FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER (1984 - Region 1 DVD version)

FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER (1984) was genuinely intended as the last film in the series. The title wasn't a cunning tease in the manner of a Motley Crue or Ozzie Osbourne 'farewell' tour. Tom Savini was enthusiastic about returning, after not being asked to do the second and third, partly because he thought it would be a neat way for him to both originate and kill off the creature he'd helped to conceive. Director Joseph Zito had worked with Savini on his 1981 slasher movie THE PROWLER.
This installment isn't a hasty knock-off as might be expected. It  features a couple of notable cast members, a little more care given to overall characterisation and slightly more stylish kills (censors allowing) set in a palpable air of unease. However, for those who crave the inexplicable final scenes of before, rest assured, that's still in place.
Credit should be given to Barney Cohen's script for at least opening with an attempt to redress PART 3's dumb ending of missing Jason's body clearly in the doorway of the barn. His corpse is shipped off to the morgue where he's put into a tray by horny jackass Dr Axel. If his face is maddeningly familiar,  it'sPOLICE ACADEMY's amusingly accident-prone cadet Doug Fackler. Zito adds a nice touch of showing a breath stream emanating upward from the body as the tray is closed. Needless to say, it's not long before Jason is back on the rampage in the imposing form of seasoned stuntman Ted White and lumbers home to Crystal Lake to see who's now been sleeping in his camp.
The interlopers Jason terrorises there for the remainder consist of six teens and a young mother with a daughter and a son, Tommy, a diminutive twelve year-old version of genre favourite Corey Feldman - between his blockbuster turns in GREMLINS (1984) and THE GOONIES (1985)  He's a resourceful squirt who's a dab hand with car mechanics and makes horror movie masks. He also becomes the focus by the climax in a fairly daring - and yes, bamboozling - plot twist, since young kids were rarely brought front and centre in the genre unless possession was fully nine-tenths of the idea. Feldman is a winning presence, precocious but not in the cloying sitcom way where you long for Jason to stuff him down a wood-chipper.
The other welcome camper is Crispin Glover as Jimmy who brings his mesmerising eccentricity the year before he shot to fame as BACK TO THE FUTURE's George McFly in a role that would simply be the usual humdrum teen in the hands of a prosaic actor. He's introduced as a hapless 'dead fuck' lover, a harping nickname by his friend Ted (Lawrence Monoson) that becomes as grating to the audience as to him. He later claims one of two nubile twins (Camilla More as Tina) but not before treating us to some entertainingly explosive dancing that's as bizarre as the jerky, hypnotic moves of Joy Division's Ian Curtis. (Glover's not so much dancing with her as at her). There's an extended take of more of it on the U.S. DVD extras!
Sadly, Glover gets a carving knife to the face in the kitchen, a queasily good gag filmed in reverse, that is so graphic that only a split-second was permitted by the MPAA. Again, a lengthy DVD bonus doc shows a number of takes for this acted the other way round in camera amongst other kills. Another well-staged death is Tina's window plunge onto the roof of a car. For good measure, Zito's FX team had the windows blow out on impact, a memorably visceral moment.

So we come to the climactic confusion. Poor Tommy is so flummoxed at how to prevent Jason killing his sister that he opts to cut all his hair off and distract Jason with, ideally, a retro boy vision of himself inspired by old newspaper cuttings. You could say it's an indirect nod to his character's maskwork talent, but the resulting bald, scarred pate makes him resemble a cross between a kiddie Charles Manson and a fledgling chick, but let's remember that Voorhees a jolly dim fellow who could be transfixed by the opening of an envelope. This means that opportunistic Tommy gets to carve him up with a machete.
Surely that makes a definitive end to the series? Not necessarily, as the epilogue shows Tommy hugging his sister in hospital and looking at us over her shoulder with a quiet, sinister intensity.
The spirit has passed on, thus alongside a $33m box office superannuating the sequels into A NEW BEGINNING...