The Damn Dirty DVD Review: Friday the 13th The FInal Chapter - Deluxe Edition
Posted by Ron Martin on 06.17.2009
Twenty-five years ago, Jason met his match. Not before he killed lots of people though. Beer, boobs and blood. Yep, it's a Friday the 13th movie. Does the new release of one of the favorite movies in the series live up to it's "deluxe" title?
Written By: Barney Cohen Directed By: Joseph Zito
Cast
Trisha Jarvis -- Kimberly Beck Rob Dier -- Erich Anderson Tommy Jarvis -- Corey Feldman Sara -- Barbara Howard Doug -- Peter Barton Ted -- Lawrence Monoson Mrs. Jarvis -- Joan Freeman Jimmy -- Crispin Glover Paul -- Clyde Hayes Samantha -- Judie Aronson Tina -- Camilla More Terri -- Carey More Axel -- Bruce Mahler Nurse Morgan -- Lisa Freeman
In 1980, Hollywood unleashed the maniac Jason Voorhees on the world. In 1984, Hollywood tried to kill in Friday the 13th Part 4: The Final Chapter. Released on April 13, 1984, this was supposed to be the last Jason film. Twenty-Five years later we get the newest DVD installment, The Deluxe Edition. The awesome 3-D cover gives it that special feel gets things off on the right foot.
The Movie
This particular Friday the 13th is not only an important chapter to the franchise, but is a favorite (if not the favorite) amongst fans. Like any other Friday the 13th flick, there is one basic plot – Jason kills everybody. No other serial killer has a body count like Jason Voorhees.
This particular film starts off right where the last one ended. The police are cleaning up the mess left by Jason in Part III, including the body of Jason, himself. No need to shed a tear for Jason because he rises from the autopsy table with great vengeance, killing as he rises. How? He’s Jason – no explanation necessary. After taking care of the sex crazed hospital workers (and you thought it was just teenagers), Jason makes his way back to Camp Crystal Lake and it’s surrounding woods. In these woods was the home of the Jarvis family, a recently divorced mom, her teen daughter and young son, Tommy.
It’s around this time that the meat truck makes it’s delivery in the form of a car of six teenagers. In the business, we call this cannon fodder, fresh meat or just the classic “body count.” Like any other Friday movie, there is beer, there is nudity and there is sex. That’s the equivalent to lighting the Batsignal for Batman. Jason comes running and it doesn’t take long for him to take care of business. After emptying one house, Jason moseys on over to the second where he ends up fighting what’s left of the Jarvises. He falls for the ol’ “shaved kid kind of looks like I used to” routine and that proves to be his Achilles’ heel.
Friday the 13th Part 4 had many incarnations before it hit theaters. They even bought back original Jason makeup man, Tom Savini, to kill off the character he created five years earlier. First drafts had the writer coming up with way that the audience would know that Jason was dead – really, truly dead. Later drafts had Jason dying, but not with injuries it would be ridiculous for him to come back from (i.e., blowing his head off). Finally, Joseph Zito settled on killing Jason but leaving strong indications that the newly demented Tommy could take Jason’s place under the hockey mask and resume Jason’s reign of terror. That kind of happened in the next film, just without Tommy.
This film has some nice clever tricks. By this point, there was a certain formula Friday movies had adopted. Sex-craved, drug induced teenagers get hacked up for being naughty. The most righteous of the group shall survive. Usually, one can pick out the survivor from the first five minutes of the film. In Final Chapter there are actually several choices, which is nice. In the beginning, Sara is a big red herring. It should be mentioned that Terri also displayed the signs of a slasher movie survivor. It’s nice to see an old slasher flick untouched by a computer with just good ol’ special effects to drive them through. This was before the Friday movies kept trying to one up each other with fantabulously gory death scenes. Most of the death scenes in the flick are simple, some even happen off stage with only a silhouette or our imagination to guide us through. That there is some fancy directing for a slasher flick. There’s almost two storylines in this movie: 1) Jason kills everybody and 2) The Jarvises fatal showdown with Jason. Both are entertaining.
Of note, Ted White asked not to be credited as Jason in protest of how he felt the kids in the film were treated while on the set. There are Friday legends (mostly proven true) about White demanding things on certain scenes to benefit the young actors and getting his way. I’ve seen this movie a handful of times and I’ve seen Weird Science dozens of times, but this is the first time I ever made the connection that Judie Aronson (Samantha) also played Hilly in Weird Science. I made the connection right away this time around. This is after me spending a childhood wanting to see Hilly naked. Little did I know that she was naked for almost the entire film just a few VHS tapes over! Elaine from Seinfeld may be famous for bad dancing, but she has nothing on Crispin Glover’s Dead Fuck Dance.
Beloved by the fans, Friday the 13th Part Four proved to be anything but the final chapter. Still, it’s a good movie and it holds up as any Friday the 13th does. It’s fun to see the clothing and hairstyles from back in the day. Without Tommy, this would still be a fine Friday but adding the legend of Tommy puts it over the top as one of the best films in the franchise.
Video
Standard Widescreen, enhanced for 16:9. Generally, the picture looks good until the picture goes into the dark woods or a basement. A lot of black makes the film hard to see in these instances, but it’s nothing one doesn’t expect from a horror movie 25 years old
Audio
Dolby Digital 5.1 English Surround.
Special Features
A good thing about these deluxe editions is there are a ton of new special features. These aren’t rehashes from another release. Some of the features here have never been seen before.
Commentary: There are two versions of commentary. First is the standard director, writer, editor stuff for your everyday inside scoop stuff. On top of that there is a commentary by a couple of fans. I believe this is the first time I’ve seem something like this. I’m willing to bet that the fans actually know more about the film (definitely the series) than the production crew.
Lost Tales from Camp Blood – Part 4: I think this is some sort of serial fan pic spread out over all the DVDs (or at least the first 8). I’ve not seen any of the others, so I have no frame of reference. It was alright. I’d have to see the rest to make a fair judgment.
Slashed Scenes: Obviously these are deleted scenes. Thing is they were found much later and without the soundtrack. Instead of sound, we get Joe Vito walking us through the scenes. It’s pretty cool to see some of the effects in the cut death scenes.
Jason’s Unlucky Day: 25 Years After Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter: Your basic cast and crew talking about the movie. However, it’s really just Joe Vito, Ted White, Kimberly Beck and Tom Savini. These look like extra clips from when they interviewed just about everyone who had ever been in one of the movies for the His Name Was Jason DVD. By the way, if you don’t have that DVD, go get it – now. Pretty informative stuff. No one really liked Corey Feldman, but he was a hell of an actor.
The Lost Ending: 25 years later and we are getting an alternate ending for this film. It doesn’t do a bait and switch either. This was supposed to be the ending, but got pulled. Very good stuff.
The Crystal Lake Massacre Revisited Part 1: This is a neat little segment. In a Cold Case/Unsolved Mysteries/History Channel parody, many residents of Crystal Lake talk about all the events that have happened in Friday the 13ths 1-IV. Funny stuff. There’s the cop who claims Jason was never alive; a psychologist who explains the mental state of Jason at various points; Jason enthusiasts and even the daughter of the man who founded Camp Crystal Lake.
Jimmy’s Dead Fuck Dance Moves: Just another reason to watch Crispin Glover dance.
Theatrical Trailer
The 411: The Final Chapter had everything a Jason movie needs to be successful. On top of that, it had a decent storyline with a nice ending. The special features on this DVD enhance the movie. If you don't already have all the Friday the 13th movies, invest in this Deluxe line. One of the better movies, lots of boobs, nice special features -- this is a no-brainer.
