FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER

After yet another massacre at Crystal Lake, the lifeless body of Jason Voorhees is taken to the morgue. But Jason is not really dead and, after killing a paramedic and a nurse, he escapes from the morgue and heads back into the woods. Near the lake live Trish, with her brother Tommy and their mother; while in a nearby house a community of boys and girls on vacation have just settled in, ready to party. All of them will be nothing more than meat in the hands of Jason. "Friday the 13th - The Final Chapter" (clever subtitle imposed by the distributor to attract a larger number of fans to the box office) begins exactly where the third film ended: Jason's corpse is lying in the barn with an axe planted in his skull. Thus, this film, as a good member of the world's most famous slasher saga, does nothing but give Jason's fans what they want, that is, boys and girls in full hormonal storm, lethal nighttime baths in the lake and a series of bloody and brutal murders with a white weapon. Unfortunately, however, by the fourth chapter, one has the feeling of having watched the same film four times: victims all similar from episode to episode; same setting for each film; always a beautiful blonde girl as the only survivor. The producers will certainly have thought that "a winning team is not changed", but one must also consider that this fourth episode is in some ways a "Final Chapter", since, starting from number 5, attempts will be made to innovate the saga, although with little success. This time, the direction is by the unknown Joseph Zito, while the makeup effects return, after a two-episode absence, to the master Tom Savini. Among the cast, one can recognize a very young Corey Feldman, true baby star of the 1980s (among his most famous films "Lost Boys" and "The Goonies"), in the role of Tommy and Crispin Glover (the "Back to the Future" trilogy; "Charlie's Angels"; "Willard") in the guise of one of the victims. "Friday the 13th Part 4" is perhaps the chapter that begins to show the weakness of the Jason saga, proving too similar to the three previous films; yet, for every fan of the exploits of the giant with the hockey mask, it remains a tasty film.