Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter

The film opens with a recap of the first three films, then goes back to Higgins Haven the morning after Part III. Police and paramedics carry out the bodies of the dead teenagers. Jason Voorhees, believed dead after taking an axe to the head, is taken to the county morgue.

That night, coroner Axel is working and flirting with Nurse Robbie Morgan, who only came to watch the news about the murders. Axel puts Jason's body in cold storage without noticing the drawer does not close all the way. Jason gets up, cuts Axel's throat with a surgical hacksaw and twists his head around. Then he guts Nurse Morgan with a scalpel and heads back to Crystal Lake.

The next day a car full of teenagers drives to Crystal Lake to stay at a rental house: Paul and his girlfriend Samantha, virgin Sara and her boyfriend Doug, jokester Ted, and awkward Jimmy, whom Ted teases about a recent breakup. On the way they pass Pamela Voorhees' grave and a hitchhiker eating a banana. With no room in the car they drive on, and Jason stabs her through the neck.

The house next door belongs to the Jarvis family: Mrs. Jarvis, her teenage daughter Trish, her twelve-year-old son Tommy and their dog Gordon. Tommy loves monsters and makes his own masks. The teenagers meet twin sisters Tina and Terri and most of them go skinny dipping. Trish and Tommy drive by, and Trish gets invited to a party that night.

When Trish's car breaks down, a young man named Rob helps them. He says he is hunting bears. They drive him back to the house, where Tommy shows him his homemade masks, and Rob goes off to camp in the woods.

At the party, Samantha gets jealous when Paul dances with one of the twins and goes out to swim alone. She floats out to a rubber raft on the lake, and Jason stabs up through it and kills her. Paul swims out looking for her, finds her body and is speared in the groin by Jason from under the dock. Terri, tired of her sister and the party, leaves to ride her bike home and is run through with a spear. Next door, Mrs. Jarvis comes home to a dark house and is killed offscreen.

Trish and Tommy come home to find their mother missing. Trish goes out looking and finds Rob's campsite. Rob admits the truth. He is the brother of Sandra Dier, who was murdered by Jason, and he has come to Crystal Lake to kill Jason for it. Trish still thinks Jason is dead, but she and Rob hurry back to check on Tommy.

At the rental, Jimmy has slept with Tina and goes downstairs for a bottle of wine. Jason pins his hand with a corkscrew and buries a meat cleaver in his face. Upstairs, Tina looks out the window for her sister's bike, and Jason pulls her through the glass and throws her down onto the car. Ted, stoned, is watching old stag films on a projector. When he leans close to the screen, Jason stabs him in the head through it. Doug and Sara make love in the shower. After Sara steps out, Jason crushes Doug's head against the shower tile. Sara finds his body, runs for a locked door and screams for help, and Jason throws an axe through the door into her chest.

Trish, Rob and Gordon go over to the rental. Something scares Gordon so badly he jumps out a window and runs off. Trish finds Doug's body upstairs. Jason attacks Rob in the basement and kills him with a garden claw while Rob yells for Trish to run. Trish takes Rob's machete, runs home, and she and Tommy nail the door shut. Jason comes in through a window, throwing Rob's body in ahead of him. They run upstairs to Tommy's room. When Jason starts chopping through the door with an axe, Trish smashes Tommy's computer monitor over his head. She leads him away to the rental house to give Tommy a chance to escape.

Tommy stays behind and finds Rob's newspaper clippings, including a photo of Jason as a boy and a story about how Ginny fooled him. He shaves his head to look like young Jason. Trish comes back hurt after falling out of a second-story window at the rental, and is upset to find Tommy still there. She hits Jason with the machete, but he keeps coming and starts strangling her. Tommy calls out to Jason, bald and made up like the boy in the photo, and Jason freezes. Trish swings the machete again but only knocks off his mask, and his rotting face stops her cold. As Jason turns on Trish, Tommy picks up the machete and brings it down into the side of Jason's head. Jason falls, and his head slides further down the blade.

Trish and Tommy hold each other. Then Tommy sees Jason's fingers twitch, grabs the machete and hacks at the body again and again, screaming for him to die while Trish screams his name. At the hospital, Tommy rushes in to hug Trish. His eyes are closed as they embrace, then they open and stare ominously ahead.

Story notes

• Jason is taken to a morgue after the events of Part III but revives and returns to Crystal Lake.
• He attacks vacationing teenagers and the neighboring Jarvis family, where young Tommy becomes crucial to stopping him.

Release & Reception

The day before the film opened, the MPAA rejected a Paramount print ad showing a hockey-masked head, a knife and a pool of blood, which Paramount had not submitted for approval. Paramount sent in a version without the knife and blood a few days later, according to The New York Times.

The film opened Friday, April 13, 1984, on 1,594 screens in the United States and Canada. It was number one its first weekend with $11,183,148, on a budget of $2.2 million. It finished with $32,980,880, about 9.8 million tickets, 26th for 1984 and fourth in franchise attendance.

Critics were not kind at the time. Roger Ebert called it immoral and reprehensible trash on Sneak Previews, and he and Gene Siskel both went after it. Scott Meslow of The Week later summed up that criticism as seeing it as a cynical retread that tried to end the series while putting more into its characters than its gore.

