Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Joseph Zito
Screenplay by	Barney Cohen
Story by	Bruce Hidemi Sakow
Produced by	Frank Mancuso Jr.
Starring	Kimberly Beck Peter Barton Corey Feldman E. Erich Anderson Crispin Glover Alan Hayes Barbara Howard Lawrence Monoson Joan Freeman Judie Aronson Camilla More Carey More
Cinematography	João Fernandes
Edited by	Joel Goodman Daniel Loewenthal
Music by	Harry Manfredini
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	April 13, 1984 (1984-04-13)
Running time	91 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$2.6 million
Box office	$32.0 million (US)

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter is a 1984 American slasher film directed by Joseph Zito, produced by Frank Mancuso Jr., and starring Corey Feldman, Ted White, Kimberly Beck, and Crispin Glover. It is the fourth installment in the Friday the 13th film series. Picking up immediately after the events of Friday the 13th Part III, a presumed-dead Jason Voorhees is brought to the morgue, where he spontaneously revives and escapes. He then returns to Crystal Lake to continue his killing spree, targeting a family and a group of neighboring teenagers; it is the first film to feature the character of Tommy Jarvis. Make-up artist Tom Savini, who worked on the the first film, returned for the sequel as he wanted to help kill off Jason, who he helped create.

Much like Friday the 13th Part III, the film was originally supposed to be the final installment in the series. Producer Frank Mancuso Jr. wanted to conclude the series as he felt people only ever see him for his assisting work on Friday the 13th and how nobody seemed to respect him for it regardless of how much money the films made at the box office, in addition for him wanting to move onto other projects. Paramount Pictures also supported the decision, as they were aware of the declining popularity of slasher films at the time of its release. As a result, the film was marketed as "The Final Chapter" to ensure it as such.

The film was originally scheduled for a October 1984, but an enthusiastic early screening of the film prompted Paramount to push the date up to April 13, 1984. Upon its theatrical release, the film earned approximately $11 million on its opening weekend and domestically grossed $32 million in the United States on a budget of $2.6 million, making it the fourth most attendance of any film in the Friday the 13th series with approximately $9,815,700 tickets sold. Although the film received generally negative reviews, it is considered by many to be the best film in the franchise. Despite it being set as the final film, the success of the film prompted another sequel, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, a year later.

Plot

The night after the events at Higgins Haven, police arrive on the grounds to investigate and Jason Voorhees's body, believed to be dead, is taken to the morgue. At the hospital, Jason spontaneously revives and escapes from the cold storage, murdering the coroner Axel with a hacksaw and gutting Nurse Morgan with a scalpel. The following day, a group of teenagers drive to Crystal Lake for the weekend. The group consists of Paul, his girlfriend Sam, virgin Sara, her boyfriend Doug, socially awkward Jimmy, and jokester Ted. On the way, the group comes across Pamela Voorhees's tombstone and a hitchhiker, who is soon killed by Jason.

The teens arrive and meet neighbors Trish Jarvis, her twelve-year-old brother Tommy, their mother, and the family dog Gordon. While going for a walk the next day, the teens meet twin sisters Tina and Terri, and go skinny dipping with them. Trish and Tommy happen upon the scene, and Trish is invited to a party to take place that night. Afterwards, when their car breaks down, Trish and Tommy are helped out by a young man named Rob. They take him to their house, where Tommy shows Rob several monster masks he made himself before Rob leaves to go camping.

Later that night, the teens begin the party. A jealous Sam sees Tina flirting with Paul and leaves. She goes out to the lake where Jason impales her from under a raft. When Paul goes out to look for her, he is stabbed in the groin with a harpoon gun. Terri tries to leave the party early, but before she can get on her bike Jason stabs her with a spear. After sleeping with Tina, Jimmy goes downstairs to get a bottle of wine. Jason impales his hand with a corkscrew before slamming a meat cleaver into his face. Tina looks out a window upstairs when she is grabbed by Jason and thrown to her death, crashing on the car. While a stoned Ted watches vintage stag films with a film projector, he is stabbed in the head with a kitchen knife from the other side of the projector screen. Jason then goes upstairs where Doug and Sara finish making love in the shower. After Sara leaves, Jason kills Doug by crushing his head against the shower tile. When Sara screams upon finding Doug's body, she tries to escape only for Jason to drive a double-bit axe through the front door, killing her.

