Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter

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Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
Film poster
Directed by	Joseph Zito
Produced by	Frank Mancuso Jr. Tony Bishop (co-producer)
Written by	Barney Cohen (screenplay) Bruce Hidemi Sakow (story) Victor Miller, Martin Kitrosser, Ron Kurz, Carol Watson (characters)
Starring	Corey Feldman Kimberly Beck Erich Anderson Crispin Glover
Music by	Harry Manfredini
Cinematography	João Fernandes
Editing by	Joel Goodman
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	April 13, 1984
Running time	90 min
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$2,600,000
Preceded by	Friday the 13th Part 3
Followed by	Friday the 13th: A New Beginning
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter is a slasher film. It is the fourth film in the Friday the 13th film series. Though it was billed as "The Final Chapter," there have been seven further films (including Freddy vs. Jason) in the franchise to date. The popularity and financial success of the film (earning over 32 million dollars) kept Paramount Pictures from retiring the franchise. Because of the finality of this film's plot and title, the next film, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, attempted to give the franchise a new face.

[edit] Plot summary

Police and paramedics are busy cleaning up the mess Jason Voorhees left at Higgins Haven during Friday the 13th Part 3, including the defeated hockey-masked killer himself. Once delivered to the Wessex County morgue, Jason rises again, kills an attendant and nurse, then makes his way back to Crystal Lake.

Jason's horribly disfigured face

A group of friends (Paul, Samantha, Sara, Doug, Ted and Jimmy) have rented a house on Crystal Lake. On the way there, the group passes Mrs. Voorhees' gravestone and a portly female hitchhiker who becomes Jason's next victim. Next to the rental house is the cabin of Mrs. Jarvis, her teenaged daughter Trish, her twelve-year-old son Tommy, and their dog, Gordon. The group meet Trish, Tommy and Gordon when they arrive. The next day the group befriends twins Tina and Terri, who live in the area, and they all go skinny-dipping at Crystal Point. Trish and Tommy, driving by, stop to see who's at Crystal Point and the group invites Trish to a party that night. Trish's car breaks down a bit further along the road, and they are helped by Rob, a hiker with mysterious reasons for visiting Crystal Lake, who soon becomes good friends with Trish and Tommy, and camps out in their yard. Trish and Tommy return to find their mother missing, so Trish goes to Rob for help. Rob explains that he's looking to get revenge for the death of his sister, Sandra (killed by Jason in Friday the 13th Part 2). Trish and Rob take Gordon next door to see what's going on. Tommy is left at home, and finds Rob's newspaper articles about Jason. Jason kills Rob, and Trish flees back to her home intending to warn Tommy. Tommy shaves his head and makes himself up to look like Jason, which is effective in distracting Jason long enough so that Tommy is able to attack Jason. He seemingly kills him, but when Jason begins to stir, Tommy then hacks Jason repeatedly with the machete killing him.

[edit] Cast

• Erich Anderson as Rob
• Judie Aronson as Samantha
• Peter Barton as Doug
• Kimberly Beck as Trish
• Corey Feldman as Tommy
• Joan Freeman as Mrs. Jarvis
• Lisa Freeman as Nurse Morgan
• Crispin Glover as Jimmy
• Wayne Grace as Officer Jamison
• Alan Hayes as Paul
• Bonnie Hellman as Hitchhiker
• Frankie Hill as Lainie
• Barbara Howard as Sara
• Bruce Mahler as Axel
• Lawrence Monoson as Ted
• Arnie Moore as Medic
• Camilla More as Tina
• Carey More as Terri
• Robert Perault as Medic
• Antony Ponzini as Vincent
• Ted White as Jason Voorhees (uncredited)

[edit] Notes

• Ted White refused to be credited for his role as Jason, saying he believed that many of the young actors were being horribly treated and often felt bad about what he had to do to them, even after production. One particular instance was when young actress Judie Aronson was out on a raft in the lake, naked and freezing to the point where she was crying. Fed up, White stepped in and demanded that she come in to warm up or he would quit, and director Joseph Zito complied. White also admits that he never saw the entertainment value in watching attractive young actors being mutilated by a deranged killer, and said he only did the film for the money. Despite his disdain for the film (though he says that it came out better than he expected), he was asked to reprise the role, but turned it down saying, "I had played Jason once and once was enough."
• Peter Barton was hesitant when it came time to do his death scene, as he was previously burned on a magnesium flare doing a stunt on a previous movie, and required multiple surgeries afterwards. Sensing Peter's hesitation, Ted White requested that a pad be placed behind Peter's head when he was slammed into the shower wall.
• The character of Rob Dier is the brother of Sandra who was killed in Friday the 13th Part 2 during the double-impalement scene. This creates a continuity problem, given that the second, third and fourth films in the series are set only days apart, and Rob has clearly spent a lot of time researching Jason (although he might have shared an interest with his sister about the whole Camp Blood legend and knew immediately that it was Jason who killed her).
• It has been said that Tom Savini only returned to contribute to the franchise to kill off Jason whom he helped create in the original Friday the 13th.
• The character of Tommy Jarvis is interpreted as a homage to Tom Savini. Aside from sharing a similar first name and an affinity for designing monster masks, both in their own right kill Jason off in the film.
• The film was released on a Friday the 13th.
• Among the many scenes cut was one in which Trish finds her mother drowned in the bathtub, which would have explained her disappearance in the film.
• During filming, actress Kimberly Beck experienced strange occurrences of a man watching her while she ran in a park, accompanied by phone calls at all hours. They oddly stopped once production of the film had stopped.
• Actor Crispin Glover, who played the role of Jimmy was asked to perform a normal dance. He improvised and that resulted in a very unusual dance resembling an epileptic fit. The song he is actually dancing to during filming is AC/DC's "Back in Black". The 80's track that plays in the film was added in post-production.
• The poster artwork was used for the opening screen on Friday the 13th NES video game.

[edit] External links

• Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter at the Internet Movie Database
• Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter at Rotten Tomatoes
• Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter at Box Office Mojo
• Film page at the Camp Crystal Lake web site