Friday the 13th part VII has so much good going for it, yet there are a few major set-backs. It has a lot to live up to, following on Part VI and picking up where the “Tommy Trilogy” left off. Part VII is the first of the “gimmicky” Friday the 13th flicks, which turns a lot of people off.
Tina (Lar Park Lincoln) is a girl with a wide range of telekinetic powers but with little control over them. Along with her mother (Susan Blu), they go to a cabin near Crystal Lake to try and settle her emotional problems with the help of the snotty and two-faced Dr. Cruise. Right next door, a band of rowdy teenagers have rented a cabin for the weekend so they can party. Tina remembers accidentally killing her father as a little girl out on the lake and in a fit of psychic rage unintentionally frees Jason from his watery grave. Well, you can guess what Jason does once he swims to shore. Tina has to learn to control her psychic abilities if she wants to take Jason down for good.
So yeah, basically, it’s “Jason vs. Carrie”. Supposedly, Part VII was intended to be the first attempt at “Freddy vs. Jason”, a project that didn’t actually get made until 2004. The whole concept of Jason fighting a girl with telekinetic powers may seem pretty goofy and out there, but at the same time, you have to consider that Jason is a back-from-the-dead Super Zombie. The levitation effects are all quite good (save for a few moments where you can tell objects are hanging from strings), and I have to admit, it *is* nice to see someone who can actually fight Jason.
There are a few things Part VII is notable for. It’s the first appearance of Kane Hodder as Jason, a role he would reprise for Part VIII, Jason Goes to Hell and Jason X. Many fans prefer Kane’s interpretation of the character, which I do find impressive, though honestly, there hasn’t been a single actor to play Jason who has disappointed me. The role doesn’t require much acting talent, hence the reason they always cast stuntmen. It’s also recognized for having a popular montage opening which I actually prefer over the montage for Part IV. The selection of clips is great and the whole thing is amplified by a voice over from a creepy old man (“There’s a legend ‘round here…”). Then there’s the make-up effects which were top-notch. Jason’s face at the film’s climax remains one of his most memorable appearances ever. The make-up artist made it a point to work in all the damage Jason took over the previous movies, from machetes to the face or motorboat propellers to the jaw (his broken mask is very cool-looking).
The one thing people complain most about Part VII is the ruthless editing. Part VII features some of the best kills in the franchise (like the sleeping bag kill) but nearly all the gore is glossed-over, castrating some of these great scenes. Fans have been clamoring for an uncut release of Part VII for years but Paramount Pictures has yet to throw them a bone. The footage *does* exist, as Kane Hodder has shown it at conventions.
Part VII has its problems, but it’s one of my favorites for the excellent make-up effects and imaginative (if a little gore-less) kills. It gets a C+.
Grade: C+

Don’t let the name fool you, Friday the 13th: the Final Chapter is *not* the final installment in the franchise (not even close); it’s actually just the 4th. However, story-wise, it would seem it was certainly intended to end the franchise. The Final Chapter might very well be the “quintessential” Friday the 13th movie at long last as it has numerous elements making it an instant horror classic and easily one of the best installments in the series.
Little Tommy Jarvis (Corey Feldman) and his family live out in the woods just off of Crystal Lake. Just next door, a group of rowdy teenagers rent a cabin to party and have pre-marital sex. Well, you can tell where this is going. Jason recovers from the axe he took in the face at the finale of Part III and returns to Crystal Lake to continue his most favorite of hobbies; slaughtering stupid punks.
Of all the Friday the 13th films, The Final Chapter actually has the most star-power going for it, featuring the likes of Corey Feldman and Crispin Glover. Well, I guess that counts as star-power. Some might argue that even if you combined the might of Feldman and Glover they still wouldn’t match the star-power of Kevin Bacon, who appeared in the first film. But I digress.
Feldman’s character of Tommy Jarvis would prove to be one of the only returning characters of the franchise, starring in his own three-movie “story arc”. Tommy Jarvis has remained a very popular character amongst the fandom and is the closest thing Jason ever had to a “nemesis”, kind of like Michael Myers and Loomis from Halloween or Freddy Krueger and Nancy from A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Tom Savini returns to provide the special effects for this film (he had previously worked on the first installment) and delivers some of his finest work. Jason’s unmasking and destruction during the film’s climax ranks as one of the most memorable scenes from any Friday the 13th movie, due in large part to Savini’s creepy and masterful gore effects.
This movie does have its drawbacks, though. Jason seems to hardly feature in the film at all until the ending. The bulk of the film centers around those stupid teenagers throwing parties and trying to get laid. I suppose the point of all this was to get the audience to “know” the victims and flesh them out into something approaching a 3-dimensional character. I hate to say it, but when I got into a movie knowing that these kids are all going to die, and all I *want* is to see them get hacked-up, I’m really not going to sympathize with them when they die. This heavy focus on the victims does get you to appreciate Tommy’s character, though. So some good came out of it. However, for the most part, it’s very very boring and you’re most likely going to fast-forward through these parts on repeat viewings.
The beginning of the film has a recap montage, one of two in the series (the other one being in Part VII). It’s a very good recap, using a combination of Paul’s narration from Part II with scenes of the best kills from each of the films. It sets a good tone for the beginning of the movie and gives Jason this “Boogeyman”-quality. While I do prefer Part VII’s montage over this one, I still think it’s a pretty cool way to begin the movie.
Friday the 13th: the Final Chapter isn’t perfect by any means, but it’s probably the closest thing the Friday the 13th series has to an “essential” film that encapsulates everything that makes the franchise special. I give it a B-. Definitely one of the best films in the series.
Grade: B-

