Dr. K's Waiting Room

---

Long considered to be an unlucky day due to superstitions involving the number thirteen and religious connotations, Friday the 13^th is perhaps equally as well-known as being the title of a long-running series of slasher movies. As a result, this is clearly the best opportunity to take a look at the Friday the 13^th (Various, 1980 to 2009) horror series and to commemorate this unlucky and dreaded date.

---

Released: 13 April 1984
Director: Joseph Zito
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Budget: $2.6 million
Stars: Kimberly Beck, Corey Feldman, Joan Freeman, Crispin Glover, E. Erich Anderson, Barbara Howard, and Ted White

The Plot:
Immediately following the events of Friday the 13^th Part 3 (Miner, 1982), masked maniac Jason Voorhees (White) escapes from a morgue and returns to Crystal Lake to continue his killing spree. His victims include a fresh batch of teenage vacationers, secretive hiker Rob Dier (Anderson), and a local family made up of mother Tracy Jarvis (Freeman), daughter Trish (Beck), and young son Tommy (Feldman), who must make a desperate last stand against the deformed murderer.

The Background:
Hot on the heels of John Carpenter’s Halloween (Carpenter, 1978), which essentially gave birth to the “slasher” genre of horror cinema, Friday the 13^th (Cunningham, 1980) became an unexpected box office success. Despite producer/director Sean S. Cunningham distancing himself from the franchise and continued negative reviews, both Friday the 13^th Part 2 (Miner, 1981) and Friday the 13^th Part 3 were financial successes. However, Paramount executives began to be embarrassed by their association with the shlock franchise and, after their initial plans to end the series with the third film fell through, actively planned to close the book on Jason for good with this fourth film. Director Joseph Zito came onboard after receiving compensation for both writing and directing duties, but secretly worked with writer Barney Cohen on the script, which featured not just two survivors instead of the traditional one but also a child protagonist and a relatable family unit at the heart of the horror. Special effects maestro Tom Savini returned to work on the film’s make-up and practical effects, giving him the chance to not only redesign Jason once more but also kill the character off in gruesomely spectacular fashion. Up-and-coming child actor Corey Feldman won the role of Tommy Jarvis, and his character’s love of special effects was a homage to Savini, but Jason actor and stuntman Ted White reportedly didn’t get along with his young, bratty co-star during filming. Though the actor rarely talks about his involvement and only took the job for a pay cheque, the film also gained notoriety for actor Crispin Glover’s absolutely bonkers dance routine and for a lost alternative ending that was only recently partially restored. With a final box office gross of $33 million, Friday the 13^th: The Final Chapter made less than the third film but more than the second, and still significantly more than its $2.6 million budget, making it a commercial success. The film was equally lambasted by scathing reviews that branded it a by-the-numbers retread of its predecessors that focused on gore and sex more than telling a coherent story, but many consider it to be one of the best (if not the best) entries in the entire franchise. Tommy Jarvis went on to be regarded as Jason’s archenemy and became a recurring character in the films that followed as, surprise surprise, this “Final Chapter” was nothing of the sort and a fifth film came out just one year later.

