Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)

I like to wrap up these marathons with a familiar movie or dip into a franchise. I figured that I should cover this… the last Friday the 13^th… the one that ends the series… yeah, we all know how that turned out. That said I’m going to cover this as if it was the last one. They did some very clever things to wrap up the franchise and I want to acknowledge that.

The movie kicks off with scenes from the first three flicks. They show some of the greatest hits aka. the best kills and reference some of the older characters. They explain about Jason’s origin and how he saw his mother killed, which apparently pushed him over the edge. Then we see the end of part III. The police have arrived and are picking up the bodies. One of those bodies is Jason who wakes up in the morgue and after dispatching a couple folks heads back to the familiar environs of the lake.

After that we are introduced to our main cast. There are a group of young people headed to a cabin to spend the weekend partying. Next door is a family including a sister, Trish, and her younger brother Tommy. Well Jason dispatches a hitchhiker and then gets to work on the kids! Oh, and the older brother of one of Jason’s earlier victims hikes his way in with a rifle. He thinks that Jason is alive since the body disappeared from the morgue and is hunting him! Shenanigans ensue with some skinny dipping, dancing, paring off, and dying going on until the final credits roll.

This is one of the better installments of the franchise. Again, they were thinking that this was going to be it so the greatest hits to start the movie out felt less like padding then it did remind you of why these flicks are great. It then jumps from the recap into the action. It isn’t long before Jason is tearing thru the cast of this movie. Final Chapter might have the best pacing of the Friday movies since the original. They do a decent job of introducing the characters quickly and getting to the good stuff.

What is the good stuff? Well, the boobs and blood of course. There is a lot of nudity in this flick. Yeah, I know that sounds creepy but as I’ve stated in my other slasher reviews that is part of the formula, like it or not. They spread these scenes out with the gore to keep the action moving along briskly with something interesting and eye catching happening at almost all times. We also get the infamous Crispin Glover dance that once you have seen you can’t ever forget. A young Corey Feldman plays Tommy and does a great job portraying the monster kid who doesn’t run away but instead plays psychological games with Jason to save his sister. I know that if you haven’t seen the movie that sounds weird, and it is, but it works.

Because this was going to be the last one effects maestro Tom Savini returned to finally kill Jason off. And boy howdy does he! Jason ends up sliding slowly face first down a machete blade leaving no doubt that he wasn’t going to survive this. And technically I suppose despite returning, sort of, in another seven sequels he did die here. We also get some stellar kills/gore throughout. A neck gets sawed, heads get twisted, cleaver to the face, several stabbings thru people, someone gets tossed out of a window, a spike thru the ear, and my favorite an axe to the chest. This is a bloody movie and is a great example of Savini in his prime.

I don’t know what else I can say about this movie that hasn’t already been discussed. If you haven’t seen Final Chapter you need to. Even if you haven’t seen another Friday the 13^th flick that is okay. This one stands alone and again recaps things so that you get the gist of what is going on. While not my favorite slasher, or even my favorite Friday the 13^th movie I can’t think of a better executed example of the formula that made for a great “kids go in the woods and get dead” movie. I highly recommend it.

© Copyright 2021 John Shatzer

Day of the Dead (1985)

Here we are at the last movie in the Zombie marathon. Since I started off with a dreadful remake/reimagining of Romero’s classic Day of the Dead what better way is there to end it with the classic itself? I can’t think of a better movie to end October with than the ultimate bloody gore fest from Romero and Savini. Just in case you haven’t seen this one let me fill you in on the plot.

A small group of survivors is held up in an underground facility vainly trying to figure out the zombie apocalypse that has destroyed much of the world around them. They are broken into two groups; the scientists lead by Dr. Logan and the military under the command of Captain Rhodes. The movie begins long after things have fallen apart so tensions are already high. Rhodes is newly in charge after the death of prior officer and he is about ready to snap. He goes from arguing to being ready to start a firefight over the dinner table. Logan isn’t much better as he has clearly lost his mind by the time we are introduced to him. This is not a formula for success.

In between these two groups are the helicopter pilot John and his friend McDermott who do everything they can to keep their distance from the situation. They realize that things are deteriorating quickly but do come to the aid of one of the scientists, Sarah, when she needs them. When Rhodes and his men find out what Dr. Logan has been doing to reward his star pupil, a zombie named Bub who seems to have retained some intelligence, they are understandably upset. Though shooting the scientists and trying to get John to fly them away might have been a bit of an overreaction. Bullets fly, bodies drop, and the zombies make their way into the facility to chow down on the survivors.

