Friday The 13th: Ranking Every Movie From Worst To Best

3. Friday The 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter

A real series high. Not only was Jason set up as a horror 'hero' with his hockey mask but we also had a returning Tom Savini determined to kill off his creation and a good cast including Crispin Glover doing, well, what Crispin Glover does. As usual, we must 'forget' certain things. For instance, this happens two days after the events of Friday the 13th Part II making this film the rather less frightening Sunday the 15th.

Jason is cut down from the barnyard noose and transported to the local morgue. There, he wakes up, kills Doctor 'Axel' and his nurse girlfriend and begins the trip back to Crystal Lake. We then meet, not a group of teens, but the Jarvis family. Mrs Jarvis is recently divorced and her teenage daughter Trish and younger son, loner Tommy, are living with her in the woods. Unfortunately for them, in the next house, a group of (surprise!!!) teens turn up to drink, get stoned and have sex. Jason obviously appears and takes them out one by one but Trish and Tommy are alerted to Jason's presence by Rob Dier, the brother of one of Jason's previous victims. After a protracted battle, Jason is taken down by Tommy as he shaves his head to resemble the childlike Jason and then 'thwacks' a machete in his head.

This film works because the characters are largely likeable. The Jarvis family are a masterstroke because we really root for them, and Rob, and the teens just seem like a nice, rowdy, bunch. Obviously, Crispin Glover steals the show, foreshadowing George McFly with some crazy dancing and stuttering delivery, but Kimberly Beck and Corey Feldman aren't far behind. The effects are as good as we'd expect from Savini and the film has plenty of jump-shocks (something the later films would forget). All in all, a great slasher film.