Though it was to end the series, Friday the 13th Part 3 grossed $36.7 million on a $2.2 million budget. Paramount decided to make another sequel, but producer Frank Mancuso, Jr. was adamant that this would be the last film. Instead of Steve Miner returning, director Joseph Zito was brought in due to his work on 1981’s The Prowler. Tom Savini, who created the effects for the original Friday the 13th, was brought on after working with Zito. While most of the cast was relatively unknown, future superstars Corey Feldman and Crispin Glover were hired for the film. For the role of Jason, Zito hired Ted White, an accomplished stuntman who worked with John Wayne and Clark Gable. On a budget of $2.6 million, filming lasted between 1983-1984 in Topanga Canyon and Newhall, California. After a brief post-production, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter hit theaters on April 13, 1984.
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Synopsis
Picking up directly where the last film left off, Jason Voorhees (Ted White) has escaped from the morgue. He returns to Crystal Lake, where a group of teens stays for the weekend to smoke, drink, and have sex. There’s Paul (Alan Hayes), his girlfriend Sam (Judie Aronson), the virginal Sara (Barbara Howard), and her boyfriend Doug (Peter Barton). Also, there are Teddy (Lawrence Monoson) and Jimmy (Crispin Glover) vying for twins Tina and Terri (Camilla and Carey More). They’re staying near the Jarvis family – Trish (Kimberly Beck), her mother (Joan Freeman), and her younger brother Tommy (Corey Feldman). Soon enough, Jason makes his way to them and starts killing the teens off one by one. It’s up to Trish and her brother Tommy to fend off Jason and stay alive. Will they become Jason’s next victims, or will this be Jason’s final Friday?
Review
Even though this didn’t end the series, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter is one of the best entries. Hiring Joseph Zito as director was the most intelligent decision the producers could’ve made since he did a great job. He creates a sense of dread and tension that makes this one of the scariest films in the franchise. Also, he brought Tom Savini back, who delivered some of his best effects work and created some wonderfully gruesome kills. We get a hacksaw to the throat, a corkscrew/cleaver kill, and a guy’s head getting smashed in the shower. Even the less graphic kills are memorable, either for being darkly comedic or having a psychological twist. Given his background as an old-school stuntman, Ted White was a great choice to don the hockey mask. He has an imposing figure that helps make Jason feel like a powerhouse of terror.
The strengths of a Friday the 13th movie are the kills and the characters, and this has some great characters. Monoson and Glover have great chemistry and feel like two old friends who playfully trade insults back and forth. Admittedly, the rest of the teens come off as somewhat disposable, but none are annoying or unlikeable. On the flip side, the Jarvis family is easy to sympathize with, being a broken family trying to stay together. Beck and Feldman work well as brother and sister and manage to hold their own against White. As always, Harry Manfredini adds to the suspense with one of his best scores in the series’ history. Despite the subtitle no longer being relevant, this is still one of the best slasher films of the mid-1980s. Overall, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter is an excellent entry and a high watermark for the series.
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