Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter

There’s little doubt that Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter marks the nadir of the series up to this point, as the movie suffers from a palpable lack of plot that results in an overflow of almost astonishingly pointless (and gore-free) sequences. The thin storyline, which once again follows Jason as he stalks and terrorizes a variety of disparate figures, is compounded by a deliberateness that’s aggressive even by the standards of this far-from-brisk franchise, with the movie’s ongoing emphasis on the fun-loving antics of its characters (eg they party, they go skinny dipping, etc) ensuring that one’s interest has vanished long before Jason makes his first proper entrance. It doesn’t help, either, that said entrance doesn’t come until just after the one-hour mark (!) has passed, with filmmaker Joseph Zito’s efforts to establish an atmosphere of suspense and foreboding falling hopelessly flat (ie it’s an approach that simply doesn’t work in this slightest with a picture of this ilk; this isn’t Jaws). Even the kill sequences, generally the highlight in these movies, manage to disappoint, as Zito dials back the gore to an extent that’s almost comical – which, obviously, confirms Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter‘s place as a seriously perfunctory installment within a terminally underwhelming series.

*1/2 out of ****