The Review:
As many Friday the 13^th fans will be aware, these classic slashers are generally divided into a couple of categories: there’s the classic human Jason era (which spans the first four films), the zombie era (which covers the rest of the series), and then sub-categories like the aborted attempt to continue the series without Jason and the remake (and probably even the New Line Cinema movies since they were so bizarre). Although I was aware of Jason as a horror icon, my introduction to him was actually Friday the 13^th Part VI: Jason Lives (McLoughlin, 1986) so I have a preference for zombie Jason, an unstoppable supernatural force of nature, and this meant that I ended up working my way backwards through the previous films to see how he got to that point. After being disappointed by the first film, surprisingly entertained by the second, and somewhat bored by the third, I have to say that I (like many) consider Friday the 13^th: The Final Chapter one of the best in the franchise, and clearly the best of the human Jason films until the remake. Like the last two movies, The Final Chapter opens with flashbacks to the previous films to remind audiences about Jason’s origins, his mother’s rampage, and some of the best kills so far and, crucially, that Jason has survived extreme wounds and trauma. Once we’re all caught up, the film picks up immediately after the end of Friday the 13^th Part III; although we don’t get much indication of the fate of Chris Higgins (Dana Kimmell), Jason’s body is bagged up and taken to the morgue after he took an axe to the face, which strongly indicates that Chris hallucinated being attacked by Pamela Voorhees’ decomposing corpse (Marilyn Poucher) since Jason’s body was still in the barn. The details of Jason’s rampage are thus primarily related using footage of Paul Holt’s (John Furey) campfire story rather than the likes of perverted coroner Axel Burns (Bruce Mahler) and his antics are certainly not common knowledge to our newest crop of horny twenty-somethings teenagers (despite Part III’s events making it to the local news).

While our new bunch of victims may not be the most interesting group, they’re certainly more likeable than those in Part III and are made up of just enough personalities to not be completely paper thin, disposable meat bags. What we have here are two sets of couples – Paul Guthrie (Alan Hayes) and Samantha Lane (Judie Aronson), Doug Bell (Peter Barton) and Sara Parkington (Barbara Howard) – and friends Ted Cooper/Teddy Bear (Lawrence Monoson) and Jimmy Mortimer (Glover). Sara stands out somewhat from the others (and her counterparts) in that she’s a shy and awkward virgin; despite being in a relationship with Doug, she’s unsure of herself and nervous about having sex, which is in stark contrast to Sam, who is a fully self-confident lover. However, there’s no animosity between them; they have a heartfelt discussion about the matter, and what it means to have a sexual reputation, and Sam is constantly encouraging Sara to be more carefree. Doug doesn’t make much of an impression beyond being a pretty patient and caring kinda guy; he doesn’t pressure Sara into sex or cheat on her, and is probably the most unremarkable as a result. Not that Paul fares much better; despite being with Sam, he’s easily swayed once twins Tina and Terri Moore (Camilla and Carey More) are absorbed into the group. He completely misses that Tina’s flirting with him, upsetting Sam and causing her to take an impromptu skinny dip in the lake and end up butchered as a result, and he’s fittingly impaled through the groin with a harpoon after he finally realises that he’s neglected his lover. Of the group, it’s Ted and Jimmy who make the most immediate impression; Jimmy has just been dumped and is feeling both lovelorn and horny, while Ted is an overconfident jokester who believes his wit and smart mouth are irresistible to girls. Ted riles his friend up by branding him a “dead fuck” and tries every trick in his playbook to get into the pants of both Tina and Terri, only to be rebuked at every opportunity and end up cackling at old timey pornography while high off his nut. It’s Jimmy who ends up coming out more successful in his endeavours; after Paul realises he’s been a dick and ditches her, Tina turns her attentions to Jimmy (despite his outrageous dance moves) and his sexual prowess is finally vindicated, much to his delight, though his joy is short-lived as he is killed by Jason soon after, leaving him a literal dead fuck.

