Director: Joseph Zito
Writers: Victor Miller (character creator), Ron Kurz (character creator)
Stars: Erich Anderson, Judie Aronson, Peter Barton, Crispin Glover, Corey Feldman
Plot: After being mortally wounded and taken to the morgue, murderer Jason Voorhees spontaneously revives and embarks on a killing spree as he makes his way back to his home at Camp Crystal Lake.
Running Time: 92 minutes
IMDB Score: 6.0
Why I watched it: So here’s another time I blame Netflix, so this Halloween they put out four Friday The 13th movies to stream 4-7 and since I had seen almost all of the other horror titles that I wanted to watch I decided to revisit the films. Now I’m not really sure I ever saw Part 4 before, I had seen pieces so I decided to give it a watch.
Random Thoughts: Let’s be clear on the poster they don’t call this Part 4 but it is and they called it the Final Chapter and it wasn’t not by a long shot.
I was never a huge fan of the series, they were fine but they were for the most part cheap badly made slasher films, sure Jason is a horror icon but the films not so much. People always talk about Jason and the franchise as a whole but rarely break down a certain film.
What I liked: Crispin Glover dancing in this film. I mean it’s worth it just for that. I was shocked cause this was actually a pretty good slasher film, he was better made than the first three for sure and it had very good pacing and tone. Sure the plot was silly but as a slasher film it really worked. I think the film did a decent job of making the “victims” into characters and not just the cliche types that most slasher films use. I’m not saying this was great writing or character work but they fleshed out some characters enough that you actually cared about them.
Also a stand out is Corey Feldman, this is a very tricky role for a child actor but he does a good job and again he was a character he had likes and had a relationship with his mother and sister. Also this film did a good job of juggling sets of characters, this wasn’t just teens partying in a cabin close to Camp Crystal Lake we also had a family plus someone out for revenge so we had a lot to play with.
One thing I do wonder about is were they actually series about this being The Final Chapter and were they going to go with what they hinted at in the last few scenes cause that might have been interesting. So i should mention the kills, they were good and for a slasher film very good cause they were brutal and not just played for shock or for a laugh.
What I didn’t like: It’s a slasher film so yes the acting wasn’t great, we did have some actors who did have careers and they were fine but some of the other characters and mostly the side characters were bad, I mean real bad and the female characters weren’t written with that much depth.
Oddly the film also dragged a bit once everyone settled in to their cabins and there was too much time spent on the teenagers partying, it didn’t go anywhere we had to wait for them to split up to get killed.
Final thoughts: This might be my favorite of the Friday The 13th films, I thought it was a solid and pretty well made slasher movie, I know the bar was and is still low but it’s something.
Rating: 6/10
Movie Burner Entertainment 