Friday the 13th Part 4 : The Final Chapter

Alternate titles : Friday the 13th Part 4 : The Final Chapter

Tagline : "This is the one you've been screaming for"

Friday the 13th Part 4 : The Final Chapter Don't be deceived by the title, this fourth film in the Friday the 13th saga is far from the final chapter.

Picking up directly after part 3, all the bodies are collected up and taken to the local morgue. However, Jason isn't really dead (of course) and at the appropriate moment, arms himself with a surgical hacksaw and scalpel, and promptly does away with the 2 mortuary staff in one of the bloodiest killings of the entire series. Before heading back to Crystal Lake.

Carrying on where he left off, he comes across a couple of lakeside homes a bit further round the Lake and proceeds to do away with the teenagers partying at the cabin, hacking, slashing and dismembering them in loving detail!!!.

But, when he turns his attention to the house opposite, where the Jarvis family are staying. Young 12 year old horror enthusiast Tommy (Corey Feldman) knows how to play him at his own game, leading to a brutal and bloody climax.

This is, in my view, the best of the early sequels and definitely better than any of the subsequent sequels that followed. Fast paced, with plenty of blood and guts. This is a gore lovers delight, the scenes with the surgical hacksaw and the 'machete slide' being particularly memorable.

Bloody good fun!!!

Overall Marks : 7/10.

Terrifying Trivia

Director Joseph Zito previously directed the 1981 slasher "Rosemary's Killer" (aka The "Prowler") on which Tom Savini also worked.
Tom Savini initially wasn't interested in returning to do the special effects, but agreed after being talked into it by the Director, as he thought it would be good to kill Jason off his way.
The "machete slide" scene at the films climax, was originally cut from the UK release at the insistence of the BBFC, although this scene was left intact when it was shown on Sky movies in the early 90's. This scene has since been re-instated for the UK DVD release.
There were several scenes of dialogue cut from the film, these included an extra scene of conversation between Sara and her boyfriend, a scene during the party in which Doug and Sarah are on the porch talking, Mrs Jarvis telling Trish to get a car part from town and that she's going jogging before it rains, and Sarah and Doug in the room together before the party starts.
Stuntman Ted White was hired to play Jason this time, as the director figured it would be easier to use a regular stuntman. He was not credited as Jason however, as he hated horror and disliked his time on the set and didn't want to be assosiated with the role.
Other scenes trimmed or excised, showed Rob setting up a motion sensor in the woods after finding his shotgun broken to pieces, Tommy scaring Trish with one of his masks when their car breaks down and the two ambulance attendants complaining about having to give up their night off during the intro.
Two gore scenes excised from the final print showed Trish finding her mother drowned in a bathtub and Nurse Rhonda being held up and gutted, which was trimmed so that it only showed her being stabbed.
Rob Dier, the camper, tells Trish that his sister was killed by Jason. Sandra Dier was one of Jason's victims in part 2.
In the original script Tommy Jarvis was to have split Jason's head open with the machete, but SFX artist Tom Savini wasn't particularly keen on this method. He came up with the idea of the "machete slide" death after seeing one of his effects crew (John Vulich) playing with the prop machete he used in Dawn Of The Dead