Friday The 13th 4: The Final Chapter (1984)

FRIDAY THE 13^TH PART IV: THE FINAL CHAPTER (1984)

Dir: Joseph Zito

On April 14, 1984 – one day after the premiere of The Final Chapter - an article in The New York Times was printed that tells a would-be audience of Jason’s demise. They expose that Jason would be bested by a small boy who will attack him with a machete and split his skull in two. The article will further explain how that boy seems set to resume Jason's machete work for a possible Friday The 13th V. How is this in a film review? I even feel bad reprinting it for those few who haven’t marveled at the perfection that is Part IV. Ultimately this review is positive. The critic goes on to say there are ample amounts of character development, and we are left to just watch them die one after the other. I would have hated to read about how Jason died prior to seeing the film, but at least The New York Times understood the film they were reviewing. Roger Ebert simply said it was, "An immoral and reprehensible piece of trash." Though we all know that Ebert had a clean record when it comes to trash. Lines like, "You will drink the black sperm of my vengeance," are high art all the way. No one has ever referred to Ebert's script for Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls (1970) as trashy. I've always believed Siskel and Ebert's advertising dollars came from those puritans that would have tuned out the moment that one of them applauded slasher cinema. But I love Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls nearly as much as Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter. I do have a tattoo of the latter, though, so maybe I'm the biased one.

When Friday The 13th begins, after the 1958 prologue, we are told it is present day. That would be 1979, when the film was made. This leads us to believe it is set on Friday, July 13, 1979. We are told in Part II that Alice was killed only a few months after July 13th, and the remainder of Part II is set five years after the events of the first film. That means that Part II is set in a future 1984. What does all of this mean? Well, it means that by the time you get to The Final Chapter in 1984, the timeline has corrected itself.

Part II, III, and IV all take place over the course of six days. The timeline has always interested me. Between Part I and Part II, Chris Higgins is attacked by a forest roaming Jason, and she returns a couple years later in Part III. On Friday, July 13, 1984, Jason kills the counselors in training. The next day news spreads and Robert (from Part IV) learns of his sister’s (Sandra) death. Jason retreats to Higgins Haven, kills a couple store owners and gets some new threads. On Sunday, July 15, 1984,Jason kills off a group of kids staying at a cabin in Higgins Haven and gets a new mask. Chris Higgins hangs Jason and presumably kills him. She has a nightmare while drifting in the water and is forever scarred. On Monday, the police come and take all the bodies including Jason’s to the Wessex County Morgue. That night, Jason revives, kills, and heads back to the lake. Friday the 13th IV then takes place on Tuesday, July 17, 1984 when we meet up with the Jarvis family and follow the vacationing teens to their rented cabin. And this timeline ends on Wednesday, July 18, 1984 when all the teens are dead and young Tommy Jarvis defeats Jason.

The Final Friday has perfected every element we want in a Jason film. We grow to love the teens, even if its via a conversations about blow-job Betty, being a dead f*ck, doing it with Paul, and not having a sexual reputation. While they are all cattle for the slaughter, we spend some quality time with them before they’re systematically killed off one-by-one. Maybe it’s the inclusion of Crispin Glover that raises the bar for all the rest of the slasher fodder, but it works. It’s the marriage of knowing these kids before seeing their spectacular deaths at the hands of Tom Savini that makes Part IV every bit as good as the first film. It doesn’t hurt the film having Corey Feldman playing a young Savini in love with monster movies, make-up effects, and mechanics. These elements all combine to make a love letter to the slasher film itself.