Okay well actually this wasn't the first time when the
series was going to end. Originally it was going to be the third film to close
the series out in hopes for it to be a trilogy. But since there was no
real indication to suggest that it was supposed to be the last time that
audiences would be watching the troubled sadistic lives of the Voorhees, the
fourth film was made and marketed to let fans at the time know that this was
Jason's last outing. Despite that the film was being harshly panned by critics
(especially from Roger Ebert who hates the film with a burning passion), it’s
usually regarded by fans to be one of the best in the series. Is the film
better than any of the previous films? And on top of it, is it (at least for
the time of its release) a satisfying farewell to this famous and emotionally
disturbed killer? ON WITH THE REVIEW!
There appears to be more variety of people for Jason to
slaughter than just the usual group of teenagers, but there's still barely a
difference with its plot and structure. We get a recap of the previous
events; the next ten minutes or so involves Jason killing his first few
victims; we watch a bunch of a teenagers horse around as few of them gets
killed by a needlessly hidden Jason; the body count begins to rise at
night fall; there's a chase and a fight between Jason and the remaining
survivors; and we get ANOTHER ending of somebody waking up after seeing
something shocking once Jason has fallen. It's as predictably redundant as you
can imagine it to be. You can even easily predict half of the time when
somebody is going to die, and when they won't. And unlike how the previous film
had a piece of music that didn't sound like "Psycho" (as out of place
it was), the score has nothing in it that doesn't sound like that it’s stealing
from better slasher movies. Now as tired out as the formula is, the atmosphere
though still not as heavy as it was in the first movie and lacks good suspense, does come across as darker than the other sequels. The film in regards to its
tone and feel is less campy and gimmicky and a little more serious and fierce. It's drenched
in darkness, the deaths are less cartoony, there's more nudity, and we get a
couple of different kinds of victims to show different perspectives of people
viewing Jason. Above all, this is the least of the films by far where there's
less tedious padding of teens doing random stuff for a long period of time, or
the suspense feeling like that it’s going on forever. It felt more engaging to
watch for how much boring filler is cut-out. That doesn't mean however that the
film doesn't get weird and campy, or contains scenes that aren't pointless,
because it does, but it doesn't consume the film as much as the other films
before it did.
An aspect that I enjoy by far from these movies is that as they
progress we see the character of Jason slowly evolve into the iconic slasher
villain that everyone thinks of when we hear his name. In the first film we
learned about his harsh and tragic life as a mortal little boy; we see him
begin to kill people in the 2nd film; he gets his trademark hockey mask towards
the end of the third installment; and here he's near unstoppable. A complaint
that I always had with Jason from his previous appearances is how weak he is at
fighting against the lone survivor after proven to be a smart and insane
killer. There was never much of a sense that Jason was close to winning at the end
since he appears to get more abuse than the actual person he's chasing, as he
himself would at times trip and back away, resulting with him feeling just as
vulnerable as his prey except that it’s carried out on a bit of slap-sticky level which drains out his dignity. Jason here (with the exception of that
laughable moment of him getting hit in the head with a TV), doesn’t hold-back
or lets the damage that he takes put him down so easily. You slash him in his
hand, he'll just look at it and be ready to slice off your arm before cutting
your face. You knock-him out, he’s more than likely pretending to be
unconscious so that he can catch you by surprise. He's no longer taking any of this crap! And what helps make his presence
be so intimidating is the body language that stuntman actor Ted White's
brings to his character. The amount fury that Jason contains has hugely
increased up to 100% explaining why he doesn't take as much abuse as he did prior to this film! But while being full of anger, the film gives him one
scene showing his vulnerable side that feels just as touching as it was shown
in the 2nd film, despite the reason for it making as much sense as it was done before
this film. However, as big of an improvement he is here, there are still a few
major downsides! His motivation for the killings is still not as fleshed-out as
the killings that his Mother committed in the first film, and the revenge that
he took on Alice for killing the only person that loved him, where I guess
since the third film all-purpose has been officially sunken to the very bottom
of "Crystal Lake". The make-up and design that Jason was given for
his deformed face in the last film was a major improvement over making his face
originally resemble a hillbilly Quasimodo, and though his design in this film
is great, the make-up effect isn't for how rubbery his face appears.
Jason has fully transformed into the slasher icon that he's
known best as, and the deaths don't disappoint either. After the first films,
though the scenes of people getting killed would have their moments for being
shockingly gruesome or enjoyably cheesy, they were mostly standard to what many
other slasher films were doing, as the hardcore violence and gore would usually
be censored. Fortunately Tom Savini who did the gore effects in the first film
has returned and does just as fantastic of a job as he did before. These deaths
are seriously up-to par with the kills that Jason's Mother committed for how
bloody, brutal, and sick the imagery is. Some of the highlights include a
person getting killed by a Hacksaw; a woman being gutted like a fish; a girl
falling out of a window in slow-motion; a guy being killed by a harpoon gun
(that's more horrific than the last time Jason used one); and a death that
takes place in the kitchen as Jason uses more than one murder weapon. There are
even some cases where people would be killed in the shadows or off-screen, so it isn't all blood and guts which gives these moments some more variety.
There really isn't a single death in the film that I can't say wasn't either
interesting or grotesque, it’s honestly some of the series best! Is it comical at times,
undoubtedly. It amazes me that some of the victims don't scream or cry for help
as they are suffering; and at one point there's a character narrating his own
death which for me is the funniest death in the entire movie. I'll also admit
that as great as these death scenes are, it is slightly disappointing that
Jason is not using his trademark machete. Still these criticisms are simply
just nitpicks because I can't find much too really fault these scenes for.
The new group of teenagers that are waiting to be killed off
are truthfully the least memorable bunch when compared to the previous movies.