This gaggle of colourful characters are only half the story, however, for they rent a cabin that neighbours the home of the Jarvis family, a loving family unit consisting of doting mother Tracy, tomboyish daughter Trish, and mischievous Tommy. From a throwaway piece of dialogue between Tracy and Trish, we can infer that the family recently went through a divorce or, at the very least, a trial separation as their patriarch is nowhere to be seen and relations between him and Tracy are frosty, at best. Thankfully, there’s no tension, resentment, or bickering between these three; Tracy chastises Tommy for playing Zaxxon (SEGA, 1983) too loud and for needing a haircut, but it’s nothing overbearing or controlling. She compliments his mask-making skills, encourages Trish to visit her father to keep their relationship alive, and, if anything, the three are a bit too sickly sweet with their healthy affections for each other. While Tracy and Trish regularly jog together and Tracy is happy (if a little perturbed) for her daughter to socialise with others her age, Tommy is the stand out of the family. Not only is he the quintessential eighties kid (he loves videogames, horror movies, and has a passion for mask and model making that exceeds his youth), Tommy’s also a budding mechanic, regularly being called upon by Trish to fix her unreliable car, and (like many young boys) is transfixed by the rampant female nudity and sexual activity right on his doorstep, much to his mother and sister’s chagrin. While a cheeky smart aleck who’s a little too smart for his own good at times, Tommy is basically a good kid who cares for his mother and sister, and is left scared out his mind when the bodies start piling up next-door and cinema’s most famous hockey-masked killer comes literally crashing into their house. While Trish risks her life trying to lure Jason away to protect her kid brother, Tommy makes the bold decision to use Jason’s past against him, quickly shaving and cutting his hair so that he resembles the hulking murderer as a small boy and then finally ending the fiend’s life with repeated maniacal swings of his trademark machete.

Indeed, while Jason is more powerful than ever before and none of the main group of teens has any hope of fending him off, he actually comes up against not one but two relatively formidable foes here. We see an interesting new side to Jason’s actions in this film; The Final Chapter opens with cops and coroners cleaning up his crime scene and, when his supposedly dead body is being wheeled to the morgue, we see grieving families to really hammer home that these characters we so often see as disposable actually have lives and families, which is best exemplified in Rob, a nomad with a working knowledge of Jason’s past, his mother, and his killing spree thanks not only to researching the killer but also because he’s the brother of Sandra (Marta Kober) from Friday the 13^th Part 2. Although he comes across as quite shady at first, both Tommy and Trish take a shine to the hunky stranger; Tommy jumps at the chance to show off his monster masks and Trish is horrified to learn that so much bloodshed haunts her hometown. Rob’s mission to track down and kill Jason and avenge his sister is an admirable one but, though he comes physically and intellectually armed, he’s ultimately no match for the killer and is bludgeoned to death in overly comical fashion when surprised by Jason in the basement. While Trish very much fits the mould of a “Final Girl”, having largely avoided Jason’s rampage, stumbling upon the bloodied corpses he’s left in his wake, and being the last “man” standing by the finale, it’s actually Tommy who steps up as an unexpected hero in the end. Jason really isn’t messing around this time; at this point, he’s been on a rampage for about three days and it’s clear that he’s getting more and more pissed off at all the horny teens stomping around his grounds. Whenever he spots one, he goes for them without hesitation, stalking from the shadows and striking with a noticeable brutality; he’s much more apt to use his superhuman strength to crush and manhandle his victims this time around, and his body language screams unbridled rage. He explodes through the Jarvis’s window, crushes skulls, and skewers kids all over the place, but is also smart enough to both take advantage of the darkness and rain to surprise his prey and cut off their phone lines, making for an exceptionally driven and ferocious version of the famous killer.

The Nitty-Gritty:
Thankfully, unlike Part III, which opted for a weird disco track in place of the classic Friday the 13^th theme, Harry Manfredini refocuses on the iconic musical beats and the “ki-ki-ki-ma-ma-ma” so synonymous with the series, but bolsters it with a faster, more action-packed tone that delivers probably the best Friday the 13^th score so far as it has the right mixture of dread and adrenaline to keep you engaged with the tension or bloody action onscreen. While every Friday the 13^th is full of sex and violence, The Final Chapter offers some different takes on the former: Axel is a horny coroner more interested in perving over girls both dead and alive than he is about showing any kind of compassion, and his fixation on the female form makes him an easy victim once Jason awakens; Sam is nervous about her first time but nonetheless excited to actually have the moment happen; Jimmy is fixated on his sexual performance and as desperate to get laid as Teddy but benefits from Tina being a bit of a slut and happy to settle for him after being rejected by Paul. There’s a bit of a parallel here between Tina and Sam; earlier, Sara alluded to Sam having a reputation, but she was perfectly happy being exclusive to Paul, whereas Tina unashamedly throws herself at Paul and only settles for Jimmy after Paul turns her down, and even then she puts Paul’s baseball cap on Jimmy’s head and has sex with him in Paul’s bedroom (though she seems legitimately into him after they have sex). This brazen sexuality indirectly leads to both Paul and Sam’s death, and both Jimmy and Tina are targeted by Jason soon after, but even a loved-up couple like Doug and Sara (and Terri, who doesn’t engage in any sexual activity) also pay the price for even being associated with such debauchery.

