“I’ll tell you where I’m going! I’m going crazy!”

The hits in the dialogue are aplenty and often!

“Let me put it into the computer…the computer don’t lie.”

“It says…it says you’re a dead fuck.”

“God, I’m horny.”

“Hey, honey, you got a sister?”

“A Jarvis sandwich!”

“Paul thinks I’m great in bed…so that’s where I keep him.”

“Oh, no. We have no suits.”

So why is The Final Chapter my favorite of the series? Well, yes, Crispin Glover’s dance is a moment of pure delight and kid Corey Feldman’s Tommy’s excitement at seeing the delicious Aronson stripping for her man in the cabin across the walk, skip, and a jump and later as the group of school kids skinny dip with neighborly twins (the gum commercial most no longer remember…) has a bit to do with that. And the Savini makeup grue indeed contributes a great deal to why this is to me the quintessential slasher victor, with a saw nearly taking a head off before the big twist and a knife completely through a neck, and the epic face crush in the shower. There is Crispin proving to his needling buddy, Ted (Lawrence Monoson), that he’s no dead fuck, the computer is a lie, before Jason drives that corkscrew into his hand and hatchet into his face. Aronson is my #1 beauty of the franchise despite quite a bit of competition in that regard (although Ted White’s account of her near freezing and her own retelling of the unnecessary incident speaks volumes about how that would never be tolerated today), before the machete in the water results in Jason making sure she doesn’t keep Paul (Clyde Hayes) in bed any longer. There is the memorable death of would-be hero, Rob (Erich Anderson), unable to avenge his sister’s death, in the basement being butchered, shouting out in anguish, “He’s killing me! He’s killing me!” And Teddy’s striking out all over the place with his “Wanna give Teddy Bear a kiss?” routine while antagonizing Glover’s Jimmy for his “dead fuck” status, later watching silent film porn found in the cabin, smoking grass and getting high, he ultimately watches as his friend succeeds, failing in his own mission miserably. And making another appearance along with the knife and machete is the harpoon, claiming another victim, this time Paul…right in the PENIS! Not only does he get in the penis, Jason lifts him off his feet and presses the trigger to release the spear! Zito, not allowing that to be the most “stylish” kill, has lightning reveal one of the twins speared and javelined into the wall of the cabin with great ferocity. Of course not to shy away from some unfortunate denied fairytale romance, Sara (Barbara Hayward) thinks she’s in love, finds Doug (Peter Barton) in the shower after Jason smashed his face into oblivion (not before they at least got the chance to experience sweet, sweet love), Zito sets them up and takes them out with good help from Savini’s capable talents. Jason does at least allow the kids to sow their wild oats before tossing them out windows or sticking them with sharp things…and before the hatchet to the face, Jimmy got confirmation from twin Tina that he was “incredible”, not a dead fuck. And there is a “Don’t move, I’ll be right back.” Credit to Zito for showing a slow motion body drop from the window as Jason made his way to the top just in time to surprise Tina, sending her crashing down right on the station wagon. There’s steamy shower sex before Jason interrupts anymore of that idyll, not only with a face crush but ax to the toweled torso of Sara.

And what Zito and Savini do in the film is not really show Jason as much as his hands and arms, with just glimpses of his hockey mask and frame. The kills are brief spurts, set as jolts, not gratuitously lengthy as the pitchfork shower sequence or sharp implement blood-letting in “The Prowler”. Lots of bodies out of windows, though. Even the poor dog—dogs never fare well in slasher films—takes a flight out of a window. It wouldn’t be a slasher film without lapses in character logic. Why would Trish return to the basement after seeing Rob butchered by Jason with a hook in rapid succession? And this wouldn’t be a Friday the 13^th film without a body going through a picture window or Jason bursting through doors. And Jason’s force of nature presentation was never more emphasized than here. He could take hammer teeth to the neck, a television to the head, machete strikes to the arm, machete strike right between the fingers, and the infamous machete to the head (sliding down it with his eye, as Savini finally says, “Die! Jason, die!!!” with his wizardry, complete with movement of the anguished face). I think as Tommy goes up and down on the torso that was just as much Savini telling Jason to once and for all die as it was the bald-cap Feldman.

Like the other films in the franchise, I felt this was my final say on The Final Chapter. I think this was the film, more than the others already covered, I feel very sure I have nothing else to offer. I do think Ted White is still my favorite Jason Voorhees. He’s a refreshing urgent Jason; when he realizes Beck’s Trish is a fighter, White’s Jason wants to stamp her out like a withering fire before it burns too hot. You hear him thrust weapons in victims with an extra viciousness, and there is no lumbering about or stumbling. He’s on point, and like the weapons he uses, Jason hits and hits hard. There is no one, except Tommy mimicking Jason in his youth, Jason won’t obliterate at a moment’s notice. And yet to reiterate a point I realized as I watched the film, Zito holds off really giving you Jason in full form until Trish challenges him, even throttling him with her fists as he pins her down. That a child is the one who ultimately is Jason’s undoing, it is a bold move but one I applaud. There was no real reason any other sequel followed The Final Chapter. As of 2009, there were more, many more. The very one who killed Jason ironically would resurrect him. Go figure.

Why any properties anywhere near Crystal Lake would have occupancy after this, no matter the name change, is just part of the franchise's charm. Camp Forest Green or even a mental health camp should have chosen safer environs.