Opinion has turned. Rotten Tomatoes lists 25 percent from 32 critics with a 4.2 average as of February 2026, and Metacritic gives 33 out of 100 from 7 critics. Many fans now rank it among the best. Kyle Anderson of Entertainment Weekly put it first in a series ranking, praising both the story and the kills.

Its success killed the idea of a final chapter. Friday the 13th: A New Beginning followed in 1985, with Tommy Jarvis as the lead.

In September 2024, Fangoria and Paramount Scares held limited theatrical screenings for the 40th anniversary. Fangoria issue 36 (July 1984) had put the film on its cover with production photos.

Press and marketing

• Theatrical key-art / poster campaign reference: IMP Awards — Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter poster archive.
• Fangoria and Paramount Scares arranged limited theatrical screenings for the film’s 40th anniversary in September 2024. Fangoria’s accompanying retrospective identifies issue 36, July 1984, as its contemporary cover and production-photo feature.

Cast

Crew

Production

Part III had been meant to wrap up the series. There were rumors Paramount called the fourth film The Final Chapter because it was embarrassed by the series, which Siskel and Ebert repeated on the air. Paramount did know slashers were fading, but the push came from producer Frank Mancuso Jr., son of Paramount executive Frank Mancuso Sr. He had worked on Part 2 and produced Part III and felt nobody respected him for it no matter how much money the films made. He wanted to move on, so the plan was to kill Jason off for good.

The producers wanted Joseph Zito, director of The Prowler (1981), to both write and direct. Zito said he was not a writer but took the deal when it paid for both jobs, then quietly used the writing money to hire Barney Cohen. Every night Zito spent about an hour on the phone with Phil Scuderi going over the story. He passed the ideas to Cohen in a New York apartment, and the pages went to Scuderi in Boston the same day to discuss that night. Cohen kept the credit but later got into trouble with the Writers Guild of America over it. Bruce Hidemi Sakow received story credit.

Earlier films had one young woman left alive at the end. This one set out to have two survivors, one of them a child, which the filmmakers believed was new for a slasher. Putting a real family next door, a divorced mother, her teenage daughter and her young son, gave the story more heart and a real loss when the mother dies. Tommy's love of makeup effects was a nod to Tom Savini.

Camilla More first read for Samantha. When the producers learned she had an identical twin, Carey, they cast the two as Tina and Terri. Peter Barton had just finished The Powers of Matthew Star with Amy Steel of Part 2. He wanted nothing to do with horror after Hell Night, but Steel talked him into it. Zito brought back Tom Savini, who had skipped Parts 2 and III, to help kill off the character he helped create.

A Daily Variety casting notice from October 3, 1983, used the working title Friday the 13th IV, The Final Chapter and announced six weeks of shooting in Los Angeles starting in late October. Filming started in late October 1983 in Topanga Canyon and Newhall, California. AFI says principal photography wrapped in mid-December, and other accounts have work going into January 1984. The release was planned for October 1984, but Frank Mancuso Sr. moved it up to April 13, leaving about six weeks for post-production. Paramount's only real help was renting a house in Malibu where the team lived, edited and had meals brought in.

The set was tense. Between Zito's methods and a tight budget, actors did uncomfortable or risky stunts. Judie Aronson had to stay in a freezing lake for her raft death and got hypothermia. Peter Barton was actually slammed into the shower wall. Ted White, playing Jason, stood up for the cast. He demanded a crash pad for Barton and threatened to walk off unless Aronson was let out of the water between takes. White and Zito clashed so badly that White had his name taken off the film.

White also said Corey Feldman acted like a brat, which he blamed on how Zito treated the boy. When shooting the scene of Tommy hacking at Jason's body, Feldman was actually hitting sandbags and pretended they were Zito. Kimberly Beck said she does not like slasher films and considered this more of a C movie than a B movie. During the shoot a man watched her while she jogged in the park and she got strange phone calls at all hours, which stopped when filming ended. Bonnie Hellman's agents told her not to take the hitchhiker part because it had no lines, and she took it anyway.

The AFI catalog records the working title Friday the 13th IV, The Final Chapter. A contemporary announcement planned six weeks of Los Angeles photography beginning in late October 1983.

Filming locations

• Topanga Canyon, California: Main location for the Crystal Lake houses and woods
• Kelly Gulch, Topanga, California: The Jarvis house
• Newhall, Santa Clarita, California: Additional location shooting
• Zaca Lake, California: Lake and trail scenes
• Beverly Hills, California: Additional location listed by IMDb
• Rented house in Malibu, California: Editing and post-production
• California locations included Kelly Gulch in Topanga for the Jarvis home, Zaca Lake for lake and trail material, plus Santa Clarita, Beverly Hills and the Topanga Canyon area.

Effects and makeup

Tom Savini came back for special makeup effects. His team included Alec Gillis, James Kagel, Kevin Yagher, Larry Carr, Jill Rockow and Mike Maddi. Reel EFX handled mechanical effects under Martin Becker.

Savini agreed on the condition that Jason would really die. He has said that since Jason came back, the killer in the later films is not really Jason.