The Final Chapter is bolstered by some of the best-looking kills in the series thanks to special effects wizard Tom Savini, who had really honed his craft since the first film. While much of the gore and violence was disappointingly cut to secure a marketable rating, we’re still left with some brutal kills that really reinforce Jason’s newfound rage and cruelty. Axel may not get his head twisted around by Jason’s bare hands, but a hacksaw to the throat is a pretty horrific way to go and Jason is far more interesting with a surgical scalpel than his Halloween counterpart. Previously, Jason slaughtered anyone who ventured onto his territory, but he initially has to make his way back to Crystal Lake and thus makes short work of a frustrated hitchhiker (Bonnie Hellman) by stabbing her through the next with a spear; there’s no finesse to Jason in this movie, he’s all about blunt, brutal, efficient kills and has really mastered taking his victims by surprise. While out on the lake, frustrated that Paul didn’t immediately follow her and at risk of hypothermia, Sam is caught completely unawares when Jason pops out of the water and pays homage to his mother by skewering her through the belly with a spear. After freaking out upon discovering her body, Paul desperately swims to shore only to get impaled through the groin by Jason’s spear gun and, in a perfect example of just how powerful Jason is now, he’s lifted clear off the ground for the killer to fire the spear for the coup de grâce. Easily the lamest kill is Tracy’s, which isn’t even shown as the film opts for a jump cut instead; even Terri and Tina fare slightly better than this and they’re simply framed by a flash of lightning and a brief shot hitting the house and thrown from a window, respectively. Two of the film’s most memorable kills are Rob’s exaggerated bludgeoning after finally coming face-to-face with his sister’s killer and Jimmy’s fruitless search for a corkscrew, which sees him impaled though the hand by said tool and then whacked in the face with a meat clever in a death somewhat reminiscent of my favourite kill from Part 2. Teddy ultimately ends up stabbed in the back of the head through a projection screen, which is a pretty sudden and simple kills, while Doug gets his head crushed against the bathroom tiles and Sara takes a wicked axe right to the chest!

Friday the 13^th: The Final Chapter, by accident or design, adheres very closely to the formula of its predecessors while also turning it on its head a bit. The addition of a normal, everyday family alone mixes things up and offers a contrast (and a refreshing break) from all the usual slasher depravity we know and love, and having a character like Rob, someone who knows all about Jason and is fixated on ending him once and for all, had a lot of potential. Sadly, Rob doesn’t live up to this, ending up as another red herring, but we’d actually see Tommy later fulfil a similar role when he returned in Jason Lives. When Trish is reduced to a panic-stricken, screaming, rainswept mess for the finale, tripping over bodies and running for her life, it seems as though we’re in store for pretty much the same climax we’d seen three times before but The Final Chapter takes a leaf out of Part 2’s playbook by having a character manipulate Jason using his past to render him temporarily stunned. Being stabbed in the neck, having a television smashed over his head, and taking a machete to the hand Jason can shrug off without much more than an annoyed growl but whip on his mother’s jumper or shave your head to evoke his childhood and the hulking brute is left perplexed. This leaves him wide open for Trish’s counterattack, but rather than repeat the beheading sequence of the first film, Trish succeeds only in knocking off Jason’s mask and exposing his ugly mug once more. For a moment, it almost seems as though Trish is going to break the trend and end up being killed by Jason, but Tommy surprisingly takes up the bloody machete and drives it right into Jason’s head! The impact of this wily little kid suddenly ramming a blade into one of cinema’s most notorious killers is shocking enough, but the way Jason’ falls to his knees and then lands face-first on the floor, driving the machete right through his skull, his eye twitching sickeningly as his head is split open, makes for one of the most gruesome kills in the entire series! In a testament to Jason’s relentlessness, even this isn’t immediately fatal and, when Tommy spots the killer’s claw-like hand twitching, he goes to town on Jason, screaming “Die! Die! Die!!” over and over as the film fades to white (a common trope often used to indicate death in the series and which usually accompanied the brutal murder of Jason’s other victims). There’s no question here that Jason is dead, hacked to bloody chunks by his own weapon, and the ending is about as definitive as you can get for the hockey-masked-killer, but The Final Chapter can’t resist giving us a last minute stinger as Tommy hugs his sister and shoots a look at the camera which suggests that he’s been fundamentally traumatised by the events he witnessed and his surprisingly brutal bloodthirstiness. As much as I enjoy Tommy as a recurring heroic figure, I often find myself wondering what would’ve happened to the franchise if he had become the new killer and taken up Jason’s mask and machete, but sadly we’ll never really know as Jason’s marketability was just too strong to replace him.  

