Every Friday The 13th Film Ranked From Worst To Best

Okay, as established, it was nonsensical to call the fourth Friday 'the final chapter' given how many more movies have followed. But damned if they didn't go all out for what was intended, however briefly, to be the last hurrah of Jason Voorhees.

While the second and third Fridays were fun, they lacked one key component that made the original work: Tom Savini's wonderfully grisly make-up FX. Director Joseph Zito's fourth film made a point of bringing Savini back, and letting him do his thing; and while this unfortunately saw The Final Chapter fall afoul of the censors, it gives us some of the most striking, memorable kills of the whole series, not least the 'final' offing of Jason himself, his unmasked, disfigured head sliding slowly down the blade of his own machete.

The Final Chapter really upped the ante on the nudity, too. The skinny dip scene was by now established as a series staple, but this time they opted to do it in broad daylight with more or less the entire cast participating; including Judie Aronson, who delivers a second skinny dip by night later on, leading to the memorable dinghy death.

On top of which, The Final Chapter features an early star turn from Corey Feldman as the first Tommy Jarvis, a fan-favourite character who would for a time become Jason's nemesis, and would return, recast, in the following two Fridays: the last of which would prove to be the best series entry to date...