That's mainly because that there's also time given to the Jarvis family and the
guy hunting Jason, who seem a little more fascinating than the group of
characters that we've been seeing countless times from these movies. These
set of characters in reality only exist in this movie to provide the viewers some eye-candy
nudity and sex, and to be killed off by Jason because that's why people are
here to see these movies. There are a few that stand-out like the unfunny comic
relief Ted (Lawrence Monoson) and the twin girls that they meet on their trip,
but none of them are entertaining or fun to be around. However, there is one
character in the group who's legitimately likable and interesting and that's
Crispin Glover as Jimmy. A year before he played George McFly in "Back to the Future", he's already played a weak and socially awkward teenager
who's seeking for love. As much as I loved Shelly in "Part III",
Jimmy is by comparison more relatable for how down to earth he is. He's crushed
by his break-up with his girlfriend, and tries to move on by finding someone new but every time he tries he always fails for how nervous and awkward
he is when trying to talk to a girl or impress one causing him to think less of himself. He's a character who I was
constantly feeling sorry for for how emotionally vulnerable he is, when with
Shelly though sympathetic too was way too comical and extreme for us to really
feel connect to him. The only scene that Glover ever does in the movie that's
strange and hilarious is when he tries to dance with a girl. His dance moves
has to be the most unnatural kind of dancing that I've ever seen on film. It's
just very out of the norm, and in yet every time I look at this moment it never
fails to make me burst out laughing or put a smile on my face.
Then we have the Jarvis'. Already I find the addition of
adding a family into the mix to be an interesting new angle for the type of
characters that Jason murders. We've seen teenagers and people who behave like
jerks at his mercy dozens of times before, and it’s been getting stale very
quickly. So the idea of having Jason go after an entirely different group of
people who are less repulsive and more innocent is an intriguing change of
direction. The family themselves are pleasant characters and well performed.
Joan Freeman (in her last film role) is sweet and authoritative as the Mother;
Kimberly Beck as the daughter Trish is kind and tough; but the most amusing
character out of the whole family is Trish's little brother Tommy played by
rising child-star Corey Feldman (who would later become popular as Mouth in
"The Goonies", Teddy in "Stand By Me", and Donatello in the
1990 "Teenage Muntant Ninja Turtles" movie). Part of what makes him
stand-out from the other members in his family is mainly due to the fact that
we're seeing Jason go after a kid who is helplessly innocent which hasn't been
done in any of these films, therefore raising the stakes higher than they were
before as Feldman sells out the fear that he has towards him (most likely
because that White hated Feldman for his bratty attitude so much that he was trying
to find ways to catch him off-guard during film, and successfully managed to
get one legitimate scream out of him for when he crashed through the window at a
delayed time). There aren't many scenes of Jason chasing after Tommy, most of
his time towards the Jarvis' is him trying to get Trish, but it's still none
the less a shocking change of pace that gets more messed up when we get to the
ending. Another reason why Tommy stands-out is also because he's a weird pre-teen
boy who spends most of his time making horror related props and masks that are
so well detailed that he could start his own business of creating movie props
for Hollywood (he's that unbelievably good). The stuff that this kid creates
are very cool to see, and it becomes even more fascinating when he uses this
talent to get Jason. It's like the characteristics of what made Shelly such a
pleasing character were sliced apart as the pieces of it formed into two
separate characters reflecting two different parts of his personality. His
shyness and seeking for romance is given to Jimmy, while his love for creating
props and fooling around with them is given to Tommy, resulting with both of them to be
the best characters in the movie for how charming, different, and relatable
they are.
The most disappointing character in the entire film is the
guy who spent an implausible short amount of time preparing himself to kill
Jason for revenge, Rob. I love the concept of his character, and Anderson does
look tough enough to give Jason a taste of his own medicine, but he's not given
as much attention as the teenagers and the Jarvis', if anything he's the film's
third wheel. We don't get to explore the character's anger towards Jason and
the sadness that he's feeling from the loss of his sister, so his revenge
doesn't feel personal for how distant we are from him. And when he finally has
his showdown with Jason it's an anti-climactic joke. I find that immature ass working in
the morgue (and watching an erotic looking work-out video) and the Hitchhiker
who instantly dies to be more interesting and fleshed-out than him. Perhaps if
we didn't focus so much on the teens, and just had the film be focused on him
and the Jarvis' when Jason's not present, he could've been a great character.
But instead he's just as his disposable as the teens are in this movie (with the exception of Jimmy).
The film is no masterpiece regarding the slasher films, and
I can't bring myself to say that it's a good movie either. It's too
predictable, the thrills are lacking, the music is unoriginal,
half of the characters are forgettable or underdeveloped, and it does have its
hokey and out there moments. But as far as these films go when comparing it to the
ones that I reviewed, it's the best one by far. Being the "final" end
to the series, the film does everything that it can to be a harsh and
extreme conclusion with a few new twists to make it more captivating while
still trying to entertain, and that's exactly what it does. The atmosphere
though not as heavy as the first film does feel darker than the previous two;
Jason when comparing him to how he was in 2 and 3 is at his best here who has now fully evolved; the death scenes and effects done by Tom Savini are as
admirable and brutal as they were in the first film; the addition of having a
family being hunted by Jason is a riveting change of pace; Jimmy and Tommy are
great enough to be up there with characters like Ginny and Shelly; and the film
doesn't feel as consumed with much padding as the films before it were. If this was really the "Final Chapter" I'd say that it makes for a great
shocking conclusion...well at least for Jason, because there is an indication
that Jason's legacy will be carried on. There's still plenty of more sequels for
me to cover in the future, and though I'll be going in with an open mind
(regardless of how stupid they get) I'm not sure how any of them are going to be
able to surpass this one.
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