The Summary:
It’s not always easy being a Friday the 13^th fan. Have you ever sat down and watched all the films back-to-back? It can be exhausting, especially with the first five films as they’re all so similar and very rarely deviated from the pacing and standard set by the first film. Sure, the kids were different, the kills got better (or were more cut), and some wrinkles were added here and there to expand upon (and contradict) Jason’s backstory, but it’s easy to see how formulaic the franchise was even back then. Still, Friday the 13^th: The Final Chapter is a breath of fresh air that’s as enjoyable as the second film; thanks to not being burdened by a pointless 3D gimmick like Part III, the film can focus on giving us some fun and interesting (if, naturally, a little one-dimensional) group of new victims and delivering on the promise of sex and gore that these films offer. The movie mixes up the formula with both the vengeful Rob and the Jarvis family, two elements which add a little extra spice to the plot and showcase the devastating consequences of Jason’s killing spree. This is easily my favourite version of human Jason before the remake came along; brutal and unrelenting, he’s more of a force of nature than ever, pouncing upon his victims and ending them with a merciless rage that becomes palpable by the finale, where he’s just tossing bodies through windows, ripping bloodied corpses from walls, and crashing through windows to get at the Jarvis’s. Having Jason meet such a definitive end not by the hands of Rob or a Final Girl, but by a child (one who impersonates Jason, no less) was a brilliantly unexpected twist and, even now, it’s clear that the filmmakers wanted this to be the final end to the killer’s massacre and I still wonder where the franchise would be if they’d actually followed through with that. Some fun, if outrageous, performances by the likes of Crispin Glover and Lawrence Monoson help make the kids more than just disposable victims, but by this point audiences we here for two things: Jason and the kills, and The Final Chapter has both well covered thanks to the work of Tom Savini. Overall, this is easily my favourite of the human Jason era of the franchise; it’s as cliché and formulaic as its predecessors at times, but mixes things up just enough to be far more engaging and I’ll never get tired of seeing that machete sink through Jason’s skull over and over!

My Rating:

Great Stuff

What did you think to Friday the 13^th: The Final Chapter? How do you feel it holds up against its predecessors and its many sequels? Which of the new characters was your favourite and why, and were you a fan of Tommy? Would you have liked to see more from Rob? Which of the kills was your favourite, and were you shocked to see Jason killed off here? Would you have liked to see Tommy take over as the new killer? Which of the Friday the 13^th movies is your favourite? Do you consider Friday the 13^th to be unlucky? Are you watching a Friday the 13^th movie today? Whatever your thoughts on Friday the 13^th (the movie, franchise, and day), go ahead and leave them down below and be sure to check in again for more horror content in the near future!