Trish and Tommy return from town and discover the power outage. While looking for their mother, who had been killed by Jason earlier, Trish goes to find Rob for help. It is revealed that Rob is actually the brother of Jason's victim Sandra. Rob further explains to her that Jason is still alive and he came to Crystal Lake to get revenge for the murder of his sister.

Worried for Tommy's safety, Trish and Rob return to the house. They then go next door to investigate and discover the teens' bodies. Gordon flees, and Rob is killed by Jason in the basement as Trish runs home, taking Rob's machete with her. She and Tommy barricade the house, but Jason breaks in and chases them into Tommy's room. Trish lures Jason out of the house and escapes, then returns home and is devastated to learn that Tommy is still there. She senses Jason behind her and tries to fight him off with the machete but is overpowered. Tommy, having disguised himself to look like Jason as a child, distracts him long enough for Trish to hit him with the machete, but she merely whacks off his mask. As Trish stands horrified at Jason's deformed face, Tommy takes the machete and slams it in the side of his skull, causing him to collapse to the floor and split his head upon impact. When Tommy notices that Jason's fingers are slightly moving, he continues to hack at his body screaming, "Die! Die!" while Trish repeatedly yells out his name.

At the hospital, Trish is visited by Tommy. He rushes in, embraces her, and gives a disturbed look while staring ahead.

Cast

• Kimberly Beck as Trish Jarvis
• E. Erich Anderson as Rob Dier
• Corey Feldman as Tommy Jarvis
• Barbara Howard as Sara
• Joan Freeman as Mrs. Jarvis
• Peter Barton as Doug
• Crispin Glover as Jimmy
• Judie Aronson as Samantha
• Camilla More as Tina
• Lawrence Monoson as Ted
• Alan Hayes as Paul
• Carey More as Terri
• Bruce Mahler as Axel
• Lisa Freeman as Nurse Robbie Morgan
• Bonnie Hellman as Hitchhiker
• Ted White as Jason Voorhees (uncredited)

Production

When Friday the 13th Part III was first released, it was initially supposed to end the series as a trilogy, however, there was no moniker to indicate it as such. In 1983, there was a rumor that Paramount billed the fourth installment as "The Final Chapter" as they felt embarrassed by their association with the series, thus the possible indication for the moniker. Despite how Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel claimed this in their review of the film on At the Movies, Paramount Pictures was aware that the slasher genre had been loosing interest and thought it was a good choice to conclude the series. However, the idea came from producer Frank Mancuso, Jr. (the son of Paramount CEO Frank Mancuso, Sr.), as he had begun to resent the series due to how he felt everyone saw him for only doing on Friday the 13th Part 2 as an production assistant and Part III as producer, and that no one respected him for it regardless of how much money it earned. Because of this and him wanting to work on different projects, wanted to conclude the series and kill off Jason.

Writing

The filmmakers wanted Joseph Zito, who had worked on The Prowler, to both direct and write the screenplay for the film. He initially claimed that he was not a writer, but when he was offered a contract paying him double for directing and writing, he accepted it. Zito secretly used the extra salary to hire Barney Cohen to write the script. Their process entailed Zito taking one-hour phone calls a night with Phil Scuderi to discuss the story and screenplay for the film. Zito then met Cohen in a New York apartment to use the concepts Scuderi had offered, which they would then turn into script pages later sent that day to Scuderi in Boston to be discussed again over the phone. Cohen remained the writing credit for the film, but Zito and Cohen eventually got into trouble with the Writer's Guild of America as a result.

In the Friday the 13th series, the films generally favored young women being the sole final girl against Jason. However, unlike its predecessors, this marks the first film in the series to have two survivors with one of them being male. The filmmakers believed this concept hasn't been done before in a slasher film, and they wanted to create characters that the audience doesn't want to see harmed or killed. By including the Jarvis family, which includes a divorced mother, a teenage daughter, and a pre-teen son opposite the average cast of teenagers, they could generate more drama and resonant tragedy such as the mother implied to be killed by Jason outside, thus it remains debatable how intentional the parallels between Jason and Tommy were. The idea of Tommy having an interest in make-up effects serve as a homage to Tom Savini.

