• Director: Joseph Zito
• With: Erich Anderson, Judie Aronson, Peter Barton, Kimberley Beck, Tom Everett, Corey Feldman, Joan Freeman, Lisa Freeman, Crispin Glover, Frankie Hill, Bonnie Hellman, Wayne Grace, Clyde Hayes, Ted White
• Music by: Harry Manfredini
• Duration: 1h31
• Studio: Paramount Pictures
• Rating: 7/10

Review:

After the events of the previous movie, Jason is taken into the morgue. But evil is hard to kill and doesn’t stay dead that easily. Jason starts a new rampage of killings and everywhere he goes, death follows.

He makes his way back to Crystal Lake where he stalks a new group of friends renting a house at the lake for a getaway. The house they rent is next to the Jarvis’ house, a happy family (with a still young Corey Feldman).

Even though this movie doesn’t differ much from any other Friday the 13th movie, I believe it’s one of the better (maybe even the best) sequel made. The lighting improved, there was better acting and the kills became truly epic (Jason crunching heads and starting to show his true powers). It ís one of the movies in the series where Jason doesn’t use his machete to kill anyone but the machete is never far away, of course.

Feldman is a bratty little kid in this movie (and from what I read on imdb he was behind the scenes as well, annoying Ted White who plays Jason). The part he plays of Tommy Jarvis will come back in later instalments, although played by other actors.

I genuinely like this sequel far more than the ones that came before. Jason is ruthless and for the first time his immortality is shown, when he escapes the morgue after having been ‘killed’ in the third part.

The reason this one is called ‘The Final Chapter’ is not because it’s the final Friday the 13th movie (obviously because there are still six sequels after this one and the Freddy vs Jason movie) but because it’s the last one where the story doesn’t follow the previous movie by a day. (The beginning of part III was the end of Part 2 and the beginning of this one was the ending of Part III). The following sequels all have new storylines.

There’s a lot of kills in this movie (a lot of gore!) but also a lot of nudity. I think the director of this movie must have gotten off on the naked women. This even led to hypothermia to one of these actresses and a lot of strive between Ted White and the director, Joseph Zito (as per the imdb trivia).

Of course, all the nudity and sex has a sort of meaning in these kind of slasher movies. (Remember what they said in Scream: only virgins survive)

On to the next part: A new Beginning!