Zombie design it great

Dawn of the Dead is still my favorite of Romero’s zombie movies. I think that the characters from Dawn are better written and the acting is a heck of a lot subtler. Joe Pilato and Richard Liberty are chewing up a lot of scenery as Rhodes and Logan. It is almost cartoonish how over the top most of the performances are in Day of the Dead, which is why I put Dawn ahead of it. The plot is solid and gets right to the zombies showing us a small Florida town that has been overrun with the dead. Then it takes time establishing the characters and dynamic between them. Though they never stray too far away from what brings the audience to a movie like Day of the Dead. They mix enough gore in with Logan’s lab and a dream sequence from Sarah that it keeps our attention until things pick up and get crazy in the last half hour or so. Then we get to see much mayhem and zombie action.

Dawn is a better movie but if I’m going to be honest Day might be a better zombie movie. Savini is at the top of his game here creating such classics as Dr. Tongue and Bub the zombie. There are still a lot of the simple blue faced zombies that filled the screen in Dawn of the Dead, but the feature zombies are way superior. Especially Bub who gets a lot of screen time and has to be a convincing zombie, while still being able to allow the actor to give a performance. I don’t think that the makeup in any zombie movie has ever been as good as this before. Hell the only one that even compares is Savini’s directed Night of the Living Dead remake.

Kills are great

I also think that the kills are some of the best if not the best ever seen on the screen. Sure we get the typical throats being ripped out and bites being taken out of limbs but they double down with some insane sequences. A head is torn off on screen while we hear the scream change as the vocal cords are stretched out, another has the flesh ripped off the face exposing an eye which is then gouged out while the actor squirms underneath a pile of zombies who also tear his chest cavity open and feast on his guts. I do love me some gut munching. But the best is Rhodes fate when he is shot by Bub who remembers how to use a gun and thinks Rhodes is a jerk! He is cornered and torn in half watching his legs being drug down the hallway while his intestines are being eaten in front of him. He still gets in one last line before dying, “Choke on ‘em” is a classic.

When I decided that this October was going to be a Zombie movie marathon, I knew it was time to cover Romero’s big three of Night, Dawn, and Day. Most of the time when I review movies for the Horror Dude Blog I try and bring attention to things that people might never have seen. But that is tempered by my desire to share what I think about some of my favorite movies so occasionally I indulge myself. Whether you have read some or all of my reviews this October I thank you and hope that maybe I’ve inspired you to check out a couple of flicks you hadn’t heard of before. Just in case you hadn’t caught on yet I’m recommending Day of the Dead.

© Copyright 2018 John Shatzer

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Spoiler alert… this is my favorite movie. I know I keep mentioning that here at the Horror Dude Blog, but it is the truth. I’m going to try and be honest and critical with my review, but again this is my favorite movie, so you know this is going to be positive. Then again, I think that this one deserves all the accolades that it gets and probably more.

The movie opens up at a television station in chaos. In this mess we meet a couple of our main characters Fran and Stephen, the stations chopper pilot. It is clear that the zombie outbreak hasn’t gone well and that things are beginning to fall apart. This is hammered home when the action shifts to a tenement building under siege by the police and national guard. The people in the building have been protecting the dead from being shot in the head and burned. There is a big gunfight and we see that both sides are losing it. Here we are introduced to the other two characters in the movie, Stephen’s friend Roger and another officer named Peter.

The four of them take off in the chopper and head to somewhere safer. They end up landing on the roof of a shopping mall. What was supposed to be a chance to catch some sleep ends up being much more. The four of them figure out a way to make the place their home, though not without a terrible cost. After holding up there for a while a gang of looters shows up and breaks into the place, bringing the zombies with them. Things go sideways, much flesh is munched, and yet again people screw it up for one another.

Is there anything that I can say about Dawn of the Dead that hasn’t already been said? Probably not but I’ll give it a shot anyway. I think that Romero was a genius because he made his zombie movies about the characters and not the situation. Sure, they are trapped in the mall because of the walking corpses outside, but instead of focusing on that we get to see the characters handle the pressure of the situation not knowing where the danger is going to come from next. Even when they seem safe, they still have to deal with Roger and he decline after being bitten. Toss in the relationship issues between Fran and Stephen as they deal with her being pregnant and you have some interesting stuff going on.

Zombies look great!

Now don’t get me wrong we also get plenty of zombie action in the movie as well. From the initial assault on the tenement building, to the airport sequence with zombie kids, to securing the mall, and the eventual invasion from the gang and zombies there is plenty for the gore hounds to enjoy. Savini shows his chops by giving us screwdrivers to the ears, guts being torn out, arms ripped off, and plenty of biting going on. The blood flows freely and is very red. Many people don’t like the color pallet of the movie with it appearing almost cartoonish at times, but I like it. The seventies were a very bright decade as anyone who ever sat in a lime green or bright yellow kitchen can attest.  

I find it annoying that this movie has gone out of print and is expensive on the secondary market. If you already own a copy, then treasure it. If not, then pray that the man holding the rights eventually is reasonable and makes a deal with a company where both he and they can make money. There is a story here that isn’t worth repeating, you can find it on various news sites on the web. Bottom line is that if you can you need to watch Dawn of the Dead this October.

© Copyright 2018 John Shatzer