Casting

Actress Camilla More auditioned for the role of Samantha, but when the filmmakers discovered she had a twin sister named Carey, they were instead both offered the roles of Tina and Terri; they had previously appeared in the Doublemint gum commercials. Because of how they were swayed by the twins idea, Carey’s audition was to read only one line in the film.

Amy Steel, who starred as heroine Ginny Field in Friday the 13th Part 2 talked to actor Peter Barton into working on the film, both of which co-starred in the sitcom The Powers of Matthew Star. When the sitcom was cancelled and was offered the role, Barton was initially reluctant as he wanted no part in any horror film, especially after he disliked working on Hell Night. However, because of Steel's involvement in Part 2, she talked Barton into doing the film..

Make-up artist Tom Savini, who worked on the original film, agreed to return to work on the film as he wanted to kill off the character Jason, who he helped create.

Filming

Principal photography began in Topanga Canyon and Newhall, California in October 1983 to January 1984. It was originally set for a release in October 1984, but when Frank Mancuso, Sr. screened the footage to much enthusiasm, the release date was pushed up to April 13, 1984. As this is the only time Paramount assisted with the production, they rented a household in Malibu for the filmmakers to stay in and conduct editing sessions, with food brought to them by the studio. The only time Paramount assisted with the installment's production, they rented a Malibu household for the filmmakers to stay in and conduct editing sessions, with food brought to them from the studio. They barely made the release date, but the final result had most of the footage trimmed and later ended up in television airings.

The film had a troubled production on set. As a result of the director's poor treatment and the film's budget, many of the actors had to preform uncomfortable or dangerous stunts for the movie. Judie Aronson was required to remain submerged in a highly freezing lake, in which she later developed hypothermia because of it, and Peter Barton was genuinely slammed against the shower wall when Jason attacks him. Ted White, who portrays Jason Voorhees, defended several of the actors by requesting Barton to have a crash pad, and threatening to quit when Zito refused to remove Aronson from the cold lake in-between takes. White and Zito maintained a hostile relationship on set, resulting in White demanding his name to be removed from the credits. According to White, Corey Feldman maintained a bratty attitude on set as a result from Zito's treatment. When filming the scene of Tommy hacking at Jason's body, which were two sandbags he was striking at, Feldman pretended the sandbags were Zito.

According to the book Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th, actress Kimberly Beck stated that she does not like the horror genre. In addition to this, she felt that the film was more of a C-movie rather than a B-movie. During filming, Kimberly Beck experienced strange encounters, including a man watching her while she ran in the park and receiving odd phone calls at all hours. This stopped when production was finished.

Actress Bonnie Hellman's agents told her about taking the role of the hitchhiker in the film. They told her she would not want to do it as they were no lines said for the character, but she accepted the role anyway.

Music

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
Soundtrack album by Harry Manfredini
Released	January 13, 2012 (La-La Land)
Genre	Film score
Length	52:20
Label	Gramavision, La-La Land

The film's music was composed by Harry Manfredini, who composed the scores to all of the series' previous installments. On January 13, 2012, La-La Land Records released a limited edition 6-CD boxset containing Manfredini's scores from the first six entries of the film series. The release was sold out in less than 24 hours of availability.

The song "Love Is a Lie" by Lion is featured in the film, but not on the soundtrack.

Release

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter opened on Friday, April 13, 1984, on 1,594 screens to weekend box office gross of $11,183,148; this was the sixth-highest of the year. The film would ultimately take in a total of $32,980,880 at the U.S. box office. It placed at number 26 on the list of the top-grossing films of 1984.

Reception

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 25% of 24 film critics have given the film a positive review; the rating average is 4.2 out of 10. The film received what The Week characterized as "scathing reviews", especially from film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, with the latter considering the film "an immoral and reprehensible piece of trash". Scott Meslow summarized Roger Ebert's criticism as calling it "a cynical retread" of the earlier films. Meslow instead says that the film attempts to kill off the series while focusing more on characterization than gore. In a series retrospective, Kyle Anderson of Entertainment Weekly ranked it the best Friday the 13th film, complimenting both its narrative and kills.

External links

• Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter at IMDb
• Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter at AllMovie
• Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter at Rotten Tomatoes
• Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter at Box Office Mojo
• Film page at the Camp Crystal Lake web site
• Film page at Fridaythe13thfilms.com