The ending developed on set when a crew member held Savini's machete from Dawn of the Dead against his head. That gave Savini the idea of Jason falling and his head sliding down the blade. The fake Jason torso that gets stabbed in the finale survived because Savini kept it and later sold it.

Savini is listed as the uncredited Jason in the hitchhiker kill. Other big effects include Axel's hacksaw throat cut and twisted neck, Jimmy's corkscrew and cleaver, Ted's knife through the screen, and Jason's rotting unmasked face at the end.

The Friday the 13th Films site keeps a gallery of behind-the-scenes photos of Savini's Jason effects for this film.

Tom Savini returned as a special makeup-effects artist and uncredited special-effects supervisor; the makeup-effects team also included Alec Gillis, James Kagel, Jill Rockow, Kevin Yagher and others.

Tom Savini recalled that the idea of Jason’s head sliding down a machete developed after a crew member held the Dawn of the Dead machete against his head.

Props and costumes

Jason wears the Part III stunt hockey mask. It wore down during the shoot, picking up a crack above one eye and losing two and a half of its red chevrons. The same mask was used for a few scenes in A New Beginning.

According to the Horror Costume Index, Jason's clothes are an olive-green Sears Work and Leisure Perma Prest shirt, grey work pants aged down, and very worn Kodiak Greb boots.

Weapons include a surgical hacksaw, scalpel, knife, spear, corkscrew, meat cleaver, double-bit axe, garden claw, Collins machete, aluminum bone saw and a Victorinox or Forschner chef's knife.

Tommy's homemade monster masks set up his young Jason disguise at the end.

The end credits thank Brooks Shoes, Catalina Swimwear, Converse, Le Stix, Tandy Corporation and Radio Shack, Sasson activewear and Sega.

The Final Chapter carried forward the Part III stunt hockey mask, whose on-set wear is visible as the piece develops a crack above the eye and loses much of its red-chevron paint. The same physical lineage briefly continues into A New Beginning.

Jason's principal wardrobe combined an olive-green Sears Work and Leisure Perma Prest shirt, weathered grey khaki trousers and heavily worn Kodiak Greb boots. Production weapons included a meat cleaver, Collins machete, aluminum bone saw, double-bit axe and Victorinox/Forschner chef knife.

Production artifacts

Scripts and documents

The killers

Deaths

Harry Manfredini scored the film, his fourth in the series.

Lion's song Love Is a Lie plays in the film but is not on the soundtrack.

January 13, 2012: La-La Land Records limited 6-CD box set of the first six scores, sold out in under 24 hours.

Waxwork Records deluxe double LP of the score.

• Waxwork Records deluxe double-LP The Final Chapter soundtrack sourced from Paramount's original master tapes.

Home Media

• 1984: Paramount Home Entertainment VHS.
• 1985: Paramount Betamax.
• 1999: first Paramount DVD.
• 2004: From Crystal Lake to Manhattan DVD box set of the first eight films.
• June 16, 2009: Paramount Deluxe Edition DVD with a lenticular slipcover, 1.85:1 anamorphic picture, 5.1 and mono audio, and extras: commentary with Joseph Zito, Joel Goodman and Barney Cohen; fan commentary with Adam Green and Joe Lynch; Lost Tales from Camp Blood Part IV; The Crystal Lake Massacres Revisited Part I (fake newscast, about 18 minutes); Jason's Unlucky Day: 25 Years After (about 11 minutes); Jimmy's Dead Dance Moves (Crispin Glover dance outtakes, about 2 minutes); The Lost Ending (about 3 minutes, with commentary); Slashed Scenes (about 15 minutes of alternate death takes, with commentary); and the trailer.
• 2011: 4-disc DVD collection with the first three films.
• 2013: Friday the 13th: The Complete Collection Blu-ray set.
• October 10, 2017: Paramount standalone Blu-ray.
• October 13, 2020: Scream Factory Friday the 13th Collection Deluxe Edition, Disc 5: new 4K scan of the camera negative, restored mono, the Zito, Cohen and Goodman commentary, the Green and Lynch fan commentary, Slashed Scenes with director commentary, Jason's Unlucky Day, The Lost Ending, The Crystal Lake Massacres Revisited Part I, Lost Tales from Camp Blood Part 4, Jimmy's Dead Dance Moves, trailer, TV and radio spots, and still galleries. The set went out of print in 2025.
• January 10, 2023: Paramount limited edition Blu-ray SteelBook.

• NECA Ultimate Part 4 Jason 7-inch scale figure with two masks, two heads, knife, corkscrew, tombstone, hacksaw, cleaver, machete and axe, and a feature to recreate the machete in the head.
• Waxwork Records deluxe double LP soundtrack.
• Original 1984 Paramount press kit, with a copy held in the Chuck Berg press kits collection at the University of Kansas Kenneth Spencer Research Library.
• Fangoria issue 36, July 1984, with the film on the cover.
• NECA Ultimate Part 4 Jason 7-inch-scale figure.

The catalog

Trailers & clips

Gallery

Posters & Key Art

Film Stills

Behind the Scenes

Press & Promo

Effects

Props

Costumes