A fan-favorite installment of the Friday the 13th franchise and the last installment of the “Tommy Trilogy” (the three-movie arc focusing on Tommy Jarvis), Part VI gets the ball rolling on a whole new era of the series. Not only does Part VI revive the character of Jason Voorhees, but it also revitalizes him, breathing new life into the franchise that was nearly smothered in its sleep by the fiasco that was Part V: a New Beginning”.
Tommy Jarvis, still haunted by his memories of Jason Voorhees, travels to the killer’s grave to hopefully put his fears to rest. Exhuming Jason’s corpse, Tommy prepares to incinerate the body, but in a fit of blind rage, impales it with a long metal pole, instead. Well, a freak bolt of lightning just happens to strike said pole sticking out of Jason’s chest, reanimating the murderer as an unstoppable super-zombie. Thanks a lot, Tommy. So Jason’s back on his feet, more powerful than ever before and completely immune to conventional weaponry. And if that wasn’t bad enough, during Jason’s “nap”, Camp Crystal Lake was remodeled and reopened and is currently housing dozens of camping children. Not good.
Personally, I love the direction Part VI takes Jason’s character. He was always ugly and unstoppable in the past, but now he’s all those things to a whole new extreme. The whole “zombie”-thing may sound stupid, but the zombie-era of Jason actually has many of the best films in the franchise and the majority of the best kills. The only real downside about the zombie-era is that the Friday the 13th franchise eventually becomes a series relying solely on movie-to-movie gimmicks (having Jason fight a telekinetic, Jason visiting Manhattan, Jason going to Hell, Jason in Space, Jason fighting Freddy, etc).
Part VI adds a mix of humor to the atmosphere of the film, as if it’s self-aware of how ridiculous the story is. The humor isn’t tremendously blatant and shouldn’t throw you completely out of the experience, but it is entertaining. Tommy’s character is a lot more sociable in this film than in Part V, where he was a total nutcase. His final battle with Jason is one of the most memorable scenes in any Friday the 13th movie, even being parodied in shows such as the Simpsons. The kills are quite good, with people being broken in two, shish kabobed together, having broken bottles crammed down their throats, speared through the mouth and drowned in a puddle, faces crushed through walls and so much more. Jason was always brutal in the earlier films, but he’s a freakin’ *machine* in the zombie-era films.
Also, defying Friday the 13th conventions, there is no big unmasking scene at the end of the film. You see Jason’s face at the beginning (albeit briefly) when he’s still rotting in his coffin. This movie tries to imply that the hockey mask is his face, which is how I’ve always liked it.
Friday the 13th part VI is one of the most important films in the franchise, taking the series in a whole new direction. It’s also easily one of the series’ best installments. It gets a B for “brutality”.
Grade: B

Now here’s a Friday the 13th film nearly the entire fandom unanimously agrees is absolutely atrocious. Why, you ask, is it looked down upon so? Probably because it doesn’t have Jason in it. Much like how Halloween III lacked Michael Myers or Silent Night, Deadly Night IV omitted the killer Santa Claus, when a franchise makes a movie lacking the one aspect people recognize and appreciate most, fans aren’t going to be happy.
Tommy Jarvis, survivor of Part IV and the one who smote Jason, is now a teenager with severe mental health issues. Apparently, that little incident with the machete-wielding psychopath seriously screwed up his head and now Tommy is learning how to reenter society at a crazy camp. While Tommy’s there, however, another one of the resident nutbags, Victor, goes berserk and murders another resident with an axe. Victor is carted away by the police but the killing doesn’t end there. Someone in a hockey mask is stalking and murdering the residents one-by-one and Tommy’s about to totally lose it.
I really feel silly saying this, but I’ll do it anyway. *Spoiler Warning* Ugh, a spoiler warning for a movie that’s 20 years old? Anyhow, we find out that the killer is a guy named Roy who appears maybe twice in the film for a handful of seconds. Apparently he was the father of the kid Victor killed and he went nuts. It’s a really bad revelation at the end, on par with maybe the unmasking of a Scooby Doo villain. It also defies all logic, as Roy is a normal human being yet he takes some seriously fatal damage toward the end of the movie and just shrugs it off. To make matters worse, the characters in this movie are royally obnoxious. Because they’re in a mental health camp they all have to have some sort of brain defect which make them excruciatingly irritating.
This movie does have its upsides, though. It has one of the highest bodycounts in the entire franchise, so you’re going to get a whole lot of kills in this installment. Most of the kills feel like filler, as they’re just random people on the side of the road or sitting in a parking lot, introduced in a span of 5 minutes for the sole purpose of dying. Still, when it comes to slasher flicks, quantity over quality really works. There are some very memorable kills in this flick, like the belt tightening around that dude’s skull, or the motorcycle decapitation, or the kill in the porta-potty.
And while Part V gets a lot of flack, it *does* serve an actual purpose to the overall storyline of the franchise. It continues Tommy’s story and shows his obsession with Jason and gradually depleting sanity. It’s an essential transitioning point for Tommy between the events of Part IV and Part VI. It’s also important in that it gives Jason a break, making his grand return in the next film feel all the more special. So, in that regard, Part V is an important chapter in the Friday the 13th storyline, albeit a quality-challenged one.
It gets a C-. It rescued itself from a D thanks to some very good kills, and a whole lot of em.
Grade: C-